However, not everyone supported the communists. The Bolsheviks created a new communist government called the Russian Soviet Federation Socialist Republic (also called simply Soviet Russia or the Russian SFSR). In November 1917, a communist group called the Bolsheviks, led by Vladimir Lenin, overthrew the new government and were supported by groups of workers called Soviets.

Unfortunately, it was ineffective, and people were still unhappy. The new government in Russia was a democratic socialist government. In February 1917, Tsar Nicholas II of the Russian Empire was overthrown because people were unhappy with their living conditions (like being a serf), especially during World War I. Other countries allied with the Eastern Bloc included Angola (1975–1991), Cuba, Bolivia, Cambodia(1977–1979), South Yemen, Tunisia, Nepal, Libya (1974–1991), Mongolia, Jamaica, North Korea, China and Laos (1975–1991). The Warsaw Pact was an alliance created in 1955 and included the USSR, Albania, Bulgaria, Czechoslovakia, East Germany, Hungary, Poland, and Romania. The Eastern Bloc was the group of socialist countries led by the Soviet Union. Other countries allied with the Western Bloc include Israel, Brazil, South Korea, Kenya (1960-1991), Bangladesh (1964-1968), Pakistan, North Yemen, Malaysia, Saudi Arabia, Philippines, South Africa, Australia and New Zealand. The North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO) is an alliance created in 1949 and included the United States, the United Kingdom, France, West Germany, Canada, Netherlands, Belgium, Luxembourg, Spain, Portugal, Italy, Norway, Denmark, Greece, and Turkey. The Western Bloc was the name of the capitalist countries led by the United States. Most of the countries on the other side were allied by the Warsaw Pact, whose most powerful country was the Soviet Union. Most of the countries on one side were allied by NATO, whose most powerful country was the United States. They spied on each other and threatened each other.Ĭonflicting countries Both sides built large militaries with many new weapons and advanced technology. Instead, they attacked each other in conflicts known as proxy wars in which powerful countries fight a foreign war but do not send their own troops.

It is called the 'Cold' War because the Americans and the Soviet Union never actually fought each other directly. The Cold War (1947 - 1991) was the tense fighting between the United States and its allies and the Soviet Union (also called the USSR) and its allies between the end of World War II and the fall of the Soviet Union.

Cold war why was it called the cold war