The Cold War was fought as a contest over a way of life as much as it was as an armed confrontation.

What was the Cold War?

The Cold War was a global conflict that began in the late 1940s and ended with the collapse of the Soviet Union in 1991. Although the Cold War remained ‘cold’ in Europe and North America, the major powers fought ‘hot’ wars elsewhere in the world, including Korea, Vietnam and Afghanistan.

At root the Cold War was a battle of ideas between capitalism and communism, however, some ‘Cold Warriors’ were motivated by other ideologies and national interest. Although the Cold War was a military confrontation in which nuclear weapons played a central part, the conflict took other forms, including through competitive sport and the arts.

Cold War films

These three short films draw on never-before-seen archives, object collections, footage, and interviews with experts to explore how the global superpower standoff impacted and influenced Scottish lives, politics, landscapes and technologies. 

These films were produced as part of the Materialising the Cold War research project, a collaboration between National Museums Scotland and the University of Stirling, funded by the AHRC.