The post–Cold War era is a period of history that follows the end of the Cold War, which represents history after the dissolution of the Soviet Union in December 1991. This period saw many former Soviet republics become sovereign nations, as well as the introduction of market economies in eastern Europe. This period also marked the United States becoming the world's sole superpower.
Nelson Mandela casting his vote in the 1994 South African elections.
Image: Boris Yeltsin 22 August 1991 1
The Cold War was a period of geopolitical tension between the United States and the Soviet Union and their respective allies, the Western Bloc and the Eastern Bloc, that started in 1947, two years after the end of World War II and lasted to 1991, the fall of the Soviet Union.
Allied troops in Vladivostok, August 1918, during the Allied intervention in the Russian Civil War
American Relief Administration operations in Russia, 1922
Lenin, Trotsky and Kamenev celebrating the second anniversary of the October Revolution
The Battle of Stalingrad, considered by many historians as a decisive turning point of World War II