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*[[Soviet Republic of Naissaar]] [[1917]]-[[1918]]
*[[Soviet Republic of Naissaar]] [[1917]]-[[1918]]
*[[Finnish Socialist Workers Republic]] [[1918]]
*[[Finnish Socialist Workers Republic]] [[1918]]
*[[Alsace Soviet Republick]] [[1918]]
*[[Alsace Soviet Republic]] [[1918]]
*[[Slovak Soviet Republic]] [[1918]]-[[1919]]
*[[Slovak Soviet Republic]] [[1918]]-[[1919]]
*[[Hungarian Soviet Republic]] [[1919]]
*[[Hungarian Soviet Republic]] [[1919]]

Revision as of 01:20, 25 December 2006

Map showing states that had communist governments during the Cold War in bright red, and other states the USSR believed to be "moving toward socialism" in dark red

Soviet Empire was a controversial, politically charged and pejorative term used to critically describe the actions and nature of the Soviet Union. It gained popularity after U.S. President Ronald Reagan famously denounced the USSR as an "evil empire" in a 1982 speech to the United Kingdom House of Commons.

Motivation of the term

Though it was not ruled by an emperor and declared itself anti-imperialist, the Soviet Union exhibited certain tendencies common to historic empires:

  • Territorial expansion through invasion or subversion (e.g.: Poland, Finland, Baltic States).
  • Strong central government controlling the governments of subsidiary and satellite territories.
  • Interference (including through the use of military force) in the internal politics of its allies (see histories of Czechoslovakia, Hungary, Poland).

For these reasons and others, the Soviet Union is sometimes considered by certain historians[citation needed] to be one of the main empires of history, equal to such notables as the British Empire and the Roman Empire, and borrowing some of the foreign policy of the Tsarist Russian Empire that it replaced. Supporters of the Soviet Union (mostly intellectuals or Communist parties aligned with it, such as Cuba), meanwhile, reject such claims and argue that the relationship between the Soviet Union and countries within its "empire" was in fact one of voluntary cooperation.


The Soviet sphere of influence

Though there never was any formal "Soviet Empire", the Soviet Union did exert a strong influence over a number of nations, covering 52.2% of the Earth's surface area[citation needed]. Dwarfing, by far, the British Empire which claimed to be the largest ever. Thus, the Soviet Empire was said to consist of the following:

Member states of the Soviet Union

See also Republics of the Soviet Union

Members of Comecon

These countries were the closest allies of the Soviet Union. They were members of the Comecon, a Soviet-led economic community founded in 1949. In addition, the ones located in Eastern Europe were also members of the Warsaw Pact. They were sometimes called the Eastern bloc in English and were widely viewed as Soviet satellite states.

North Korea was a Soviet ally, but always followed a highly isolationist foreign policy and therefore it did not join the Comecon or any other international organization of Communist states.

Soviet involvement in other countries

In the political terminology of the Soviet Union, these were "countries moving along the socialist road of development", as opposed to the "countries of developed socialism", listed above. Most received some aid, either military or economic, from the Soviet Union, and were influenced by it to varying degrees. Their support for the Soviet Union was short lived for various reasons; in some cases the pro-Soviet government lost power, while in other cases the same government remained in power but changed its relations with the Soviet Union.

Some of these countries were not Communist states. They are marked in italic.

Communist states opposed to the Soviet Union

Some Communist states were openly opposed to the Soviet Union and many of its policies. Though their forms of government may have been similar, they were completely sovereign from the USSR and held only formal ties. Relations were often tense, sometimes even to the point of armed conflict.

Sino-Soviet Split

The Red states represent Communist governments aligned to the Soviet Union. The Yellow states represents Communist governments aligned with the People's Republic of China, which were Albania, Cambodia, and the Communist Party of Indonesia. The Black states (North Korea and Yugoslavia) represent the communist nations that were not aligned with either.

The Sino-Soviet split greatly ruptured the so-called international Communist movement, when China broke away from the theoritical Soviet Empire. Before the split in the late 1950s, it could be said the People's Republic of China was one of the Soviet Union's closest and most powerful communist ally, despite China being a developing nation. The Sino-Soviet split complicated the Cold War by opening a possible new front for the Soviet Union, and creating a triangular relationship between the Soviet Union, the United States, and China. The communist great powers were no longer united against their "capitalist" enemies. Although Albania and Pol Pot's regime in Cambodia decided to side with China, most of the communist nations stuck with the Soviet Union, which would also lead to armed conflict between China and Vietnam (supported by the Soviet Union). The Maoist faction was nowhere near as powerful as the Soviet faction in the Communist world, but was a significant threat the Soviets had to contend with.

See also

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