Communist Bloc (The Three-Way War)

The Communist Bloc of the Second World War, also referred to as the Red Alliance or simply "The Reds", was the alliance of nations that fought against the Allied Nations and the Anti-Comintern Powers. The Communist Bloc presented itself as a force standing against, in the words of Joseph Stalin "imperialism (the Allies) and fascism (the Anti-Comintern powers)".

Initially consisting solely of the Soviet Union and its Mongolian satellite state, the Communist Bloc soon gained the support of the Communist Party of China and its guerilla forces. As the Soviet Union's military forces pushed further into eastern Europe at the opening of the war, Finland, the Baltic states and Poland joined the alliance. Afghanistan, too, joined the Bloc in 1944 following a Soviet-backed revolution. At the end of the war, the Treaty of Tehran saw the countries of the Communist Bloc join the United Nations, though they were frequently opposed to the former Allied nations with whom they shared the organization.