Why is Russia such an asshole? Is it the West's fault? (Part 1) 1721-1950

This is part 1 of a series on Russia. This covers Russian Empire to Start of Cold War

Russian Empire

Although Russia is a very old state, its borders and the nations it encompasses has changed many times. Here’s the Russian Empire and its borders (1721-1917).

The Russian Empire was a conquering empire that encompassed the modern borders of Russia, Ukraine, Belarus, Kazakhstan, Poland, Lithuania, Estonia, Latvia, Finland, parts of Sweden, Georgia, Moldova, Azerbaijan, Armenia, Uzbekistan, Turkmenistan, some islands near Japan, Kyrgyzstan, Tajikistan, and parts of modern day Turkey.

The Russian Empire has declared war many times with different nations like: Sweden, Turkey(Ottoman Empire), Iran(Persia), Japan, and etc for those borders..

Soviet Union (Union of Soviet Socialist Republics) - USSR

During WW1, Russia had two revolutions. This “February Revolution” led by liberal democrats, then the “October Revolution” led the communists/Bolsheviks under Vladimir Lenin revolted against the Russian empire in 1917 and Poland and Finland declared independence from Russia. The Russian empire died and became Soviet Russia. Crimea, Ukraine, Lithuania, Armenia, Georgia, Moldova, and etc. managed to become temporarily independent. During the communist revolution, Japan, The U.S., France, The UK and even Canada invaded Russia to help the liberal democrats. Germany ,Turkey, & Austria-Hungary were at war with Russia and funded secessionist movements for Estonia, Latvia, Lithuania, Poland, Finland and Ukrainian independence. But Lenin managed to beat the liberal democrats, leave world war 1, kick out Japan, Turkey, the West, Germany & Austria-Hungary and annex most of the seceded territory and create the Soviet Union in 1922. Lenin died in 1924 and Stalin took over. The fact that foreign countries easily invaded Russia, has scared the shit out of Stalin ever since. How can Russia make sure America, Germany, Hungary, Turkey, UK, France, and Canada never invade again? Easy, invade, occupy and subjugate nearby lands (man it’s like history repeats itself right?)

During WW2, Hitler and Stalin made a pact to destroy and take parts of Poland. So they did but eventually Hitler declared war on USSR and encroached on Soviet Belarus & Ukraine because, besides killing Jews, Hitler had a plan to enslave, depopulate, and murder all Slavic people. (Nazism saw Slavs as inferior… So if you ever meet a Slavic Nazi… That’s like being a Black KKK member). As the allied forces slowly beat Hitler, this allowed Stalin to annex more territory. Stalin took back Ukraine, Belarus, Moldova, Estonia, Latvia, Lithuania, a part of East Germany (Kalingrad Oblast), and attempted to take Finland.

The Soviet Union was 15 republics: Russia, Ukraine, Belarus, Armenia, Azerbaijan, Georgia, Moldova, & Stan regions (Kazakhstan, Turkmenistan, Tajikistan, Uzbekistan, Kyrgyzstan), the Baltics (Estonia, Latvia, Lithuania),

When it was getting obvious that Hitler was a idiot blitzed off cocaine and couldn’t beat the allied forces, Stalin, FDR, and Churchill spoke about what would happen to Europe post-WW2. They had a conference in Yalta, Crimea, Soviet Union. UK, U.S. and Soviet Union had different agendas.

• FDR wanted Soviet support to beat Japan and USSR to join the United Nations.

• Churchill wanted Stalin to not invade or influence the liberated European nations in Central and Eastern Europe (especially Poland).

• Stalin wanted to spread Soviet influence on Central and Eastern Europe to protect Soviet borders after WW2. To Stalin, he didn’t see Poland as a country, but rather a buffer region from invasion. Remember I mentioned earlier that during WW1 in the Russian civil war, America, Japan, Canada, France, and UK easily invaded Russia? Stalin was not going to risk that happening again. He was determined to have buffer states and allies.

• Stalin said “sure we’ll have free and democratic elections in Poland” to UK and US, meanwhile he funded a communist party that took over Poland. The conference also focused breaking up Germany to 4 territories controlled by France, UK, U.S. (West Germany) and Soviet Union (East Germany), war reparations, and denazification. As for the liberated nations of Eastern Europe, America & UK tried to tell Soviet Union to let eastern Europe have “free and fair elections” .

But Stalin bent the “liberated” east European countries to his will. During WW2, USSR occupied Estonia, Latvia, and Lithuania, killed their anti-communists, and incorporated them into the Soviet Union. Stalin orders his troops to murder and mass deport 20K to 60K anti-communist Estonians, Latvians, and Lithuanians to keep them the Soviet Union. An action which America said was fucking illegal.

Post WW2 to 1955

Then, Stalin murdered and deported democrats/liberals/capitalist parties, funded communist parties, and/or rigged elections in the liberated nations of East Germany, Poland, Romania, Albania, Bulgaria, Czechoslovakia (modern day Czech Republic & Slovakia), and Yugoslavia (modern day Bosnia, Kosovo, Serbia, Croatia, North Macedonia, Slovenia), and replaced them with communist cronies. The aforementioned 7 countries were independent nominally, but were basically puppets from Moscow. Stalin was also funding communists in Italy and France, which wasn’t as successful. We can also talk about American and Russian intervention in Africa & Asia, but we will focus on Europe for this series.

In 1947, America started to counter Soviet intelligence by using their brand new intelligence agency, the CIA, to fund the Christian Democrats to counteract Soviet funding in Italy so Italy can remain a capitalist, democratic country. America & UK also funded the Monarchists in the Greek Civil war, while the USSR funded the Greek communists . The Greek commies also received support from Russia’s friends Bulgaria, Albania & Yugoslavia (1946-1949).

One of the reasons Russia made these nations satellite states were to protect its borders (an issue America never needs to think about since its protected by two oceans, and has significantly weaker nations to its North and South. ) Meanwhile, the Soviet Union lost almost~30M people in WW2. For Russia, the entrance to West Russia is completely flat - the north European plain right from Belgium to Netherlands to Northern Germany to Poland to Moscow. These weak borders motivated the Soviet Union to create buffer states, add territory, and demand land frm other nations after WW2. As an example, the Soviet Union demanded that Turkey gives up some of its territory that it “stole” from Russia back when the Republic of Turkey was the Turkish Ottoman Empire (1946-1953). (Russian antagonism is the key reason why Turkey joins NATO).

The North European Plain -So that’s how Hitler easily invaded.

1945-1950, The Cold War

When it comes to Superpowers, they need to cooperate and balance relationships. U.S., France and UK didn’t always get along, and not all the satellite states get along with Russia. Tito of Yugoslavia broke ties with Stalin (Tito-Stalin split of 1948). Also, UK, Israel, and France got pissed at America since Eisenhower didn’t help them overthrow Nasser in Egypt and take the Suez Canal in 1956. America and Russia had to basically bribe their allies with money and military support to maintain relationships.

• The US:

  • In 1948, the US made the Marshall Plan aiding Portugal, UK, Ireland, Norway, Austria, Belgium, Denmark, France, West Germany, Iceland, Italy, Luxembourg, Netherlands, Sweden, and Switzerland.

  • In 1949, America made NATO: Formed by America, Canada, France, UK, Portugal, Belgium, Italy, Luxembourg, Norway, Netherlands, Denmark and Iceland (1949)

• The USSR

  • In 1949, the USSR made the Council for Mutual Economic Assistance to give economic aid to Bulgaria, Cuba, Czechoslovakia, East Germany, Mongolia, Poland, Romania, & Vietnam.

  • USSR, Albania, Bulgaria, Czechoslovakia, East Germany, Hungary, Poland and Romania made the Warsaw Pact which put all nations under the Soviet Union’s nuclear umbrella (1955)

    Also, Germany and Austria were split occupied by the American & the Soviet Union. Part two is here: