Russia

====Khrushchev Thaw reforms and economic development====
After [[Death and state funeral of Joseph Stalin|Stalin's death]] in 1953 and a short period of [[Collective leadership|collective rule]], the new leader [[Nikita Khrushchev]] denounced [[On the Cult of Personality and Its Consequences|Stalin]] and launched the policy of [[de-Stalinization]], releasing many political prisoners from the [[Gulag]] labour camps.<ref>{{cite book |first=Polly |last=Jones |title=The Dilemmas of De-Stalinization: Negotiating Cultural and Social Change in the Khrushchev Era |year=2006 |publisher=Routledge |isbn=978-1-134-28347-7 |pages=2–4}}</ref> The general easement of repressive policies became known later as the [[Khrushchev Thaw]].<ref>{{cite journal |last=Reid |first=Susan E. |year=1997 |title=Destalinization and Taste, 1953–1963 |publisher=[[Oxford University Press]] |jstor=1316131 |volume=10 |number=2 |pages=177–201 |journal=[[Journal of Design History]]|doi=10.1093/jdh/10.2.177 }}</ref> At the same time, Cold War tensions reached its peak when the two rivals clashed over the deployment of the United States [[PGM-19 Jupiter|Jupiter missiles]] in Turkey and Soviet [[Cuban Missile Crisis|missiles in Cuba]].<ref>{{cite journal |last=Fuelling |first=Cody |url=https://digitalcommons.northgeorgia.edu/cgi/viewcontent.cgi?article=1218&context=issr |title=To the Brink: Turkish and Cuban Missiles during the Height of the Cold War |journal=International Social Science Review |publisher=[[University of North Georgia]] |volume=93 |number=1 |access-date=28 May 2021 |archive-date=13 March 2022 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20220313053405/https://digitalcommons.northgeorgia.edu/cgi/viewcontent.cgi?article=1218&context=issr |url-status=dead }}</ref>

In 1957, the Soviet Union launched the world's first artificial [[satellite]], ''[[Sputnik&nbsp;1]]'', thus starting the [[Space Age]].<ref>{{cite web |url=https://education.nationalgeographic.org/resource/ussr-launches-sputnik/ |title=USSR Launches Sputnik |date=7 July 2021 |work=[[National Geographic (magazine)|National Geographic]] |access-date=15 January 2022 |archive-date=6 June 2022 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20220606045341/https://education.nationalgeographic.org/resource/ussr-launches-sputnik/ |url-status=live }}</ref> Russian [[cosmonaut]] [[Yuri Gagarin]] became the first human to orbit the Earth, aboard the ''[[Vostok&nbsp;1]]'' crewed spacecraft on [[Cosmonautics Day|12 April 1961]].<ref>{{cite web |url=https://www.bbc.com/future/article/20210409-yuri-gagarin-the-spaceman-who-came-in-from-the-cold |title=Yuri Gagarin: the spaceman who came in from the cold |last=Dowling |first=Stephen |date=12 April 2021 |access-date=15 January 2022 |publisher=BBC |archive-date=7 April 2022 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20220407051631/https://www.bbc.com/future/article/20210409-yuri-gagarin-the-spaceman-who-came-in-from-the-cold |url-status=live }}</ref>