The Cold War began in the aftermath of World War II, as the U.S. and the USSR emerged as the world’s preeminent superpowers. From 1947 to 1991, their rivalry shaped global politics, fueled by competing ideologies—capitalism versus communism—and a relentless quest for military supremacy. The nuclear arms race was its most iconic feature, with both nations stockpiling atomic weapons after the U.S. dropped bombs on Hiroshima and Nagasaki in 1945. By the 1950s, the USSR had developed its own nuclear arsenal, leading to a stalemate led by the doctrine of deterrence.
But the arms race wasn’t limited to bombs. The , ignited by the Soviet launch of Sputnik in 1957, was the battle for technological dominance. The U.S. responded with NASA and the Apollo program, landing humans on the moon in 1969. Beneath these public spectacles, covert projects flourished—codebreaking, surveillance, and early computing. In the 1960s, the U.S. Department of Defense developed ARPANET, a precursor to the Internet. It was a clear hint at the future role of information technology in warfare. Meanwhile, the Soviets invested heavily in cybernetics, blending computing and human-machine interaction to leapfrog Western advances.
The 1980s, the main backdrop of Stranger Things, marked the Cold War’s twilight. President Ronald Reagan’s Strategic Defense Initiative (SDI), dubbed “Star Wars,” proposed a missile defense system using cutting-edge technology, escalating tensions. The Soviet Union, economically strained, struggled to keep pace. By 1989, the Berlin Wall fell, and the USSR dissolved in 1991, ending the era. Yet, the technological race it sparked left a lasting legacy—one that Stranger Things taps into with its Soviet villains and shadowy experiments.
