That was a deceptively simple title. /u/madam1s comments in a thread yesterday make me question how much I actually know about what I "know".
I would love to have an in depth explanation regarding the term and a defense, rebuttal or clarification of /u/madam1s stance "Although historians describe the U.S. and U.S.S.R. as the only two superpowers standing, the reality is that the U.S. experienced economic growth without the disastrous wreckage that haunted the Soviets, and in truth was the only real superpower."
So how (and why) did the US and USSR come to be described as super powers? Were there periods where either nation did not fit the bill?
The term "superpower" was created to describe a global hegemonic state. After WWII political and social scientists began looking into the cause of the two world wars and also for a way that these wars could be prevented. One popular theory asserted that rising powers attempting to assert themselves against established powers was the cause of these wars. (note that when I'm referring to war I'm referring only to global conflicts like WWI and WWII) After WWII there were only three remaining established powers (The US, The UK and The USSR) These nations because of their previously unheard of global influence were termed superpowers.
After the Suez Crisis it became clear that the UK either didn't have the economic ability or didn't have the will to be a superpower. This left only the US and The USSR. The USSR held an ideological and military hegemony over the Warsaw Pact nations. The U.S. held an economic hegemony over the Western European nations and Japan. As well as a defensive alliance against the USSR in NATO.
The USSR at the end of WWII had an enormous military in terms of manpower. They also had lend lease equipment and captured German equipment. The final key was willpower provided by Stalin. The USSR lost 20 million people in WWII compared to the U.S. 300,000. Stalin had proved that the USSR would fight even in the face of unimaginable casualties. It was this threat that allowed the USSR to dictate the terms for the rebuilding of Soviet occupied territories.
The U.S. was the only power to emerge from WWII with its infrastructure and economy intact. The other nations affected by WWII required US goods to rebuild. However with their economies destroyed and their political stability questionable they had nothing to give in exchange for these goods. The US solved this problem by extending credit. This tied the Western European nations to the US economically. The threat of the Soviet Union attempting to extend their sphere of influence led to the formation of NATO.
Both the US and USSR experienced a technological boom after WWII, the US had thousands of unfinished research projects after WWII as well as the captured German equipment and research. The USSR had lend lease equipment and US provided industrial know how as well as captured German equipment. The Korean conflict was in large part fought with equipment left over from WWII or acquired in the technology boom that followed.
After the Korean war and during the beginning of the space race US intelligence and scientists began to notice that Russian technological breakthroughs were always 2-5 years behind the US. The intelligence community naturally assumed spying and so began a massive counterintelligence program. The scientists enjoyed the funding from the arms race and didn't complain. It wasn't until the early 1980's that the US intelligence community realized that the cold war arms race consisted almost entirely of the US inventing new weapons and their Russian counterparts copying these weapons, sometimes quite poorly.
The USSR had very little independent development of technology. But while they spent great amounts of time copying US weaponry they devoted considerably less effort to copying US industrial technology and methods. This meant that while the US and allies made great strides in quality and efficiency. The USSR remained at a nearly WWII level in terms of Industrial technology and methods.
The US has always deserved its superpower status. The US has dominated world affairs for the last 70 years with a combination of economy, ideology, soft power, military power and culture.
The USSR immediately following WWII deserved its superpower status as a major military power with the will to use that military. Economically the USSR took nearly 10 years to recover from WWII and then failed to develop industrially. From 1955 to 1982 the USSR was in large part bluffing. They were and should be described as a superpower during this time because they acted as a superpower was expected to act and the world reacted to them as a superpower. Behind the facade though there was very little substance (other than their nuclear weapons capability) that would qualify them as a superpower.