Soviet Union (USSR)

Prior to the rise of communism, Russia was a czarist nation that held absolute power over its people. Russia's lower class had been suffering from a long state of poverty, and most of the world was shifting into the democratic gear, and rocketing forward because of it. The combination of the two, as well as the people's need for the basics, led to the start of the first communist state.

Also to be noted - by early 1917, Russia had suffered a serious blow from the world war, amounting to a loss of not only daily lives, with a new nation-wide famine, price inflation, crop failure, and the stress that comes with war, but also a loss of human lives as well. People were in financial pandemonium. Fights, strikes and protests broke out. Russia was in a state of confusion. (This led to the February Revolution.)

So the people needed some form of government, for some control. At first after the February Revolution the Provisional Government stepped in and shared governmental power with the St. Petersburg Soviet. Eight months later, with the Russian people still dissatisfied with their government, Vladimir Lenin stepped in and overthrew the Provisional Government taking full power in the name of the Soviet councils.

Lenin encouraged his philosophy of 'Marxism-Leninism' which was a bit too much for the struggling nation and sparked the Russian Civil War which lasted until about the end of 1920. When Lenin died, Joseph Stalin took over and began a reign of terror and fear. Stalin's rule was marked by one period of time in the 1930's which history calls "The Great Terror." (Over Five million were killed at Stalin's hand. He even staged "show trials", which falsely convicted thousands of treason. Virtually all were executed.) People had no control over their lives, and everyone was supposed to be equal but they weren't, while the leader basked in his glory.

A total of 59 countries participated in the 1948 Summer Olympic Games in London: Afghanistan

Argentina

Australia

Austria

Belgium

Bermuda

Brazil

British Guiana

Burma

Canada

Ceylon

Chile

Republic of China

Colombia

Cuba

Czechoslovakia

Denmark

Egypt

Finland

France

Great Britain

Greece

Hungary

Iceland

India

Iran

Iraq

Ireland

Italy

Jamaica

South Korea

Lebanon

Liechtenstein

Luxembourg

Malta

Mexico

Monaco

Netherlands

New Zealand

Norway

Pakistan

Panama

Peru

Philippines

Poland

Portugal

Puerto Rico

Singapore

South Africa

Spain

Sweden

Switzerland

Syria

Trinidad and Tobago

Turkey

United States

Uruguay

Venezuela

Yugoslavia

the economy

The US withdrew missiles from Turkey.

Interesting question, difficult to answer.

At the height of the Cold War, there were two superpowers: the USA and the USSR. While the USSR had a tendency to build bigger and bigger weapons systems that were in some cases vastly more powerful than anything the US had (see Tsar Bomba), their technology was nowhere near what the west had. The US continued to downsize weapons systems, to the point of nonexistence (see President Regan's Star Wars sham). The fact is that the USSR could have lobbed a world ending amount of nuclear weapons at the west at any time, but before a single one of their bombs detonated, the US could have knocked most of them out of the sky, and could have hit with pin-point accuracy any target in the Soviet Union. What truly scarred the bejesus out of the Soviets were weapons systems like Pershing II. With about fifteen minutes heads-up, PII crews in Europe could have hit any single of the hundreds of windows of the Kremlin, and turned Red Square into a great glass bowl. While at the same time, the Soviet SS20, the equivalent Soviet system to PII, was twice the size of the American weapon, had about 2/3 the possible yield, slightly more range, but would have been lucky to get within 50 miles of the intended target.

In short, the Soviet Union had a vastly larger military force, with massive weapons that were of poor accuracy; while the US had fewer troops, but could thread the eye of a needle for fewer bucks.

Incidentally, this downsizing trend has continued. While the US has be no means the largest army of the industrialized nations. In raw troops, South Korea is far out front of all other nations with total frontline and reserve troops at 3,853,000. Behind them is China with active and reserves at 3,085,000. Followed by India with 3,073,000. And, the US with 2,936,396. Russia brings up the rear in the top five with 1,954,000. China has near five times the ships as the US, while we have about a thousand more aircraft. China and the US are about even with tanks and land warfare systems (not counting missiles of which there is no clear total for anyone). Still the US holds the lead with technology, being about twenty years in advance of most other nations.

At Yalta, the US asked the USSR to declare war on Japan. Russia wanted Korea as its reward. Instead Korea was divided in half, the People's Republic of North Korea and the Republic of South Korea. In 1950, Communist North Korea invaded the South.

The United States had a capitalist economy; the Soviet Union had a command economy.

The USA opposed communism, which Joseph Stalin was intent on spreading around Eastern Europe. Naturally, U.S. President Harry Truman and Great Britain Prime Minister Winston Churchill would have nothing of it. After the Second World War and after Germany was defeated, there was strains between the Soviets and the Americans about what type of government should govern the post-Nazi Socialist Germany. This of course spread to other parts of Europe as well as the war in Korea, and what began the Cold War between the US and USSR (now Russia).

He didn't consider the harsh winters so didn't supply troops for needed equipment to survive the winters. He didn't count on the Russian people fighting as hard as they did. He spent time, money, and men to loose to Russia.

England and France are in the same place, but the Soviet Union was dissolved in 1991. The borders of the Pre-war USSR bordered Poland. During the war, it ranged from the outskirts of Moscow to the outskirts of Berlin (yes, the war reached the capitals of the belligerents). After the war, Germany was split into 2 parts. Look up "Warsaw Pact" and that is your answer for the post-war years.

First question is: Do you know that there were any executed in the USSR during WW2? Next by whom, the Axis on Soviet territory or the USSR itself? Do you know the name of the US Army Aircorps (US Airforce did not exist until 1947) personnel supposed to have been executed in the USSR? Those answers will make tracking down info easier in archives. If USAAC personnel were executed for treason, desertion or spying, it is likely that their bodies were buried in unmarked graves. The US did so in 1942 to the captured German spies upon execution and we disposed of those executed during the Nuremburg War Crimes trials by cremation and scattering at a secret location.

The Berlin Wall came down

Controlling for things like population and education, no one region of the former Soviet Union was likely more prolific than the others in producing dissidents. However, those who were judged to have violated Soviet law or norms of behavior were subject to internal exile in Siberia and it is this region that is most associated with the fate of Soviet dissidents.

The Cuban Missile Crisis. In 1962, The Soviet Union, in collaboration with Fidel Castro, began building nuclear missiles on the Island of Cuba. Because the Soviets technology at the time limited their nuclear missiles range, they felt that having missiles in Cuba was the only way of defending against an attack by the United States, whose nuclear arsenal could reach the Soviet Union at any time.

Castro, after the failed Bay of Pigs invasion, thought that another attack by the U.S was inevitable and agreed to the Soviet installations.

President Kennedy imposed a quarantine on the island by surrounding it with naval vessels and ordered the missiles to be dismantled. Several tense days went by, and the world was on the brink of nuclear war. the worst day being October 27th when a U2 reconnaissance plane was shot down.

On October 28th, The U.S and the Soviet Union came to an agreement. The missiles and bombers would be removed from Cuba, and the U.S agreed not to invade Cuba, thus ending the crisis.

Bad relations with China and economy problems.

They felt that capitalist nations were trying to dominate the economy

They did not accept the aims of the World Bank and IMF

Be more specific. The Soviets have launched space crafts, i guess.

The Cold War (a stalemate/non-shooting war).

other way around dummy

*Ahem*

The Russian Empire ceased to exist after the abdication of Tsar Nicholas II. On 14 September 1917, the newly formed Directorate had dissolved the State Duma and had declared the formation of the Russian Republic. However, it was short lived and on 9 November of the same year, the Soviets took control and the Russian Soviet Federative Socialist Republic (RSFSR) was formed.

The USSR was formed on 30 December 1922 with the signing of the Treaty on the Creation of the USSR. This Treaty legalized the creation of a union of several Soviet Republics into the USSR. The signatories to this treaty were Russia SFSR, Ukraine SSR, Byelorussian (Belarus) SSR and Transcaucasian SFSR. In 1940, the Baltic States were annexed and were transformed into Lithuanian SSR, Estonia SSR and Latvian SSR. Later that year, the Moldovian SSR is formed from the Ukrainian administered Moldavian ASSR and annexed Romanian territory of Bessarabia. The Karelo-Finnish ASSR briefly became a republic from March 31, 1940- July 16, 1956. The Treaty was terminated on December 25, 1991 at the Dissolution of the USSR.

within the past week, unmistakable evidence has established the fact that a series of offensive missile sites is now in preparation on that imprisoned island.

the characteristic of these new missile sites indicate two distinct type of intallations several of them include medium-range ballistic missiles... each of these missiles is capable of striking washington .DC. the panama canal ,cape canaveral, mexico city, or any other city in the southeastern part of the unite states, in central america or in the caribbean area

In the latter half of the 20th century, relations between Russia and China broke down. This gave the U.S. the opportunity to establish links and give support to China.

Vladimir Ilyich lenin (Ulyanov) was effectively removed from power in 1922 by the first of a series of strokes. Since he had failed to name a successor, the USSR was run by a "Committee of Three" including Grigory Zinovyev, Lev Kamenev and Joseph Stalin. Stalin held effective power at this time because he was already Party General Secretary. There is a little doubt as to what exactly happened from here on because many records were "corrected" to reflect the preferred political views of the time, but suffice to say that by the end of 1929, only Stalin was left of the "Committee of Three" and he had managed to get rid of the remainder of his potential competition from the party. Both Grigory Zinovyev and Lev Kamenev were executed in 1936. The rest is history and Stalin allegedly died of a stroke, possibly on the 5th of March 1953, thereby resigning his leadership of the USSR. Exact dates, even if they do exist, are not reliable.

The major factor for the faltering of the German advance would be the lack of supplies and winter gear due to the German's long supply lines. Another would be the "tenacity" of the Russian defenders and by "tenacity" I mean the use of human wave tactics and snipers.