Soviet involvement in regime change entailed both overt and covert actions aimed at altering, replacing, or preserving foreign governments. In the 1920s, the nascent Soviet Union intervened in multiple governments primarily in Asia, acquiring the territory ofTuva and makingMongolia into a satellite state.^[1] DuringWorld War II, theSoviet Union helped overthrow many puppet regimes ofNazi Germany and theEmpire of Japan, including in East Asia and much of Europe. Soviet forces were also instrumental in ending the rule ofAdolf Hitler over Germany.

In the aftermath of World War II, the Soviet government struggled with the United States for global leadership and influence within the context of theCold War. It expanded the geographic scope of its actions beyond its traditional area of operations. In addition, the Soviet Union and Russia engaged inforeign electoral intervention in the national elections of many countries. One study indicated that the Soviet Union and Russia engaged in 36 interventions in foreign elections from 1946 to 2000.^[2][3][4]

The Soviet Union ratified theUN Charter in 1945, the preeminent international law document,^[5] which legally bound the Soviet government to the Charter's provisions, including Article 2(4), which prohibits the threat or use of force in international relations, except in very limited circumstances.^[6] Therefore, any legal claim advanced to justify regime change by a foreign power carries a particularly heavy burden.^[7]

The U.S. government examined cases of Soviet interventions within the context of international law, specifically the interpretation of the UN Charter in view of sovereignity and the use of force. Some cases have been discussed in official U.S. documentation.^[8][9]

TheMongolian Revolution of 1911 sawMongolia declare independence from theQing dynasty in China, ruled byBogd Khan. In 1912, theQing dynasty collapsed into theRepublic of China. In 1915, Russia and China signed the Kyatha agreement, making it autonomous. However, when theRussian Civil War broke out, China, working with Mongolianaristocrats, retook Mongolia in 1919. At the same time theRussian Civil War raged on and theWhite Army were, by 1921, beginning to lose to theRed Army. One of the commanders,Roman Ungern Von Sternberg, saw this and decided to abandon the White Army with his forces. He led his army into Mongolia in 1920, and conquered it completely by February 1921, putting Bogd Khan back into power.^[10][11]

TheBolsheviks had been worried about Sternberg and, at the request of theMongolian People's Party, invaded Mongolia in August 1921 helping with theMongolian Revolution of 1921. The Soviets moved from many directions and captured many locations in the country. Sternberg fought back and marched into the USSR but he was captured and killed by the Soviets on 15 September 1921. The Soviets kept Bogd Khan in power, as aconstitutional monarch, hoping to keep good relations with China, while continuing to occupy the country. However, when Bogd Khan died in 1924, the Mongolian Revolutionary government declared that no reincarnations shall be accepted and set up thePeople's Republic of Mongolia which would exist in power until 1992.^[12]

After the fall of the Qing Dynasty in the1911 Revolution, the province ofTannu Uriankhai became independent, and was then made aprotectorate of the Russian empire. During the Russian Civil War, the Red Army created theTuvan People's Republic. It was located in between Mongolia and the USSR and was only recognized by the two countries.^[13] Their Prime Minister wasDonduk Kuular, a formerLama with many ties to the Lamas present in the country.^[14] He tried to put his country on aTheocratic andNationalistic path, tried to sow closer ties with Mongolia, and madeBuddhism thestate religion.^[15] He was also resistant to thecollectivization policies of the Soviet Union. This was alarming and irritating toJoseph Stalin, the Soviet Union's leader.^[16]

The Soviet Union would set the ground for a coup. They encouraged the "Revolutionary Union of Youth" movement, and educated many of them atCommunist University of the Toilers of the East. In January 1929, five youths educated at the school would launch a coup with Soviet support and depose Kuular, imprisoning and later executing him.Salchak Toka would become the new head of the country. Under the new government, collectivization policies were implemented. Apurge was launched in the country against aristocrats,Buddhists, intellectuals, and other political dissidents, which would also see the destruction of manymonasteries.^{[17][18][19][20]}

After theThird Anglo-Afghan War, theKingdom of Afghanistan had full independence from theBritish Empire, and could make their ownforeign relations.^[21]Amanullah Khan, the king of Afghanistan, maderelations with the USSR, among many other countries, such as signing an agreement of neutrality.^[22] There had also been another treaty signed that gave territory to Afghanistan on the condition that they stopBasmachi raids into the USSR.^[23] As his reign continued, Amanullah Khan became less popular, and in November 1928 rebels rose up in the east of the country. TheSaqqawists allowed Basmachi rebels from the Soviet Union to operate inside the country after coming to power.^[24] The Soviet Union sent 1,000 troops into Afghanistan to support Amanullah Khan.^[25] When Amanullah fled the country, the Red Army withdrew from Afghanistan.^[25] Despite the Soviet withdrawal, the Saqqawists would be defeated later, in 1929.^[26]

In 1934,Ma Zhongying's troops, supported by theKuomintang government of theRepublic of China, were on the verge of defeating the Soviet clientSheng Shicai during theBattle of Ürümqi in theKumul Rebellion. As aHui (Chinese Muslim), he had earlier attended theWhampoa Military Academy inNanjing in 1929, when it was run byChiang Kai-shek, who was also the head of theKuomintang and leader of China.^[4][5] He was then sent back toGansu after graduating from the academy and fought in the Kumul Rebellion where, with the tacit support of the Kuomintang government of China, he tried to overthrow the pro-Soviet provincial government first led by GovernorJin Shuren, and then Sheng Shicai. Ma invadedXinjiang in support ofKumul Khanate loyalists and received official approval and designation from the Kuomintang as the 36th Division.

In late 1933, theHan Chinese provincial commander GeneralZhang Peiyuan and his army defected from the provincial government side to Zhongying's side and joined him in waging war against Jin Shuren's provincial government.

In 1934, two brigades of about 7,000 SovietGPU troops, backed by tanks, airplanes and artillery withmustard gas, crossed the border to assist Sheng Shicai in gaining control of Xinjiang. The brigades were named "Altayiiskii" and "Tarbakhataiskii".^[6] Sheng's Manchurian army was being severely beaten by an alliance of theHan Chinese army led by generalZhang Peiyuan, and the36th Division led by Zhongying,^[7] who fought under the banner of theKuomintangRepublic of China government. The joint Soviet-White Russian force was called "The Altai Volunteers". Soviet soldiers disguised themselves in uniforms lacking markings, and were dispersed among the White Russians.^[8]

Despite his early successes, Zhang's forces were overrun atKulja andChuguchak, and he committed suicide after the battle at Muzart Pass to avoid capture.

Even though the Soviets were superior to the 36th Division in bothmanpower and technology, they were held off for weeks and took severe casualties. The 36th Division managed to halt the Soviet forces from supplying Sheng with military equipment. Chinese Muslim troops led by Ma Shih-ming held off the superior Red Army forces armed with machine guns, tanks, and planes for about 30 days.^[9]

When reports that theNational Revolutionary Army had defeated and killed the Soviets reached Chinese prisoners inÜrümqi, they were reportedly so jubilant that they jumped around in their cells.^[10]

Ma Hushan, Deputy Divisional Commander of the 36th Division, became well known for victories over Russian forces during the invasion.^[11]

Chiang Kai-shek was ready to sendHuang Shaohong and his expeditionary force which he assembled to assist Zhongying against Sheng, but when Chiang heard about the Soviet invasion, he decided to withdraw to avoid an international incident if his troops directly engaged the Soviets.^[12]

The newly createdSecond Spanish Republic became tense with political divisions betweenright- andleft-wing politics. The1936 Spanish general election would see the left wing coalition, called thePopular Front, win a narrow majority.^{[citation needed]} As a result, the right wing, known asFalange, launched acoup against the Republic, and while they would take much territory, they would fail at taking over Spain completely, beginning theSpanish Civil War.^{[citation needed]} There were twofactions in the war: the right wingNationalists, which included theFascistFalange,Monarchists,Traditionalists,Carlists, wealthy landowners, andConservatives, who would eventually come to be led byFrancisco Franco,^{[citation needed]} and the left wingRepublicans, which includedAnarchists,Socialists,Basque separatists,Catalan separatists, Liberals, andCommunists.^{[citation needed]}

The Civil War would gain much international attention and both sides would gain foreign support through both volunteers and direct involvement. BothNazi Germany andFascist Italy gave overt support to the Nationalists. At the time, the USSR had an official policy of non-intervention, but wanted to counter Germany and Italy. Stalin worked around theLeague of Nations'sembargo and providedarms to the Republicans and, unlike Germany and Italy, did this covertly.^{[citation needed]} Arms shipment was usually slow and ineffective and many weapons were lost,^{[citation needed]} but the Soviets would end up evading detection of the Nationalists by using false flags.^{[citation needed]} Despite Stalin's interest in aiding the Republicans, the quality of arms was inconsistent. Many rifles and field guns provided were old, obsolete or otherwise of limited use, (some dated back to the 1860s) but theT-26 andBT-5 tanks were modern and effective in combat.^{[citation needed]} The Soviet Union supplied aircraft that were in current service with their own forces but the aircraft provided by Germany to theSpanish Nationalist Air Force proved superior by the end of the war.^{[citation needed]} The USSR sent 2,000–3,000 military advisers to Spain, and while the Soviet commitment of troops was fewer than 500 men at a time, Soviet volunteers often operated Soviet-made tanks and aircraft, particularly at the beginning of the war.^{[citation needed]} The Republic paid for Soviet arms with officialBank of Spain gold reserves, 176 tonnes of which was transferred through France and 510 directly to Russia which was calledMoscow gold.^{[citation needed]} At the same time, the Soviet Union directed Communist parties around the world to organize and recruit theInternational Brigades.^{[citation needed]}

At the same time, Stalin tried to take power within the Republicans. There were many anti-Stalin and anti-Soviet factions in the Republicans, such asAnarchists andTrotyskyists. Stalin encouragedNKVD (People's Commissariat for Internal Affairs) activity inside of the Republicans and Spain.

Catalan TrotskyistAndreu Nin, socialist journalistMark Rein, left-wing academicJosé Robles, and others were assassinated in operations in Spain led by many spies andStalinists such asVittorio Vidali ("Comandante Contreras"),Iosif Grigulevich,Mikhail Koltsov and, most prominently,Aleksandr Mikhailovich Orlov, who later defected to theUnited States. The NKVD also targeted Nationalists and others they saw as politically problematic to their goals.^{[citation needed]}

The Republicans eventually broke out intoinfighting between thecommunists andanarchists, as both groups attempted to form their own governments. The Nationalists, on the other hand, were much more unified than the Republicans, and Franco had been able to take most of Spain's territory, includingCatalonia, an important area of left wing support and, with thecollapse of Madrid, the war was over with a Nationalist victory.^{[citation needed]}

On 30 November 1939, the Soviet Union invaded Finland, three months after the outbreak ofWorld War II, and ended three and a half months later with theMoscow Peace Treaty on 13 March 1940. TheLeague of Nations deemed the attack illegal and expelled the Soviet Union from the organisation.

The conflict began after the Soviets sought to obtain Finnish territory, demanding, among other concessions, that Finlandcede substantial border territories in exchange for land elsewhere, claiming security reasons—primarily the protection ofLeningrad, 32 km (20 mi) from theFinnish border. Finland refused, so the USSR invaded the country. Many sources conclude that the Soviet Union had intended to conquer all of Finland, and use the establishment of the puppet CommunistFinnish Democratic Republic and theMolotov–Ribbentrop Pact's secret protocols as evidence of this.^{[F 8]} Finland repelled Soviet attacks for more than two months and inflicted substantial losses on the invaders while temperatures ranged as low as −43 °C (−45 °F). After the Soviet military reorganised and adopted different tactics, they renewed their offensive in February and overcame Finnish defences.

Hostilities ceased in March 1940 with the signing of theMoscow Peace Treaty. Finland ceded 11 percent of its territory, representing 30 percent of its economy to the Soviet Union. Soviet losses were heavy, and the country's international reputation suffered. Soviet gains exceeded their pre-war demands and the USSR received substantial territory alongLake Ladoga and in northern Finland. Finland retained itssovereignty and enhanced its international reputation. The poor performance of theRed Army encouragedAdolf Hitler to think that an attack on the Soviet Union would be successful and confirmed negative Western opinions of the Soviet military. After 15 months ofInterim Peace, in June 1941,Nazi Germany commencedOperation Barbarossa and the Soviet-Finnish theater of World War II, also known as theContinuation War, flared up again.

The Soviet Union occupied theBaltic states under theauspices of the 1939Molotov–Ribbentrop Pact in June 1940.^[27][28] They were thenincorporated into the Soviet Union asconstituent republics in August 1940, though most^[quantify]Western powers never recognized their incorporation.^[29][30] On 22 June 1941,Nazi Germanyattacked the Soviet Union and, within weeks, occupiedthe Baltic territories. In July 1941, the Third Reich incorporated the Baltic territory into itsReichskommissariat Ostland. As a result of theRed Army'sBaltic Offensive of 1944, the Soviet Union recaptured most of the Baltic states and trapped the remaining German forces in theCourland pocket until their formal surrender in May 1945.^[31] The Soviet "annexation occupation" (German:Annexionsbesetzung) or occupationsui generis^[32] of the Baltic states lasted until August 1991, when the three countries regained their independence.

The Baltic states themselves,^[33][34] the United States^[35][36] and its courts of law,^[37] theEuropean Parliament,^[38][39][40] theEuropean Court of Human Rights^[41] and theUnited Nations Human Rights Council^[42] have all stated that these three countries were invaded, occupied and illegally incorporated into the Soviet Union under provisions^[43] of the 1939Molotov–Ribbentrop Pact. There followed occupation byNazi Germany from 1941 to 1944 and then again occupation by the Soviet Union from 1944 to 1991.^[44] This policy of non-recognition has given rise to the principle oflegal continuity of the Baltic states, which holds thatde jure, or as a matter of law, the Baltic states had remained independent states under illegal occupation throughout the period from 1940 to 1991.^[45][46][47]

In its reassessment of Soviet history that began duringperestroika in 1989, the Soviet Union condemned the 1939 secret protocol between Germany and itself.^{[48][need quotation to verify]} However, the Soviet Union never formally acknowledged its presence in the Baltics as an occupation or that it annexed these states^[49] and considered theEstonian,Latvian andLithuanian Soviet Socialist Republics as three of itsconstituent republics. On the other hand, theRussian Soviet Federative Socialist Republic recognized in 1991 that the events of 1940 were "annexation[s]".^[50] Nationalist-patriotic^[51] Russianhistoriography and school textbooks continue to maintain that the Baltic states voluntarily joined the Soviet Union after their peoples all carried outsocialist revolutions independent of Soviet influence.^[52] The post-Sovietgovernment of the Russian Federation and its state officials insist that incorporation of the Baltic states was in accordance with international law^[53][54] and gainedde jure recognition by the agreements made in the February 1945Yalta Conference, the July–August 1945Potsdam Conference, and by the 1975Helsinki Accords,^[55][56] which declared the inviolability of existing frontiers.^[57] However, Russia agreed to Europe's demand to "assist persons deported from the occupied Baltic states" upon joining theCouncil of Europe in 1996.^[58][59][60] Additionally, when the Russian Soviet Federative Socialist Republic signed a separate treaty with Lithuania in 1991, it acknowledged that the 1940 annexation as a violation of Lithuanian sovereignty and recognized thede jure continuity of the Lithuanian state.^[61][62]

Most Western governments maintained that Baltic sovereignty had not been legitimately overridden^[63] and thus continued to recognise the Baltic states as sovereign political entities represented by the legations—appointed by the pre-1940 Baltic states—which functioned in Washington and elsewhere.^[64][65] The Baltic states recovered de facto independence in 1991 during thedissolution of the Soviet Union. TheRussian Armed Forces started to withdraw its troops from the Baltics (starting from Lithuania) in August 1993. The full withdrawal of troops deployed by Moscow ended in August 1994.^[66] Russia officially ended its military presence in the Baltics in August 1998 by decommissioning theSkrunda-1 radar station in Latvia. The dismantled installations were repatriated to Russia and the site returned to Latvian control, with the last Russian soldier leaving Baltic soil in October 1999.^[67][68]

The Soviet Union policy duringWorld War II was neutral until August 1939, followed by friendly relations with Germany to carve up Eastern Europe. The USSR helped supply oil and munitions to Germany as its armies rolled across Western Europe in May–June 1940. Despite repeated warnings, Stalin refused to believe that Hitler was planning an all-out war on the USSR;^[69] he was stunned and temporarily helpless when Hitler invaded in June 1941. Stalin quickly came to terms with Britain and the United States, cemented through a series of summit meetings. The two countries supplied war materials in large quantity throughLend Lease.^[70] There was some coordination of military action, especially in summer 1944.^[71][72]

As agreed with theAllies at theTehran Conference in November 1943 and theYalta Conference in February 1945, theSoviet Union entered World War II'sPacific Theater within three months of theend of the war in Europe. The invasion began on 9 August 1945, exactly three months after theGermansurrender on May 8 (9 May, 0:43Moscow Time). Although the commencement of the invasion fell between the Americanatomic bombing of Hiroshima, on 6 August, and only hours before theNagasaki bombing on 9 August, the timing of the invasion had been planned well in advance and was determined by the timing of the agreements at Tehran and Yalta, the long-term buildup of Soviet forces in the Far East since Tehran, and the date of the German surrender some three months earlier; on 3 August,Marshal Vasilevsky reported to PremierJoseph Stalin that, if necessary, he could attack on the morning of 5 August. At 11 pm Trans-Baikal (UTC+10) time on 8 August 1945, Soviet foreign ministerVyacheslav Molotov informed Japanese ambassadorNaotake Satō that the Soviet Union had declared war onJapan, and that from 9 August the Soviet government would consider itself to be at war with Japan.^[73]

This sectionneeds expansion with:Iran crisis of 1946. You can help byadding to it.(July 2025)

TheBritish Commonwealth and theSoviet Union invadedPahlavi Iran jointly in 1941 during the Second World War. The invasion lasted from 25 August to 17 September 1941 and was codenamed Operation Countenance. Its purpose was to secure Iranianoil fields and ensureAlliedsupply lines (see thePersian Corridor) for the USSR, fighting againstAxis forces on theEastern Front. Though Iran was neutral, the Allies consideredReza Shah to be friendly toGermany, deposed him during the subsequent occupation and replaced him with his young sonMohammad Reza Pahlavi.^[74]

As World War II turned against the Axis and the Soviet Union won on the Eastern Front, several Romanian politicians, includingMihai Antonescu andIuliu Maniu, entered secret negotiations with the Allies.^{[citation needed]} At the time Romania was ruled over by dictatorIon Antonescu, withKing Michael I as a figurehead. The Romanians had contributed a large number of troops to the front, and had hoped to regain territory and survive.^{[citation needed]} After the Soviets launched a successful offensive into Romania King Michael I met with the National Democratic Bloc to try and take over the government. He tried to get the dictator Ion Antonescu, to switch sides but he refused. So the king immediately ordered his arrest and took over the government inKing Michael's Coup.^{[citation needed]} Romania switched sides and began fighting against the Axis.^{[citation needed]}

However the Soviet Union still ended up occupying the country. The Soviet representatives pressured the king into appointingPetru Groza, the candidate put forwards by the communist alliance, as thePrime Minister of Romania in March 1945. The following year the communist-dominated alliance won1946 Romanian general election, though the opposition accused the government of widespread fraud.^{[citation needed]} The king only ruled as a figurehead, and theRomanian Communist Party took control of the country.^[75] In the 1947 theParis Peace Treaties allowed the Red Army to continue to maintain troops in the country. In 1947 the government forced the King to abdicate and leave the country, and afterwards abolished theRomanian monarchy.^[76][77] The Parliament declared theRomanian People's Republic in Bucharest, which was friendly and aligned with Moscow. TheSoviet Army presence continued until 1958. Some time after that, thede-satellization of Romania would take place.

This sectionneeds expansion. You can help byadding to it.(February 2022)

TheKingdom of Bulgaria originally joined the Axis to gain territory and be protected from the USSR. Additionally, Bulgaria wanted to fend off the communists in the country, who had influence in the army. Despite this, Bulgaria did not participate in the war very much, not joining inOperation Barbarossa andrefusing to send its Jewish Population to concentration camps.^[78] However, in 1943Tsar Boris III died, and the Axis were starting to lose on the Eastern Front. The Bulgarian government negotiated with the allies and withdrew from the war in August 1944. Despite this they refused to expel the German troops still stationed in the country. The Soviet Union responded by invading the country in September 1944, which coincided with the1944 coup by communists.^[79] The coup saw the communistFatherland Front take power.^[80] The new government abolished the monarchy and executed former officials of the government including 1,000 to 3,000 dissidents, war criminals, and monarchists in thePeople's Court, as well as exillingTsar Simeon II.^[81][82][83] Following the1946 Bulgarian republic referendum thePeople's Republic of Bulgaria was set up under the leadership ofGeorgi Dimitrov.^[84][85]

On 17 September 1939, the Soviet Union invaded Poland from the east, sixteen days afterGermanyinvaded Poland from the west. Subsequent military operations lasted for the following 20 days and ended on 6 October 1939 with the two-way division and annexation of the entire territory of theSecond Polish Republic by Germany and the Soviet Union.^[86] The Soviet invasion of Poland was secretly approved by Germany following the signing of theMolotov–Ribbentrop Pact on 23 August 1939.^[87]

TheRed Army, which vastly outnumbered the Polish defenders, achieved its targets encountering only limited resistance. Roughly 320,000 Polish prisoners of war had been captured.^[88][89] The campaign of mass persecution in the newly acquired areas began immediately. In November 1939 theSoviet governmentannexed the entire Polish territory under its control. Around 13.5 million Polish citizens who fell under themilitary occupation were made into new Soviet subjects followingshow elections conducted by theNKVD secret police in the atmosphere of terror,^[90][91] the results of which were used to legitimize the use of force. ASoviet campaign of political murders and other forms of repression, targeting Polish figures of authority such as military officers, police and priests, began with a wave of arrests andsummary executions.^[92][93][94] The Soviet NKVD sent hundreds of thousands of people from eastern Poland toSiberia and other remote parts of the Soviet Union in four major waves of deportation between 1939 and 1941.^{[Note 2]}

Soviet forces occupied eastern Poland until the summer of 1941, when they were driven out by theWehrmacht in the course of Operation Barbarossa. The area was under German occupation until the Red Army reconquered it in the summer of 1944. An agreement at theYalta Conference permitted the Soviet Union to annex almost all of their Molotov–Ribbentrop Pact portion of the Second Polish Republic, compensating thePolish People's Republic with the southern half ofEast Prussia and territories east of theOder–Neisse line.^[97] The Soviet Union enclosed most of the conquered annexed territories into theUkrainian Soviet Socialist Republic and theByelorussian Soviet Socialist Republic.^[97]

After theend of World War II in Europe, the USSR signed anew border agreement with the Soviet-backed and installedPolish communist puppet state on 16 August 1945. This agreement recognized the status quo as the new official border between the two countries with the exception of the region aroundBiałystok and a minor part ofGalicia east of theSan river aroundPrzemyśl, which were later returned to Poland.^[98]

As the allies were on their way to victory in World War II, Hungary was governed by the HungaristArrow Cross Party under theGovernment of National Unity. They were facing mostly advancing Soviet and Romanian forces. On 13 February 1945 the forces captured Budapest, by April 1945 German forces were driven out of the country.^[99] They occupied the country and set it up as a Satellite State called theSecond Hungarian Republic. In the1945 Hungarian parliamentary election theIndependent Smallholders Party won 57% of the vote while theHungarian Communist Party won only 17%. In response the Soviet forces refused to allow the party to take power, and the communists took control of the government in a coup. Their rule saw theStalinization of the country, and with the help of the USSR sent dissidents toGulags in the Soviet Union, as well as setting up the Security Police known as theState Protection Authority (AVO).^[100][101] In February 1947 the police began targeting member of the Independent Smallholders Party and theNational Peasants Party. As well in 1947 the Hungarian government forced the leaders of non-communist parties to cooperate with the government. TheSocial Democratic Party of Hungary was taken over while the Secretary of Independent Smallholders Party was sent to Siberia. In June 1948 the Social Democrats were forced to fuse with the communists to form the Hungarian Working People's Party.^[102] In the1949 Hungarian parliamentary elections the voters were only presented with a list of communist candidates and the Hungarian government drafted a new constitution from the 1936 Soviet Constitution, and made themselves into thePeople's Republic of Hungary withMatyas Rakosi as the de facto leader.^[103]

The Soviet Union enteredWarsaw on 17 January 1945, after the city was destroyed and abandoned by the Germans after theWarsaw Uprising. Over three days, on a broad front incorporating four armyfronts, the Red Army launched theVistula–Oder Offensive across the Narew River and from Warsaw. The Soviets outnumbered the Germans on average by 5–6:1 in troops, 6:1 in artillery, 6:1 in tanks and 4:1 inself-propelled artillery. After four days, the Red Army broke out and started moving thirty to forty kilometres a day, taking the Baltic states:Danzig,East Prussia andPoznań, and drawing up on a line sixty kilometres east ofBerlin along the RiverOder. During the full course of the Vistula–Oder operation (23 days), the Red Army forces sustained 194,191 total casualties (killed, wounded and missing) and lost 1,267 tanks and assault guns.

A limited counter-attack (codenamedOperation Solstice) by the newly createdArmy Group Vistula, under the command ofReichsführer-SSHeinrich Himmler, had failed by 24 February, and the Red Army drove on toPomerania and cleared the right bank of the Oder River. In the south, the German attempts in to relieve the encircled garrison atBudapest (codenamedOperation Konrad) failed and the city fell on 13 February. On 6 March, the Germans launched what would be their final major offensive of the war,Operation Spring Awakening, which failed by 16 March. On 30 March, the Red Army enteredAustria and capturedVienna on 13 April.

OKW claimed German losses of 77,000 killed, 334,000 wounded and 292,000 missing, for a total of 703,000 men, on the Eastern Front during January and February 1945.^[104]

On 9 April 1945,Königsberg inEast Prussia finally fell to the Red Army, although the shattered remnants ofArmy Group Centre continued to resist on theVistula Spit andHel Peninsula until the end of the war in Europe. TheEast Prussian operation, though often overshadowed by the Vistula–Oder operation and the later battle for Berlin, was in fact one of the largest and costliest operations fought by the Red Army throughout the war. During the period it lasted (13 January – 25 April), it cost the Red Army 584,788 casualties, and 3,525 tanks and assault guns.

The fall of Königsberg allowed Stavka to free up GeneralKonstantin Rokossovsky's2nd Belorussian Front (2BF) to move west to the east bank of the Oder. During the first two weeks of April, the Red Army performed their fastest front redeployment of the war. GeneralGeorgy Zhukov concentrated his1st Belorussian Front (1BF), which had been deployed along the Oder river fromFrankfurt in the south to the Baltic, into an area in front of theSeelow Heights. The 2BF moved into the positions being vacated by the 1BF north of the Seelow Heights. While this redeployment was in progress gaps were left in the lines and the remnants of theGerman 2nd Army, which had been bottled up in a pocket near Danzig, managed to escape across the Oder. To the south, GeneralIvan Konev shifted the main weight of the1st Ukrainian Front (1UF) out ofUpper Silesia north-west to theNeisse River.^[105] The three Soviet fronts had altogether around 2.5 million men (including 78,556 soldiers of the1st Polish Army): 6,250 tanks, 7,500 aircraft, 41,600 artillery pieces and mortars, 3,255 truck-mountedKatyusharocket launchers, (nicknamed "Stalin Organs"), and 95,383 motor vehicles, many of which were manufactured in the USA.^[105]

On 9 August 1945, theSoviet Union invaded theJapanesepuppet state ofManchukuo. It was the last campaign of theSecond World War, and the largest of the 1945Soviet–Japanese War, which resumed hostilities between the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics and the Empire of Japan after almost six years of peace. Soviet gains on the continent were Manchukuo,Mengjiang (Inner Mongolia) and northernKorea. The Soviet entry into the war and the defeat of theKwantung Army was a significant factor in the Japanese government's decision tosurrender unconditionally, as it made apparent the Soviet Union had no intention of acting as a third party in negotiating an end to hostilities on conditional terms.^{[106][107][108][109][110][111]}

At the same time tensions were starting to resurface between theChinese Communist Party (CCP) and theKuomintang (KMT), known as the Communists and Nationalists respectively. The two groups had stopped fighting to form theSecond United Front to fend off theJapanese Empire. During theSecond Sino-Japanese War the CCP gained many members due to their success against the Japanese. The fighting caused the United Front to be dissolved in 1941.^[112] Through the war with the Japanese there were tensions and incidents of fighting, however the USSR and the USA made sure that they stayed at enough peace to stop the Japanese from winning the war.^[113] In March 1946 the USSR would withdraw leaving most of Manchuria to the Communists. As well the USSR handed over most of the weapons to the CCP that they had captured from the Japanese.^[114][115] Fighting commenced between the two groups and a war began that would last for three years.^[116]

The Communists were able to start gaining ground and by 1948 they were pushing the Nationalists out and taking more and more of China. The USSR continued to give aid to the CCP and even helped them in taking Xinjiang from the Nationalists.^[117] In October 1949Mao Zedong, the leader of the communists, proclaimed thePeople's Republic of China effectively ending the civil war. In May 1950 the last of the KMT had been completely pushed off of mainland China andChiang Kai-shek, the leader of the Nationalists, retreated to Taiwan and formed theRepublic of China.^[118] Both mainland China and the USSR stayed good allies until theSino-Soviet split after Stalin's death.

The 1948 Korean elections were overseen primarily by the United Nations Temporary Commission on Korea, orUNTCOK. TheSoviet Union forbade the elections in the north of the peninsula,^[119] while the United States planned to hold separate elections in the south of the peninsula, a plan which was opposed by Australia, Canada and Syria as members of the commission.^[120] According to Gordenker, the commission acted:

in such a way as to affect the controlling political decisions regarding elections in Korea. Moreover, UNTCOK deliberately and directly took a hand in the conduct of the 1948 election.^[121]

Faced with this, UNTCOK eventually recommended the election take place only in the south, but that the results would be binding on all of Korea.^[119]

In June 1950,Kim Il Sung'sNorth Korean People's Army invaded South Korea.^[58] Fearing that communist Korea under aKim Il Sung dictatorship could threaten Japan and foster other communist movements in Asia,Harry Truman, thenPresident of the United States, committed U.S. forces and obtained help from the United Nations to counter the North Korean invasion. The Soviets boycottedUN Security Council meetings while protesting the council's failure to seat the People's Republic of China and, thus, did not veto the council's approval of UN action to oppose the North Korean invasion. A jointUnited Nations Command force of personnel from South Korea, the United States, Britain,Turkey, Canada, Australia, France, thePhilippines, theNetherlands,Belgium, New Zealand and other countries joined to stop the invasion.^[59] After a Chinese invasion to assist the North Koreans, fighting stabilized along the38th parallel, which had separated the Koreas. TheKorean Armistice Agreement was signed in July 1953 after thedeath of Joseph Stalin, who had been insisting that the North Koreans continue fighting.^[60]

Following World War II, theThird Czechoslovak Republic was under the influence of the USSR and, during the1946 Czechoslovak parliamentary election, theCommunist Party of Czechoslovakia would win 38% of the vote.^[122] The communists had been alienating many citizens in Czechoslovakia due to the use of the police force and talks of collectivization of a number of industries.^[123] Stalin was against democratic ways of taking power since thecommunist parties in Italy andFrance had failed to take power. In the winter of 1947, the communist party decided to stage acoup; the USSR would come to support them. The non-communists attempted to act before the communists took the police force completely, but the communists occupied the offices of non-communists.^[124] TheCzechoslovak Army, under the direction of Defence MinisterLudvík Svoboda, who was formallynon-partisan but had facilitated communist infiltration into the officer corps, was confined to barracks and did not interfere.^[125] The communists threatened a general strike too.Edvard Benes, fearing direct Soviet intervention and a civil war, surrendered and resigned.^[126]

During World War II, the communistYugoslav Partisans had been the main resistance to theAxis occupation of Yugoslavia. As the axis were defeated the Partisans took power andJosef Broz Tito became the head ofDemocratic Federal Yugoslavia. This had been done without much Soviet help, so Tito was allowed to and did run his own path in defiance to Stalin. Economically, he implemented a different view to the USSR^[127] and attempted to make Yugoslavia into a regional power by absorbingBulgaria andAlbania into Yugoslavia as well as funding theGreek Communists in theGreek Civil War, to absorb Greece too.^[128] Stalin did not approve of this and expelled Yugoslavia from theEast Bloc. There was military buildup and a planned invasion in 1949 that was never put through.^[129] As well, since 1945, the USSR had aspy ring within Yugoslavia^[130] and Stalin attempted to assassinate Tito several times. Stalin remarked "I will shake my little finger and there will be no more Tito".^[131] However, these assassinations would fail, and Tito would write back to Stalin "Stop sending people to kill me. We've already captured five of them, one of them with a bomb and another with a rifle. [...] If you don't stop sending killers, I'll send one to Moscow, and I won't have to send a second."^[132] Yugoslavia would go on to become one of the main founders and leaders theNon-Aligned Movement.^[133]

After Stalinist dictatorMátyás Rákosi was replaced byImre Nagy following Stalin's death^{[44][not in citation given]} andPolish reformistWładysław Gomułka was able to enact some reformist requests,^[45] large numbers of protesting Hungarians compiled a list ofDemands of Hungarian Revolutionaries of 1956,^[46] including freesecret-ballot elections, independent tribunals, and inquiries into Stalin and Rákosi Hungarian activities. Under the orders of Soviet defense ministerGeorgy Zhukov,Soviet Army tanks entered Budapest.^[47] Protester attacks at theHungarian Parliament Building forced the collapse of the government.^[48]

The new government that came to power during the revolution formally disbanded the HungarianState Protection Authority, declared its intention to withdraw from theWarsaw Pact and pledged to re-establish free elections. TheSoviet Politburo thereafter moved to crush the revolution with a large Soviet force invading Budapest and other regions of the country.^[49] Approximately 200,000 Hungarians fled Hungary,^[50] some 26,000 Hungarians were put on trial by the new Soviet-installedJános Kádár government and, of those, 13,000 were imprisoned.^[51] Imre Nagy was executed, along withPál Maléter and Miklós Gimes, after secret trials in June 1958. By January 1957, the Hungarian government had suppressed all public opposition. These Hungarian government's violent oppressive actions alienated many WesternMarxists,^[who?] yet strengthened communist control in all the European communist states, cultivating the perception that communism was both irreversible and monolithic.

Some 3,300 Soviet military experts, among them spetsnaz, were sent to Southeast Asia during the Vietnam War. Within South Vietnam, rumors persisted for years that men with blue eyes were reportedly spotted doing recon missions and testing their new SVD Dragunov sniper rifles. John Stryker Meyer was with Studies and Observation Group RT Idaho and had two encounters with what they believed were spetsnaz units operating in Laos in 1968.

Their mission was twofold. One, help a communist nation defeat an American ally and two, test and evaluate their most sophisticated radars and missiles directly against the best American aircraft had to offer. Soviets recovered at least 2 very important American intelligence gear, a cryptographic code machine and an F-111A escape capsule, which now sits in a Moscow Museum.^[134]

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In 1960,Belgium, the United States, and other countries covertly overthrew Prime MinisterPatrice Lumumba in a coup led byMobutu Sese Seko. Afterwards, Seko began getting support from the US. Many politicians who had been allied to Lumumba were forced out of government. Many Lumumba-allied politicians began to foment discontent and dissent. They formed a new government inStanleyville in the East of the country called theFree Republic of Congo with the support of the Soviet Union. The supporters of Lumumba eventually agreed to join back however they felt cheated on after and turned again against Mobutu in a more violent form of resistance.MaoistPierre Mulele began theKwilu Rebellion, soon afterChristopher Gbenye andGaston Soumialot led the APL (Armée Populaire de Libération), also known as the Simbas, in the Eastern Congo in theSimba rebellion.^[135]

Mobutu was already receiving assistance from the United States, and the Simbas began to receive funding from the USSR along with other countries also aligned with it. The Soviet Union implored neighboring nationalistic governments to aid the rebels. The Soviet leadership promised that it would replace all weaponry given to the Simbas but rarely did so.^[136] To supply the rebels, the Soviet Union transported equipment by air toJuba in alliedSudan. From there, the Sudanese brought the weapons to Congo.^[137] This operation backfired, however, as Southern Sudan was invaded in theFirst Sudanese Civil War. The SudaneseAnyanya insurgents consequently ambushed the Soviet-Sudanese supply convoys and took the weapons for themselves.^[138][137] When theCIA learned of these attacks, it allied with the Anyanya. The Anyanya helped the Western andCongolese air forces locate and destroy Simba rebel camps and supply routes.^[139] In return, the Sudanese rebels were given weapons for their own war.^[140] Angered by the Soviet support for the insurgents, the Congolese government expelled the Soviet embassy's personnel from the country in July 1964. The Soviet leadership responded by increasing its aid for the Simbas.^[136] As well in 1965Che Guevara went and fought alongside future leader of theDemocratic Republic of Congo,Laurent-Desire Kabila.^[141]

However the rebellion would begin to collapse for a variety of reasons including bad coordination and relations with the USSR, theSino-Soviet split, support for Mobutu by the US and Belgium, counter insurgent tactics, and many other reasons.^{[142][143][144]} While it would be crushed the Simbas still held parts of the Eastern Congo and resisted the government until 1996 during theFirst Congo War.^[145]

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During theNigerian Civil War, theRepublic of Biafra declared independence fromNigeria and attempted to secede. The Soviet Union served as a primary supplier of military aid to the Nigerian federal government. Biafran civilians were indiscriminately being bombed by Soviet planes while the Nigerian military formed a blockade around Biafra that starved millions of Biafran civilians to death.^[146]

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By the end of the nineteenth Century, theBritish Empire had control of much ofSouthern Africa. This included the three colonies ofNorthern Rhodesia andSouthern Rhodesia, named forCecil Rhodes, andNyasaland, which formed theFederation of Rhodesia and Nyasaland. Northern Rhodesia would go on to become independent asZambia and Nyasaland would becomeMalawi.^[147] Awhite minority had ruled Southern Rhodesia sinceWorld War II. However, the British had made apolicy of majority rule as a condition of independence, and Southern Rhodesia's white minority still wanted to maintain power.^{[148][149][150]} On 11 November 1965,Southern Rhodesia unilaterally declared independence and formedRhodesia.^{[151][152][153]}

In Rhodesia, the white minority still held political power and held most of the country's wealth, while being led byIan Smith. Rhodesia would gain very little recognition across the world, though it would have some covert support. Two main armed groups rose up to overthrow the white minority in 1964, a year before Rhodesia's declaration of independence. Both were Marxist organizations that got support from different sides of theSino-Soviet split. One wasZANU (Zimbabwe African National Union), who organized rural areas, and thus got support from China. The other wasZAPU (Zimbabwe African People's Union), who organized primarily urban areas, thus getting support from the USSR.ZIPRA (Zimbabwe People's Revolutionary Army), the armed wing of ZAPU, took advice from its Soviet instructors in formulating its vision and strategy of popular revolution. About 1,400 Soviets, 700 East German and 500 Cuban instructors were deployed to the area.^[154] While both groups fought against the Rhodesian government, they would also sometimes fight each other. The fighting began a year before Rhodesian independence.

Rhodesia was not able to survive the war as into the 1970sguerilla activity began to intensify.^[155][156] Eventually, a compromise was reached in 1978 where the country was renamedZimbabwe-Rhodesia. This was still seen as not enough and the war would continue.^[157] Then, after a brief British recolonization,Zimbabwe was created, with ZANU leaderRobert Mugabe elected as president.^[158] In the1980 election, ZAPU would not win a majority; they would later fuse with ZANU in 1987 intoZANU-PF. They are now split.^[159][160]

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A period of political liberalization took place in 1968 in Czechoslovakia called thePrague Spring. The event was spurred by several events, including economic reforms that addressed an early 1960s economic downturn.^[161][162] In April, Czechoslovakian leaderAlexander Dubček launched an "Action Program" of liberalizations, which included increasingfreedom of the press,freedom of speech andfreedom of movement, along with an economic emphasis onconsumer goods, the possibility of a multiparty government and limiting the power of thesecret police.^[163][164] Initial reaction within the Eastern Bloc was mixed, withHungary'sJános Kádár expressing support, while Soviet leaderLeonid Brezhnev and others grew concerned about Dubček's reforms, which they feared might weaken the Eastern Bloc's position during the Cold War.^[165][166] On 3 August, representatives from the Soviet Union, East Germany, Poland, Hungary, Bulgaria, and Czechoslovakia met inBratislava and signed theBratislava Declaration, which declaration affirmed unshakable fidelity toMarxism-Leninism andproletarian internationalism and declared an implacable struggle against "bourgeois" ideology and all "anti-socialist" forces.^[167]

On the night of 20–21 August 1968, Eastern Bloc armies from four Warsaw Pact countries – the Soviet Union,Bulgaria,Poland andHungary –invaded Czechoslovakia.^[168][169] The invasion comported with theBrezhnev Doctrine, a policy of compelling Eastern Bloc states to subordinate national interests to those of the Bloc as a whole and the exercise of a Soviet right to intervene if an Eastern Bloc country appeared to shift towards capitalism.^[170][171] The invasion was followed by a wave of emigration, including an estimated 70,000 Czechs initially fleeing, with the total eventually reaching 300,000.^[172] In April 1969, Dubček was replaced as first secretary byGustáv Husák, and a period of "normalization" began.^[173] Husák reversed Dubček's reforms, purged the party of liberal members, dismissed opponents from public office, reinstated the power of the police authorities, sought to re-centralize the economy and re-instated the disallowance of political commentary in mainstream media and by persons not considered to have "full political trust".^[174][175] The international image of the Soviet Union suffered considerably, especially among Western student movements inspired by the "New Left" and non-Aligned Movement states.Mao Zedong's People's Republic of China, for example, condemned both the Soviets and the Americans asimperialists.

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In the years after theVietnam War theSocialist Republic of Vietnam and theDemocratic Kampuchea had been trying to build relations between one another. The Democratic Kampuchea was the government ofCambodia under the rule ofPol Pot and theKhmer Rouge. While both countries tried to maintain good relations they both were still suspicious of each other and fought in occasional border skirmishes. In 1977 relations fully deteriorated, and in 1978 this would all come to a head. On 25 December 1978 Vietnam invaded the country to remove the Khmer Rouge from power. Their invasion was supported by the Soviet Union who ended up sending them $1.4 billion in military aid for their invasion, and between 1981 and 1985 peaked at $1.7 billion.^[176] As well the Soviet Union provided Vietnam with a total of $5.4 billion to alleviate sanctions and help with their third five-year plan (1981–1985). The Soviet Union also provided 90% of Vietnam's demand for raw materials and 70% of its grain imports.^[176] Along with that the Soviet Union vetod many resolutions at the United Nations that were critical of the invasion or attempted to put sanctions on it.^[177] Even though the figures suggest the Soviet Union was a reliable ally, privately Soviet leaders were dissatisfied with Hanoi's handling of the stalemate in Kampuchea and resented the burden of their aid program to Vietnam as their own country was undergoingĐổi Mới economic reforms. In 1986, the Soviet Government announced that it would reduce aid to friendly nations; for Vietnam, those reductions meant the loss of 20% of its economic aid and one-third of its military aid.^[178] After the invasion Vietnam attempted to build a new government in the country and fight a guerilla war against the Khmer Rouge. To implement the new reforms in the country, Vietnam, with support from the Soviet Union, started transferring several years' worth of military equipment to theKampuchea People's Revolutionary Armed Forces, which numbered more than 70,000 soldiers. The Vietnamese Ministry of Defense's International Relations Department then advised its Kampuchean counterparts to only use the available equipment to maintain their current level of operations, and not to engage in major operations which could exhaust those supplies.^[179] By the end of the war the Soviet Union started to decline, but despite this the regime change ended successfully, though the Khmer Rouge would be active in guerrilla actions for many more years.

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Following theSaur Revolution in 1978, theDemocratic Republic of Afghanistan was established, creating a socialist government aligned with the Soviet Union. Popular backlash to this led an uprising against the new regime. By December 1979 the Soviets intervened inOperation Storm-333, overthrowing Afghan leaderHafizullah Amin and installingBabrak Karmal in his place. The Soviets participated in the ensuingSoviet-Afghan War to maintain their allied regime before eventually withdrawing in 1989. 6.5%-11.5% of Afghanistan's 1979 population of 13.5 million is estimated to have died from the war.

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