What event is often cited as marking the end of the Cold War?

The dissolution of the Soviet Union is widely recognized as marking the end of the Cold War because it symbolized the collapse of communist control in Eastern Europe and the complete disintegration of the Soviet state itself in December 1991. This event brought about a significant geopolitical shift, leading to the emergence of multiple independent nations where the Soviet Union once existed and effectively signaled an end to the ideological struggle that had defined the Cold War era.

The fall of the Berlin Wall is also a pivotal and symbolic event that represents the decline of communist power in Eastern Europe, but it was the actual dissolution of the Soviet Union that definitively ended the Cold War, as it removed the primary adversarial nuclear superpower from the equation. The Korean War and the Cuban Missile Crisis were significant Cold War conflicts but did not directly conclude the tension between the Eastern and Western blocs. Thus, the dissolution of the Soviet Union serves as the most concrete event marking the Cold War's conclusion.