Changes

The USSR, the primary member of which was communist-era [[Russia]], was established by [[Vladimir Ilyich Ulyanov]] (Russian: Владимир Ильич Улянов), known by his ''nom de guerre'' of [[Lenin]], in 1922 following the overthrow of the [[czar|tsarist ]] [[Russian Empire]] in the [[Russian Revolution]], and the ensuing [[Russian Civil War]]. It allowed one central government under Lenin to control many republics, including the original members of [[Ukraine]], [[Belarus]], [[Russia]] and the republics of the Trans-Caucasian region. The Union of Soviet Socialist Republics became a multi-national entity that eventually included 15 republics: Russia (the RSFSR), [[Latvia]], [[Lithuania]], [[Estonia]], [[Ukraine]], [[Belarus]], [[Georgia]], [[Azerbaijan]], [[Armenia]], [[Uzbekistan]], [[Tajikistan]], [[Kyrgyzstan]], [[Turkmenistan]], [[Kazakhstan]], and [[Moldova]].

Upon Lenin's death, a power struggle ensued between [[Leon Trotsky]] and [[Joseph Stalin]], two influential officials during Lenin's tenure. Stalin eventually gained the upper hand in the fight, and forced Trotsky into exile; he Trotsky was eventually assassinated in [[Mexico]] in 1940. By 1932, the standard of living of average Soviet workers was lower than that of the unemployed in Western countries. Tens of thousands had been shot as dissenters and as “speculators,” i.e., for engaging in [[free market]] trade. <ref>[http://www.independent.org/publications/article.asp?id=1468 ''FDR: The Man, the Leader, the Legacy''], Ralph Raico, Future of Freedom Foundation, April 1, 2001. Retrieved from The Independent Institute.org 06/17/07.</ref> The [[Gulag]] was rapidly filling up with millions condemned to hunger and death. And then came the great terror-famine of 1932–33. In this forgotten [[democide]], some five or six or more millions died of starvation and diseases resulting from malnutrition, mostly in the Ukraine, but also in the North Caucasus and other regions. From the villages stretching across this vast area, state functionaries nervously informed Moscow that conditions were so bad that cannibalism was becoming common.

On the eve of [[World War II]] came the [[Great Purge]], in which Stalin disposed of all followers of Lenin and Trotsky. The liquidation of the military leadership had important ramifications after the Germans [[Nazi Germany]] invaded in 1941, and is largely accredited as the cause of the USSR's unpreparedness and setbacks in the early part of the War.

During the Second World War, the USSR was invaded by [[Nazi Germany]]. [[Adolf Hitler]] was an outspoken anti-Communist and longed to crush Russia. The German army, however, failed to capture [[Moscow]], mostly due to the harsh Russian winter. Over twelve million Russians died in the Second World War.

Soviet ambitions in [[China ]] as early as 1921 were to transform all northern China — [[Sinkiang]], [[Mongolia]] and [[Manchuria]] — into outright Russian dependencies and to convert what remained of China into a Communist satellite.<ref>''While You Slept : Our Tragedy in Asia and Who Made It'', John T. Flynn, New York : The Devin - Adair Company, 1951, [http://www.mises.org/books/whileyouslept.pdf pg. 17] pdf.</ref>

Later the USSR would oppose the [[United States]] by providing aid to enemies in direct conflict. In 1971 the 1960s the USSR provided heavy arms shipments to Egypt and Syria that were used in their 1967 war with [[Israel]]. Although the two Arab nations were routed the Soviets would replenish the arms lost. Soviet military assistance aided North Vietnam in the 1960s and 1970s during the [[Vietnam War]].

In 1979 Soviet forces entered [[Afghanistan]] to support that government against Islamic fundamentalist Mujahideen rebels. These rebels found support from the United States, [[Saudi Arabia]], [[Pakistan ]] and other [[Muslim ]] nations. By 1989 the Soviets withdrew with some 14,000 killed and 53,000 troops woundedduring the course of the conflict. This , along with the economic cost needed to keep up with the increasing United States military under [[Ronald Reagan]], helped lead to the disintegration of the Soviet Union. (Only 80,000 - 140,000 troops were in Afghanistan at any given time.)<ref>The World Almanac, Global Press, 1999</ref>

Considered by many as the second or third most critical single incident of the Cold War, after the [[Cuban Missile Crisis]] of 1962 and [[Able Archer 83]], the shooting down of [[Korean Airlines Flight 007]] on Sept. 1, 1983 would signal a change in the relations between the U.S. and the Soviet Union prompted by the subsequent deployment of Pershing and cruise missiles in [[West Germany ]] just 6 minutes from launch to Moscow. This precipitated the era of confrontation of 1983 and 1984 between the two nations. The world would once again witness what it saw as the blatent barbarity of what President Reagan had termed the "Evil Empire". Though the world had accepted that KAL 007 had exploded and crashed with no survivors of the 269 passengers and crew, there has most recently surfaced evidence to the contrary [http://www.rescue007.org/].

The Soviet Union eventually imploded after a series of economic and political reforms known as [[Glasnost]] and perestroika introduced by the last Chairman of the [[Communist Party of the Soviet Union]] (CPSU), [[Mikhail Gorbachev]], in the 1980s. As previously mentioned, the Soviet Union was also strategically weakened by its engagement in Afghanistanand the need to keep up with the United States military under Reagan, which it could not do. The USSR was formally dissolved in 1991 by [[Boris Yeltsin]]. The [[successor state|successor states]] to the Soviet Union are the [[Russian Federation]], and the other members of the [[Commonwealth of Independent States]].