Did the USSR directly start the Cold War?

The Origins of the Cold War is a high debated topic. There are countless reasons why the Cold War developed between 1945-1949. For starters, the West and the Soviet Union had a clash of ideologies. The West firmly stood by capitalism while the Soviets had a fanatic belief in Communism. Because of this clash of ideologies, the Soviet's choice in sending troops into Eastern Europe right after the Nazi's had vacated, made tensions even worse. …

…the origins of the Cold War as the Soviet Union did. Some claim that when the Soviet Union refused to allow the Allies to reunite a stabilized Germany, they started the war. While others say the course of action taken by the US only polarized the US and the USSR unnecessarily and accelerated the Cold War. Therefore, the Soviet Union is responsible for the outbreak of the Cold War but only to a certain extent.