Cold War

This section provides information about collections from other institutions related to the Cold War. 

The Diefenbunker was originally commissioned in 1959 by Prime Minister John Diefenbaker, as part of continuity of government planning during the height of the Cold War. Designated as the Central Emergency Government Headquarters, the bunker was intended to house 535 key government and military officials for a 30-day lockdown period in the event of a nuclear attack on Canada. Today, the museum holds thousands of artifacts and archival documents relevant to Canada’s Cold War history, spanning between 1945 and 1991.

The National Security Archive's Russia Program work to increase understanding and cooperation between Russia and the United States by documenting history of U.S.-Soviet-Russian relations, creating connections between scholars and practitioners and engaging the next generation of students in joint learning and research on the issues of mutual security, nuclear weapons and diplomacy with the emphasis on increasing empathy in U.S.-Russian relations today.  Russia programs encompasses three interconnected projects. Studying the history of the Cold War and collecting documents from the archives from both sides of the “iron curtain” was the original focus of the Archive’s Russia programs.  The Russian and East European Documents Database (RADD) includes 18,000 individual documents from all major Russian, Georgian, and East European archives. 

The Cold War Studies program at Harvard University's Davis Center promotes archival research in former East-bloc countries and seeks to expand and enrich what is known about Cold War events and themes. More important, it encourages scholars and students to use their research on Cold War topics to illuminate current theoretical debates about international and domestic politics.