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The
Soviet Union was one of the most
powerful and most feared nations in the
world from the end of World War Two
until it literally fell apart in the
early 1990s. The term "Soviet Union"
was the shortened phrase for the
official name of the Union of Soviet
Socialist Republics (USSR). The Soviet
Union was ruled by the Soviet Commuist
Party, which took power in the bloody
Russian Revolution during World War
One. The Communists were then known as
the Bolsheviks. The early Bolsheviks
were led by the revolutionary leader,
Vladimir Lenin. Lenin's
Bolsheviks consolidated their power
over most of the old Czarist Russian
Empire in the Russian Civil War, which
lasted from 1917 to 1923. Several
regions broke away from Russia in the
chaos of the Revolution, and several
new nations achieved independence from
the Russians and Bolsheviks. These
nations included Poland, Finland,
Estonia, Latvia, and Lithuania. Other
regions attempted to achieve
independence, but failed under pressure
from the Bolshevik "Red" Army of the
new Communist government. These areas
included Georgia, Armenia, Ukraine, and
the Muslim regions of Central
Asia. The new
Communist government of Vladimir Lenin
renamed the country the Union of Soviet
Socialist Republics. This was often
shortened to USSR, or the Soviet Union.
In the years following World War One
and the Russian Revolution, the Soviets
attempted to export Communist
revolutions to nearby nations,
including Germany, Finland, Hungary,
and Mongolia. These attempts to spread
revolution helped cause severe
hostility between most of Europe and
the Soviets. Following
World
War Two,
with the Soviet Union on the side of
the victorious Allies, the Soviet
armies occupied most of Eastern Europe,
and effectively controlled over half of
Europe until the late 1980s and early
1990s, when Communism fell in Eastern
Europe and eventually in the Soviet
Union itself. From
1945 to the fall of the Soviet state,
the Soviet Union, its allies and
satellite states engaged in a very
dangerous conflict with the United
States and the other Western allies
called "The Cold War." Russian
Revolution (1917) Russian
Civil War (1917-1923) Soviet-Ukraine
War ( Dec. 1917-Nov.
1921) Polish-Soviet
War (1919-1921)--Major
war between Poland and Russia/The
Soviet Union. Soviet-Georgian
War (Feb. 15 – March 17
1921) Soviet
Invasion of Armenia
(1921) Soviet
Invasion of Manchuria (1929)
-Border clash with Chinese Warlords in
Manchuria. Soviet
Invasion of Xinjiang
(1934)--Soviet troops intervened in
the Chinese Civil War to aid a
pro-Soviet Warlord under attack by
Chinese Nationalist forces. Spanish
Civil War (1936-1939)
-The Soviet Union provided extensive
material support and sent military
advisors to aid the Spanish Republican
forces in their civil war with the
Spanish Nationalists. This was a proxy
war between the Soviets on the one hand
and Nazi Germany and Fascist Italy, who
supported the Nationalists. Soviet-Japanese
Border Wars (1938-1939) Battle
of Khalkhin Gol
(1939)
also known as the Nomonhan
Incident. Very large and bloody
battle (Soviet casualties: at least
7,974 killed and 15,251 wounded.
Japanese casualties: 8,440 killed,
with 8,766 wounded.) Some historians
consider this battle very
significant given that Stalin now
knew his troops could handle the
Japanese, and the Soviet victory at
Khalkhin Gol ensured that Japan
would not intervene when the Soviet
Union joined the new European war in
Poland on September 17, 1939. The
Winter War: The Soviet Attack on
Finland (Nov. 30, 1939-March 1,
1940)-The
Soviets sought territory from
Finland, and the right to establish
military bases on Finnish islands, as
well as on the Finnish mainland.
Finland rejected the Soviet demand for
Finnish land, and, on November 30,
1939, without a formal declaration of
war, the Soviet air force launched
aerial bombardment of the Finnish
capital of Helsinki as well as the city
of Viipuri. That same day, Soviet
armies totaling nearly a 1,000,000 men
invaded Finland. After a ferocious
defense, the Finns fell under the
weight of the superior Soviet
numbers. Soviet
Occupation of Bessarabia and Northern
Bukovina (1940)--After the
Molotov-Ribbentrop Pact between Nazi
Germany and the Soviet Union, which
effectively divided Eastern Europe
between them, the Soviets issued an
ultimatum to Romania to surrender the
regions of Bessarabia and Northern
Bukovina. Faced with the threat of a
Soviet invasion, Romania surrendered
the regions to the Soviets without a
fight. German (and
Soviet) Invasion of Poland
(September 1, 1939-October 6,
1939)--Germany invaded Poland on
September 1, and Britain, France, and
Canada, declared war on Germany on
September 3. The Soviet Union joined
the war on Germany's side on September
17, with the
Soviet
Invasion of Poland from the
east. The German Invasion of Poland
(called Operation Case
White/Unternehmen Fall Weiss by the
Germans), marks the beginning of World
War Two in Europe. Polish
Uprising
(1956)--Polish uprising against
Soviet domination. The Poles were
crushed by the Soviets. Hungarian
Revolution
(1956)--Hungarian uprising against
Soviet domination. The Hungarians were
crushed by the Soviets. Soviet
Invasion of
Czechoslovakia
(1968)--Reformist Czech government
overthrown by Warsaw Pact invasion led
by the Soviets. Soviet
Invasion and Occupation of
Afghanistan
(1979-1989)--Soviet forces invaded
Afghanistan to prop up the Communist
Afghan government in its war against
Islamic rebels. Sources: R.
Ernest, Dupuy, and Dupuy Trevor N.
The
Encyclopedia of Military History: From
3500 B.C. To The
Present. Kohn,
George C. Dictionary
of Wars.
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History Guy" is a Registered Trademark. Contact
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New
York: Harper & Row, 1970.
