Skip to content
Truman with Attlee and Stalin at Potsdam

Cold War Origins

This collection of primary source documents discusses international relations during World War II and the years shortly after. It begins with the Molotov-Ribbentrop Pact signed in 1939 and ends with documents from the 1950’s. The collection contains a wide variety of documents including agreements, memorandums, meeting minutes, cables, letters, diary entries, and military reports from WWII. The documents mainly come from Russian and Bulgarian archives. See also the End of the Cold War. (Image, Clement Attlee, Harry Truman, and Joseph Stalin at the Potsdam Conference, July 1945, NARA, Army Signal Corps Collection, USA C-186)

Truman with Attlee and Stalin at Potsdam

Connected Conn.

Popular Documents

July 26, 1948

Cipher Message from G. Dimitrov to I. Stalin and V. Molotov

The Bulgarian government is disturbed by the recent dislocations of Yugoslav armed forces along the Bulgarian-Yugoslav border in the Macedonia region. Officials in Sofia fear a Yugoslav attempt to annex Pirin region to Macedonia.

July 1, 1947

Cipher Telegram from G. Dimitrov to J. Stalin on Damyan Velchev’s Behavior in Switzerland

Report on the activities of the former Defense Minister and Chief of the Bulgarian mission in Bern, Damyan Velchev, against the new Bulgarian regime.

September 29, 1946

Letter from Igor V. Kurchatov to Lavrenti Beria requesting additional support for the project on buiding an atomic bomb.

Igor Kurchatov, the scientific director of the Soviet nuclear project writes secret police chief Lavrenti Beria, whom Stalin had given principal responsibility for the atomic effort, asking for additional resources to solve uranium shortages faced by the project. (excerpts)

January 25, 1946

Notes on the discussion between I.V. Kurchatov, lead scientist for the Soviet nuclear effort, and Stalin

Kurchatov's notes on his meeting with Stalin, Molotov and Beria. Stalin promises the all necessary help to the soviet effort to build an atomic bomb. He suggests that the project should be build on "a Russian scale," without concerns for cost saving.

May 25, 1946

Memorandum from M. Litvinov to Stalin, 25 May 1946

Memorandum from M. Litvinov to Stalin, 25 May 1946. Memorandum discusses comments on the American “Draft Treaties” and the provisions set up for Japan and Germany post-Potsdam.
View All Documents View Visualization