1.
Russian language
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Russian is an East Slavic language and an official language in Russia, Belarus, Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan and many minor or unrecognised territories. Russian belongs to the family of Indo-European languages and is one of the four living members of the East Slavic languages, written examples of Old East Slavonic are attested from the 10th century and beyond. It is the most geographically widespread language of Eurasia and the most widely spoken of the Slavic languages and it is also the largest native language in Europe, with 144 million native speakers in Russia, Ukraine and Belarus. Russian is the eighth most spoken language in the world by number of native speakers, the language is one of the six official languages of the United Nations. Russian is also the second most widespread language on the Internet after English, Russian distinguishes between consonant phonemes with palatal secondary articulation and those without, the so-called soft and hard sounds. This distinction is found between pairs of almost all consonants and is one of the most distinguishing features of the language, another important aspect is the reduction of unstressed vowels. Russian is a Slavic language of the Indo-European family and it is a lineal descendant of the language used in Kievan Rus. From the point of view of the language, its closest relatives are Ukrainian, Belarusian, and Rusyn. An East Slavic Old Novgorod dialect, although vanished during the 15th or 16th century, is considered to have played a significant role in the formation of modern Russian. In the 19th century, the language was often called Great Russian to distinguish it from Belarusian, then called White Russian and Ukrainian, however, the East Slavic forms have tended to be used exclusively in the various dialects that are experiencing a rapid decline. In some cases, both the East Slavic and the Church Slavonic forms are in use, with different meanings. For details, see Russian phonology and History of the Russian language and it is also regarded by the United States Intelligence Community as a hard target language, due to both its difficulty to master for English speakers and its critical role in American world policy. The standard form of Russian is generally regarded as the modern Russian literary language, mikhail Lomonosov first compiled a normalizing grammar book in 1755, in 1783 the Russian Academys first explanatory Russian dictionary appeared. By the mid-20th century, such dialects were forced out with the introduction of the education system that was established by the Soviet government. Despite the formalization of Standard Russian, some nonstandard dialectal features are observed in colloquial speech. Thus, the Russian language is the 6th largest in the world by number of speakers, after English, Mandarin, Hindi/Urdu, Spanish, Russian is one of the six official languages of the United Nations. Education in Russian is still a choice for both Russian as a second language and native speakers in Russia as well as many of the former Soviet republics. Russian is still seen as an important language for children to learn in most of the former Soviet republics, samuel P. Huntington wrote in the Clash of Civilizations, During the heyday of the Soviet Union, Russian was the lingua franca from Prague to Hanoi
2.
Russian Orthodox Church
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The Russian Orthodox Church, alternatively legally known as the Moscow Patriarchate, is one of the autocephalous Eastern Orthodox churches, in full communion with other Eastern Orthodox patriarchates. The Primate of the ROC is the Patriarch of Moscow and all Rus and it also exercises ecclesiastical jurisdiction over the autonomous Church of Japan and the Orthodox Christians resident in the Peoples Republic of China. The ROC branches in Belarus, Estonia, Latvia, Moldova and Ukraine since the 1990s enjoy various degrees of self-government, in Ukraine, ROC has tensions with schismatic groups supported by the current government, while it enjoys the position of numerically dominant religious organisation. The ROC should also not be confused with the Russian Orthodox Church Outside Russia, headquartered in New York, New York, the two Churches reconciled on May 17,2007, the ROCOR is now a self-governing part of the Russian Orthodox Church. According to one of the legends, Andrew reached the location of Kiev. The spot where he erected a cross is now marked by St. Andrews Cathedral. By the end of the first millennium AD, eastern Slavic lands started to come under the influence of the Eastern Roman Empire. There is evidence that the first Christian bishop was sent to Novgorod from Constantinople either by Patriarch Photius or Patriarch Ignatios, by the mid-10th century, there was already a Christian community among Kievan nobility, under the leadership of Byzantine Greek priests, although paganism remained the dominant religion. Princess Olga of Kiev was the first ruler of Kievan Rus′ to convert to Christianity and her grandson, Vladimir of Kiev, made Rus officially a Christian state. The Kievan church was a metropolitanate of the Patriarchate of Constantinople and the Ecumenical patriarch appointed the metropolitan, who usually was a Greek. The Metropolitans residence was located in Kiev itself, the capital of the medieval Rus state. Following the tribulations of the Mongol invasion, the Russian Church was pivotal in the survival, despite the politically motivated murders of Mikhail of Chernigov and Mikhail of Tver, the Mongols were generally tolerant and even granted tax exemption to the Church. Such holy figures as Sergius of Radonezh and Metropolitan Alexis helped the country to withstand years of Tatar oppression, the Trinity monastery founded by Sergius of Radonezh became the setting for the flourishing of spiritual art, exemplified by the work of Andrey Rublev, among others. The followers of Sergius founded four hundred monasteries, thus extending the geographical extent of the Grand Duchy of Moscow. However, the Moscow Prince Vasili II rejected the act of the Council of Florence brought to Moscow by Isidore in March 1441, Isidore was in the same year removed from his position as an apostate and expelled from Moscow. The Russian metropolitanate remained effectively vacant for the few years due largely to the dominance of Uniates in Constantinople then. In December 1448, Jonas, a Russian bishop, was installed by the Council of Russian bishops in Moscow as Metropolitan of Kiev and All Russia without the consent from Constantinople. Subsequently, there developed a theory in Moscow that saw Moscow as the Third Rome, the successor to Constantinople
3.
Joseph Stalin
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Joseph Vissarionovich Stalin was the leader of the Soviet Union from the mid-1920s until his death in 1953. Holding the post of the General Secretary of the Central Committee of the Communist Party of the Soviet Union, he was effectively the dictator of the state. Stalin was one of the seven members of the first Politburo, founded in 1917 in order to manage the Bolshevik Revolution, alongside Lenin, Zinoviev, Kamenev, Trotsky, Sokolnikov, and Bubnov. Among the Bolshevik revolutionaries who took part in the Russian Revolution of 1917 and he managed to consolidate power following the 1924 death of Vladimir Lenin by suppressing Lenins criticisms and expanding the functions of his role, all the while eliminating any opposition. He remained General Secretary until the post was abolished in 1952, the economic changes coincided with the imprisonment of millions of people in Gulag labour camps. The initial upheaval in agriculture disrupted food production and contributed to the catastrophic Soviet famine of 1932–33, major figures in the Communist Party and government, and many Red Army high commanders, were arrested and shot after being convicted of treason in show trials. Stalins invasion of Bukovina in 1940 violated the pact, as it went beyond the Soviet sphere of influence agreed with the Axis, Germany ended the pact when Hitler launched a massive invasion of the Soviet Union in June 1941. Despite heavy human and territorial losses, Soviet forces managed to halt the Nazi incursion after the decisive Battles of Moscow, after defeating the Axis powers on the Eastern Front, the Red Army captured Berlin in May 1945, effectively ending the war in Europe for the Allies. The Soviet Union subsequently emerged as one of two recognized world superpowers, the other being the United States, Communist governments loyal to the Soviet Union were established in most countries freed from German occupation by the Red Army, which later constituted the Eastern Bloc. Stalin also had relations with Mao Zedong in China and Kim Il-sung in North Korea. On February 9,1946, Stalin delivered a public speech in which he explained the fundamental incompatibility of communism and capitalism. He stressed that the system needed war for raw materials. The Second World War was but the latest in a chain of conflicts which could be broken only when the economy made the transformation into communism. Stalin led the Soviet Union through its post-war reconstruction phase, which saw a significant rise in tension with the Western world that would later be known as the Cold War, Stalin remains a controversial figure today, with many regarding him as a tyrant. However, popular opinion within the Russian Federation is mixed, the exact number of deaths caused by Stalins regime is still a subject of debate, but it is widely agreed to be in the order of millions. Joseph Stalin was born Ioseb Besarionis dze Jughashvili, the Russian-language version of his birth name is Iosif Vissarionovich Dzhugashvili. Ioseb was born on 18 December 1878 in the town of Gori, Georgia and his father was Besarion Jughashvili, a cobbler, while his mother was Ekaterine Keke Geladze, a housemaid. As a child, Ioseb was plagued with health issues
4.
Georgian Orthodox Church
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The Georgian Apostolic Autocephalous Orthodox Church is an autocephalous Eastern Orthodox Church in full communion with the other churches of Eastern Orthodoxy. It is Georgias dominant religious institution, and a majority of Georgian people are members and it asserts apostolic foundation, and its historical roots can be traced to the Christianization of Iberia by Saint Nino in the 4th century AD. As in similar autocephalous Orthodox churches, the Churchs highest governing body is the Holy Synod of bishops, the church is headed by the Catholicos-Patriarch of All Georgia, currently Ilia II, who was elected in 1977. The current Constitution of Georgia recognizes the role of the Georgian Orthodox Church in the countrys history. Government relations are defined and regulated by the Concordat of 2002. The church is the most trusted institution in Georgia, according to a 2013 survey 95% respondents had a favorable opinion of its work. It is highly influential in the sphere and is considered Georgias most influential institution. According to Georgian Orthodox Church tradition, the first preacher of the Gospel in Colchis and Iberia was the apostle Andrew, the First-called. However, modern historiography considers this account mythical, and the fruit of a late tradition, similar traditions regarding Saint Andrew exist in Ukraine, Cyprus and Romania. The Church also claims the presence in Georgia of the Apostles Bartholomew and Thaddeus, the propagation of Christianity in present-day Georgia before the 4th century is still poorly known. The first documented event in this process is the preaching of Saint Nino and its consequences, Saint Nino, honored as Equal to the Apostles, was according to tradition the daughter of a Roman general from Cappadocia. She preached in the kingdom of Iberia in the first half of the 4th century, cyril Toumanoff dates the conversion of Mirian to 334, his official baptism and subsequent adoption of Christianity as the official religion of Iberia to 337. From the first centuries C. E. the cult of Mithras, pagan beliefs, the royal baptism and organization of the Church were accomplished by priests sent from Constantinople by Constantine the Great. Conversion of the people of Kartli proceeded quickly in the plains, the conversion of Kartli marked only the beginnings of the formation of the Georgian Orthodox Church. In the next centuries, different processes took place that shaped the Church, and gave it, by the beginning of the 11th century, the main characteristics that it has retained until now. In the 4th and 5th centuries, the Church of Kartli was strictly subordinate to the Apostolic See of Antioch, in 1010, the Catholicos of Kartli was elevated to the honor of Patriarch. From then on, the hierarch of the Georgian Orthodox Church carried the official title of Catholicos-Patriarch of All Georgia. At the beginnings of the Church history, what is now Georgia was not unified yet politically, such division was reflected in major differences in the development of Christianity
5.
Early life of Joseph Stalin
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Joseph Stalin, leader of the Soviet Union in the mid-20th century, was born on 18 December 1878 to a Georgian cobbler in Gori, Georgia. After leaving school, he embraced Marxism and became a follower of Vladimir Lenin. After being marked by Russian secret police for his activities, he became a full-time revolutionary and he became one of the Bolsheviks chief operatives in the Caucasus, organizing paramilitaries, spreading propaganda, raising money through bank robberies, and kidnappings and extortion. He was captured and exiled to Siberia numerous times, but often escaped and he became one of Lenins closest associates, which helped him rise to the heights of power after the Russian Revolution. Stalins birth name in Georgian was Ioseb Besarionis dze Jughashvili and he was born an ethnic Georgian, but Georgia at the time was part of the Russian Empire. The Russian version of his name was Iosif Vissarionovich Dzhugashvili. Stalin was born in Gori in the Tiflis Governorate of the Russian Empire, to Besarion Jughashvili, a Georgian cobbler who owned his own workshop, and Ekaterine Geladze and he was the youngest of their three boys, their two previous sons died in infancy. Initially, the Jughashvili family prospered, but Josephs father became an alcoholic, as their financial situation grew worse, Stalins family moved homes at least nine times in Stalins first ten years of life. The town where Joseph grew up was a violent and lawless place and it had only a small police force and a culture of violence that included gang warfare, organized street brawls and wrestling tournaments. Joseph was frequently involved in brawls with other children, at the age of seven, Joseph fell ill with smallpox and his face was badly scarred by the disease. He later had photographs retouched to make his pockmarks less apparent, Josephs native tongue was Georgian, he did not start learning Russian until he was eight or nine years old, and he never lost his strong Georgian accent. At the age of ten, Joseph received a scholarship to the Gori Theological School and his peers were mostly the sons of affluent priests, officials, and merchants. He and most of his classmates at Gori were Georgians and spoke mostly Georgian, however, at school they were forced to speak Russian. Ioseb proved one of the best students in the class, earning top marks across the board and he became a very good choir-singer and was often hired to sing at weddings. He also began to write poetry, something he would develop in later years, Iosebs father had always wanted his son to train as a cobbler rather than become educated. He was infuriated when the boy was accepted into the school, in a drunken rage he smashed the windows of the local tavern, and later attacked the town police chief. Out of compassion for Iosebs mother, the chief did not arrest Besarion. He moved to Tiflis where he work in a shoe factory
6.
Rise of Joseph Stalin
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Joseph Stalin was the General Secretary of the Communist Party of the Soviet Unions Central Committee from 1922 until his death in 1953. In the years following Lenins death in 1924, he rose to become the leader of the Soviet Union, after growing up in Georgia, Stalin conducted activities for the Bolshevik Party for twelve years before the Russian Revolution of 1917. After participating, Stalin took military leadership positions in the Russian Civil War, Stalin was one of the Bolsheviks chief operatives in the Caucasus and grew very close to Lenin, who saw him as a capable and loyal follower. Stalin played a role in engineering the 1921 Red Army invasion of Georgia. His connections helped him attain high positions in the new Soviet government, Lenin grew critical of Stalin, and many other Bolsheviks at this time, but in 1922 a stroke forced Lenin into semi-retirement. Thereafter, Stalin politically isolated his major enemies, such as arch-rival Leon Trotsky and this eventually led him to be the sole uncontested leader of the Party and the Soviet Union. He eventually earned a place in Lenins inner circle and the highest echelons of the Bolshevik hierarchy, in 1917, he participated in the Bolshevik uprising in the Russian capital of Petrograd. His pseudonym, Stalin, means man of the steel hand, in the civil war that followed, Stalin forged connections with various Red Army generals and eventually acquired military powers of his own. He brutally suppressed counter-revolutionaries and bandits, after winning the civil war, the Bolsheviks moved to expand the revolution into Europe, starting with Poland, which was fighting the Red Army in Ukraine. As joint commander of an army in Ukraine, Stalins actions in the war were later criticized by many, in late 1920, Trotsky argued for a ban on trade unions and a formal imposition of Party dictatorship over the industrial sectors. Fearing a backlash from the unions, Lenin asked Stalin to build a base for him against Trotsky. Lenins faction eventually prevailed at the Tenth Party Congress in March 1921, frustrated by the squabbling factions within the Party during what he saw as a time of crisis, Lenin convinced the Tenth Congress to pass a ban on any opposition to official Central Committee policy. Lenin still, however, encountered difficulties pushing his policies through and decided to give his ally, Stalin. With the help of Kamenev, Lenin successfully had Stalin appointed to the post of General Secretary on April 3,1922. Stalin still held his posts in the Orgburo, the Workers and Peasants Inspectorate, with this power, he would steadily place his supporters in positions of authority. It was in the Georgian affairs that Stalin first began to play his own hand, Lenin, however, disliked Stalins policy towards Georgia, as he believed all the Soviet states should be on equal standing with Russia rather than be absorbed and subordinated to it. On May 25,1922, Lenin suffered a stroke while recovering from surgery to remove a bullet lodged in his neck since a failed attempt in August 1918. Severely debilitated, he went into semi-retirement and moved to his dacha in Gorki, after this, Trotsky and Stalin were concerned about who was going to be the next successor
7.
Stalin's cult of personality
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Joseph Stalins cult of personality became a prominent part of Soviet culture in December 1929, after a lavish celebration for Stalins 50th birthday. For the rest of Stalins rule, the Soviet press presented Stalin as an all-powerful, all-knowing leader, from 1936 the Soviet journalism started to refer to Joseph Stalin as the Father of Nations. The Soviet press constantly praised Stalin, describing him as Great, Beloved, Bold, Wise, Inspirer and it portrayed him as a caring yet strong father figure, with the Soviet populace as his children. Interactions between Stalin and children became a key element of the personality cult, Stalin often engaged in publicized gift giving exchanges with Soviet children from a range of different ethnic backgrounds. Beginning in 1935, the phrase, Thank You Dear Comrade Stalin for a Happy Childhood, appeared above doorways at nurseries, orphanages, and schools, children also chanted this slogan at festivals. The cult of personality also adopted the Christian traditions of procession and devotion to icons through the use of Stalinist parades and effigies, by reapplying various aspects of religion to the cult of personality, the press hoped to shift devotion away from the church and towards Stalin. Speeches described the dictator as Our Best Collective Farm Worker, Our Shockworker, Our Best of Best, however, these sorts of accounts declined after World War II, Stalin drew back from public life, and the press instead began to focus on remote contact. Another prominent part of Stalins image in the media was his close association with Vladimir Lenin. Stalin fiercely defended Lenins infallibility in public, and in doing so Stalin implied that, as a follower of Leninism. Before 1932, most Soviet propaganda posters showed Lenin and Stalin together, however, eventually the two figures merged in the Soviet press, Stalin became the embodiment of Lenin. Stalin became the focus of literature, poetry, music, paintings, an example was A. V. Avidenkos Hymn to Stalin, Thank you, Stalin. Thank you because I am joyful, Thank you because I am well. No matter how old I become, I shall never forget how we received Stalin two days ago, everything belongs to thee, chief of our great country. And when the woman I love presents me with a child the first word it shall utter will be, numerous pictures and statues of Stalin adorned public places. Statues of Stalin depicted him at a height and build approximating the very tall Tsar Alexander III, stalin-themed art appeared privately, as well, starting in the early 1930s, many private homes included Stalin rooms dedicated to the leader and featuring his portrait. The advent of the cult also led to a craze, numerous towns. The Stalin Prize and Stalin Peace Prize were also named in his honor, the cult reached new levels during World War II, with Stalins name included in the new Soviet national anthem. Stalin and his glorifiers rewrote Soviet history to provide the leader a more significant role in the October Revolution of 1917, according to this revised history, Stalin, not Leon Trotsky, had been Lenins second-in-command during the October Revolution
8.
August Uprising
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The August Uprising was an unsuccessful insurrection against Soviet rule in the Georgian Soviet Socialist Republic from late August to early September 1924. The August uprising was one of the last major rebellions against the early Soviet government, the Red Army proclaimed Georgia a Soviet Socialist Republic on 25 February 1921, when they took control of Tiflis, the capital of Georgia, and forced the Menshevik government into exile. Loyalty of the Georgian population to the new regime did not come easily, the 1918–1921 independence, though short-lived, had played a crucial role in the national awakening of Georgia, winning a popular support to the ruling Georgian Social Democratic Party. The new Bolshevik government, led by the Georgian Revkom, enjoyed so little support among the population that it faced the prospect of insurrection. The Bolsheviks had limited ties with the Georgian peasantry, which was opposed to collectivization and dissatisfied over land shortages. The situation in the country was further aggravated by a famine prevailing in areas and the summer 1921 outbreak of cholera. The desperate shortage of food and the breakdown of medical services resulted in heavy mortality, public discontent within the Georgian society indirectly reflected in a bitter struggle among Bolsheviks about the way to achieve social and political transformation in Georgia. The crisis known as the Georgian Affair lasted throughout 1922 and ended with the hardliners’ victory, as a result, Georgia merged with the Armenian and Azerbaijan republics into the Transcaucasian SFSR—a heavy blow to Georgian national pride. With the defeat of national deviationists, the Bolsheviks became more assertive, between April 1922 and October 1923, parties that still retained legal status were forced to announce their dissolution and declare official loyalty to the Soviet authorities. Those who continued to operate did so as underground organizations, the Soviets also persecuted the Georgian Orthodox Church, closing or demolishing over 1,500 churches and monasteries. In the course of the Red Army invasion, part of the defeated Georgian forces withdrew into the mountains, from 1921 to 1922, guerrilla warfare broke out in several regions of Georgia. In May 1921, the highlanders of Svaneti, northwestern Georgia, led by Mosestro Dadeshkeliani, Nestor Gardapkhadze and Bidzina Pirveli, after a resistance of six months, the revolt was put down and its leaders were purged. In early 1922, the rebellion against the Soviet rule broke out in Khevsureti, another mountainous district, Soviet troops using aviation managed to stop this rebellion from spreading, but could not crush it completely. The local militsiya chief Levan Razikashvili was arrested and later shot for having sympathized with the rebellion, still, these revolts were local and spontaneous and did not attract large masses. Within the period of 1922–1923,33 of 57 active guerrilla detachments disintegrated or surrendered to the Soviet authorities, the deplorable situation of the anti-Soviet opposition forced all major underground parties to seek closer cooperation. Soon the opposition parties congregated into a movement known as the Committee for the Independence of Georgia or the Damkom. Sponsored by the government of Georgia-in-exile, the Damkom began preparations for an uprising in Georgia. The organization set up a Military Center and appointed General Spiridon Chavchavadze the commander-in-chief of all rebel forces, the organizers, encouraged by the Georgian emigrants in Europe, had still more expectations that the Western powers intended to help
9.
Collectivization in the Soviet Union
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The Soviet Union enforced the collectivization of its agricultural sector between 1928 and 1940 during the ascendancy of Joseph Stalin. It began during and was part of the first five-year plan, the policy aimed to consolidate individual landholdings and labour into collective farms, mainly kolkhozy and sovkhozy. Planners regarded collectivization as the solution to the crisis of agricultural distribution that had developed from 1927 and this problem became more acute as the Soviet Union pressed ahead with its ambitious industrialization program. In the early 1930s over 91% of agricultural land became collectivized as rural households entered collective farms with their land, livestock, the sweeping collectivization often involved tremendous human and social costs. After the emancipation of the serfs in 1861, peasants gained control of half of the land they had previously cultivated. The Stolypin agricultural reforms between 1905 and 1914 gave incentives for the creation of large farms, but these ended during World War I, the Russian Provisional Government accomplished little during the difficult World War I months, though Russian leaders continued to promise redistribution. Peasants began to turn against the Provisional Government and organized themselves into land committees, when the Russian Civil War ended, the economy changed with the New Economic Policy and specifically, the policy of prodnalog or food tax. This new policy was designed to re-build morale among embittered farmers, the pre-existing communes, which periodically redistributed land, did little to encourage improvement in technique, and formed a source of power beyond the control of the Soviet government. Although the income gap between wealthy and poor farmers did grow under the NEP, it remained small. Clearly identifying this group was difficult, though, since only about 1% of the peasantry employed laborers, the small shares of most of the peasants resulted in food shortages in the cities. Although grain had nearly returned to production levels, the large estates which had produced it for urban markets had been divided up. Not interested in acquiring money to purchase overpriced manufactured goods, the peasants chose to consume their produce rather than sell it, as a result, city dwellers only saw half the grain that had been available before the war. Before the revolution, peasants controlled only 2,100,000 km² divided into 16 million holdings, producing 50% of the food grown in Russia and consuming 60% of total food production. After the revolution, the peasants controlled 3,140,000 km² divided into 25 million holdings, producing 85% of the food, the Communist Party of the Soviet Union had never been happy with private agriculture and saw collectivization as the best remedy for the problem. Lenin claimed Small-scale production gives birth to capitalism and the bourgeoisie constantly, daily, hourly, with elemental force and this demand for more grain resulted in the reintroduction of requisitioning which was resisted in rural areas. In 1928 there was a 2-million-ton shortfall in grains purchased by the Soviet Union from neighbouring markets, Stalin claimed the grain had been produced but was being hoarded by kulaks. Instead of raising the price, the Politburo adopted a measure to requisition 2.5 million tons of grain. In 1929, especially after the introduction of the Ural-Siberian Method of grain procurement, also, massive hoarding and illegal transfers of grain took place
10.
Kolkhoz
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A kolkhoz was a form of collective farm in the Soviet Union. Kolkhozes existed along with state farms or sovkhoz, the 1920s were characterized by spontaneous emergence of collective farms, under influence of traveling propaganda workers. Initially a collective farm resembled a version of the traditional Russian commune, the generic farming association, the association for joint cultivation of land. This gradual shift to farming in the first 15 years after the October Revolution was turned into a violent stampede during the forced collectivization campaign that began in 1928. The word is a contraction of коллекти́вное хозя́йство, suggesting collective ownership, on the other hand, sovkhoz is a contraction of советское хозяйство, suggesting state ownership. As a collective farm, a kolkhoz was legally organized as a production cooperative, the Standard Charter of a kolkhoz, which since the early 1930s had the force of law in the USSR, is a model of cooperative principles in print. It speaks of the kolkhoz as a form of agricultural cooperative of peasants that voluntarily unite for the purpose of joint agricultural production based on collective labor. Importantly, remuneration had always been in proportion to labor and not from residual profits, implying that members were treated as employees and they imposed detailed work programs and nominated their preferred managerial candidates. Since the mid-1930s, the kolkhozes had been in effect an offshoot of the state sector, nevertheless, in locations with particularly good land or if it happened to have capable management, some kolkhozes accumulated substantial sums of money in their bank accounts. Subsequently, numerous kolkhozes were formally nationalized by changing their status to sovkhozes, essentially, his administration recognized their status as hired hands rather than authentic cooperative members. The guaranteed wage provision was incorporated in the 1969 version of the Standard Charter, the question of internal organization was important in the new kolkhozes. The most basic measure was to divide the workforce into a number of groups, generally known as brigades, by July 1929 it was already normal practice for the large kolkhoz of 200-400 households to be divided into temporary or permanent work units of 15-30 households. The brigade was headed by a brigade leader and this was usually a local man. After the kolkhoz amalgamations of 1950 the territorial successor of the old village kolkhoz was the complex brigade, brigades could be subdivided into smaller units called zvenos for carrying out some or all of their tasks. See collectivisation in the USSR and agriculture in the Soviet Union for general discussion of Soviet agriculture. In a kolkhoz, a member, called a kolkhoznik, received a share of the product and profit according to the number of days worked. In practice, most kolkhozy did not pay their members in cash at all. In 1946,30 percent of kolkhozy paid no cash for labor at all,10.6 paid no grain, in addition the kolkhoz was required to sell its grain crop and other products to the State at fixed prices
11.
Chinese Civil War
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The Chinese Civil War was fought between forces loyal to the Kuomintang -led government of the Republic of China, and forces loyal to the Communist Party of China. The civil war began in August 1927, with Generalissimo Chiang Kai-sheks Northern Expedition and it can generally be divided into two stages, the first being from 1927 to 1937, and the second being from 1946 to 1950 with the Second Sino-Japanese War separating them. The war represented a split between the Communist CPC and the KMTs brand of Nationalism. It continued intermittently until late 1937, when the two came together to form the Second United Front to counter the Japanese threat and prevent the country from crumbling. Chinas full-scale civil war resumed in 1946, a year after the end of hostilities with Japan, to this day no armistice or peace treaty has ever been signed, and there is debate about whether the Civil War has legally ended. The ROC mutually claims mainland China, and they continue the fight over diplomatic recognition. The Qing Dynasty, the last of the ruling Chinese dynasties, collapsed in 1911 and finally fell in 1912 with the abdication of the last emperor, Puyi. China fell into what became known as the era, when control of much of the country was divided among a group of powerful independent warlords. Sun Yat-sens efforts to aid from the Western countries were ignored, however. Thus the struggle for power in China began between the KMT and the CPC, in 1923, a joint statement by Sun and Soviet representative Adolph Joffe in Shanghai pledged Soviet assistance for Chinas unification. The Sun-Joffe Manifesto was a declaration of cooperation among the Comintern, KMT, Comintern agent Mikhail Borodin arrived in China in 1923 to aid in the reorganization and consolidation of the KMT along the lines of the Communist Party of the Soviet Union. The CPC joined the KMT to form the First United Front, in 1923, Sun Yat-sen sent Chiang Kai-shek, one of his lieutenants from his Tongmeng Hui days, for several months of military and political study in Moscow. By 1924 Chiang became the head of the Whampoa Military Academy, the Soviets provided the academy with much educational material, organization and equipment, including munitions. They also provided education in many of the techniques for mass mobilization, with this aid, Sun Yat-sen was able to raise a dedicated army of the party, with which he hoped to defeat the warlords militarily. CPC members were present in the academy, and many of them became instructors, including Zhou Enlai. Communist members were allowed to join the KMT on an individual basis, the CPC itself was still small at the time, having a membership of 300 in 1922 and only 1,500 by 1925. The KMT in 1923 had 50,000 members, however, after Sun died, the KMT split into left- and right-wing movements. KMT members worried that the Soviets were trying to destroy the KMT from inside using the CPC, the CPC then began movements in opposition of the Northern Expedition, passing a resolution against it at a party meeting
12.
First five-year plan
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The first five-year plan of the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics was a list of economic goals, created by General Secretary Joseph Stalin and based on his policy of Socialism in One Country. It was implemented between 1928 and 1932, in 1929, Stalin edited the plan to include the creation of kolkhoz collective farming systems that stretched over thousands of acres of land and had hundreds of peasants working on them. This disruption led to a famine in Ukraine, Russia, Kazakhstan as well as areas of the Northern Caucasus. Despite the ruinous loss of life, the introduction of collective farms allowed peasants to use tractors to farm the land, unlike before when most had been too poor to own a tractor. Public machine and tractor stations were set up throughout the USSR, peasants were allowed to sell any surplus food from the land. However, the government planners failed to notice of local situations. In 1932, grain production was 32% below average, to add to this problem, agricultural production was so disrupted that famine broke out in several districts. Because of the reliance on rapid industrialization, major cultural changes had to occur in tandem. As this new social structure arose, conflicts occurred among some of the majority of the populations, in Turkmenistan, for example, the Soviet policy of collectivization shifted their production from cotton to food products. Prior to the enactment of the first Soviet five-year plan, the Soviet Union had been experiencing threats from external sources. The first war threat emerged from the East in 1924 and this war scare arose when Western nations, like Great Britain, began cutting off diplomatic relations with the Soviet Union. This created fear among the Soviets that the West was preparing to attack the Soviet Union again, during the Russian Civil War, foreign powers had occupied portions of Soviet territory. The fear of invasion from the west left the Soviets feeling a need for rapid industrialization to increase Soviet war making potential, at the same time as the war scare of 1927, dissatisfaction among the peasantry was emerging in the Soviet Union. This dissatisfaction arose from the famine of the early 1920s, as well as a growing mistreatment of the peasants, also during this time the secret police or the NKVD had begun rounding up political dissenters in the Soviet Union. The central aspect of the first Soviet five-year plan was the rapid industrialization of the Soviet Union, the need for rapid industrialization was once again out of the fear of impending war from the West. If war were to break out between the Soviet Union and the West, the Soviets would be fighting against some of the most industrialized nations in the world, the rapid industrialization would inhibit fears of being left unprotected if War between the Soviets and the West were to occur. To meet the needs of a war, the Soviet leaders set unrealistic quotas for production. To meet those needs, the facilities had to be constructed to quickly facilitate material production before goods could be produced
13.
Sino-Soviet conflict (1929)
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The Sino-Soviet conflict of 1929 was a minor armed conflict between the Soviet Union and Chinese warlord Zhang Xueliang of the Republic of China over the Chinese Eastern Railway. In order to understand why the Chinese forced a hostile takeover, on August 26,1919, the Karakhan Manifesto was published by the Soviet press, but the document did not contain anything about returning the CER to China without compensation. The Soviets had laid the foundation to double-cross the Chinese, the Soviets would later use of the August 26th version of the Manifesto to argue with the Chinese government that they did not have to pay compensation for the CER. Along with the original Karakhan telegram the Chinese had the Vilenski pamphlet as evidence, the Vilenski pamphlet also shows the Chinese that they were willing to return the CER to the Chinese without compensation. The July 25th Karakhan telegram shows the Soviet Unions original intentions, which was to return the CER back into Chinese control without compensation. The July 25th telegram was used to satisfy the requirements for the Chinese government. This made all treaties, border relations and commercial relations dependent on the upcoming conference and this gave the Soviets time to turn to Zhang Xueliang in Manchuria. Zhang Xueliang was the strongest warlord in Manchuria at the time and he had control of the Mukden government, today the city is known as Shenyang. The Soviets were the first to propose joint management of the CER with the Chinese, but Zhang stood in the way of this joint management. The Soviets decided to make a deal with Zhang, on May 31,1924, Lev Karakhan and Dr. V. K. Ellington Koo, the Minister of Foreign Affairs for the Republic of China, while negotiations had been concluded with the Chinese, the Soviets turned to make a deal with Zhang Xueliang. They promised him full control of choosing which Chinese officials would be on the board in the joint Chinese-Soviet management of the CER and this would give Zhang Xueliang half control of CER. On September 20,1924 Zhang signed the Secret Agreement not knowing the Chinese government had signed the Secret Protocol earlier in the year, and since the CER was originally controlled by the Soviets, the majority of the positions would be under Soviet control. Then the Soviet claimed they should keep majority control is any other solution would interrupt or injure the railway. The Soviets were also the master of the President for the CER. The Soviet government was able to regain majority control of the CER by playing the secret protocols off each other, the Soviets allowed the Chinese to think they were adding workers loyal to their government. However, in reality, the Soviets were creating more job on the railway, in the end, the Soviets controlled sixty-seven percent of all positions on the CER. The Chinese entertained joint- management until mid-1929, the change from Soviet control to Chinese control started when the Chinese authorities made a radical move to try and remove Soviet management
14.
1931 Menshevik Trial
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It was held 1–8 March 1931 in the House of Unions. The presiding judge was Nikolay Shvernik, the defendants were, Six out of the fourteen defendants were Jews. It was suggested in Bundist circles that this proportion of Jews among the accused had been specially arranged to organize feeling against the Jewish Socialists. The defendants were accused of setting up the All-Union Bureau of Mensheviks, on the final day, the prisoners made confessions of their crimes. For the others he asked that they should be isolated for long periods, at 9 March 1931, after deliberating for twenty-five hours, the court sentenced seven defendants to ten years imprisonment. The seven other defendants were sentenced to different terms of imprisonment and those who received the ten years sentence were Groman, Sher, Sukhanov, Ginzburg, Jakobovich, Petunina, and Finn-Enotaevsky. Rafail Abramovich, a prominent Menshevik in exile in Berlin, helped to mobilise Western socialist, at a rally in Berlin, organised by the SPD, he denied there was an underground Menshevik organisation that existed in the Soviet Union. Leon Trotski also commented on the trial, condemning both Stalin as the Mensheviks, case of the Union of Liberation of Belarus A. L. Litvin, Menshevistskii Protsess 1931 goda, Sbornik dokumentov v 2-x knigakh. Protsess kontrrrevoliutsionnoi organizatsii Menshevikov, Stenogramma sudebnoe protsess
15.
Spanish Civil War
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Ultimately, the Nationalists won, and Franco then ruled Spain for the next 36 years, from April 1939 until his death in November 1975. Sanjurjo was killed in an accident while attempting to return from exile in Portugal. The coup was supported by units in the Spanish protectorate in Morocco, Pamplona, Burgos, Zaragoza, Valladolid, Cádiz, Córdoba. However, rebelling units in some important cities—such as Madrid, Barcelona, Valencia, Bilbao, and Málaga—did not gain control, Spain was thus left militarily and politically divided. The Nationalists and the Republican government fought for control of the country, the Nationalist forces received munitions and soldiers from Nazi Germany and Fascist Italy, while the Republican side received support from the Communist Soviet Union and leftist populist Mexico. Other countries, such as the United Kingdom and France, operated a policy of non-intervention. The Nationalists advanced from their strongholds in the south and west and they also besieged Madrid and the area to its south and west for much of the war. Those associated with the losing Republicans were persecuted by the victorious Nationalists, with the establishment of a dictatorship led by General Franco in the aftermath of the war, all right-wing parties were fused into the structure of the Franco regime. The war became notable for the passion and political division it inspired, organized purges occurred in territory captured by Francos forces to consolidate the future regime. A significant number of killings took place in areas controlled by the Republicans, the extent to which Republican authorities took part in killings in Republican territory varied. The 19th century was a turbulent time for Spain and those in favour of reforming Spains government vied for political power with conservatives, who tried to prevent reforms from taking place. Some liberals, in a tradition that had started with the Spanish Constitution of 1812, sought to limit the power of the monarchy of Spain, the reforms of 1812 did not last after King Ferdinand VII dissolved the Constitution and ended the Trienio Liberal government. Twelve successful coups were carried out between 1814 and 1874, until the 1850s, the economy of Spain was primarily based on agriculture. There was little development of an industrial or commercial class. The land-based oligarchy remained powerful, a number of people held large estates called latifundia as well as all the important government positions. In 1868 popular uprisings led to the overthrow of Queen Isabella II of the House of Bourbon, two distinct factors led to the uprisings, a series of urban riots and a liberal movement within the middle classes and the military concerned with the ultra-conservatism of the monarchy. In 1873 Isabellas replacement, King Amadeo I of the House of Savoy, abdicated owing to increasing pressure. After the restoration of the Bourbons in December 1874, Carlists and Anarchists emerged in opposition to the monarchy, alejandro Lerroux, Spanish politician and leader of the Radical Republican Party, helped bring republicanism to the fore in Catalonia, where poverty was particularly acute
16.
Islamic rebellion in Xinjiang (1937)
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In 1937 an Islamic rebellion broke out in southern Xinjiang. The rebels were 1,500 Turkic Muslims led by Kichik Akhund, Sheng Shicai had moved against Divisional Gen. Mahmut Muhiti, commander-in-chief of the 6th Uyghur Division and deputy chief of the Kashgar Military Region. Muhiti resented the increased Russian influence and formed a group around himself. Sheng feared Muhiti may have allied with Chinese Muslim Gen. Ma Hu-shan, however, the Uighurs of Kashgar heard hostile reports on Ma Hu-shan from Uighur refugees from Khotan suffering under Ma. Muhiti fled Kashgar on April 2,1937, with a number of his subordinates and some amount of gold to India via Yengi Hissar. Shortly before his departure he sent a message to Ma Hu-Shan about his arrival at Khotan. In response, Ma Hu-Shan ordered his troops to prepare a parade and this preparation pulled troops who guarded both mountain passes to Kashmir, which allowed Muhiti the opportunity to change his route and slip through into Kashmir. Muhitis flight resulted in Uighur troops rising in revolt in Yengi Hissar, Yarkand and Artush, resulting in the execution of all pro-Soviet officials and a number of Soviet advisers. Liu Pin, a commander in Kashgar Region with 700 troops at his command, responded to the rebellion by launching a squadron of nine Soviet planes to bomb Yangi Hissar. After Muhiti reached Srinagar in India, the year, he went on pilgrimage to Mecca. A buildup of Soviet military assets occurred in Xinjiang before the outbreak of war, around Kashgar, the Soviets sent AA guns, fighter planes, and soldiers of Russian and Kyrgyz origin in great amounts. They were all arrested on one night in May 1937 by the NKVD—the Soviet secret police—and executed without trials, Soviet diplomatic staff were also purged throughout the province in Soviet consulates in Urumchi, Karashar, Ghulja, Chuguchak and Altai. The rebellion is also viewed by historians as a plot by Mahmut Muhiti. A conquest of the Kremlin, Russian Turkistan and Siberia was planned in an anti-Soviet jihad formulated by Ma Hsi Jung and he promised a devastated Europe and the conquering of Russia and India. The anti-Soviet client uprising by Ma Hsi Jung s was reported by United Press International, meanwhile, Ma Hushan and his Chinese Muslim troops of the 36th Division were watching the situation with interest, eager to seize more territory. Having received the order, the Tungans attacked Kashgar airfield on 20 May but were defeated, ten days later 1,500 Islamic irregulars under Kichik Akund attacked and seized Kashgar Old City. His troops wore armbands with the words Fi sabil Allah, the rebellion was followed by a Kyrgyz uprising near Kucha and Muslim unrest in Kumul. Ma Hushan remained at Khotan watching the situation and his Chief of Staff Pai Tzu-li and Ma Ju-lung, the 1st Brigade commander at Karghalik, persuaded him to strike against Kashgar
17.
Soviet Union legislative election, 1937
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Elections to the Supreme Soviet were held in the Soviet Union on 12 December 1937. It was the first election held under the 1936 Soviet Constitution, which had formed the Supreme Soviet to replace the old legislature, Hurrah for Comrade Stalin, the creator of the Soviet Constitution, the most democratic in the world. Long live Comrade Stalin, leader of the oppressed throughout the world, in his speech Stalin said that Comrades, to tell you the truth, I had no intention of making a speech. Never in the history of the world have there been such really free, history knows no other example like it. our universal elections will be carried out as the freest elections and the most democratic compared with elections in any other country in the world. Universal elections exist and are held in some capitalist countries. But in what atmosphere are elections held there and that is what we call Socialism in practice. In our fields the tillers of the work without landlords. The work is directed by men and women of the people and that is what we call Socialism in daily life, that is what we call a free, socialist life. The elections were announced as being multi-candidate, however, by halfway through the year the announcement was reversed due to the distrust of the leadership during the Great Purge. Many of the individuals attempting to run as alternate candidates were arrested after the decision for multiple candidates was reversed. Additionally, the NKVD conducted mass arrests shortly before the elections, state and Society Under Stalin, Constitutions and Elections in the 1930s, article by J. Arch Getty in Slavic Review, Vol.50, No.1. Ferdinand Joseph Maria Feldbrugge, ed. Martinus Nijhoff Publishers, Dordrecht, everyday Stalinism, Ordinary Life in Extraordinary Times, Soviet Russia in the 1930s. New York, Oxford University Press, pp. 179–182
18.
Soviet invasion of Poland
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The Soviet invasion of Poland was a Soviet military operation that started without a formal declaration of war on 17 September 1939. On that morning,16 days after Nazi Germany invaded Poland from the west, the joint German-Soviet invasion of Poland was secretly agreed in the Molotov-Ribbentrop Pact, signed on 23 August 1939. The Red Army, which outnumbered the Polish defenders, achieved its targets by using strategic. Some 230,000 Polish prisoners of war had been captured, the campaign of mass persecution in the newly acquired areas began immediately. In November 1939 the Soviet government ostensibly annexed the entire Polish territory under its control, the Soviet campaign of ethnic cleansing began with the wave of arrests and summary executions of officers, policemen and priests. Soviet forces occupied eastern Poland until the summer of 1941, when they were out by the invading German army in the course of Operation Barbarossa. The area was under Nazi occupation until the Red Army reconquered it again in the summer of 1944, the Soviet Union enclosed most of the annexed territories into the Ukrainian Soviet Socialist Republic and the Byelorussian Soviet Socialist Republic. After the end of World War II in Europe, the USSR signed a new border agreement with the Polish communists on 16 August 1945. The USSR played a double game secretly engaging in talks with Germany. The terms were rejected, thus giving Josef Stalin a free hand in pursuing the Molotov–Ribbentrop Pact with Adolf Hitler, the non-aggression pact contained a secret protocol dividing Northern and Eastern Europe into German and Soviet spheres of influence in the event of war. One week after the signing of the Molotov–Ribbentrop Pact, German forces invaded Poland from the west, north, Polish forces gradually withdrew to the southeast where they prepared for a long defence of the Romanian Bridgehead and awaited the French and British support and relief that they were expecting. On 17 September 1939 the Soviet Red Army invaded the Kresy regions in accordance with the secret protocol, at the opening of hostilities several Polish cities including Dubno, Łuck and Włodzimierz Wołyński let the Red Army in peacefully, convinced that it was marching on to fight the Germans. General Juliusz Rómmel of the Polish Army issued an order to treat them like an ally before it was too late. The result of the Paris Peace Conference did little to decrease the territorial ambitions of parties in the region, the border skirmishes of 1919 progressively escalated into the Polish–Soviet War in 1920. Following the Polish victory at the Battle of Warsaw, the Soviets sued for peace, the parties signed the formal peace treaty, the Peace of Riga, on 18 March 1921, dividing the disputed territories between Poland and Soviet Russia. In the aftermath of the agreement, Soviet leaders largely abandoned the cause of international revolution. The Conference of Ambassadors and the community recognized Polands eastern frontiers in 1923. Germany marched into Prague on 15 March 1939, in mid-April, the Soviet Union, Britain and France began trading diplomatic suggestions regarding a political and military agreement to counter potential further German aggression
19.
Winter War
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The Winter War was a military conflict between the Soviet Union and Finland in 1939–1940. It began with the Soviet invasion of Finland on 30 November 1939, the League of Nations deemed the attack illegal and expelled the Soviet Union from the League on 14 December 1939. Finland refused and the USSR invaded the country, the Soviets possessed more than three times as many soldiers as the Finns, thirty times as many aircraft, and a hundred times as many tanks. The Red Army, however, had been crippled by Soviet leader Joseph Stalins Great Purge of 1937. With more than 30,000 of its officers executed or imprisoned, including most of those of the highest ranks, because of these factors, and high morale in the Finnish forces, Finland repelled Soviet attacks for several months, much longer than the Soviets expected. However, after reorganization and adoption of different tactics, the renewed Soviet offensive overcame Finnish defenses at the borders, hostilities ceased in March 1940 with the signing of the Moscow Peace Treaty. Finland ceded territory representing 11% of its area and 13% of its economy to the Soviet Union. Soviet losses were heavy, and the international reputation suffered. While the Soviet Union did not conquer all Finland, Soviet gains exceeded their pre-war demands and they gained substantial territory along Lake Ladoga, providing a buffer for Leningrad, and territory in northern Finland. Finland retained its sovereignty and enhanced its international reputation, the end of the war cancelled the Franco-British plan to send troops to Finland through northern Scandinavia. One of the goals of the projected Franco-British operation had been to take control of northern Swedens iron ore. For this reason it was also a factor in the launching of Operation Weserübung, Nazi Germanys invasion of Denmark. The poor performance of the Red Army encouraged Hitler to think that an attack on the Soviet Union would be successful, until the beginning of the 19th century, Finland constituted the eastern part of the Kingdom of Sweden. In 1809, to protect their capital, Saint Petersburg. While abortive because of Russias internal strife, these attempts ruined Russias relations with the Finns, the new Bolshevik Russian government was weak, and with the threat of civil war looming Soviet Russia recognized the new Finnish government just three weeks after the declaration of independence. Sovereignty was fully achieved in May 1918 after a civil war. Finland joined the League of Nations in 1920, from which it sought security guarantees, nevertheless, the government of Sweden carefully avoided committing itself to Finnish foreign policy. Another Finnish military policy was the top secret military cooperation between Finland and Estonia, the 1920s and early 1930s were a politically unstable time in Finland
20.
Moscow Peace Treaty
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The Moscow Peace Treaty was signed by Finland and the Soviet Union on 12 March 1940, and the ratifications were exchanged on 21 March. It marked the end of the 105-day Winter War, Finland had to cede border areas to the Soviet Union. The treaty was signed by Vyacheslav Molotov, Andrey Zhdanov and Aleksandr Vasilevsky for Soviet Union, the Finnish government received the first tentative peace conditions from the Soviet Union on 31 January. By this point, the regime was prepared to temper its claims, the demands were that Finland cede the Karelian Isthmus, including the city of Viipuri, and Finlands shore of Lake Ladoga. The Hanko Peninsula was to be leased to the Soviet Union for 30 years, Finland rejected these demands and intensified its pleas to Sweden, France and the United Kingdom for military support by regular troops. Although Finland in the run had no chance against a country fifty times its size. On 6 March, a Finnish delegation led by Prime Minister Risto Ryti travelled to Moscow, during the negotiations, the Red Army broke through the Finnish defence lines around Tali and were close to surrounding Viipuri. The Peace Agreement was signed on the evening of 12 March, Moscow time, i. e.1 hour on March 13, the protocol appended to the treaty stipulated that the fighting should be ended at noon, Leningrad time, and the fighting continued until that time. Finnish concessions and territorial losses exceeded those demanded by the Soviets pre-war, Finland was forced to cede nearly all of Finnish Karelia, even though large parts were still held by Finlands army. Military troops and remaining civilians were evacuated to inside the new border. 422,000 Karelians, 12% of Finlands population, lost their homes, there was also an area that the Russians captured during the war, which remained in Finnish hands according to the Peace Treaty, Petsamo. However, the treaty also stipulated that Finland would grant free passage for Soviet civilians through Petsamo to Norway. Finally, the Hanko Peninsula was leased to the Soviet Union as a base for 30 years at an annual rent of 8 million marks. Additional demands were that any equipment and installation on the territories were to be handed over. Thus Finland had to hand over 75 locomotives,2,000 railroad cars, a number of cars, trucks and ships. The Enso industrial area, which was clearly on the Finnish side of the border, as it was drawn in the treaty, was also soon added to the Finnish losses of territory. The new border was not arbitrary from the Soviet viewpoint, before the war, Finland had been a leading producer of high quality pulp, which was an important raw material for explosives. Including the Enso factories, the Soviet Union captured 80% of Finlands production capacity, the location of the new border was consistent with the Soviet defence doctrine, which envisioned taking the fight onto enemy soil through counterattacks and pre-emptive strikes
21.
Occupation of the Baltic states
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On 22 June 1941 Nazi Germany attacked the USSR and within weeks occupied the Baltic territories. In July 1941, the Baltic territory was incorporated into the Reichskommissariat Ostland of the Third Reich, the Soviet annexation occupation of the Baltic states lasted until August 1991, when the Baltic states regained independence. In its reassessment of Soviet history that began during perestroika in 1989, however, Russia agreed to Europes demand to assist persons deported from the occupied Baltic states upon joining the Council of Europe. De facto independence was restored to the Baltic states in 1991 during the dissolution of the Soviet Union, Russia started to withdraw its troops from the Baltics in August 1993. The full withdrawal of troops deployed by Moscow was completed in August 1994, Russia officially ended its military presence in the Baltics in August 1998 by decommissioning the Skrunda-1 radar station in Latvia. The dismantled installations were repatriated to Russia and the returned to Latvian control. Early in the morning of August 24,1939, the Soviet Union and Germany signed a ten-year non-aggression pact, the pact contained a secret protocol by which the states of Northern and Eastern Europe were divided into German and Soviet spheres of influence. In the north, Finland, Estonia and Latvia were assigned to the Soviet sphere, Poland was to be partitioned in the event of its political rearrangement—the areas east of the Narev, Vistula and San Rivers going to the Soviet Union while Germany would occupy the west. According to this protocol, Lithuania would regain its historical capital Vilnius. Following the end of Soviet invasion of Poland on 6 October, the Soviets pressured Finland, the Soviets questioned the neutrality of Estonia after the escape of an interned Polish submarine on 18 September. A week later on 24 September, the Estonian foreign minister was given an ultimatum in Moscow, the Soviets demanded the conclusion of a treaty of mutual assistance to establish military bases in Estonia. The Estonians had no choice but to accept naval, air, the corresponding agreement was signed on 28 September 1939. Latvia followed on 5 October 1939 and Lithuania shortly thereafter, on 10 October 1939, in September and October 1939, the Soviet government compelled the Baltic states to conclude mutual assistance pacts which gave it the right to establish Soviet military bases. In May 1940, the Soviets turned to the idea of military intervention. Their model was the Finnish Democratic Republic, a puppet regime set up by the Soviets on the first day of the Winter War, the Soviets organised a press campaign against the allegedly pro-Allied sympathies of the Baltic governments. In May 1940, the Germans invaded France, which was overrun, in late May and early June 1940, the Baltic states were accused of military collaboration against the Soviet Union by holding meetings the previous winter. On 15 June 1940, the Lithuanian government had no choice but to agree to the Soviet ultimatum, president Antanas Smetona proposed armed resistance to the Soviets but the government refused, proposing their own candidate to lead the regime. However, the Soviets refused this offer and sent Vladimir Dekanozov to take charge of affairs while the Red Army occupied the state, on 16 June 1940, Latvia and Estonia also received ultimata
22.
Continuation War
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The Continuation War consisted of hostilities between Finland and the Soviet Union from 1941 to 1944. The Continuation War began shortly after the end of the Winter War, in the Soviet Union, the war was considered part of the Great Patriotic War. Germany regarded its operations in the region as part of its war efforts on the Eastern Front. Acts of war between the Soviet Union and Finland recommenced on 22 June 1941, the day Germany launched its invasion of the Soviet Union, open warfare began with a Soviet air offensive on 25 June. Subsequent Finnish operations undid its post-Winter War concessions to the Soviet Union on the Karelian Isthmus and Ladoga Karelia, on the Karelian Isthmus, the Finns halted their offensive 30 km from Leningrad, at the pre-World War II border between the Soviet Union and Finland. Finnish forces did not participate in the siege of Leningrad directly, in 1944, Soviet air forces conducted air raids on Helsinki and other major Finnish cities. A ceasefire ended hostilities on 5 September and was followed by the Moscow Armistice on 19 September, the 1947 Paris peace treaty concluded the war formally. Finland ceded Pechengsky District to the Soviets, leased Porkkala peninsula to them, shortly afterward, Germany invaded Poland and as a result the United Kingdom and France declared war against Germany. The Soviet Union invaded eastern Poland on 17 September, next, Moscow demanded that the Baltic states allow the establishment of Soviet military bases and the stationing of troops on their soil. The Baltic governments accepted these ultimatums, signing corresponding agreements in September and October 1939, the Finnish government refused, and the Red Army attacked Finland on 30 November 1939. Condemnation of the Soviets by the League of Nations and by all over the world had no effect on Soviet policy. International help for Finland was planned, but very little actual help materialized, the Moscow Peace Treaty, which was signed on 12 March 1940, ended the Winter War. By the terms of the treaty, Finland lost one eleventh of its national territory, however, Finland had avoided having the Soviet Union annex the whole country. Finlands foreign policy had been based on multilateral guarantees for support from the League of Nations, Finnish public opinion favored the reconquest of Finnish Karelia. Finlands government declared the countrys defense to be its first priority, Finland purchased and received donations of war material during and immediately after the Winter War. On Finlands southern frontier the Soviet Union had acquired a base in Hanko near the capital Helsinki. Finland also had to resettle some 420,000 evacuees from the lost territories, to ensure the supply of food, it was necessary to clear new land for the evacuees to cultivate. This was facilitated by the Rapid Settlement Act, the Finnish leadership wanted to preserve the spirit of unanimity that was commonly felt throughout the country during the Winter War
23.
Soviet Union in World War II
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The Soviet Union signed a non-aggression pact with Nazi Germany on 23 August 1939. Stalin and Hitler later traded proposals after a Soviet entry into the Axis Pact, Germany invaded Poland on 1 September 1939. Joseph Stalin waited until 17 September before launching his own invasion of Poland, part of southeastern and Salla region in Finland were annexed by the Soviet Union after the Winter War. This was followed by Soviet annexations of Estonia, Latvia, Lithuania and it was only in 1989 that the Soviet Union admitted the existence of the secret protocol of the Nazi-Soviet pact regarding the planned divisions of these territories. The invasion of Bukovina violated the Molotov-Ribbentrop Pact, as it went beyond the Soviet sphere agreed with the Axis, in 1940-41 Stalin ignored reports of an Axis invasion. On 22 June 1941, Hitler launched an invasion of the Soviet Union, Stalin was confident that the total Allied war machine would eventually stop Germany, and with Lend Lease from the West, the Soviets stopped the Wehrmacht some 30 kilometres from Moscow. Stalin began to listen to his generals more after Kursk, the bulk of Soviet fighting took place on the Eastern Front—including a continued war with Finland—but it also invaded Iran in cooperation with the British and late in the war attacked Japan. Stalin met with Winston Churchill and Franklin D. Roosevelt at the Tehran Conference and began to discuss a two-front war against Germany, Berlin finally fell in April 1945, but Stalin was never fully convinced his nemesis Adolf Hitler had committed suicide. Stalin became personally involved with questionable tactics employed during the war, including the Katyn massacre,270, Order No.227 and NKVD prisoner massacres. Officially a non-aggression treaty only, a secret protocol, also reached on 23 August, divided the whole of eastern Europe into German. Another clause of the treaty was that Bessarabia, then part of Romania, was to be joined to the Moldovan SSR, the pact was reached two days after the breakdown of Soviet military talks with British and French representatives in August 1939 over a potential Franco-Anglo-Soviet alliance. By that time, Molotov obtained information regarding Anglo-German negotiations and a report from the Soviet ambassador in France. They further traded toasts, with Stalin proposing a toast to Hitlers health, on 1 September 1939, the German invasion of its agreed upon portion of Poland started the Second World War. On 17 September the Red Army invaded eastern Poland and occupied the Polish territory assigned to it by the Molotov-Ribbentrop Pact, followed by co-ordination with German forces in Poland. Eleven days later, the protocol of the Molotov-Ribbentrop Pact was modified, allotting Germany a larger part of Poland. The Soviet portions lay east of the so-called Curzon Line, a frontier between Russia and Poland drawn up by a commission of the Paris Peace Conference in 1919. In early 1940, the Soviets executed over 25,000 Polish PoWs and this became known as the Katyn massacre. In August 1939, Stalin declared that he was going to solve the Baltic problem, after unsuccessfully attempting to install a communist puppet government in Finland, in November 1939, the Soviet Union invaded Finland
24.
Soviet atomic bomb project
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The project was directed by Soviet nuclear physicist Igor Kurchatov, while the military logistics and intelligence efforts were undertaken and managed by NKVD peoples commissar Lavrentiy Beria. The Soviet Union benefited from highly successful efforts on the part of the GRU of the Soviet General Staff. However, because of the bloody and intensified war with Nazi Germany, the Soviets accelerated the program after the American atomic bombings of Hiroshima and Nagasaki. The Soviet atomic project was charged with gathering intelligence on the German nuclear energy project as well as the American nuclear efforts, after the war, the Soviet Union expanded its research facilities, military reactors, and employed many scientists. With the success of this test, the Soviet Union became the nation after the United States to detonate a nuclear device. In early 1930s, the Soviets were instrumental to the advancement of nuclear physics, the Soviet interest in nuclear physics had begun in the early 1930s, an era in which a variety of important nuclear discoveries and achievements were made. Even before the Russian revolution and the February Revolution, the mineralogist Vladimir Vernadsky had made a number of calls for a survey of Russias uranium deposits. The main motivation for research at the time was radium, which had scientific as well as medical uses. The soviet Atomic Bomb Project has its roots all the way back in the 1910s, the research being done was not officially institutionalized until 1922 when the Radium Institute in Petrograd opened. Through the thirties there were other institutions opened across the nation. It is important to acknowledge that the research and institutions were all a part of civil society and this meant that the military did not directly control the progress being made. In 1940, a commission was set up to address the Uranium Problem allowing intelligentsia to study nuclear fission, although significant ground had been broke the majority of research would be abandoned during World War II. Russia would spend the four years in conflict with Europe. Flyorov deduced that this meant such research had been classified, creation in 1943 of Laboratory No.2 under the Academy of Sciences of the USSR was the first stage of the Soviet atomic bomb project. When the United States tested the Atom Bomb in 1945 Stalin decided to push the intellectuals even harder and they appointed a special committee that was fully funded. This committee was headed by Beria who was now in charge of a group of specialists in science. Again it is important to note that Stalin did not include military men. Instead he put those from the party, civilians, and secret police in charge, on April 9,1946, the Council of Ministers of the USSR adopted the resolution on creation of Design Office#11 to develop an atomic bomb
25.
Tehran Conference
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The Tehran Conference was a strategy meeting of Joseph Stalin, Franklin D. Roosevelt, and Winston Churchill from 28 November to 1 December 1943. It was held in the Soviet Unions embassy in Tehran, Iran and it was the first of the World War II conferences of the Big Three Allied leaders. It closely followed the Cairo Conference which had taken place on 22–26 November 1943, although the three leaders arrived with differing objectives, the main outcome of the Tehran Conference was the Western Allies commitment to open a second front against Nazi Germany. The conference also addressed the Allies relations with Turkey and Iran, operations in Yugoslavia and against Japan, a separate protocol signed at the conference pledged the Big Three to recognize Irans independence. As soon as the German-Soviet war broke out in June 1941, Churchill offered assistance to the Soviets, and an agreement to this effect was signed on 12 July 1941. Delegations had traveled between London and Moscow to arrange the implementation of this support and when the United States joined the war in December 1941, a Combined Chiefs of Staff committee was created to coordinate British and American operations as well as their support to the Soviet Union. There was the question of opening a second front to alleviate the German pressure on the Soviet Red Army on the Eastern Front, the question of mutual assistance. Also, neither the United States nor Britain were prepared to give Stalin a free hand in Eastern Europe and, lastly, communications regarding these matters between Churchill, Roosevelt, and Stalin took place by telegrams and via emissaries—but it was evident that direct negotiations were urgently needed. Stalin was reluctant to leave Moscow and was unwilling to risk journeys by air, while Roosevelt was physically disabled, in order to arrange this urgently needed meeting, Roosevelt tried to persuade Stalin to travel to Cairo. Stalin turned down this offer and also offers to meet in Baghdad or Basra, the conference was to convene at 16,00 on 28 November 1943. Stalin arrived well before, followed by Roosevelt, brought in his wheelchair from his accommodation adjacent to the venue, Roosevelt, who had traveled 7,000 miles to attend and whose health was already deteriorating, was met by Stalin. This was the first time that they had met, Churchill, walking with his general staff from their accommodations nearby, arrived half an hour later. The U. S. and Great Britain wanted to secure the cooperation of the Soviet Union in defeating Germany, Stalin pressed for a revision of Poland’s eastern border with the Soviet Union to match the line set by British Foreign Secretary Lord Curzon in 1920. In order to compensate Poland for the loss of territory. This decision was not formally ratified, however, until the Potsdam Conference of 1945, the leaders then turned to the conditions under which the Western Allies would open a new front by invading northern France, as Stalin had pressed them to do since 1941. It was agreed Overlord would occur by May 1944, Stalin agreed to support it by launching a concurrent major offensive on Germanys eastern front to divert German forces from northern France, Iran and Turkey were discussed in detail. In addition, the Soviet Union was required to support to Turkey if that country entered the war. Roosevelt, Churchill and Stalin agreed that it would also be most desirable if Turkey entered on the Allies side before the year was out, despite accepting the above arrangements, Stalin dominated the conference
26.
Yalta Conference
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The conference convened in the Livadia Palace near Yalta in Crimea, USSR. The goal of conference was to shape a post-war peace that represented not just a collective security order, the meeting was intended mainly to discuss the re-establishment of the nations of war-torn Europe. Within a few years, with the Cold War dividing the continent, to a degree, it has remained controversial. Yalta was the second of three wartime conferences among the Big Three and it had been preceded by the Tehran Conference in 1943, and was followed by the Potsdam Conference in July 1945, which was attended by Stalin, Churchill and Harry S. Truman, Roosevelts successor. All three leaders were attempting to establish an agenda for governing post-war Germany and they wanted to keep peace between post-world war countries. On the Eastern Front, the front line at the end of December 1943 remained in the Soviet Union but, by August 1944, Soviet forces were inside Poland, by the time of the Conference, Red Army Marshal Georgy Zhukovs forces were 65 km from Berlin. Stalins position at the conference was one which he felt was so strong that he could dictate terms. According to U. S. delegation member and future Secretary of State James F. Byrnes, t was not a question of what we would let the Russians do, moreover, Roosevelt hoped for a commitment from Stalin to participate in the United Nations. Stalin, insisting that his doctors opposed any long trips, rejected Roosevelts suggestion to meet at the Mediterranean and he offered instead to meet at the Black Sea resort of Yalta, in the Crimea. Stalins fear of flying also was a factor in this decision. Each leader had an agenda for the Yalta Conference, Roosevelt wanted Soviet support in the U. S, Poland was the first item on the Soviet agenda. Stalin stated that For the Soviet government, the question of Poland was one of honor, in addition, Stalin stated regarding history that because the Russians had greatly sinned against Poland, the Soviet government was trying to atone for those sins. Stalin concluded that Poland must be strong and that the Soviet Union is interested in the creation of a mighty, free, Roosevelt wanted the USSR to enter the Pacific War with the Allies. Stalin agreed that the Soviet Union would enter the Pacific War three months after the defeat of Germany, Stalin pledged to Truman to keep the nationality of the Korean Peninsula intact as Soviet Union entered the war against Japan. At the time, the Red Army had occupied Poland completely, the Declaration of Liberated Europe did little to dispel the sphere of influence agreements that had been incorporated into armistice agreements. They also agreed to give France a zone of occupation, carved out of the U. S. also, the Big Three agreed that all original governments would be restored to the invaded countries and that all civilians would be repatriated. The Declaration of Liberated Europe is a declaration that was created by Winston Churchill, Franklin D. Roosevelt and it was a promise that allowed the people of Europe to create democratic institutions of their own choice. The declaration pledged, the earliest possible establishment through free elections governments responsive to the will of the people and this is similar to the statements of the Atlantic Charter, which says, the right of all people to choose the form of government under which they will live
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Potsdam Conference
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The Potsdam Conference was held at Cecilienhof, the home of Crown Prince Wilhelm, in Potsdam, occupied Germany, from 17 July to 2 August 1945. Participants were the Soviet Union, the United Kingdom and the United States, the three powers were represented by Communist Party General Secretary Joseph Stalin, Prime Ministers Winston Churchill and, later, Clement Attlee, and President Harry S. Truman. The goals of the conference included the establishment of post-war order, peace treaty issues. In the five months since the Yalta Conference, a number of changes had taken place which would affect the relationships between the leaders. Firstly, the Soviet Union was occupying Central and Eastern Europe, by July, the Red Army effectively controlled the Baltic states, Poland, Czechoslovakia, Hungary, Bulgaria and Romania, and fearing a Stalinist take-over, refugees were fleeing from these countries. Stalin had set up a communist government in Poland and he insisted that his control of Eastern Europe was a defensive measure against possible future attacks and claimed that it was a legitimate sphere of Soviet influence. Secondly, Britain had a new Prime Minister, a general election was held in the UK on 5 July, the results of which became known during the conference, with a Labour Party majority, Labour leader Clement Attlee became the new Prime Minister. During the war and in the name of Allied unity, Roosevelt had brushed off warnings of a potential domination by a Stalin dictatorship in part of Europe, while inexperienced in foreign affairs, Truman had closely followed the allied progress of the war. With the end of the war, the priority of allied unity was replaced with a new challenge, the two leading powers continued to sustain a cordial relationship to the public but suspicions and distrust lingered between them. As the suspicion grew between the two rising powers, Stalin proposed that America will use their advantage and success in order to entices other nations into expanding their U. S. policies. Truman became much more suspicious of communist moves than Roosevelt had been, Truman and his advisers saw Soviet actions in Eastern Europe as aggressive expansionism which was incompatible with the agreements Stalin had committed to at Yalta the previous February. However, the Potsdam Conference marks the first and only time Truman would ever meet Stalin in person, at the end of the conference, the three Heads of Government agreed on the following actions. All other issues were to be answered by the peace conference to be called as soon as possible. Allied Chiefs of Staff at the Potsdam Conference decided to temporarily partition Vietnam at the 16th parallel for the purposes of operational convenience. It was agreed that British forces would take the surrender of Japanese forces in Saigon for the half of Indochina. The Allies issued a statement of aims of their occupation of Germany, Germany and Austria were to be divided respectively into four occupation zones, and similarly each capital, Berlin and Vienna, was to be divided into four zones. It was agreed that the Nazi war criminals would be put to trial, all German annexations in Europe were to be reversed, including Sudetenland, Alsace-Lorraine, Austria, and the westernmost parts of Poland. Germanys eastern border was to be shifted westwards to the Oder–Neisse line, the territories east of the new border comprised East Prussia, Silesia, West Prussia, and two thirds of Pomerania
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Iran crisis of 1946
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In 1941, Iran had been jointly invaded and occupied by the Allied powers of the Soviet Red Army in the north and by the British in the centre and south. Iran was used by the Americans and the British as a route to provide vital supplies to the Soviet Unions war efforts. As of August 1941, the United States was a nation and had not yet entered as a belligerent in World War II. In the aftermath of the occupation of Iran, those Allied forces agreed to withdraw from Iran within six months after the cessation of hostilities. However, when this came in early 1946, the Soviets, under Joseph Stalin, remained in Iran. In late 1945, in addition to the Peoples Republic of Azerbaijan, negotiation by Iranian premier Ahmad Qavam and diplomatic pressure on the Soviets by the United States eventually led to Soviet withdrawal. The crisis is seen as one of the conflicts in the growing Cold War at the time. As a result, Rezā Shāh was forced to abdicate and exiled to Mauritius, his son, Mohammad Reza Pahlavi, throughout the rest of the war, the United Kingdom and the United States used Iran as an important supply line to the Soviet war effort against Nazi Germany. Thirty thousand non-combatant US troops arrived to move supplies. Following VJ Day in September 1945, first the US and then the UK withdrew their forces within the treaty-stipulated period, the Soviets not only violated the March 2 withdrawal deadline, in that time they had expanded their military presence southward. The Azerbaijani Democratic Party was formed in September 1945 and headed by Jafar Pishevari, the ADP expanded throughout Iranian Azerbaijan, and initiated a local coup détat with help from the Soviet army, who prevented the Iranian army from intervening. The only Prime Minister of this republic was Ahmad Kordary. Though the Soviets initially supported the new entity and prevented the Iranian army from restoring governmental control over the area. After the Soviet withdrawal, Iranian troops entered the region in December 1946 and Pishevari, the Mahabad Republic was proclaimed in December 1945. Leading the nascent Kurdish republic and fully endorsed by the Soviets, was Qazi Muhammad, despite Soviet opposition, Mullah Mustafa Barzani came to play an important role in the newly created military force of the Mahabad Republic - the Peshmerga. With Barzanis support secured, along with some 60 tribal Kurdish leaders, the Kurdish forces were advised and organized by Soviet military officer Captain Salahuddin Kazimov. The Soviets extended their influence by sending at least 60 Kurds to Soviet Azerbaijan for additional military training, in total, the Mahabad army consisted of 70 active duty officers,40 non-commissioned officers, and 1,200 lower-enlisted privates. The Mahabad peshmerga also engaged Iranian reconnaissance teams in the region throughout early May 1946, Kurdish offensives were limited to minor skirmishes due to the removal of Soviet influence in the region that month, possibly due to a Soviet-Iranian oil agreement
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Turkish Straits crisis
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The Turkish Straits crisis was a Cold War-era territorial conflict between the Soviet Union and Turkey. As the Turkish government would not submit to the Soviet Unions requests, tensions arose in the region, the incident would later serve as a deciding factor in the issuing of the Truman Doctrine. At its climax, the tensions would cause Turkey to turn to the United States and NATO, for protection and membership, the result of this action contributed to the European post-war status quo that remains to this day. The conflict has its roots in Soviet-Turkish relations, both just prior to and during the Second World War, until the last half of the 1930s, Russian-Turkish relations were warm and somewhat fraternal. The previous incarnations of the two nations, the Ottoman Empire and Bolshevist Russia, had promised to cooperate with other in the Treaty of Moscow. It was the latest of several negotiations regarding the two waterways, previous treaties and conferences had materialized over the spans of the 19th and 20th centuries. The issue had been revived again with the rise of Fascist Italy, upon the treatys signing, on July 20,1936, Turkey was permitted to rearm and regulate the straits. The treaty also forbade the traversing of the straits by ships not belonging to any of the Black Sea states. Throughout the late 1930s and into the 1940s, Stalin repeatedly challenged the agreements reached by the 1936 convention and he proposed joint Turkish and Soviet control of the straits. The Soviet Union wished for the Turkish-USSR border within the Eastern Anatolia Region to be normalized in a way beneficial to themselves and the Armenian and Georgian SSRs. Deputy premier Lavrentiy Beria got in Stalins ear, claiming that Turkish territory to the southwest of Georgia was stolen from the Georgians by the Turks during the Ottoman period, the argument was retracted along with Soviet reservations over the regime of the straits in May 1953. After the Allied defeat of Nazi Germany, the Soviets returned to the issue in 1945 and 1946, throughout 1946, American and Turkish diplomats frequently conversed on the issue. The Soviets grew angry over Turkeys allowing of non-Black Sea naval vessels to cross the straits during the course of the war, the April 6,1946 visit of the American battleship USS Missouri further angered the Soviets. The ship had come to the region under the explanation that it was delivering the mortuary urn of the late Turkish Ambassador home and this drew attention to the occasions in which Italian and German warships had passed through the straits without conflict. The note concluded that the regime of the straits was no longer reliable and demanded that the Montreux Treaty be re-examined, in a secret telegram sent by US Under Secretary of State Dean Acheson to diplomats in Paris, he explained the American position on the matter. On August 20,1946, Undersecretary Acheson met with fifteen journalists to explain the urgency of the situation and make the opinions of the United States Government known. In the period of months from summer to autumn of 1946, a substantial number of ground troops were dispatched to the Balkans. Buckling under the pressure from the Soviets, in a matter of days Turkey appealed to the United States for aid
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First Indochina War
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The First Indochina War began in French Indochina on 19 December 1946 and lasted until 1 August 1954. Fighting between French forces and their Viet Minh opponents in the South dated from September 1945, Japanese forces located south of that line surrendered to him and those to the north surrendered to Generalissimo Chiang Kai-shek. In September 1945, Chinese forces entered Tonkin and a small British task force landed at Saigon, the Chinese accepted the Vietnamese government under Ho Chi Minh, then in power in Hanoi. The British refused to do likewise in Saigon, and deferred to the French there from the outset, on V-J Day, September 2, Ho Chi Minh had proclaimed in Hanoi the establishment of the Democratic Republic of Vietnam. On 23 September 1945, with the knowledge of the British Commander in Saigon, French forces overthrew the local DRV government, guerrilla warfare began around Saigon immediately. The first few years of the war involved a low-level rural insurgency against the French, French Union forces included colonial troops from the whole former empire, French professional troops and units of the French Foreign Legion. The use of metropolitan recruits was forbidden by the government to prevent the war from becoming more unpopular at home. It was called the dirty war by leftists in France, the strategy of pushing the Viet Minh into attacking well-defended bases in remote parts of the country at the end of their logistical trails was validated at the Battle of Nà Sản. However, this base was relatively weak because of a lack of concrete and this combination proved fatal for this base defenses, culminating in a decisive French defeat at the Battle of Dien Bien Phu. The south continued under Emperor Bảo Đại, a year later, Bảo Đại would be deposed by his prime minister, Ngô Đình Diệm, creating the Republic of Vietnam. Soon an insurgency, backed by the North, developed against Diệms government, the conflict gradually escalated into the Vietnam War. Vietnam was absorbed into French Indochina in stages between 1858 and 1887, nationalism grew until World War II provided a break in French control. Early Vietnamese resistance centered on the intellectual Phan Bội Châu, Châu looked to Japan, which had modernized and was one of the few Asian nations to successfully resist European colonization. With Prince Cường Để, Châu started two organizations in Japan, the Duy Tân hội and Vietnam Cong Hien Hoi, due to French pressure, Japan deported Phan Bội Châu to China. Witnessing Sun Yat-sens 1911 nationalist revolution, Châu was inspired to commence the Viet Nam Quang Phục Hội movement in Guangzhou, from 1914 to 1917, he was imprisoned by Yuan Shikais counterrevolutionary government. In 1925, he was captured by French agents in Shanghai, due to his popularity, Châu was spared from execution and placed under house arrest until his death in 1940. In September 1940, shortly after Phan Bội Châus death, Japan launched its invasion of French Indochina, keeping the French colonial administration, the Japanese ruled from behind the scenes in a parallel of Vichy France. As far as Vietnamese nationalists were concerned, this was a double-puppet government, Emperor Bảo Đại collaborated with the Japanese, just as he had with the French, ensuring his lifestyle could continue
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Cold War
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The Cold War was a state of geopolitical tension after World War II between powers in the Eastern Bloc and powers in the Western Bloc. Historians do not fully agree on the dates, but a common timeframe is the period between 1947, the year the Truman Doctrine was announced, and 1991, the year the Soviet Union collapsed. The term cold is used there was no large-scale fighting directly between the two sides, although there were major regional wars, known as proxy wars, supported by the two sides. The Cold War split the temporary alliance against Nazi Germany, leaving the Soviet Union. The USSR was a Marxist–Leninist state ruled by its Communist Party and secret police, the Party controlled the press, the military, the economy and all organizations. In opposition stood the West, dominantly democratic and capitalist with a free press, a small neutral bloc arose with the Non-Aligned Movement, it sought good relations with both sides. The two superpowers never engaged directly in full-scale armed combat, but they were armed in preparation for a possible all-out nuclear world war. The first phase of the Cold War began in the first two years after the end of the Second World War in 1945, the Berlin Blockade was the first major crisis of the Cold War. With the victory of the communist side in the Chinese Civil War and the outbreak of the Korean War, the USSR and USA competed for influence in Latin America, and the decolonizing states of Africa and Asia. Meanwhile, the Hungarian Revolution of 1956 was stopped by the Soviets, the expansion and escalation sparked more crises, such as the Suez Crisis, the Berlin Crisis of 1961, and the Cuban Missile Crisis of 1962. The USSR crushed the 1968 Prague Spring liberalization program in Czechoslovakia, détente collapsed at the end of the decade with the beginning of the Soviet–Afghan War in 1979. The early 1980s were another period of elevated tension, with the Soviet downing of Korean Air Lines Flight 007, the United States increased diplomatic, military, and economic pressures on the Soviet Union, at a time when the communist state was already suffering from economic stagnation. In the mid-1980s, the new Soviet leader Mikhail Gorbachev introduced the reforms of perestroika and glasnost. Pressures for national independence grew stronger in Eastern Europe, especially Poland, Gorbachev meanwhile refused to use Soviet troops to bolster the faltering Warsaw Pact regimes as had occurred in the past. The result in 1989 was a wave of revolutions that peacefully overthrew all of the communist regimes of Central, the Communist Party of the Soviet Union itself lost control and was banned following an abortive coup attempt in August 1991. This in turn led to the dissolution of the USSR in December 1991. The United States remained as the only superpower. The Cold War and its events have left a significant legacy and it is often referred to in popular culture, especially in media featuring themes of espionage and the threat of nuclear warfare
