View source for Soviet empire

{{Short description|Term for Soviet foreign policy before 1989}}
{{Use dmy dates|date=May 2022}}
[[File:Warsaw Pact in 1990 (orthographic projection).svg|thumb|The countries of the [[Warsaw Pact]]]]
[[File:Soviet empire 1960.png|thumb|Greatest territorial extent of the "Soviet empire" (red) in 1959–1960; after the [[Cuban Revolution]] but before the [[Sino-Soviet split]]. This territory was politically, economically, and militarily dominated by the [[Soviet Union]] amidst the [[Cold War]], covering an area of approximately {{Convert|35000000|km2|sqmi|abbr=on}}.{{Efn|34,374,483 km<sup>2</sup>.}}]]
The term "'''Soviet empire'''" collectively refers to the world's territories that the [[Soviet Union]] dominated politically, economically, and militarily. This phenomenon, particularly in the context of the [[Cold War]], is used by [[Kremlinology|Sovietologists]] to describe the extent of the Soviet Union's hegemony over the [[Second World]].

In a wider sense, the term refers to [[Foreign relations of the Soviet Union|Soviet foreign policy]] during the [[Cold War]], which has been characterized as [[Imperialism|imperialist]]: the nations which were part of the "Soviet empire" were nominally independent countries with separate governments that set their own policies, but those policies had to stay within certain limits decided by the Soviet Union. These limits were enforced by the threat of intervention by Soviet forces, and later the [[Warsaw Pact]]. Major military interventions took place in [[East German uprising of 1953|East Germany in 1953]], [[Hungarian Revolution of 1956|Hungary in 1956]], [[Prague Spring|Czechoslovakia in 1968]], [[Martial law in Poland|Poland in 1980–81]] and [[Soviet–Afghan War|Afghanistan from 1979 to 1989]]. Countries in the [[Eastern Bloc]] were Soviet [[satellite state]]s.

== Characteristics ==
{{politics of the Soviet Union}}
[[File:Flag of the Soviet Union.svg|thumb|left|[[Flag of the Soviet Union]]]]
Although the Soviet Union was not ruled by an emperor, and declared itself [[Anti-imperialism|anti-imperialist]] and a [[People's democracy (Marxism–Leninism)|people's democracy]], it exhibited tendencies common to historic empires.<ref name="ReferenceA">{{cite journal |last1=Beissinger |first1=Mark R. |title=Soviet Empire as "Family Resemblance" |journal=Slavic Review |date=2006 |volume=65 |issue=2 |pages=294–303 |doi=10.2307/4148594|jstor=4148594 |s2cid=156553569 }}<br />Dave, Bhavna (2007). ''Kazakhstan: Ethnicity, Language and Power''. Abingdon, New York: Routledge.</ref><ref name="Caroe_1953" /> The notion of "Soviet empire" often refers to a form of "classic" or "colonial" empire with communism only replacing conventional imperial ideologies such as [[Christian state|Christianity]] or [[Monarchies in Europe|monarchy]], rather than creating a revolutionary state. Academically the idea is seen as emerging with [[Richard Pipes]]' 1957 book ''The Formation of the Soviet Union: Communism and Nationalism, 1917–1923''; it has been reinforced, along with several other views, in continuing scholarship.<ref name=":02">{{Cite book |last=Bekus |first=Nelly |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=DiwPRpRYt2kC |title=Struggle Over Identity: The Official and the Alternative "Belarusianness" |date=1 January 2010 |publisher=Central European University Press |isbn=978-963-9776-68-5 |pages=4, 41–50 |language=en}}</ref>{{Rp|page=41}} Several scholars hold that the Soviet Union was a hybrid entity containing elements common to both multinational empires and [[nation state]]s.<ref name="ReferenceA"/> The Soviet Union practiced [[colonialism]] similar to conventional imperial powers.<ref name="Caroe_1953">{{cite journal |year=1953 |title=Soviet Colonialism in Central Asia |journal=Foreign Affairs |volume=32 |issue=1 |pages=135–144 |jstor=20031013 |last=Caroe |first=O. |doi=10.2307/20031013}}</ref><ref>{{cite book |last=Annus |first=Epp |authorlink=Epp Annus |title=Soviet Postcolonial Studies: A View from the Western Borderlands |publisher= [[Routledge]] |date=2019 |location= |isbn=978-0367-2345-4-6 |pages=43–48}}</ref><ref>{{cite web |last=Cucciolla |first=Riccardo |date=23 March 2019 |url=https://thecessblog.com/2019/03/the-cotton-republic-colonial-practices-in-soviet-uzbekistan-by-riccardo-mario-cucciolla-higher-school-of-economics-hse |title=The Cotton Republic: Colonial Practices in Soviet Uzbekistan? |publisher=[[Central Eurasian Studies Society]] |access-date=22 April 2019 |archive-date=15 January 2021 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20210115001141/https://thecessblog.com/2019/03/the-cotton-republic-colonial-practices-in-soviet-uzbekistan-by-riccardo-mario-cucciolla-higher-school-of-economics-hse/ |url-status=dead }}</ref><ref>{{cite book |last=Kalnačs |first=Benedikts |title=20th Century Baltic Drama: Postcolonial Narratives, Decolonial Options |publisher= Aisthesis Verlag |date=2016 |location= |isbn=978-3849-8114-7-1 |page=14}}</ref><ref name=":3">{{cite journal |year=2014 |title="Colonizers with Party Cards" Soviet Internal Colonialism in Central Asia, 1917–39 |url=https://muse.jhu.edu/article/538640/pdf |publisher=Slavica Publishers |journal=Kritika: Explorations in Russian and Eurasian History |issue=1 |volume=15 |last=Loring |first=Benjamin |pages=77–102 |doi=10.1353/kri.2014.0012 |s2cid=159664992 |url-access=subscription |archive-date=29 April 2021 |access-date=12 February 2021 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20210429232656/https://muse.jhu.edu/article/538640/pdf |url-status=live }}</ref><ref>{{cite journal |year=2014 |title=It is Colonialism After All: Some Epistemological Remarks. |url=https://rcin.org.pl/ibl/Content/51834/WA248_71045_P-I-2524_thompson-it-is.pdf#page=9 |publisher=Institute of Literary Research of the [[Polish Academy of Sciences]] |journal=Teksty Drugie |issue=1 |page=74 |last=Thompson |first=Ewa |archive-date=16 February 2022 |access-date=12 February 2021 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20220216081655/https://rcin.org.pl/ibl/Content/51834/WA248_71045_P-I-2524_thompson-it-is.pdf#page=9 |url-status=live }}</ref><ref>{{Cite journal |last=Vardys |first=Vytas Stanley |title=Soviet Colonialism in the Baltic States: A Note on the Nature of Modern Colonialism |url=https://www.lituanus.org/1964/64_2_01_Vardys.html |journal=[[Lituanus]] |volume=10 |issue=2 |date=Summer 1964 |issn=0024-5089 |access-date=10 February 2021 |archive-date=9 November 2021 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20211109162257/https://www.lituanus.org/1964/64_2_01_Vardys.html |url-status=dead }}</ref>

The Soviets pursued [[internal colonialism]] in [[Soviet Central Asia|Central Asia]]. For example, the state's prioritized grain production over livestock in [[Kirghiz Soviet Socialist Republic|Kyrgyzstan]], which favored [[Slavs|Slavic]] settlers over the [[Kyrgyz people|Kyrgyz]] natives, thus perpetuating the inequalities of the [[Russian imperialism|tsarist colonial era]].<ref name=":3" /> The [[Maoism|Maoists]] argued that the Soviet Union had itself become an imperialist power while maintaining a socialist façade, or [[social imperialism]].<ref>{{Cite journal|last=Szymanski|first=Albert|title=Soviet Social Imperialism, Myth or Reality: An Empirical Examination of the Chinese Thesis|date=1977|url=https://www.jstor.org/stable/41035250|journal=Berkeley Journal of Sociology|volume=22|pages=131–166|jstor=41035250|issn=0067-5830|archive-date=2 June 2021|access-date=30 May 2021|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20210602214218/https://www.jstor.org/stable/41035250|url-status=live}}</ref><ref>{{Cite web|date=1977|title=The Soviet Union: Is it the Nazi Germany of Today?|url=https://www.marxists.org/history/erol/ncm-1a/ussr-nazi.htm|access-date=2021-09-29|website=www.marxists.org|archive-date=10 November 2021|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20211110082349/https://www.marxists.org/history/erol/ncm-1a/ussr-nazi.htm|url-status=live}}</ref> While Maoists criticized post-Stalin USSR's imperialism from a hardline communist viewpoint, [[Reformism#Socialism|reformist socialist]] critics of Soviet imperialism, such as [[Josip Broz Tito]] and [[Milovan Djilas]], have referred the [[History of the Soviet Union (1927–1953)|Stalinist USSR]]'s foreign policies, such as the occupation and economic exploitations of [[Eastern Bloc|Eastern Europe]] and its aggressive and hostile policy towards [[Socialist Federal Republic of Yugoslavia|Yugoslavia]] as Soviet imperialism.<ref name="Perović, 2007">{{cite journal |title=The Tito–Stalin split: a reassessment in light of new evidence |first=Jeronim |last=Perović |journal=[[Journal of Cold War Studies]] |volume=9 |issue=2 |date=2007 |pages=32–63 |publisher=MIT Press |doi=10.1162/jcws.2007.9.2.32 |s2cid=57567168 |url=https://www.zora.uzh.ch/id/eprint/62735/1/Perovic_Tito.pdf |archive-date=4 July 2022 |access-date=22 October 2023 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20220704114441/https://www.zora.uzh.ch/id/eprint/62735/1/Perovic_Tito.pdf |url-status=live }}</ref><ref>{{cite book|last=Djilas|first=Milovan|date=1957|url=https://archive.org/details/816ilasMilovanTheNewClassAnAnalysisOfTheCommunistSystemThamesAndHudson1957|title=The New Class: An Analysis of the Communist System|location=London|publisher=Thames & Hudson|access-date=9 October 2023|via=Internet Archive}}</ref> Another dimension of Soviet imperialism is [[cultural imperialism]], the [[Sovietization]] of culture and education at the expense of local traditions.<ref>Tsvetkova, Natalia (2013). ''Failure of American and Soviet Cultural Imperialism in German Universities, 1945–1990''. Boston, Leiden: Brill.</ref> [[Leonid Brezhnev]] continued a policy of cultural [[Russification]] as part of [[Real socialism|Developed Socialism]], which sought to assert more central control.<ref name=":7">{{Cite thesis |last=Roberts |first=Jason A. |date=2015 |title=The Anti-Imperialist Empire: Soviet Nationality Policies under Brezhnev |url=https://researchrepository.wvu.edu/etd/6514 |type=PhD dissertation |publisher=West Virginia University |doi=10.33915/etd.6514 |doi-access=free |archive-date=22 October 2020 |access-date=8 March 2021 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20201022044535/https://researchrepository.wvu.edu/etd/6514/ |url-status=live }}</ref> [[Seweryn Bialer]] argued that the Soviet state had an imperial nationalism.<ref name=":0" />

A notable wave of Sovietization occurred during the [[Russian Civil War]] in the territories captured by the [[Red Army]]. Later, the territories occupied by the [[Russian SFSR]] and the USSR were Sovietized. [[Mongolia]] was invaded by the Soviet Union and Sovietized in the 1920s after it became a Soviet satellite state, and after the end of the [[World War II|Second World War]], Sovietization took place in the countries of the [[Soviet Bloc]] ([[Eastern Europe|Eastern]] and [[Central Europe]]: Czechoslovakia, East Germany, Hungary, Poland, the Baltic states etc.). In a broad sense, it included the involuntary creation of Soviet-style authorities, imitation of elections held under the control of the Bolsheviks with the removal of opposition candidates, nationalization of land and property, repression against representatives of "[[class enemies]]" ([[kulak]]s, or ''[[osadnik]]s'', for instance). Mass executions and imprisoning in [[Gulag]] [[labor camp]]s and [[Involuntary settlements in the Soviet Union|exile settlements]] often accompany that process. This was usually promoted and sped up by [[Propaganda in the Soviet Union|propaganda]] aimed at creating a common way of life in all states within the Soviet sphere of influence. In modern history, Sovietization refers to the copying of models of Soviet life (the cult of the leader's personality, collectivist ideology, mandatory participation in propaganda activities, etc.).<ref>{{cite book | title =Demography and National Security | year =2001 | editor =[[Myron Weiner]], Sharon Stanton Russell | pages =308–315 | chapter =Stalinist Forced Relocation Policies | chapter-url =https://books.google.com/books?id=J9nuv7MGQ5MC&q=Sovietization&pg=PA309 | publisher =Berghahn Books | isbn =1-57181-339-X}}</ref>

From the 1930s through the 1950s, [[Joseph Stalin]] ordered [[Population transfer in the Soviet Union|population transfers in the Soviet Union]], deporting people (often entire nationalities) to underpopulated remote areas, with their place being taken mostly by ethnic [[Russians]] and [[Ukrainians]]. The policy officially ended in the [[History of the Soviet Union (1953–1964)|Khrushchev era]], with some of the nationalities allowed to return in 1957. However, [[Nikita Khrushchev]] and [[Leonid Brezhnev]] refused the right of return for [[Crimean Tatars]], [[History of Germans in Russia, Ukraine and the Soviet Union|Russian Germans]] and [[Meskhetian Turks]].<ref>{{Cite book|last=Rodriguez|first=Junius P.|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=kzro5ziGRRoC&pg=PA179|title=Slavery in the Modern World: A History of Political, Social, and Economic Oppression|date=2011|publisher=ABC-CLIO|isbn=978-1-85109-783-8|pages=179|language=en}}</ref> In 1991, the [[Supreme Soviet of Russia]] declared the Stalinist mass deportations to be a "policy of defamation and genocide".<ref>{{Cite book|last=Perovic|first=Jeronim|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=O19gDwAAQBAJ&pg=PA320|title=From Conquest to Deportation: The North Caucasus under Russian Rule|date=1 June 2018|publisher=Oxford University Press|isbn=978-0-19-093467-5|language=en|archive-date=22 November 2024|access-date=8 March 2021|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20241122060035/https://books.google.com/books?id=O19gDwAAQBAJ&pg=PA320|url-status=live}}</ref>

The historical relationship between Russia (the dominant republic in the Soviet Union) and these Eastern European countries helps explain their longing to eradicate the remnants of Soviet culture. Poland and the Baltic states epitomize the Soviet attempt to build uniform cultures and political systems. According to Dag Noren, Russia was seeking to constitute and reinforce a buffer zone between itself and Western Europe so as to protect itself from potential future attacks from hostile Western European countries.<ref name=":0">{{cite book|url=https://scholarworks.umass.edu/cgi/viewcontent.cgi?referer=https://www.google.com/&httpsredir=1&article=3591&context=theses|title=The Soviet Union and eastern Europe: considerations in a political transformation of the Soviet bloc|last=Noren|first=Dag Wincens|publisher=University of Massachusetts Amherst|year=1990|location=Amherst, Massachusetts|pages=27–38|archive-date=22 May 2023|access-date=20 April 2019|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20230522190343/https://scholarworks.umass.edu/cgi/viewcontent.cgi?referer=https://www.google.com/&httpsredir=1&article=3591&context=theses|url-status=live}}</ref> The Soviet Union had lost approximately 20 million people over the course of the Second World War, although Russian sources are keen on further inflating that figure.<ref>{{cite journal|last1=Ellman|first1=Michael|last2=Maksudov|first2=S.|date=1 January 1994|title=Soviet deaths in the great patriotic war: A note|journal=Europe-Asia Studies|volume=46|issue=4|pages=671–680|doi=10.1080/09668139408412190|issn=0966-8136|pmid=12288331}}</ref> To prevent a recurrence of such costly warfare, Soviet leaders believed that they needed to establish a hierarchy of political and economic dependence between neighboring states and the USSR.<ref name=":0" />

During the Brezhnev era, the policy of "[[Real socialism|Developed Socialism]]" declared the Soviet Union to be the most complete socialist country—other countries were "socialist", but the USSR was "''developed'' socialist"—explaining its dominant role and hegemony over the other socialist countries.<ref>{{Citation|last=Sandle|first=Mark|title=Brezhnev and Developed Socialism: The Ideology of Zastoi?|date=2002|url=https://doi.org/10.1057/9780230501089_8|work=Brezhnev Reconsidered|pages=165–187|editor-last=Bacon|editor-first=Edwin|series=Studies in Russian and East European History and Society|place=London|publisher=Palgrave Macmillan UK|language=en|doi=10.1057/9780230501089_8|isbn=978-0-230-50108-9|access-date=2021-05-30|editor2-last=Sandle|editor2-first=Mark|url-access=subscription|archive-date=22 May 2023|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20230522232221/https://doi.org/10.1057%2F9780230501089_8|url-status=live}}</ref> This and the interventionist [[Brezhnev Doctrine]], permitting the invasion of other socialist countries, led to characterisation of the USSR as an empire.<ref name=":7" />

Soviet influence in [[State of socialist orientation|countries of socialist orientation]] was mainly political and ideological rather than economic: the Soviet Union pumped enormous amounts of international assistance into them in order to secure influence.<ref name="tre">Trenin, Dmitri (2011). ''Post-Imperium: A Eurasian Story''. Carnegie Endowment for International Peace. [https://web.archive.org/web/20140419100841/http://carnegieendowment.org/pdf/book/post-imperium.pdf p. 144–145].</ref> The Soviet Union sought a group of countries which would rally to its cause in the event of an attack from Western countries, and support it in the context of the Cold War.<ref name=":1">{{cite web|url=https://m.polit.ru/article/2003/09/19/sng2/|script-title=ru:Виталий Лейбин: Экономическая экспансия России и имперский госзаказ – ПОЛИТ.РУ|publisher=Politic|language=ru|access-date=20 April 2019|archive-date=9 March 2021|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20210309013452/https://m.polit.ru/article/2003/09/19/sng2/|url-status=dead}}</ref> After the [[dissolution of the Soviet Union]], the Russian Federation [[Soviet Union and the United Nations|was recognized]] as its successor state, inheriting $103&nbsp;billion of Soviet foreign debt and $140&nbsp;billion of Soviet assets abroad.<ref name="tre"/>

Economic expansion did, however, play a significant role in Soviet motivation to spread influence in its satellite territories. These new territories would ensure an increase in the global wealth which the Soviet Union would have a grasp on.<ref name=":1"/>

Soviet officials from the [[Russian Soviet Federative Socialist Republic]] intertwined this economic opportunity with a potential for migration. They saw in these Eastern European countries the potential of a great workforce. They offered a welcome to them upon the only condition that they work hard and achieve social success. This ideology was shaped on the model of the meritocratic, 19th-century American foreign policy.<ref name=":1"/>

=== Formal or informal empire? ===
Scholars discussing Soviet empire have discussed it as a formal empire or [[informal empire]]. In a more formal interpretation of "Soviet empire", this meant absolutism, resembling Lenin's description of the [[Tsarist autocracy|tsarist empire]] as a "[[prison of the peoples]]" except that this "prison of the peoples" had been actualized during Stalin's regime after Lenin's death. Thomas Winderl wrote "The USSR became in a certain sense more a prison-house of nations than the old Empire had ever been."<ref name=":02" />{{Rp|pages=41–42}}

Another view sees the Soviet empire as constituting an "informal empire" over nominally sovereign states in the [[Warsaw Pact]] due to Soviet pressure and military presence.<ref>{{Cite book |last1=Starr |first1=S. Frederick |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=4b4YDQAAQBAJ |title=The International Politics of Eurasia: v. 9: The End of Empire? Comparative Perspectives on the Soviet Collapse |last2=Dawisha |first2=Karen |date=16 September 2016 |publisher=Routledge |isbn=978-1-315-48363-4 |language=en}}</ref> The Soviet informal empire depended on subsidies from Moscow.<ref>{{Cite book |last=Parker |first=Noel |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=n1cfDAAAQBAJ |title=Empire and International Order |date=6 May 2016 |publisher=Routledge |isbn=978-1-317-14439-7 |language=en}}</ref> The informal empire in the wider Warsaw Pact also included linkages between Communist Parties.<ref name=":12">{{Cite journal |last1=Wendt |first1=Alexander |last2=Friedheim |first2=Daniel |date=1995 |title=Hierarchy under anarchy: informal empire and the East German state |url=https://www.cambridge.org/core/journals/international-organization/article/abs/hierarchy-under-anarchy-informal-empire-and-the-east-german-state/5B5275FD4CA70ECEA68077AC158023C2 |journal=International Organization |language=en |volume=49 |issue=4 |pages=689–721 |doi=10.1017/S0020818300028484 |s2cid=145236865 |issn=1531-5088 |url-access=subscription |archive-date=22 May 2023 |access-date=26 April 2022 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20230522184829/https://www.cambridge.org/core/journals/international-organization/article/abs/hierarchy-under-anarchy-informal-empire-and-the-east-german-state/5B5275FD4CA70ECEA68077AC158023C2 |url-status=live }}</ref> Some historians consider a more multinational-oriented Soviet Union emphasizing its socialist initiatives, such as [[Ian Bremmer]], who describes a "matryoshka-nationalism" where a pan-Soviet nationalism included other nationalisms.<ref name=":02" />{{Rp|page=48}} [[Eric Hobsbawm|Eric Hobsbawn]] argued that the Soviet Union had effectively designed nations by drawing borders.<ref name=":02" />{{Rp|page=45}} [[Dmitri Trenin]] wrote that by 1980, the Soviet Union had formed both a formal and informal empire.<ref>{{Cite web |last=Trenin |first=Dmitri |title=Russia's Post-Imperial Condition |url=https://carnegiemoscow.org/2011/10/18/russia-s-post-imperial-condition-pub-45753 |access-date=2022-02-08 |website=Carnegie Moscow Center |language=en |archive-date=8 February 2022 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20220208075609/https://carnegiemoscow.org/2011/10/18/russia-s-post-imperial-condition-pub-45753 |url-status=live }}</ref>

The informal empire would have included Soviet economic investments, [[Military occupations by the Soviet Union|military occupation]], and [[Covert operation|covert action]] in Soviet-aligned countries. The studies of informal empire have included Soviet influence on [[East Germany]]<ref name=":12" /> and 1930s [[Xinjiang]].<ref>{{Cite journal |last=Kinzley |first=Judd C. |date=1 October 2015 |title=The Spatial Legacy of Informal Empire: Oil, the Soviet Union, and the Contours of Economic Development in China's Far West |url=https://doi.org/10.1179/1521538515Z.00000000067 |journal=Twentieth-Century China |volume=40 |issue=3 |pages=220–237 |doi=10.1179/1521538515Z.00000000067 |s2cid=155349242 |issn=1521-5385|url-access=subscription }}</ref><ref>{{Citation |last1=Kinzley |first1=Judd |title=Industrial Raw Materials and the Construction of Informal Empire |date=2018 |url=https://chicago.universitypressscholarship.com/10.7208/chicago/9780226492322.001.0001/upso-9780226492155-chapter-005 |work=Natural Resources and the New Frontier |publisher=University of Chicago Press |doi=10.7208/chicago/9780226492322.001.0001 |isbn=978-0-226-49215-5 |s2cid=134342707 |access-date=2022-02-08|url-access=subscription }}</ref> From the 1919 [[Karakhan Manifesto]] to 1927, diplomats of the Soviet Union would promise to revoke concessions in China, but the Soviets secretly kept tsarist concessions such as the [[Chinese Eastern Railway]], as well as consulates, barracks, and churches.<ref>{{Cite book |last=Elleman |first=Bruce A. |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=sgRWWWNYZ1IC |title=Diplomacy and Deception: The Secret History of Sino-Soviet Diplomatic Relations, 1917–1927 |date=1997 |publisher=M.E. Sharpe |isbn=978-0-7656-0142-1 |pages=134, 165, 168, 174 |language=en}}</ref><ref name="Elleman 1994">{{Cite journal |last=Elleman |first=Bruce A. |date=1994 |title=The Soviet Union's Secret Diplomacy Concerning the Chinese Eastern Railway, 1924–1925 |url=https://www.jstor.org/stable/2059842 |journal=The Journal of Asian Studies |volume=53 |issue=2 |pages=459–486 |doi=10.2307/2059842 |issn=0021-9118 |jstor=2059842 |s2cid=162586404 |url-access=subscription |archive-date=22 May 2023 |access-date=3 May 2022 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20230522184954/https://www.jstor.org/stable/2059842 |url-status=live }}</ref> After the [[Sino-Soviet conflict (1929)]], the Soviet Union regained the [[Russian Empire]]'s concession of the [[Chinese Eastern Railway]] and held it until its [[Return of the Chinese Eastern Railway|return to China in 1952]].<ref name="Elleman 1994"/>

[[Alexander Wendt]] suggested that by the time of Stalin's [[Socialism in one country]] alignment, socialist internationalism "evolved into an ideology of control rather than revolution under the rubric of socialist internationalism" internally within the Soviet Union. By the start of the Cold War it evolved into a "coded power language" that was once again international, but applied to the Soviet informal empire. At times the USSR signaled toleration of policies of satellite states indirectly, by declaring them consistent or inconsistent with socialist ideology, essentially recreating a hegemonic role. Wendt argued that a "hegemonic ideology" could continue to motivate actions after the original incentives were removed, and argued this explains the "zeal of [[Leadership of East Germany|East German Politburo]] members who chose not to defend themselves against trumped-up charges during the 1950s purges."<ref name=":12" />{{Rp|page=704}}

Analyzing the [[Dissolution of the Soviet Union|dissolution]] of the Soviet Union, Koslowski and [[Friedrich Kratochwil|Kratochwil]] argued that a postwar Soviet "formal empire" represented by the Warsaw Pact, with Soviet military role and control over of member states' foreign relations, had evolved into an informal [[suzerainty]] or "Ottomanization" from the late 1970s to 1989. With [[Mikhail Gorbachev|Gorbachev]]'s relinquishing of the [[Brezhnev Doctrine]] in 1989, the informal empire reduced in pressure to a more conventional sphere of influence, resembling [[Finlandization]] but applied to the erstwhile [[Eastern Bloc|East Bloc]] states, until the Soviet fall in 1991. By contrast "Austrianization" would have been a [[Realism (international relations)|realist]] model of [[Power politics|great power politics]] by which the Soviets would have hypothetically relied on Western guarantees to keep an artificial Soviet sphere of influence. The speed of reform in the 1989 to 1991 period made both a repeat of Finlandization and Austrianization impossible for the Soviet Union.<ref name=":42">{{Cite book |last1=Lebow |first1=Richard Ned |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=mssws7JttrcC |title=International Relations Theory and the End of the Cold War |last2=Risse-Kappen |first2=Thomas |date=1995 |publisher=Columbia University Press |isbn=978-0-231-10195-0 |pages=146–148, 155–157 |language=en}}</ref><ref>{{Cite journal |last1=Koslowski |first1=Rey |last2=Kratochwil |first2=Friedrich V. |date=1994 |title=Understanding Change in International Politics: The Soviet Empire's Demise and the International System |url=https://www.jstor.org/stable/2706931 |journal=International Organization |volume=48 |issue=2 |pages=215–247 |doi=10.1017/S0020818300028174 |jstor=2706931 |s2cid=155023495 |issn=0020-8183 |url-access=subscription |archive-date=22 May 2023 |access-date=26 April 2022 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20230522184954/https://www.jstor.org/stable/2706931 |url-status=live }}</ref>

== Communist states aligned with the Soviet Union ==
[[File:EasternBloc BasicMembersOnly.svg|thumb|250px|The [[Soviet Union]] is seen in red while states in light pink were satellites. [[Socialist Federal Republic of Yugoslavia|Yugoslavia]], a Soviet ally from 1945 to 1948 and [[Non-Aligned Movement|non-aligned state]] thereafter, is marked in purple. [[People's Socialist Republic of Albania|Albania]], a state which ceased being allied to the Soviet Union in the 1960s after the [[Sino-Soviet split]], is marked in orange.]]

=== Warsaw Pact ===
These countries were the closest allies of the Soviet Union and were also members of the [[Comecon]], a Soviet-led economic community founded in 1949. The members of the [[Warsaw Pact]], sometimes called the [[Eastern Bloc]], were widely viewed as Soviet [[satellite state]]s. These countries were occupied (or formerly occupied) by the Red Army, and their politics, military, foreign and domestic policies were dominated by the Soviet Union. The Warsaw Pact included the following states:<ref name=Cornis-Pope>{{cite book|last=Cornis-Pope|first=Marcel|title=History of the Literary Cultures of East-Central Europe: Junctures and disjunctures in the 19th and 20th centuries|url=https://archive.org/details/historyliteraryc00neub|url-access=limited|year=2004|publisher=John Benjamins|isbn=978-90-272-3452-0|pages=[https://archive.org/details/historyliteraryc00neub/page/n53 29]}}</ref><ref name=Dawson>{{cite book|last=Dawson|first=Andrew H.|title=Planning in Eastern Europe|year=1986|publisher=Routledge|isbn=978-0-7099-0863-0|pages=295}}</ref>
* {{flagicon|Albania|1946}} [[Socialist People's Republic of Albania|People's Socialist Republic of Albania]] (1946–1968){{efn|Following the [[Albanian–Soviet split]] and the withdrawal from the [[Warsaw Pact]] (1968)}}                         
* {{flagicon|Bulgaria|1971}} [[People's Republic of Bulgaria]] (1946–1990)
* {{flagicon|Czechoslovakia}} [[Czechoslovak Socialist Republic]] (1948–1990)
* {{flagicon|East Germany}} [[German Democratic Republic]] (1949–1990)
* {{flagicon|Hungary}} [[People's Republic of Hungary|Hungarian People's Republic]] (1949–1989)
* {{flagicon|Poland}} [[People's Republic of Poland|Polish People's Republic]] (1947–1989)
* {{flagicon|Romania|1965}} [[Socialist Republic of Romania]] (1947–1965){{efn|After [[Nicolae Ceaușescu]]'s [[Ceaușescu's speech of 21 August 1968|refusal to participate]] in the [[Warsaw Pact invasion of Czechoslovakia]] in 1968 (see [[de-satellization of Communist Romania]]). Remained as member of Comecon and Warsaw Pact until 1989.}}

=== Soviet Union ===
In addition to having a permanent seat in the [[United Nations Security Council]], the Soviet Union had two of its [[union republics]] in the [[United Nations General Assembly]]:

*{{flag|Byelorussian Soviet Socialist Republic}}
*{{flag|Ukrainian Soviet Socialist Republic}}

A special case were Estonia, Latvia, and Lithuania, three countries occupied and annexed by the Soviet Union in 1940–1941 and 1944–1991 (see [[Occupation of the Baltic states]]):

*{{flag|Estonian Soviet Socialist Republic}}
*{{flag|Latvian Soviet Socialist Republic}}
*{{flag|Lithuanian Soviet Socialist Republic}}

=== Other Marxist–Leninist states ===
These countries were Marxist-Leninist states who were allied with the Soviet Union, but were not part of the Warsaw Pact. 
* {{flagicon|Afghanistan|1980}} [[Democratic Republic of Afghanistan]] (1978–1991)
* {{flagicon|Angola}} [[People's Republic of Angola]] (1975–1991){{efn|With the Soviet intervention in the [[Angolan Civil War]].}}
* {{flagicon|Benin|1975}} [[People's Republic of Benin]] (1975–1990)
* {{Flag|Burkina Faso}} (1983–1987)
* {{flag|Chinese Soviet Republic}} (1931–1937)
* {{flagicon|China}} [[China|People's Republic of China]] (1949–1961){{efn|Following the [[Sino-Soviet split]] (1956–1961).}}
* {{flagicon|Republic of the Congo|1970}} [[People's Republic of the Congo]] (1969–1991)
* {{flagicon|Cuba}} [[Cuba|Republic of Cuba]] (1959–1991)
* {{flagicon|Ethiopia|1987}} [[Derg|Provisional Military Government of Socialist Ethiopia]], then [[People's Democratic Republic of Ethiopia]] (1974–1991)
* {{flagicon|Cambodia|1979}} [[People's Republic of Kampuchea]] (1979–1989)
* {{flagicon|Grenada}} [[People's Revolutionary Government (Grenada)|People's Revolutionary Government of Grenada]] (1979–1983)
* {{flagicon|North Korea}} [[North Korea|Democratic People's Republic of Korea]] (1948–1991, also allied with China)<ref>『북한 사회주의헌법의 기본원리: 주체사상』(2010년, 법학연구) pp. 13–17</ref>{{efn|After Chinese intervention in the [[Korean War]] in 1950, North Korea remained a Soviet ally,<ref name=Shin>{{cite book|last=Shin|first=Gi-Wook|title=Ethnic Nationalism in Korea: Genealogy, Politics, and Legacy|year=2006|publisher=Stanford University Press|isbn=978-0-8047-5408-8|pages=94}}</ref> but rather used the ''[[Juche]]'' ideology to balance Chinese and Soviet influence, pursuing a highly [[Isolationism|isolationist]] foreign policy and not joining the [[Comecon]] or any other international organization of [[communist states]] following the withdrawal of Chinese troops in 1958.}}
* {{flag|Lao People's Democratic Republic}} (1975–1991)
* {{Flagdeco|Madagascar}} [[Democratic Republic of Madagascar]] (1975–1990)
* {{flagicon|Mongolia|1945}} [[Mongolian People's Republic]] (1924–1991)
* {{flagicon|Mozambique|1975}} [[People's Republic of Mozambique]] (1975–1990)

* {{flagicon|Tuvan People's Republic}} [[Tuvan People's Republic]] (1921–1944){{efn|It was absorbed by the Soviet Union in 1944, and became part of the RSFSR.}}
* {{flagicon|Vietnam}} [[North Vietnam|Democratic Republic of Vietnam]] (1954–1976), then [[Vietnam|Socialist Republic of Vietnam]] (1976–1991){{efn|North Vietnam's domestic policy and foreign policy were not heavily dependent on the Soviet Union during the Vietnam War.}}
* {{flagicon|South Yemen}} [[South Yemen|People's Democratic Republic of Yemen]] (1967–1990)
* {{flagicon|Yugoslavia|1945}} [[Federal People's Republic of Yugoslavia]] (1945–1948){{efn|It ended affiliation with the Soviet Union in 1948 due to [[Tito–Stalin split]]. After [[Joseph Stalin]]'s death and the repudiation of his policies by [[Nikita Khrushchev]], peace was made with [[Josip Broz Tito]] and Yugoslavia, although relations between the two countries were never completely rebuilt. See also the [[Informbiro period]].}}

== Non-communist states aligned with the Soviet Union ==
{{main|Socialist-leaning countries}}
[[File:Communist Block.svg|thumb|250px|States that had communist governments in red, states that the Soviet Union believed at one point to be [[moving toward socialism]] in orange, and other states allied with the Soviet Union at some point in yellow]]
Some countries in the [[Third World]] had pro-Soviet governments during the Cold War. In the political terminology of the Soviet Union, these were "[[Socialist-leaning countries|countries moving along the socialist road of development]]" as opposed to the more advanced "countries of [[developed socialism]]" which were mostly located in Eastern Europe, but that also included Cuba and Vietnam. They received some aid, either [[Military aid|military]] or [[Economic aid|economic]], from the Soviet Union and were influenced by it to varying degrees. Sometimes, their support for the Soviet Union eventually stopped for various reasons and in some cases the pro-Soviet government lost power while in other cases the same government remained in power, but ultimately ended its alliance with the Soviet Union.<ref>Friedman, Jeremy (2015). ''Shadow Cold War: The Sino-Soviet Competition for the Third World''.</ref>

* {{flag|Algeria}} ([[National Liberation Front (Algeria)#Socialism|1962–1991]])
*{{flagicon|Bangladesh}} [[People's Republic of Bangladesh]] ([[Premiership of Sheikh Mujibur Rahman|1972–1975]]){{Efn|Ended with the [[assassination of Sheikh Mujibur Rahman]], which led to a [[7 November 1975 Bangladeshi coup d'état|brief instability]], culminating in the accession of [[Ziaur Rahman]], who fostered [[Islamization in Bangladesh|Islamization]]}}
*{{flagicon|Burma|1974}} [[Socialist Republic of the Union of Burma|Burma]] ([[Burmese Way to Socialism|1962–1988]]){{Efn|Ended with the [[8888 uprising]] which saw the rule of the [[Burma Socialist Programme Party]] being replaced by the [[State Peace and Development Council]]}}
* {{flag|Cape Verde|1975}} ([[African Party for the Independence of Cape Verde|1975–1990]])
* {{flag|Chile}} ([[Presidency of Salvador Allende|1970–1973]]){{efn|Ended with the [[1973 Chilean coup d'état]], leading to the rise of [[Augusto Pinochet]]}}<ref>"[http://www.cepchile.cl/dms/lang_2/doc_1140.html Soviet Intelligence in Latin America During the Cold War] {{webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20100228185053/http://www.cepchile.cl/dms/lang_2/doc_1140.html |date=28 February 2010 }}", Lectures by General Nikolai Leonov, Centro de Estudios Publicos (Chile), 22 September 1999.</ref>
*{{flagicon|Republic of China}} [[Nationalist Government|Republic of China (KMT)]] ([[1st National Congress of the Chinese Communist Party|1921]]–1927){{Efn|Following the death of [[Sun Yat-sen]] & the rise of [[Chiang Kai-shek]], the [[Kuomintang]] was alienated from the Soviets}}
* {{flag|Egypt|1973}} ([[History of Egypt under Gamal Abdel Nasser|1954–1974]]){{Efn|Ended following the Israeli victory in the [[Yom Kippur War]] & the ascendancy of [[Anwar Sadat]]}}
* {{flag|Ghana|1964}} ([[Nkrumah government|1964–1966]]){{Efn|Ended with the [[1966 Ghanaian coup d'état]], culminating in the rise of [[Joseph Arthur Ankrah]] }}
* {{flag|Guinea}} ([[Ahmed Sékou Touré#Presidency (1958–1984)|1960–1984]]){{Efn|Ended with the [[1984 Guinean coup d'état]], culminating in the rise of [[Lansana Conté]]}}
* {{flagicon|Guinea Bissau}} [[Guinea Bissau]] ([[Guinea-Bissau War of Independence#Background|1973]]–1991)
* {{flag|Equatorial Guinea}} ([[Francisco Macías Nguema#Presidency|1968–1979]]){{Efn|Ended with the [[1979 Equatorial Guinea coup d'état]], culminating in the rise of [[Teodoro Obiang Nguema Mbasogo]]}}
* {{flag|Guyana}} ([[People's National Congress Reform|1966–1991]])
* {{flag|India}} ([[Indo-Pakistani war of 1971|1971]]–1991)
* {{flagicon|Indonesia}} [[Indonesia]] ([[Guided Democracy in Indonesia|1959–1965]]){{Efn|Ended with the failed [[30 September movement|1965 Indonesian coup d'état]]}}
* {{flag|Iraq|1963}} ([[Abdul-Karim Qasim#Prime minister|1958–1963]]; [[Ba'athist Iraq|1968–1991]])
* {{flag|Israel}} ([[David Ben-Gurion|1948–1953]])<ref>{{cite journal|title=The Forgotten Friendship: Israel and the Soviet Bloc 1947–1953|first=Ilana|last=Kass|journal=[[American Political Science Review]]|volume=71|issue=3|date=September 1977|pages=1304–1305|doi=10.2307/1960285 |jstor=1960285 |s2cid=146764535 |issn=0003-0554}}</ref>
* {{flagicon|Libya|1977}} [[History of Libya under Muammar Gaddafi|Libya]] ([[History of Libya under Muammar Gaddafi|1969–1991]])
* {{flag|Mali}} ([[Modibo Keïta#President of Mali|1960]]–1991)
* {{flag|Mauritania|1959}} ([[1961 Mauritanian presidential election|1961]]–1984){{Efn|Ended with the rise of [[Maaouya Ould Sid'Ahmed Taya]]}}
* {{flag|Nicaragua}} ([[Nicaraguan Revolution|1979–1990]]){{Efn|Ended with the defeat of the [[Sandinista National Liberation Front]] & the country's [[1990 Nicaraguan general election|transition to democracy]]}}
* {{flag|Peru}} ([[Juan Velasco Alvarado#Military dictatorship (1968–1975)|1968–1975]]){{Efn|Ended with the [[Tacnazo|1975 Peruvian coup d'état]]}}
* {{flag|Sahrawi Arab Democratic Republic}} ([[Western Sahara conflict|1976]]–1991)
* {{flag|Sao Tome and Principe}} ([[Movement for the Liberation of São Tomé and Príncipe – Social Democratic Party|1975–1991]])
* {{flagicon|Seychelles|1977}} [[One-party rule in Seychelles|Seychelles]] ([[France-Albert René#''Socialist paradise''|1977–1991]])
* {{flagicon|Somalia}} [[Somali Democratic Republic]] ([[1969 Somali coup d'état|1969]]–1977){{efn|At the outbreak of the [[Ogaden War|Somali invasion of Ethiopia]] in 1977, the Soviet Union ceased to support Somalia, with the corresponding change in rhetoric. In turn, Somalia broke diplomatic relations with the Soviet Union and the United States adopted Somalia as a [[Cold War]] ally.<ref>Crockatt, Richard (1995). ''The Fifty Years War: The United States and the Soviet Union in World Politics''. London and New York City, New York: Routledge. {{ISBN|978-0-415-10471-5}}.</ref>}}
* {{flag|Sudan}} ([[National Revolutionary Command Council (Sudan)|1969–1971]]){{Efn|Ended with the failed [[1971 Sudanese coup d'état]] }}
* {{flag|Syria|1980}} ([[United Arab Republic|1958–1961]]; [[Ba'athist Syria|1963–1991]])
* {{flag|Tanzania}} ([[Julius Nyerere#Premiership and Presidency of Tanganyika|1964–1985]]){{Efn|Ended with the rise of [[Ali Hassan Mwinyi]]}}
* {{flag|Second East Turkestan Republic}} (1944–1949){{efn|Declared independence from the [[Republic of China (1912–1949)|Republic of China]] in 1944, [[Incorporation of Xinjiang into the People's Republic of China|annexed by the PRC]] in 1949.}}
*{{flagicon|Turkey}} [[One-party period of the Republic of Turkey|Turkey]] ([[One-party period of the Republic of Turkey|1923–1945]]){{Efn|Ended with [[Turkey in NATO|Turkey joining NATO]]}}
* {{flag|Uganda}} ([[Milton Obote#First presidency|1969–1971]]){{Efn|Ended with the [[1971 Ugandan coup d'état]], culminating in the rise of [[Idi Amin]]}}
* {{flagicon|North Yemen}} [[Yemen Arab Republic]] ([[North Yemen civil war|1962]]–1972){{Efn|Ended with the outbreak of [[First Yemenite War]], where North Yemen invaded [[South Yemen]], a communist state.}}
* {{flag|Zambia}} ([[Kenneth Kaunda#One-party state and "African socialism"|1964–1991]])
* {{flag|Zimbabwe}} ([[Robert Mugabe#Premiership (1980–1987)|1980–1991]])

== Communist states opposed to the Soviet Union ==
Some [[communist states]] were opposed to the Soviet Union and criticized many of its policies. Although they may have had many similarities to the USSR on domestic issues, they were not considered Soviet allies in international politics. Relations between them and the Soviet Union were often tense, sometimes even to the point of armed conflict.
* {{flagicon|Albania|1946}} [[Socialist People's Republic of Albania|Albania]] (1960–1991){{Efn|Due to the [[Sino-Soviet split]], followed by the [[Sino-Albanian split]]}}
* {{flag|China}} (1961–1989){{Efn|See [[Sino-Soviet split]]}}
* {{flagicon|Romania|1947}} [[Socialist Republic of Romania|Romania]] (1960s–1989){{Efn|Romania started to [[De-satellization of the Socialist Republic of Romania|increasingly emphasize its unique position within the Eastern Bloc]], centering around the dispute over [[Bessarabia]] & [[National communism in Romania|nationalistic rhetoric]].}}
* {{flagicon|Somalia|1977}} [[Somali Democratic Republic|Somalia]] (1977–1991){{Efn|Somali-Soviet ties were irreparably damaged due to the Soviets siding with Ethiopia in the Ogeden War. Somalia adopted a new constitution in 1978, incorporating [[Islamic socialism|Islamic elements]] into the existing communist framework, which was labelled as [[scientific socialism]].}}
* {{flag|Yugoslavia}} (1948–1955){{efn|The two countries went through a very hostile [[Informbiro period]] after the [[Tito–Stalin split]] in 1948 and partially [[rapprochement|rapproached]] after the [[Belgrade declaration]] in 1955, although the latter failed to result in a lasting change after the [[Soviet invasion of Hungary]] in 1956 and [[Soviet invasion of Czechoslovakia|Czechoslovakia]] in 1968. Yugoslavia remained highly wary of a possible invasion itself from the Soviet Union during the government of Joseph Stalin after 1948.}}

== Neutral states ==

=== Finland ===
The position of [[Finland]] was complex. The Soviet Union invaded Finland on 30 November 1939, launching the [[Winter War]]. The Soviets intended to install their [[Finnish Democratic Republic]] [[Puppet state|puppet government]] into [[Helsinki]] and annex Finland into the Soviet Union.<ref>{{cite book |last=Tanner|first=Väinö |title=The Winter War: Finland Against Russia, 1939–1940, Volume 312 |location=Palo Alto |publisher=Stanford University Press |year=1956| page= 114 }}</ref><ref>{{cite book |last=Trotter|first=William|title=A Frozen Hell: The Russo-Finnish Winter War of 1939–1940  |publisher=Algonquin Books |year=2013| page=58,61 }}</ref> Fierce Finnish resistance prevented the Soviets from achieving this objective, and the [[Moscow Peace Treaty]] was signed on 12 March 1940, with hostilities ending the following day.

Finland would re-enter the Second World War when they [[Continuation War|invaded]] the Soviet Union alongside Germany in late June 1941. Finland reclaimed all territory lost in the Winter War, and would proceed to [[Finnish military administration in Eastern Karelia|occupy]] additional territory in [[East Karelia]]. The Soviet [[Vyborg–Petrozavodsk offensive]] of 1944 pushed Finland out of this territory, but Finland halted the offensive at the [[Battle of Tali-Ihantala]]. The [[Moscow Armistice]] brought the Continuation War to an end. Finland retained most of its territory and its market economy, trading on the Western markets and ultimately joining the Western [[Bretton Woods system|currency system]].

Nevertheless, although Finland was considered neutral, the [[Finno-Soviet Treaty of 1948]] significantly limited Finnish freedom of operation in foreign policy. It required Finland to defend the Soviet Union from attacks through its territory, which in practice prevented Finland from joining [[NATO]], and effectively gave the Soviet Union a veto in Finnish foreign policy. Thus, the Soviet Union could exercise "imperial" [[Hegemony|hegemonic]] power even towards a neutral state.<ref>[http://www.dartmouth.edu/~crn/crn_papers/Suny4.pdf "The Empire Strikes Out: Imperial Russia, "National" Identity, and Theories of Empire"] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20231031090019/http://www.dartmouth.edu/~crn/crn_papers/Suny4.pdf |date=31 October 2023 }} (PDF).</ref> Under the [[Paasikivi–Kekkonen doctrine]], Finland sought to maintain friendly relations with the Soviet Union, and extensive [[bilateral trade]] developed. In the West, this led to fears of the spread of "[[Finlandization]]", where Western allies would no longer reliably support the United States and NATO.<ref>[https://www.nytimes.com/1992/02/04/world/finns-worried-about-russian-border.html "Finns Worried About Russian Border"] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20230522184835/https://www.nytimes.com/1992/02/04/world/finns-worried-about-russian-border.html |date=22 May 2023 }}.</ref>

== See also ==
{{Div col}}
*[[Captive Nations]]
*[[Cominform]]
*[[Containment]]
*[[Foreign relations of the Soviet Union]]
*[[Foreign interventions by the Soviet Union]]
*[[Index of Soviet Union-related articles]]
*[[Russian imperialism]]
*[[Russian-occupied territories]]
*[[Soviet involvement in regime change]]
*[[Stalinism]]
*[[Sovietization]]
*[[Soviet Union–United States relations]]
*[[Western betrayal]]
{{Div col end}}

== Notes ==
{{notelist}}

== References ==
{{reflist}}

== Further reading ==
{{See also|Bibliography of the Russian Revolution and Civil War|Bibliography of Stalinism and the Soviet Union|Bibliography of the post-Stalinist Soviet Union}}
* Crozier, Brian. ''The Rise and Fall of the Soviet Empire'' (1999), long detailed popular history.
* Dallin, David J. ''Soviet Russia and the Far East'' (1949) [https://archive.org/details/in.ernet.dli.2015.52766/page/n3 online] on China and Japan.
* Friedman, Jeremy. ''Shadow Cold War: The Sino-Soviet Competition for the Third World'' (2015).
* Librach, Jan. ''The Rise of the Soviet Empire: A Study of Soviet Foreign Policy'' (Praeger, 1965), [https://archive.org/details/riseofsovietempi00libr online free], a scholarly history.
* Nogee, Joseph L. and Robert Donaldson. ''Soviet Foreign Policy Since World War II '' (4th ed. 1992).
* Service, Robert. ''Comrades! A history of world communism'' (2007).
* Ulam, Adam B. ''Expansion and Coexistence: Soviet Foreign Policy, 1917–1973'', 2nd ed. (1974), a standard scholarly history [https://archive.org/details/expansioncoexist00adam online free].
* Zubok, Vladislav M. ''A Failed Empire: The Soviet Union in the Cold War from Stalin to Gorbachev'' (2007) [https://www.amazon.com/dp/0807830984/ excerpt and text search].

{{Empires}}
{{authority control}}

[[Category:Cold War]]
[[Category:Former empires]]
[[Category:Soviet Union]]
[[Category:Imperialism]]
[[Category:Politics of the Soviet Union]]
[[Category:Neo-Sovietism]]
[[Category:Nationalism in the Soviet Union]]
[[Category:Nostalgia for the Soviet Union]]
[[Category:Neocolonialism]]