The Soviet Union and the United States - two nuclear-armed superpowers - confronted each other in a simmering conflict known as the Cold War. The tense relationship between the United States and the Soviet Union started in the closing months of World War II. Some scholars attribute the hardening of the atmosphere between the two countries to Harry Truman's assumption of the presidency in April 1945, after the death of the more sympathetic Franklin Roosevelt, and …showed first 75 words of 598 total…

…showed last 75 words of 598 total…would occur by means other than purges. In retrospect, Khrushchev's attempts at reform display some similarities to Gorbachev's later perestroika policies of the 1980s. Both promised relief from the most repressive aspects of the Soviet state; both encountered opposition from more conservative, entrenched communist Part leaders. From the time Khrushchev was removed from power in 1964 until Gorbachev's rise, however, the leaders of the Soviet Union, while avoiding the excesses of Stalinism, returned to repressive authoritarianism.