Soviet Union (USSR)

The Soviet Union's (and more specifically, Joseph Stalin's) goals during World War II were two-fold.

First, they wanted to destroy their most dangerous rival and belligerent, Nazi Germany.

Secondly, they wished to expand their Soviet Communist system to control as many people and resources as possible.

i don't know for sure, but they weren't really allies in ww2, you see, the soviet union became friends with Germany so that they could split Poland, but, what both parties did not know was that they were both using each other, and socialism and the American way, are very different, and always, to superpowers always become rivals

The “Cold War” is usually thought of as being the conflict and stress between the US and the USSR (Soviet Union) during the period lasting from the end of World War 2 until the collapse of Communist government in Russia and the breakup of the Soviet Union in 1991. It is called the “cold” war because the belligerents never came to actual blows, but there were many “brushfire” wars that could have exploded the “cold” war into “hot” war many times. The entire period was marked by what we call “brinksmanship;” i.e., coming right up to the edge but stopping short of actual warfare between the two main players, the US and USSR.

The Cold War may be thought of as having started as early as 1917, when the Bolsheviks seized power in what had been Tsarist Russia and installed a Marxist Communist form of government. Communism has always been unalterably opposed to Capitalism, the economic system under which the democratic republic of the US operates. Without getting into the specifics of each, suffice it to say that the two systems are diametric opposites, and as such are mortal enemies. After the Bolshevik takeover of Russia in 1917, the United States was so fearful of the specter of a Marxist Empire in Europe that we initially sent American troops to fight alongside the “White Russians” (Tsarist loyalists) in a civil war that lasted until 1920. In 1922 the Soviet Union was declared. The other Allies of the First War also fought against Bolshevism until as late as 1920, but some of the early intervention was because the Bolsheviks made a separate peace with the Central Powers, notably Germany, and the Allies feared that the Russians might even ally with Germany and turn on their former allies. This did not happen, but Winston Churchill at the time warned that Bolshevism must be, “…strangled in its cradle.”

Churchill is also quoted as having said that democracy was “…the worst form of government except all the others that have been tried.” Leninist Communism, and later Stalinist Communism in the USSR resulted in the deaths of millions through direct execution and starvation due to failed economic policies and other causes. Democracy and Capitalism definitely have their faults, but the Communist Soviet Union collapsed in 1991 for a simple enough reason: it didn’t work.

Despite that, the “cold war” was still active during World War 2 while the US and USSR were allied against the Axis Powers: Germany, Italy and Japan. There was mistrust from the very beginning. Stalin mistrusted the western Allies for having signed the Munich Accord with Hitler in 1938 that gave the Nazis Czechoslovakia without firing a shot. The Allies mistrusted Stalin for having signed a “non-aggression” pact with Hitler in August 1939 which gave the Germans the green light to invade Poland and trigger World War 2. In fact, Stalin attacked Poland from its eastern border as well and grabbed all the Polish land he could. There was very good reason for the democracies to dislike and distrust the Soviet Empire, but nevertheless, after Hitler invaded the USSR in 1941, we were all in the same boat trying to defeat Naziism, but still the tensions existed. As an example, the Nazis felt so much closer to the west than to the Soviets that, in several much-too-late attempts by prominent Nazis to make a separate peace with the western Allies, the main thing that seemed to concern them was keeping the Red Army out of Germany, but by the time this happened we already knew about the Death Camps and allowing the Red Army to invade the eastern half of Germany seemed like fitting punishment for what the Nazis had done.

After the War, however, two major things happened: one was that the Soviets did not withdraw to their former borders, but simply expanded the USSR to include all the territory they had reconquered from the Germans. Once again, to quote Winston Churchill, “From Stettin in the Baltic to Trieste in the Adriatic, an iron curtain has descended across the Continent.” That “iron curtain” was to remain in place for another 45 years. As the Soviets “liberated” a country from the Germans, they “offered” to help set up a [Communist] government. This included the entire eastern half of Germany. So many East Germans tried to flee into the western half that finally the Communist East German government was forced to literally build a wall across the country to prevent the human leakage.

The second thing that happened was the acquisition by the USSR of the Atomic Bomb. They exploded their first one in August 1949, and suddenly there were two superpowers in the world. In fact, the Soviets had had a spy in the Manhattan project who gave many US atomic secrets to the Soviets, but historians are divided on how much damage the spy really did. The Soviets already had an atomic program of their own, and it may be that what they stole from us only accelerated their program by a year or so. It was inevitable that, once nuclear weapons existed at all, that other countries, starting with the USSR, would get them. The main thing is that Soviet acquisition of The Bomb triggered an arms race that continued right through the 1980’s, with the unfortunate result that to this day, Russia and the United States between them have enough nuclear devices to obliterate almost every living thing on the planet several times over. This fact was at the heart of the Cold War. The fear of sudden nuclear disaster was never far from the minds of those who lived through it.

During the Cold War there were many smaller “hot” wars and crises, starting with the Korean War in 1950. The USSR had entered the war against Japan at the last possible minute in 1945, and Korea was arbitrarily divided along the 38th parallel of latitude into northern (Communist) and southern (sort-of Republican) halves. In 1950, North Korea, backed by the Soviets and the Chinese Communists, invaded South Korea to try to unite the country under Communist rule, and President Truman went to the U.N. for a mandate to stop them, mostly with U.S. troops. We fought the North Koreans and the Chinese for three years, and the thing ended in a stalemate and an armistice, which is not the same as a peace. Technically, we’re still at war with the North Koreans — and now theyhave The Bomb.

In 1962 the Soviets tried to put ballistic missiles into Communist Cuba. They said it was in response to our having missiles in Turkey aimed at the USSR. There was a long stare down in October that ended only when the Russians “blinked” and withdrew the missiles. No one may ever really know just how close we came to nuclear war, but that is what is meant by “brinksmanship.”

The Vietnam War and the Soviet-Afghan war poured yet more gasoline on the fire, but because by that time each side had enormous nuclear arsenals pointed at the other, there was no war between the Superpowers. We had achieved what was appropriately called MAD: Mutually Assured Destruction. Whichever side started it, the other would finish it, and the world would be plunged into nuclear winter. Humanity as a species might cease to exist.

With the collapse of the USSR in 1991 the “Cold War” officially ended, but that doesn’t mean it’s over. We get along okay with the Russians. There are very few Communist run states left in the world, and even fewer of them are truly Communist in their economics (look at modern China for an example). They are totalitarian, but they may eventually evolve a more democratic form of government if we are patient and wait long enough. But the problem remains all those nukes! They’re pretty much all still there, sitting in their silos and hangars and being maintained, “just in case.” Recently Russian President Putin has become incensed at President Bush for wanting to build an antimissile system based in Europe aimed at short circuiting an attempted missile attack by, say, the Iranians. Whether the thing would work or not is immaterial; the Russians consider it a threat to their own security, don’t want it, and Putin has threatened to once again aim Soviet-era missiles at parts of western Europe.

Then there’s the “War on Terror,” and the fact that it’s theoretically possible for terrorists to get their hands on one or more nuclear devices. In the days when the bombs were huge and heavy and required four-engine bombers to deliver them this was not such a threat as it is now, with decades of miniaturization having gone into nuclear weapon design to the point that it’s possible to get one into a suitcase — certainly into a medium sized truck. And what would happen if one of those went off in the center of one of our cities, no matter where? Would we know right away where it came from? How many of our missiles are still aimed at Russia, and might we send a retaliatory response at an innocent party who, in self defense, would be forced to respond in kind? Leaders of both sides must wrestle with this conundrum every day.

The tensions that led to the “Cold War” still exist, unfortunately. There is said to be an old curse that goes, “May you live in interesting times.” We have the misfortune to live in “interesting times.” It remains to be seen if we humans can somehow stumble on through them. It is a purely human arrogance to believe that we are the culmination of evolution. If we destroy ourselves, something else will survive to take our place.

Joseph Stalin

22 June, 1941.
Germany invaded the Soviet Union on June 22, 1941 under Operation Barbarossa. This was done notwithstanding the Molotov-Ribbentrop non-aggression pact of 1939.

There are several reasons, including, but not limited to: Carter having angered the Russians by praising their disloyal citizens, Carter having a new plan for arms limitation, and Carter discontinuing military aid to Argentina, Brazil and Ethiopia.

Nazi Germany had invaded Poland in the year of 1939. With Poland just neighboring the Soviet Union, Joseph Stalin signed a Russo-German non-aggression treaty with Adolf Hitler to avoid conflict between Germany and Russia. Hitler broke the treaty soon after in his Operation Barbarossa, Hitler's planned invasion of Russia.

Newly appointed Soviet leader Nikita Khrushchev threatened the United States to nuclear damnation several times throughout the year. The following year, the already strained relationship between the US and the Soviet Union came to a breaking point when, in 1961, the Soviets pledged total support to Fidel Castro in the famed Bay of Pigs incident.

They invaded Hungray

the japan people are not very close to us in relations. we should all be one. TOGETHER AS ONE! PS love ♥llamas! hippes rock so stop being one

Russian SFSR,
Ukrainian SSR,
Moldovan SSR,
Estonian SSR,
Latvian SSR,
Lithuanian SSR,
Georgian SSR,
Azerbaijan SSR,
Armenian SSR,
Byelorussian SSR,
Kazakh SSR,
Kirghiz SSR,
Tajik SSR,
Turkmen SSR,
Uzbek SSR.

By the end of World War 2 the USSR had regained all its pre-war territory, annexed parts of Poland, Czechoslovakia and Romania, and soon afterwards it established satellite states in the countries that it had liberated from Nazi rule.

The breakdown of the Soviet Union was mainly due to lack of funding (for the military, that is), as well as the coming of the post-WWII generation, which was much more rebellious and liberal than its predecessors. The American government had purposefully overextended its military throughout the 1980s in an effort to scare the Soviet government into building up ITS military in turn; using hindsight, we can see that it worked.

it was a hot war was but it was called the ( COLD WAR) probably cause all the dead bodies.

An old man, Reagan wasn't afraid to die for his principles.

Russia never "became know as the Soviet Union." However, when it formed the Soviet Union, its name had been changed from Russia to the Russian Socialist Federated Soviet Republic.

The invasion of the Soviet Union was delayed because of issues in the Balkans. The failure of Mussolinis invasion of Greece exposed Hitlers flank to British air bases. Also there was a perceived problem with gasoline to fuel the German armored divisions.

The start of the Cold War can be seen in the final days & months of WW2. The Russians had suffered terribly, and this applies to the whole of Eastern Europe as a whole. There is a very marked difference between the war in the east and that fought by the US & Britain (& others) post D Day. Stalin comes across as a man of great power, wholly autocratic & ruthless. This is greatly at odds with western democracy and any idea of personal freedom & self determination. Politically the USSR and the West are poles apart. The Iron Curtain comes down and there are crises such as the Berlin Airlift & the Cuban Missles affair, along with the Bay of Pigs & other events. One would like to see a Russian perspective on all this, I wont anticipate a reply anytime soon from there, and it does beg the question: why not ? The start of the Cold War can be seen in the final days & months of WW2. The Russians had suffered terribly, and this applies to the whole of Eastern Europe as a whole. There is a very marked difference between the war in the east and that fought by the US & Britain (& others) post D Day. Stalin comes across as a man of great power, wholly autocratic & ruthless. This is greatly at odds with western democracy and any idea of personal freedom & self determination. Politically the USSR and the West are poles apart. The Iron Curtain comes down and there are crises such as the Berlin Airlift & the Cuban Missles affair, along with the Bay of Pigs & other events. One would like to see a Russian perspective on all this, I wont anticipate a reply anytime soon from there, and it does beg the question: why not ?

The satellites help provide buffer for the soviet union because they can track which invader is coming toward their border or see if any bombs are heading toward the nation of the soviet union

They scared off the near countries with threats and they gave up without a fight. they also shot bombs at them to prove their threats

The countries that support and poured help during the Afghanis fight against the Soviet Union in 1980 were Iran, Pakistan, China, and the United States.

It pointed the way for Mikhail S. Gorbachev's reform program twenty years.

4 reasons to it. Firstly,Politically and Ideological difference. While Soviet is Communism with Central Economy style, US is a Democracy with a Capitalism style that is clearly challenges each other. Secondly, Mutual distrust. While US was planning to use atomic bomb on Japan, the US told all the WW2 allies except USSR (Soviets) before the actual bombing which USSR was part of the WW2 allies. This would made Stalin (Leader/Dictator of Soviets) suspicious of whether if the US were to drop the similar weapons on them. Thirdly, ever since WW1 (1905-1918), Russian Civil War (1919-1921) and WW2 (1939-1944, For Russia or USSR.However,the Asia Pacific side was until 1945 when the last man , Japan had surrendered) , Western borders of Russia (Before Soviets era and present name after Soviets' dissolution in 1991) had been a target for the attacker to get it and WW2 alone, about 20 millions of Russians had died. Therefore, Stalin must create a buffer zone in Eastern Europe in order to prevent such wars from taking place. However, he had stationed troops from Russia to Eastern Germany that was quite far from Russia and all of them were turned into Communist Government and listen to Russia promptly without questions by force because the elections held by Soviets were not free and fair. Hence, the US thinks that the Soviets were going to dominate the whole Europe or even the World. This had threaten the US main belief. Lastly, the US president, Truman , had a Domino theory that beliefs if a country falls into Communism, the neighboring countries would again, fall into communism and spread it to the whole world even without the "buffer zone". This had resulted into US supporting South Vietnam (Republics,Democracy) and on the other hand,USSR and PRC (People's Republic of China or the Mainland China- NOT Taiwan which is Republic of China, ROC) supports North Vietnam (Communist,Socialism) in Vietnam War that resulted loss in US and the South that led to a reunification in Vietnam because the US fear that the North might spread Communism into the Whole South-East Asia. Also, the Korean War was also had the similar result, except that because of lack of USSR support, it had led into a draw until now.