Ideological approach to the origins of the Cold War in contemporary western historiography

In this article describes the evolution of a modern Western approaches to the origins of the Cold War. Author proposedand justified the title of this approach - «ideological.» The paper demonstrates its root causes, characteristics, and also assesses the roleand place of this approach in the modern historiography of the Cold War. Author presents new Western historiographic sources that giveconsidering the Cold War from the perspective of this approach. In this work was analyzed the current trends of development of westernhistoriography: indoctrination and shift the subject of research in the area of mental history. It was described process of the emergence of thisapproach: from post-revisionism, and the complexity of the subject of scientific research toward the study of ideological foundations of theCold War. The final design of this approach was formed during the creation of «Cambridge History of the Cold War». Causes of the genesisof this approach: 1) using the method of comparative-historical analysis in the study of the origins of the Cold War 2) The opening of Sovietarchives in the mid 1990's. and the withdrawal of the Western authors about correspondence between words and actions of the Soviet leaders.3) synthesis of public and private, objective and subjective aspects of the origin of the Cold War and their integration into a single coherentconcept. 4) research methodology of the Cold War studies, based on the theory of synergetics and self-organizing systems. The main featuresof the approach: first, defining the essence of the Cold War as a conflict between different understandings of the meaning of social development.Secondly, the expansion of the timeframe of the genesis Cold War to the 1917. The third, an indication of the important role of ideologicalconviction in the Stalin's politics. Thus, today we can talk about «ideological approach» as a mature concept, existing mainly inWestern historiography. This approach is one of the leading trends in the Cold War history. «Ideological» approach, translating the origins ofthe confrontation in the mental area, is making the next step in studying of the Cold War - the cultural and mental history of the Cold War.The object of this discipline is not only the ideological foundations of bipolarity, but also the cultural discourses that prevented theemergence of full East-West dialogue.

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