In doing so, the Red Army was helped by its temporary American and British allies who were both fighting in the West and providing the Soviet Union with material assistance. (AP Photo, File)īy 1944, the Soviet Red Army had recovered Soviet territory from Germany and her Axis alliance partners, and was in a position to sweep across eastern Europe. In this early 1943 photo, captured German soldiers, their uniforms tattered from the battle, make their way in the bitter cold through the ruins of Stalingrad, Russia after the Axis surrender there. Nazi Germany’s ultimately unsuccessful invasion in June 1941 took place at a time when the Soviet Union and Nazi Germany were supposed to be allies, and the German aggression enhanced Russian mistrust of foreign promises. Soviet fears of the West’s military strength and other threats lasted for most of the history of the Soviet Union. During the Russian Civil War that lasted until 1921, western powers - primarily Great Britain, the United States, France and Canada - united against the new Bolshevik regime and sent troops to Russia.Īlthough the Bolsheviks were able to consolidate their power by 1921 and formed the Soviet Union at the end of the following year, there remained an obsession with the threat of being surrounded by hostile foreign powers. The Bolsheviks, however, were soon faced with - and became obsessed about - foreign threat. Russia’s last czar, Nicholas II, had recently abdicated his throne, and Vladimir Lenin and his Bolshevik Party would seize power from a short-lived provisional government only months later. Petersburg), as government forces open fire. In this July 1917 photo, bodies are seen on the main street in Petrograd (now St. The Russian economy just wasn’t up to fighting a modern industrial war, and the czarist regime had managed to alienate itself from almost every major segment of the Russian population. Bolshevik RevolutionĪll of this in many ways culminated with the Bolshevik Revolution of October 1917 - made possible thanks to Russian weaknesses during the First World War. Before long, repressive measures against previously content national minorities within the Russian empire, such as the Finns, exacerbated internal problems. Indeed, an uprising in 1825 against the new czar, Nicholas I, by the so-called Decembrists was seen as having been influenced by western ideas that had been brought back from the war against Napoleon.įor much of the remainder of the 19th and early 20th century, Russian czars fought a battle to preserve a Russian way of life they believed was under threat from foreign ideas.Īt times, the foreign threat was again a military one, as in the Crimean War of 1854-55. Russian soldiers had seen some of the rest of Europe, and were thought by Russian conservatives to be bringing back dangerous western ideas that might undermine the status quo in Russia. While the defeat of Napoleon brought Russia some military security, it didn’t bring psychological security for the czars. Russia under Czar Alexander I was at the height of its power and influence. By 1814, Russian troops were in Paris, an important element in the coalition against Napoleon. Russia defeated Napoleon Bonaparte’s invasion of 1812 even though Napoleon’s forces reached Moscow.
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