Churchill met Stalin face-to-face three times. They respected each other’s ruthlessness but clashed over the post-war shape of Europe. Churchill’s "Percentages Agreement" (1944) attempted to divide Balkan influence—but it was swept away by Soviet military reality. Part 6: Cold War to Post-Soviet Thaw (1945–2020) By 1946, Churchill’s "Iron Curtain" speech in Fulton, Missouri, defined the next 45 years. For the duration of the Cold War, Rus-Eng relations meant espionage (the Cambridge Five spy ring), nuclear standoffs, and proxy wars from Korea to Afghanistan.
Britain sent thousands of troops to Archangel and Murmansk to support White Russian forces against the Bolsheviks. It failed. The USSR was established in 1922, and the UK formally recognized it in 1924, only to break off relations after a brief diplomatic row in 1927. rus eng
Paradoxically, by 1907 the two empires signed the Anglo-Russian Convention , settling their Central Asian disputes and joining France to form the Triple Entente against Germany. The reason: both feared the rising power of Imperial Germany more than each other. Churchill met Stalin face-to-face three times
In a symbol of this thaw, Tsar Nicholas II (whose mother was Danish) and King Edward VII (whose mother was Danish as well) were cousins. In 1909, Edward made a landmark state visit to Russia—the first and last by a reigning British monarch to Imperial Russia. The Russian Revolution of 1917 shattered everything. Part 6: Cold War to Post-Soviet Thaw (1945–2020)