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— CH. 1 · INTERWAR EXPANSION AND SATELLITE STATES —

Soviet involvement in regime change

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  • In August 1921, Soviet forces crossed the border into Mongolia to rescue a fragile revolution. The Red Army moved from multiple directions to capture key locations while fighting against Roman Ungern Von Sternberg, a White Army commander who had conquered the country by February 1921. Sternberg fled back toward the USSR and was captured on the 15th of September 1921. He was killed shortly after his capture. This intervention helped establish the People's Republic of Mongolia, which existed until 1992. The Soviets kept Bogd Khan as a constitutional monarch initially to maintain good relations with China. When Khan died in 1924, the revolutionary government declared no reincarnations would be accepted.

    The same year, 1929, saw a different kind of takeover in Tannu Tuva. Prime Minister Donduk Kuular, a former Lama, tried to make Buddhism the state religion and resist Soviet collectivization policies. Joseph Stalin found this alarming and irritating. The Soviet Union encouraged the Revolutionary Union of Youth movement and educated many members at the Communist University of the Toilers of the East. In January 1929, five youths launched a coup with Soviet support. They deposed Kuular, imprisoned him, and later executed him. Salchak Toka became the new head of state. A purge followed targeting aristocrats, Buddhists, intellectuals, and political dissidents. Many monasteries were destroyed during this period.

  • On the 30th of November 1939, the Soviet Union invaded Finland three months after World War II began. The conflict ended on the 13th of March 1940, with the Moscow Peace Treaty. Finland ceded 11 percent of its territory, representing 30 percent of its economy, to the Soviet Union. Temperatures dropped as low as minus 43 degrees Celsius during the fighting. The Red Army suffered heavy losses but gained substantial territory along Lake Ladoga and in northern Finland. This poor performance encouraged Adolf Hitler to believe an attack on the Soviet Union would succeed.

    The war shifted dramatically when Germany attacked the USSR on the 22nd of June 1941. By the 8th of August 1945, Soviet foreign minister Vyacheslav Molotov informed Japanese ambassador Naotake Satō that the Soviet government considered itself at war with Japan. The invasion began the next day, exactly three months after Germany's surrender. Marshal Vasilevsky had reported to Premier Joseph Stalin on August 3 that he could attack by August 5 if necessary. Soviet forces entered Manchukuo on the 9th of August 1945, making it the last campaign of World War II. This operation was the largest of the 1945 Soviet-Japanese War and resumed hostilities after almost six years of peace.

  • In June 1940, the Soviet Union occupied Estonia, Latvia, and Lithuania under the auspices of the 1939 Molotov-Ribbentrop Pact. These states were incorporated into the Soviet Union as constituent republics in August 1940. Most Western powers never recognized their incorporation. Nazi Germany occupied these territories from 1941 to 1944 before the Red Army recaptured them during the Baltic Offensive of 1944. The Soviet annexation occupation lasted until August 1991 when the countries regained independence.

    The Soviet Union also invaded Poland from the east on the 17th of September 1939, sixteen days after Germany attacked from the west. Military operations ended on the 6th of October 1939, with the two-way division of the Second Polish Republic. Roughly 320,000 Polish prisoners of war had been captured. Around 13.5 million Polish citizens became new Soviet subjects following show elections conducted by the NKVD secret police. A campaign of political murders targeted military officers, police, and priests. Hundreds of thousands of people were sent to Siberia and other remote parts of the Soviet Union in four major waves of deportation between 1939 and 1941.

  • In March 1945, Soviet representatives pressured King Michael I of Romania into appointing Petru Groza as Prime Minister. Groza was the candidate put forward by the communist alliance. The king only ruled as a figurehead while the Romanian Communist Party took control. In 1947, the government forced the King to abdicate and leave the country. The Parliament declared the Romanian People's Republic in Bucharest. The Soviet Army presence continued until 1958.

    Hungary followed a similar pattern after World War II. On the 13th of February 1945, Soviet forces captured Budapest. In the 1945 Hungarian parliamentary election, the Independent Smallholders Party won 57 percent of the vote while the Hungarian Communist Party won only 17 percent. Soviet forces refused to allow the winning party to take power. Communists took control through a coup. Their rule saw the Stalinization of the country. Dissidents were sent to Gulags in the Soviet Union. The Security Police known as the State Protection Authority (AVO) began targeting members of non-communist parties in February 1947. By June 1948, Social Democrats were forced to fuse with communists to form the Hungarian Working People's Party.

  • In 1960, Belgium, the United States, and other countries covertly overthrew Prime Minister Patrice Lumumba in Congo-Leopoldville. A new government called the Free Republic of Congo formed in Stanleyville with support from the Soviet Union. Maoist Pierre Mulele began the Kwilu Rebellion while Christopher Gbenye and Gaston Soumialot led the Simbas in the Eastern Congo. The Soviet Union implored neighboring nationalistic governments to aid the rebels but rarely replaced all weaponry given to them.

    The Soviet leadership transported equipment by air to Juba in allied Sudan. From there, Sudanese brought weapons to Congo. This operation backfired when Southern Sudan was invaded in the First Sudanese Civil War. Sudanese Anyanya insurgents ambushed Soviet-Sudanese supply convoys and took the weapons for themselves. When the CIA learned of these attacks, it allied with the Anyanya. The Congolese government expelled Soviet embassy personnel in July 1964. Che Guevara went to fight alongside future leader Laurent-Desire Kabila in 1965.

  • A study indicated that the Soviet Union and Russia engaged in 36 interventions in foreign elections from 1946 to 2000. These operations occurred within the context of international law which legally bound the Soviet government to the UN Charter's provisions including Article 2(4). This article prohibits the threat or use of force in international relations except in very limited circumstances. Any legal claim advanced to justify regime change by a foreign power carries a particularly heavy burden.

    During the Vietnam War, some 3,300 Soviet military experts were sent to Southeast Asia. Rumors persisted that men with blue eyes were spotted doing recon missions and testing new SVD Dragunov sniper rifles. John Stryker Meyer had two encounters with what he believed were spetsnaz units operating in Laos in 1968. Their mission included helping a communist nation defeat an American ally while testing sophisticated radars and missiles directly against American aircraft. Soviets recovered at least two very important pieces of American intelligence gear including a cryptographic code machine and an F-111A escape capsule.

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Foreign relations of the Soviet Union

Common questions

When did Soviet forces cross the border into Mongolia to rescue a fragile revolution?

Soviet forces crossed the border into Mongolia in August 1921. The Red Army moved from multiple directions to capture key locations while fighting against Roman Ungern Von Sternberg, who had conquered the country by February 1921.

What happened to Prime Minister Donduk Kuular during the 1929 takeover in Tannu Tuva?

Five youths launched a coup with Soviet support in January 1929 and deposed Donduk Kuular. They imprisoned him and later executed him after he tried to make Buddhism the state religion and resist Soviet collectivization policies.

How much territory did Finland cede to the Soviet Union following the Moscow Peace Treaty on the 13th of March 1940?

Finland ceded 11 percent of its territory representing 30 percent of its economy to the Soviet Union. This agreement ended the conflict that began when the Soviet Union invaded Finland on the 30th of November 1939.

Which countries were incorporated into the Soviet Union as constituent republics in August 1940 under the Molotov-Ribbentrop Pact?

The Soviet Union occupied Estonia, Latvia, and Lithuania in June 1940. These states were incorporated into the Soviet Union as constituent republics in August 1940 before regaining independence in August 1991.

When did the Soviet Union invade Poland from the east relative to Germany's attack from the west?

The Soviet Union invaded Poland from the east on the 17th of September 1939, sixteen days after Germany attacked from the west. Military operations ended on the 6th of October 1939 with the two-way division of the Second Polish Republic.

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