The monograph is devoted to the perception of Russia in the West since the late 1920s - early 1930s. to the present day. The focus is on the dynamics of public opinion on foreign and defense policy issues and relations with the USSR / Russia in the United States and Western Europe. The book uses practically unknown to Russian readers survey materials, declassified reports of the CIA, data on defense expenditures and nuclear arsenals of the USA and the USSR during the Cold War. Relationships to post-Soviet Russia are viewed in conjunction with the emergence of a new world order, old and new security threats, recent crises in the Balkans and the Middle East, the reorganization and expansion of NATO, the construction of European armed forces and globalization. The main theme is the attitude of the Western public to nuclear weapons and the possibility of a new world war.