Move across the Cold War from its post-1945 foundations to the decline of authoritarian blocs, taking seriously both superpower calculations and the lives of people in Europe, Asia, Africa and Latin America.
A compact, carefully selected introduction spanning the main phases without pretending to cover every region or development. A global conflict without a single battlefield.
This route begins in 1945 but the conflict was never only a US–Soviet chessboard. Asian civil wars, decolonization, military dictatorship, cultural production and ordinary surveillance histories complicate a single narrative.
07.05.1945 → 08.05.1945
REPRESENTED HISTORY 07.05.1945 → 08.05.1945
Begin on the day of victory with Poland caught between liberation and a new political order.
Set in May 1945, Wajda’s fiction shows violent disputes over Communist power; its characters stand for conflicting postwar choices.
1953 → 1954
REPRESENTED HISTORY 1953 → 1954
Explore anti-Communist scrutiny and the limits of dissent in the United States.
The film recreates Edward R. Murrow’s 1954 confrontation with Senator McCarthy, compressing journalism and broadcast history.
1957 → 1962
REPRESENTED HISTORY 1957 → 1962
Follow espionage, diplomacy and prisoner exchange as ordinary people navigate competing systems.
The 1962 exchange is real, but the drama compresses the 1957 Abel trial and later negotiations.
REPRESENTED HISTORY 16.10.1962 → 28.10.1962
Understand why the Cuban Missile Crisis came close to nuclear confrontation.
October 1962 events are historical; the film elevates some White House advisers and fictionalizes conversations.
1954 → 30.04.1975
REPRESENTED HISTORY 1954 → 30.04.1975
Connect decolonization, superpower strategy and civilian devastation in a long documentary arc.
The documentary surveys decades and includes contested testimonies; it should not be reduced to a single battle or year.
1983 → 1989
REPRESENTED HISTORY 1983 → 1989
Enter the NATO–Warsaw Pact divide through East German espionage in 1983.
The fictional spy plot takes place amid real Euromissile tensions and exercises; its characters are not historical intelligence officers.
Sign in to track
REPRESENTED HISTORY 1984
Explore surveillance, culture and dissent inside East Germany.
Set in the GDR in 1984, the Stasi drama uses fictional characters and a disputed picture of individual redemption.
26.04.1986 → 1987
REPRESENTED HISTORY 26.04.1986 → 1987
Consider how secrecy and bureaucratic incentives affected late Soviet legitimacy.
The 1986 nuclear disaster occurred, but figures such as Ulana Khomyuk are composite and some scientific sequences are simplified.
REPRESENTED HISTORY 1988
End with a media campaign challenging a military regime in a polarized Cold War-era Latin America.
Chile’s 1988 plebiscite is real; the film’s advertising storyline dramatizes a collective campaign.
1989–91 marked the collapse of Communist governments across Eastern Europe and then the USSR; decolonization, unresolved conflicts and nuclear arsenals persisted. Continue to Space Race or relevant country histories.