What areas did Stalin and the USSR capture in World War 2?

Answer 1

In the "West" (Europe) the Soviets liberated: Estonia Latvia Lithuania Poland Czechoslovakia Hungary Austria (most of it) Bulgaria "East" Germany In the "East" (Asia) little is known and the Soviets were not in action for a very long time before the war ended, even so they did some very important things. They defeated the main Japanese Army stationed in China. They captured Manchuria and probably very importantly captured Pu-Ye (spelling?) who was the Emperor of China, and the Japanese in China claimed as their Emperor after the Japanese Emperor surrendered. The Soviets also captured northern Korea. Considering the fact that the Emperor and the Japanese Army were unimpressed by the 1st Atomic Bomb (because the damage done, and the number of people killed was less that what had already happened in Tokyo as a result of fire bombing), I strongly suspect the 2nd Atomic Bomb had no greater effect on their decision to fight on. So what caused the Emperor to surrender? I feel it was his fear of the Soviets taking over northern Japan while the Japanese fought against an American landing in southern Japan. As much as the Japanese may have hated us our history showed we did not take over land. On the other hand the Russians had taken over land. So the Emperor felt Japan had more to fear from the Soviets, and so he must surrender before they could invade Japan. Hope this helps, John