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The Cold War period saw a global ideological struggle between the communist bloc, led by the Soviet Union, and the capitalist West, led by the United States. The eventual dissolution of the Soviet Union in 1991 marked a significant decline in the global influence of communism, though the ideology persists in some countries and continues to ...
An animated series of maps showing the fall of the communist regimes in Eastern Europe and the dissolution of the Soviet Union, which later led to conflicts in the post-Soviet space By the late 1980s, people in the Caucasus and Baltic states were demanding more autonomy from Moscow , and the Kremlin was losing some of its control over certain ...
World War II, known as "the Great Patriotic War" by Soviet historians, devastated much of the USSR, with about one out of every three World War II deaths representing a citizen of the Soviet Union. In the course of World War II, the Soviet Union's armies occupied Eastern Europe, where they established or supported Communist puppet governments.
Before World War II, no greater than 1%–2% of those countries' trade was with the Soviet Union. [174] By 1953, the share of such trade had jumped to 37%. [174] In 1947, Joseph Stalin had also denounced the Marshall Plan and forbade all Eastern Bloc countries from participating in it. [175]
On 23 August 1939, the Soviet Union signed a non-aggression pact with Germany which included a secret protocol that divided Eastern Europe into German and Soviet spheres of influence, anticipating potential "territorial and political rearrangements" of these countries. [2] Germany invaded Poland on 1 September 1939, starting World War II.
The Union of Soviet Socialist Republics [r] (USSR), [s] commonly known as the Soviet Union, [t] was a transcontinental country that spanned much of Eurasia from 1922 to 1991. . During its existence, it was the largest country by area, extending across eleven time zones and sharing borders with twelve countries, and the third-most populous co
The Soviet Union played a crucial role in the Allied victory in World War II, but at a tremendous human cost, with millions of Soviet citizens perishing in the conflict. The Soviet Union emerged as one of the world's two superpowers, leading the Eastern Bloc in opposition to the Western Bloc during the Cold War.
[3] [4] This was to have a phenomenal impact on the spread of communism during the 20th century as the Soviet Union installed new Marxist–Leninist governments in Central and Eastern Europe following World War II and indirectly backed the ascension of others in the Americas, Asia and Africa. [1]