Union of Soviet Socialist Republics (Central Victory)

The Russian Soviet Federative Socialist Republic (RSFSR) was a constitutionally socialist state that existed in Eurasia from 1918 to 1950. The common short name is Russia. A soviet is a council, the theoretical basis for the socialist society of the RSFSR.

The RSFSR emerged in the wake of World War I, when the Old Russian Empire collapsed during the Russian Revolution. After a chaotic period known as the Russian Civil War, Vladimir Lenin, the Bolshevik Party, gained power over most of the Old Russian Empire. After Lenin's death, the power eventually went to Josef Stalin, who with his command economy and brutal methods got the country through a large-scale industrialization. The RSFSR led an aggressive and expansionist foreign policy and attacked a number of countries. The RSFSR built up a massive army and invaded its lost territories in 1939. During the war, Russia conquered and occupied most of eastern Europe, the Caucasus and parts of the Middle East. The Russians persecuted and murdered millions of Jews and other minorities in the Holocaust. Despite an alliance with other nations, mainly France and Britain, the Allies, by 1945, Russia had been defeated and occupied by the Axis powers, Germany, Finland, and Japan.

World War I
In 1914 Russia entered World War I in response to Austria-Hungary's declaration of war on Russia's ally Serbia, and fought across multiple fronts while isolated from its Entente allies. The Russian army achieved such successes as the Brusilov Offensive in 1916, destroying the military of Austria-Hungary almost completely.

However, the already-existing public distrust of the regime was deepened by the rising costs of war, casualties (Russia suffered the highest number of both military and civilian deaths of the Entente Powers), and rumors of corruption and treason, leading to the outbreak of the Russian Revolution of 1917, carried out in two major acts.

A series of uprisings were organized by workers and peasants throughout the country, as well as by soldiers in the Russian army, who were mainly of peasant origin; many of them were led by democratically elected councils called Soviets. This first revolution, or February Revolution, overthrew the Russian monarchy, which was replaced by a shaky coalition of political parties that declared itself the Provisional Government.

The abdication of Nicholas II marked the end of imperial rule in Russia; the last Tsar and his family were imprisoned and later executed during the Civil War. While initially receiving the support of the Soviets, the Provisional Government proved unable to resolve many problems which had led to the February Revolution. The second revolution, the October Revolution, led by Bolshevik leader Vladimir Lenin, overthrew the Provisional Government and created the world’s first socialist state.

Following the October Revolution, a civil war broke out between the new regime and the counter-revolutionary White movement, while the Treaty of Brest-Litovsk concluded hostilities with the Central Powers in World War I. Russia lost its Ukrainian, Polish, Baltic, Finnish and Caucasian territories by signing the treaty.

Interwar period
By the end of the Russian Civil War the Russian economy and infrastructure were heavily damaged. During the same period, the famine of 1921 claimed 5 million victims. Following Lenin's death in 1924, Joseph Stalin, an elected General Secretary of the Communist Party, managed to put down all opposition groups within the party and consolidate much power in his hands. Leon Trotsky, the main proponent of the world revolution, was exiled from Russia in 1929, and Stalin's idea of socialism in one country became the primary line. In 1930s a number of open political trials gained much attention in Russia and the world. The continued internal struggle in the Bolshevik party culminated in the Great Purge, a period of mass repressions in 1937-38, in which hundreds of thousands of people were executed, including experienced military leadership.

Since the end of 1920s, the government launched a planned economy, rapid industrialization of the largely rural country, and collectivization of its agriculture. Millions of citizens were relocated during the dekulakization campaign that accompanied the collectivization. Millions of people passed through the Gulag from 1929 to 1945, with millions more being deported and exiled to remote areas of Russia. The temporary transitional disorganisation of the country's agriculture, combined with the harsh state policies and a drought, led to the famine of 1932–1933. However, though with a heavy price, Russia was transformed from an agrarian economy to a major industrial powerhouse in a short span of time.

In 1933, in Germany, Hitler and his national people's party came to power, being outspoken enemies of communism and proponents of German expansion. Very soon the Russian foreign policy changed dramatically, completely dropping the idea of seeking the world revolution (the very mention of it was eradicated from the new 1936 Russian Constitution). Russian diplomacy tried to establish counter-German security pacts with major European countries, but these attempts were discovered and failed.

Germany's military reforms and expansions put a threat of war to the Russian SFSR. Around the same time the German allied with Japanese Empire, a rival of Russia on the Far East and an open enemy in the Russo–Japanese Border Wars in 1938-1939. In August of 1939, after a success of talks with Britain and France, the Russian government agreed to conclude the Common Defense Pact, pledging military assistance between the signing countries if any of them came under threat from Germany. This allowed Stalin to finally start World War II and to conquer Belarussia, Ukraine and other countries acting on single front.

Conquest of eastern Europe
The Russians broke off diplomatic relations with Germany and Austria-Hungary in spring 1939. Stalin had learned that Japan was willing to sign a non-aggression pact with Russia and allow Russian influence in Mongolia. Russia invaded Belarus, Courland and Semigallia and the Ukraine on September 7, 1939 and two days later, Germany and Austria-Hungary declared war on Russia. World War II was underway, but Belarus and Courland fell quickly, especially after the Serbian invasion of Austria-Hungary prevented little to no supplies being sent to help. Germany proceeded to bomb Leningrad, Moscow and other areas.

In 1940 Russia put forth its territorial demands to Finland for a minor part of the Karelian Isthmus, a naval base at Hanko (Hangö) peninsula and some islands in the Gulf of Finland. Finland rejected the demands and on November 30, Russia invaded Finland. Despite outnumbering Finnish troops by over 2.5:1, the war proved embarrassingly difficult for the Red Army, which was ill-equipped for the winter weather and lacking competent commanders since the purge of the Russian high command. The Finns resisted fiercely, and received considerable support from the Axis.

Against the will of his advisors, Stalin ordered an attack on the Ottoman Empire through the Caucasus. The war in Turkey ended with an overwhelming Russian victory. However, with the Germans refusing Stalin's offer of peace, the war continued. Russia had knocked out Poland, Lithuanina and conquered a quarter of Austria-Hungary, which had declared itself dissolved in April 1941. With the news of French capitulation to Germany Stalin ordered an offensive be planned to launch a full scale invasion of Germany.

Russia and its allies invaded Germany on June 22, 1941. Operation Marx was supposed to begin earlier than it did; however, failed Italian ventures in North Africa and in Austria concerned Stalin. In February 1941, Russian troops were sent to Libya to aid the Italians and hold the Egyptian forces from British-held Egypt. As the North African Campaign continued, in spite of orders to remain on the defensive, the Russians regained lost Italian territory, pushed the Egyptians back across the desert and advanced into Egypt. In April, the Russians launched the invasion of Romania to aid friendly forces and restore order in the midst of what was believed to be a German-supported puppet regime. This was followed by the Battle of Bulgaria, again to bail out the Italians, and the Battle of Crete. Because of the diversions in North Africa and the Balkans, the Russians were not able to launch Marx until late in June. Nevertheless, Marx began with great success. Only Stalin worried that the Red Army and its allies were not advancing into the German Reich fast enough. By December 1941, the Germans and their allies were at the gates of Berlin; to the north, troops had reached Güstrow and surrounded the city. Meanwhile, Russia and her allies controlled all of eastern Europe and the Balkans.

The goal of Russia's navy, the Red Fleet, was to cut off Germany's supply line. This was not accomplished however as the Russian Navy was engaged by Kaiserliche Marine shortly after the Russians invaded Belarus. Many of the vessels on the slips in Leningrad and Nikolayev were destroyed (mainly by aircraft and mines), but the Red Fleet also received captured Romanian destroyers and lend-lease small craft from the U.S.

Persecution and extermination campaigns
The purges continued in Russia and the occupied countries. From 1941, Jews were required to wear a yellow badge in public; most were kept in walled ghettos, where they remained isolated from the general populace. From then until the end of the war some six million Jews, homosexuals, minorieties, and political prisoners, were systematically killed. In addition, more than ten million people were put into forced labour. This genocide is called the Holocaust. Thousands were shipped daily to extermination camps and concentration camps.

Parallel to the Holocaust, the Russians executed the Генеральный план Запад (General Plan West) for the conquest, ethnic cleansing, and exploitation of the populaces of the captured Ukrainian and Polish territories; some 20 million Ukrainian and German civilians, 3 million Poles, and 7 million German Army soldiers were killed. The Communist's aggressive war in eastern Europe was waged “to defend civilization against the exploitation of workers”. Estimates indicate that, had the Russians won the war, they would have deported some 51 million Germans from Central and Eastern Europe to Russia for slavery. Because of the atrocities suffered under Hitler, many oppressed nationalities, fought for Russia. The populaces of Russian-occupied Germany who politically qualified as a socialist or communist were not persecuted, and often were recruited to the Narodnyy Komissariat Vnutrennikh Del (NKVD) divisions; eventually, the communist regime meant to socialize the poltical and racially acceptable people of occupied eastern Europe.