Cold War Quiz
Iron Curtain, Sputnik, the Berlin Airlift and the fall of the Wall: 15 questions on the superpower standoff.
In which year did the Berlin Wall fall, opening the border between East and West Berlin?
Got a hunch? Pick the answer that feels right.
1989
On 9 November 1989 an East German spokesman mistakenly announced that border crossings were open immediately, and crowds surged through the checkpoints that night. The wall had divided the city since August 1961.
Germany was formally reunified less than a year later, on 3 October 1990, a date now celebrated as German Unity Day.
Which military alliance was founded in April 1949 by the United States, Canada and ten Western European countries?
Got a hunch? Pick the answer that feels right.
NATO
The North Atlantic Treaty was signed in Washington on 4 April 1949 by twelve founding members. Its Article 5 states that an armed attack on one member is an attack on all, the cornerstone of Western defence throughout the Cold War.
Article 5 was invoked for the first time only after the 11 September 2001 attacks on the United States.
What was the name of the first artificial satellite, launched by the Soviet Union in October 1957?
Got a hunch? Pick the answer that feels right.
Sputnik 1
Sputnik 1, a polished metal sphere about 58 cm (23 inches) across, was launched on 4 October 1957 and circled the Earth every 96 minutes, broadcasting beeps that radio listeners could hear. It shocked the United States and started the Space Race.
The US response included creating NASA in 1958 and passing the National Defense Education Act to boost science teaching in schools.
Who warned in a 1946 speech at Fulton, Missouri, that an 'iron curtain' had descended across Europe?
Got a hunch? Pick the answer that feels right.
Winston Churchill
Churchill, out of office after losing the 1945 election, spoke at Westminster College on 5 March 1946 with President Truman beside him. The speech, titled the Sinews of Peace, popularised the phrase that defined the division of Europe.
The term iron curtain had been used before, including by Nazi propaganda minister Joseph Goebbels in early 1945.
Which war began in June 1950 and ended with an armistice in July 1953 but no peace treaty?
Got a hunch? Pick the answer that feels right.
Korean War
North Korean forces invaded the South on 25 June 1950, and a UN coalition led by the United States intervened, followed by Chinese troops. The armistice of 27 July 1953 created a demilitarised zone that still divides the two Koreas.
No peace treaty has ever been signed, so the two Koreas technically remain at war more than seventy years later.
Which Soviet leader introduced the reform policies of glasnost and perestroika in the 1980s?
Got a hunch? Pick the answer that feels right.
Mikhail Gorbachev
Gorbachev became general secretary in March 1985 and launched perestroika, meaning restructuring of the economy, and glasnost, meaning openness. The reforms loosened control over Eastern Europe and helped bring the Cold War to an end.
Gorbachev won the Nobel Peace Prize in 1990, and a year later found himself presiding over the collapse of the state he had tried to reform.
In which year was the Soviet Union formally dissolved?
Got a hunch? Pick the answer that feels right.
1991
Gorbachev resigned as Soviet president on 25 December 1991, and the Soviet flag over the Kremlin was lowered for the last time that evening. The Supreme Soviet voted the union out of existence the following day.
Eleven of the former republics had already agreed to form the Commonwealth of Independent States earlier that December.
Which American programme, proposed by the Secretary of State in a 1947 Harvard speech, funded the rebuilding of Western Europe?
Got a hunch? Pick the answer that feels right.
Marshall Plan
George C. Marshall outlined the plan at Harvard on 5 June 1947, and Congress approved it as the European Recovery Program in April 1948. It channelled about 13 billion dollars in aid to Western European economies over four years.
Stalin forbade Eastern Bloc countries from accepting the aid, deepening the economic split between the two halves of Europe.
How did the Western Allies keep West Berlin supplied during the Soviet blockade of 1948 and 1949?
Got a hunch? Pick the answer that feels right.
By airlift
When the Soviets cut road, rail and canal links in June 1948, American and British aircraft flew in coal, food and fuel for 15 months. By the end they had made about 278,000 flights and delivered some 2.3 million tons of supplies.
At the peak, during the so-called Easter Parade of April 1949, a plane landed in Berlin roughly every minute around the clock.
Which alliance did the Soviet Union and its Eastern European satellites form in 1955 as a counterweight to NATO?
Got a hunch? Pick the answer that feels right.
Warsaw Pact
The Warsaw Pact was signed on 14 May 1955, days after West Germany joined NATO, binding the USSR, Poland, East Germany, Czechoslovakia, Hungary, Romania, Bulgaria and Albania in a mutual defence treaty. It was dissolved in 1991.
The alliance's only joint military action was the 1968 invasion of Czechoslovakia to crush the Prague Spring, carried out against one of its own members.
Which US senator from Wisconsin led a campaign of accusations in the early 1950s claiming communists had infiltrated the government?
Got a hunch? Pick the answer that feels right.
Joseph McCarthy
McCarthy rose to fame in 1950 claiming to hold a list of communists working in the State Department. His televised hearings against the Army in 1954 turned opinion against him, and the Senate censured him that December.
The playwright Arthur Miller wrote The Crucible, about the Salem witch trials, as a response to the McCarthy era.
Which US president stood at the Brandenburg Gate in 1987 and challenged Gorbachev to 'tear down this wall'?
Got a hunch? Pick the answer that feels right.
Ronald Reagan
Reagan delivered the line on 12 June 1987 during a speech marking Berlin's 750th anniversary. Several advisers had tried to cut the phrase as too provocative, but Reagan insisted on keeping it in.
Reagan and Gorbachev signed the INF Treaty six months later, the first agreement to eliminate an entire class of nuclear missiles.
Which country did the Soviet Union invade in December 1979, beginning a war that lasted more than nine years?
Got a hunch? Pick the answer that feels right.
Afghanistan
Soviet troops entered Afghanistan on 25 December 1979 to prop up a communist government facing rebellion. The war against US-backed mujahideen fighters cost the USSR dearly, and the last Soviet column withdrew on 15 February 1989.
The United States led a boycott of the 1980 Moscow Olympics in protest, and the Soviets boycotted the Los Angeles Games in 1984.
Which Soviet leader signed the SALT I arms control agreement with President Nixon in Moscow in 1972?
Got a hunch? Pick the answer that feels right.
Leonid Brezhnev
Brezhnev and Nixon signed SALT I and the Anti-Ballistic Missile Treaty on 26 May 1972 during the first visit by a US president to Moscow. The agreements marked the high point of détente between the superpowers.
Brezhnev led the Soviet Union for 18 years, from 1964 until his death in 1982, longer than anyone except Stalin.
Which American pilot was shot down over the Soviet Union in a U-2 spy plane in May 1960?
Got a hunch? Pick the answer that feels right.
Francis Gary Powers
Powers was hit by a surface-to-air missile near Sverdlovsk on 1 May 1960, parachuted to safety and was captured. The incident wrecked a planned Paris summit after Eisenhower was caught denying that the flights were spying missions.
Powers was exchanged for Soviet spy Rudolf Abel on Berlin's Glienicke Bridge in February 1962, a swap dramatised in the film Bridge of Spies.
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All History quizzes →About the Cold War Quiz
For more than four decades the United States and the Soviet Union faced each other across an Iron Curtain, armed with enough nuclear weapons to end civilisation. The standoff produced the Berlin Airlift, Sputnik and the Space Race, spy swaps on a Berlin bridge and finally the night in November 1989 when crowds streamed through the Wall.
These 15 questions cover the alliances, leaders and flashpoints of the era, from Churchill's Fulton speech and the Marshall Plan to the Korean War, Gorbachev's reforms and the dissolution of the USSR. Every answer comes with an instant explanation and a bonus fact. It suits history students, Cold War film fans and anyone who remembers where they were when the Wall came down.
You will find 15 multiple choice questions here, each with four options. Difficulty: Medium. Most people finish in about 6 minutes, and every answer comes with a short explanation and one extra fact worth keeping.
How to play
Read the question and pick one of the four answers. The correct answer is revealed straight away with a short explanation, then press Next question to keep going. At the end you get your score out of 15 and a full review of your round. Play again any time and the questions arrive in a fresh order. There is no timer and no account.
Good to know before you play
What topics does the Cold War Quiz include?
NATO and the Warsaw Pact, the Berlin Airlift and the Berlin Wall, Sputnik, the Korean War, McCarthyism, the U-2 incident, détente, the Soviet war in Afghanistan and the fall of the USSR.
How hard is the Cold War Quiz?
Medium. Early questions on the Berlin Wall and NATO are easy for most players, while Brezhnev, the Warsaw Pact and Francis Gary Powers test real Cold War knowledge.
Does it cover the Cuban Missile Crisis?
Not directly, since that event features in our American Presidents Quiz. This one focuses on Berlin, the Space Race, the alliances and the leaders who ended the standoff.
Answer key: all 15 questions with explanations
- In which year did the Berlin Wall fall, opening the border between East and West Berlin?
1989 On 9 November 1989 an East German spokesman mistakenly announced that border crossings were open immediately, and crowds surged through the checkpoints that night. The wall had divided the city since August 1961. Germany was formally reunified less than a year later, on 3 October 1990, a date now celebrated as German Unity Day. - Which military alliance was founded in April 1949 by the United States, Canada and ten Western European countries?
NATO The North Atlantic Treaty was signed in Washington on 4 April 1949 by twelve founding members. Its Article 5 states that an armed attack on one member is an attack on all, the cornerstone of Western defence throughout the Cold War. Article 5 was invoked for the first time only after the 11 September 2001 attacks on the United States. - What was the name of the first artificial satellite, launched by the Soviet Union in October 1957?
Sputnik 1 Sputnik 1, a polished metal sphere about 58 cm (23 inches) across, was launched on 4 October 1957 and circled the Earth every 96 minutes, broadcasting beeps that radio listeners could hear. It shocked the United States and started the Space Race. The US response included creating NASA in 1958 and passing the National Defense Education Act to boost science teaching in schools. - Who warned in a 1946 speech at Fulton, Missouri, that an 'iron curtain' had descended across Europe?
Winston Churchill Churchill, out of office after losing the 1945 election, spoke at Westminster College on 5 March 1946 with President Truman beside him. The speech, titled the Sinews of Peace, popularised the phrase that defined the division of Europe. The term iron curtain had been used before, including by Nazi propaganda minister Joseph Goebbels in early 1945. - Which war began in June 1950 and ended with an armistice in July 1953 but no peace treaty?
Korean War North Korean forces invaded the South on 25 June 1950, and a UN coalition led by the United States intervened, followed by Chinese troops. The armistice of 27 July 1953 created a demilitarised zone that still divides the two Koreas. No peace treaty has ever been signed, so the two Koreas technically remain at war more than seventy years later. - Which Soviet leader introduced the reform policies of glasnost and perestroika in the 1980s?
Mikhail Gorbachev Gorbachev became general secretary in March 1985 and launched perestroika, meaning restructuring of the economy, and glasnost, meaning openness. The reforms loosened control over Eastern Europe and helped bring the Cold War to an end. Gorbachev won the Nobel Peace Prize in 1990, and a year later found himself presiding over the collapse of the state he had tried to reform. - In which year was the Soviet Union formally dissolved?
1991 Gorbachev resigned as Soviet president on 25 December 1991, and the Soviet flag over the Kremlin was lowered for the last time that evening. The Supreme Soviet voted the union out of existence the following day. Eleven of the former republics had already agreed to form the Commonwealth of Independent States earlier that December. - Which American programme, proposed by the Secretary of State in a 1947 Harvard speech, funded the rebuilding of Western Europe?
Marshall Plan George C. Marshall outlined the plan at Harvard on 5 June 1947, and Congress approved it as the European Recovery Program in April 1948. It channelled about 13 billion dollars in aid to Western European economies over four years. Stalin forbade Eastern Bloc countries from accepting the aid, deepening the economic split between the two halves of Europe. - How did the Western Allies keep West Berlin supplied during the Soviet blockade of 1948 and 1949?
By airlift When the Soviets cut road, rail and canal links in June 1948, American and British aircraft flew in coal, food and fuel for 15 months. By the end they had made about 278,000 flights and delivered some 2.3 million tons of supplies. At the peak, during the so-called Easter Parade of April 1949, a plane landed in Berlin roughly every minute around the clock. - Which alliance did the Soviet Union and its Eastern European satellites form in 1955 as a counterweight to NATO?
Warsaw Pact The Warsaw Pact was signed on 14 May 1955, days after West Germany joined NATO, binding the USSR, Poland, East Germany, Czechoslovakia, Hungary, Romania, Bulgaria and Albania in a mutual defence treaty. It was dissolved in 1991. The alliance's only joint military action was the 1968 invasion of Czechoslovakia to crush the Prague Spring, carried out against one of its own members. - Which US senator from Wisconsin led a campaign of accusations in the early 1950s claiming communists had infiltrated the government?
Joseph McCarthy McCarthy rose to fame in 1950 claiming to hold a list of communists working in the State Department. His televised hearings against the Army in 1954 turned opinion against him, and the Senate censured him that December. The playwright Arthur Miller wrote The Crucible, about the Salem witch trials, as a response to the McCarthy era. - Which US president stood at the Brandenburg Gate in 1987 and challenged Gorbachev to 'tear down this wall'?
Ronald Reagan Reagan delivered the line on 12 June 1987 during a speech marking Berlin's 750th anniversary. Several advisers had tried to cut the phrase as too provocative, but Reagan insisted on keeping it in. Reagan and Gorbachev signed the INF Treaty six months later, the first agreement to eliminate an entire class of nuclear missiles. - Which country did the Soviet Union invade in December 1979, beginning a war that lasted more than nine years?
Afghanistan Soviet troops entered Afghanistan on 25 December 1979 to prop up a communist government facing rebellion. The war against US-backed mujahideen fighters cost the USSR dearly, and the last Soviet column withdrew on 15 February 1989. The United States led a boycott of the 1980 Moscow Olympics in protest, and the Soviets boycotted the Los Angeles Games in 1984. - Which Soviet leader signed the SALT I arms control agreement with President Nixon in Moscow in 1972?
Leonid Brezhnev Brezhnev and Nixon signed SALT I and the Anti-Ballistic Missile Treaty on 26 May 1972 during the first visit by a US president to Moscow. The agreements marked the high point of détente between the superpowers. Brezhnev led the Soviet Union for 18 years, from 1964 until his death in 1982, longer than anyone except Stalin. - Which American pilot was shot down over the Soviet Union in a U-2 spy plane in May 1960?
Francis Gary Powers Powers was hit by a surface-to-air missile near Sverdlovsk on 1 May 1960, parachuted to safety and was captured. The incident wrecked a planned Paris summit after Eisenhower was caught denying that the flights were spying missions. Powers was exchanged for Soviet spy Rudolf Abel on Berlin's Glienicke Bridge in February 1962, a swap dramatised in the film Bridge of Spies.
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