Consisted of 15 different republics in the period 1922-1991
On August 23, 1939, the Soviet Union and Germany signed a non-aggression pact. The agreement is named after the two countries’ foreign ministers Molotov and Ribbentrorp. An additional part to the Molotov-Ribbentrop agreement divided Europe into two. Which lands Germany and the Soviet Union had the right to take. In addition, which lands should…
In the period 1930-55, a directorate ran the Soviet Union’s prison camps. The Gulag Directorate. Today, the prison camps are often referred to as Gulag camps. These camps were important in the Soviet economy in some areas. Ordinary criminal, opposition, ethnic groups and after the war also Germans were placed in the camps. The…
Sweden was neutral during World War II. Nevertheless, one of the greatest war heroes is from Sweden. War hero because he saved tens of thousands of Jews from the Holocaust. In January 1945, Raoul Wallenberg was captured by the Soviets in Budapest (Hungary). Suspected of being a spy. Officially, the Soviet Union claimed that…
The Soviet Union’s grip on Eastern Europe stretched beyond the 1980s. Central to what was to lead to the fall of the Eastern Bloc was the Polish trade union Solidarity. The leader Lech Walesa in particular played a big role. In September 1980, the trade union Solidarit was founded. The leader was Lech Walesa….
On January 5, 1968, Alexander Dubcek was elected secretary of the Czechoslovak Communist Party. This means that he became the country’s supreme leader. He started by introducing a number of reforms. These reforms included the introduction of a market socialist economy, a degree of freedom of expression and the press, the possibility of allowing…
The first large-scale protest against communism that the Soviet Union stood for in Eastern Europe took place in Hungary in 1956. The nationwide protests started on 23 October and lasted until the Soviet invasion on 10 November. The riots started with thousands of students in Budapest taking to the streets and marching towards the…