Yet when he dies in 1953, the Soviet people mourn the end of an era. After Stalin's death, Khrushchev outmaneuvers Malenkov to become Soviet premier. Meanwhile, many Eastern-bloc nations have begun to chafe under Soviet domination. Rebellions spring up in Germany, Poland, and especially in Hungary, where in 1956 a democracy movement stages a coup. Khrushchev sends Russian tanks into Budapest and the West does nothing.
Soviet power is consolidated.
With the launch of the first Soviet ICBM in 1957, space becomes a Cold War frontier. That October, the Soviet Union shocks the world by launching the Earth's first artificial satellite. The space race is on. America's first attempt to catch up, fails publicly and dramatically. The West is stunned again in 1961 when Soviet cosmonaut Yuri Gagarin becomes the first person to orbit the earth.