The Soviet Union was not a state that endured for centuries. History has seen many states that existed for much longer and are now largely forgotten. Yet during its 69 years of existence (it fell just four days short of its seventieth anniversary), the Soviet Union left an indelible – and deeply bloody – mark on world history.

Bloody Beginnings

Let us take a brief look at the history of the Soviet state. It all began in 1917, when Russia, weakened by the First World War, was shaken by two revolutions: the February Revolution and the October Revolution. It was the latter that had the most far-reaching consequences. The Bolshevik coup at the end of 1917 brought the Bolsheviks, led by Vladimir Lenin, to power. It was followed by the arrest and murder of Tsar Nicholas II and his family, and by the outbreak of the Russian Civil War. The years of internal conflict claimed millions of lives, and not only on the battlefield. In fact, the majority of the victims were civilians. They suffered the devastating effects of famine, and they also made up most of the victims of the Red Terror, unleashed across the country on the orders of Lenin and Felix Dzerzhinsky. Arrests, interrogations, summary trials, executions, and deportations to labour camps became part of everyday life in Soviet Russia during its earliest years – and, as events would show, for many decades thereafter.

A Georgian at the Helm

A milestone in the history of the Soviet state came on 30 December 1922, when the Russian, Belarusian, Ukrainian and Transcaucasian Soviet republics united to form the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics (USSR). Several years of relative stability – relative being the key word, as the 1920s remained a period marked by varying degrees of political terror – came to an abrupt and brutal end in 1929–1930. It was then that Joseph Stalin, the dominant figure in the Soviet leadership, launched his radical policy of collectivisation. Anyone who opposed collectivisation became a target of the Soviet machinery of repression. In reality, however, even those who supported it were not safe. At any moment, they could be denounced as kulaks – supposedly wealthy peasants accused of exploiting others.

Collectivisation led to a devastating famine that claimed millions of lives. Shortly afterwards came the period of the Great Terror, which, in effect, lasted until the outbreak of the Second World War. During those years, the NKVD’s “sword of justice” could fall upon anyone. Peasants, townspeople, officers (including marshals) and soldiers of the Red Army, Bolshevik activists (both veterans and newcomers), and even NKVD officers themselves (including its highest-ranking leaders) all became victims of the greatest wave of terror in the history of the USSR. The scale of these events is best illustrated by the figures: within just a few years, more than eight million people were arrested, of whom over three million were executed or died in the Gulag labour camps.

Then came 1939 and the joint German–Soviet campaign to destroy the Polish state. It was this agreement between Berlin and Moscow that made the outbreak of the Second World War possible. Hitler and Stalin were well aware that their alliance would be short-lived. Nevertheless, it enabled them to defeat a common enemy – Poland – while at the same time seizing further territories in Europe. It should not be forgotten that both Nazi Germany and the Soviet Union bear equal responsibility for the outbreak of the war.

But let us return to the history of the Soviet Union. From 1939 until June 1941, the Soviet authorities extended their campaign of terror to the occupied territories – Poland, Lithuania, Latvia, Estonia, Bessarabia, and parts of Finland. However, 22 June 1941 changed everything. The German invasion of the Soviet Union marked the beginning of another tragedy in the country’s history. Millions of soldiers and civilians lost their lives, both at the hands of the Germans and as a result of the actions of the Soviet regime itself. The Red Army was unprepared for war against the Wehrmacht and came close to suffering a catastrophic defeat. Following directly behind Red Army units were NKVD officers, whose task was to prevent soldiers from retreating from the battlefield. Red Army soldiers were thus faced with a stark choice: death at the hands of the Germans or the NKVD… But, as the Russian saying goes: Ludiej u nas mnogo [we have plenty of men]. For this reason, even the Wehrmacht was unable to conquer the Soviet Union. When “the enemy has more soldiers than you have ammunition”, there is little that can be done. From 1943 onwards, the Red Army, leaving behind battlefields strewn with its fallen soldiers, began to dictate the course of the war on the Eastern Front. At the same time, Stalin strengthened his international position by forging closer ties with Churchill and Roosevelt. Yet this friendship, too, proved short-lived, although it brought the Soviet Union significant territorial gains and political influence across Europe. After the defeat of Germany in 1945, disagreements quickly emerged between the former allies. Nevertheless, these successive short-lived alliances forged by Stalin again brought him territorial expansion and political advantage. As the Red Army advanced, Soviet terror once more crossed national borders, spreading across Central and Eastern Europe: Poland, the Baltic states, Czechoslovakia, eastern Germany, Hungary, Romania, and beyond…

A New Era

As a result of further waves of mass arrests across Central and Eastern Europe, affecting both prisoners of war and Soviet citizens, the Gulag system entered a period of unprecedented expansion. Countless more thousands – and perhaps even millions – would likely have joined the ranks of the Gulag’s prisoners, as Stalin was reportedly preparing another purge. However, on 5 March 1953, he died. His death marked the beginning of yet another struggle for power. One of the leading contenders to succeed Stalin was Lavrentiy Beria, the head of the NKVD. However, the other members of the Party’s Politburo, who were also vying for power after Stalin’s death – most notably Nikita Khrushchev – successfully eliminated Beria from the contest, quite literally. Khrushchev ultimately emerged as the new leader in Moscow, ushering in a new chapter in the history of the Soviet Union. His famous Secret Speech, delivered in February 1956, marked the beginning of the period known as de-Stalinisation. Khrushchev condemned the cult of personality that had surrounded Stalin and criticised the methods of mass terror, although he described them merely as “mistakes and distortions”. He portrayed the principal victims as “good Communists”, despite the fact that the overwhelming majority of those persecuted were ordinary citizens. Remarkably, Khrushchev made no mention of his own role in implementing these criminal policies during the preceding years, including while serving as First Secretary of the Communist Party of Ukraine.

Did this famous speech mean that terror in the Soviet Union had become nothing more than a memory? It did not, although its scale was indeed reduced. The Soviet security services’ “preventive measures” were usually sufficient to discourage anyone whose views differed from those of the Party. The Gulag system was officially dismantled, yet the last prisoners did not leave the camps until the late 1980s.

On Different Fronts

What, then, was happening on the international stage? Even during Stalin’s lifetime, the Soviet Union turned its attention to Asia, seeking to expand its sphere of influence. Korea and Vietnam became the two best-known arenas of confrontation between the United States and its Western allies on one side, and the Soviet Union on the other. What distinguished the two sides? In both conflicts, the Americans deployed their own troops, whereas the Soviets concentrated on training local forces and supplying them with military equipment – equipment of a very high standard. The rivalry also extended into space. Most importantly, in the autumn of 1962, the world came perilously close to a third world war – one that would almost certainly have been fought with nuclear weapons. The crisis centred on a small Caribbean island: Cuba. Fortunately, the immediate danger was averted, and both sides subsequently sought to act with greater restraint. Arms control agreements were even concluded, although they were not always honoured.

It could be said that whenever a conflict erupted anywhere in the world during the 1950s, 1960s, 1970s, or 1980s, the Soviet Union was involved in one way or another. Meanwhile, there was a change of leadership in Moscow. Khrushchev was forced to resign and was succeeded by a man remembered around the world as much for his distinctive bushy eyebrows as for his policies. This was, of course, Leonid Brezhnev, who remained the leader of the Soviet Union for 18 years. During his rule, he made it clear that no country within the Eastern Bloc would be allowed to break free from Moscow’s control. And he proved true to his word. The invasion of Czechoslovakia by Soviet-led Warsaw Pact forces in 1968 was clear evidence of this policy. Yet this was not the end. In 1979, Brezhnev took a decisive step towards the eventual collapse of the Soviet Union by ordering the invasion of Afghanistan. What had been intended as a swift intervention turned into a prolonged and bloody war, in which successive Soviet units fought and suffered heavy losses. At the same time, the Soviet Union was sinking ever deeper into economic crisis, while alcoholism – long a persistent social problem across the country – continued to take a heavy toll.

Close, Even Closer

The 1980s had arrived. Following Brezhnev’s death, Yuri Andropov assumed power, followed by Konstantin Chernenko. However, both men, owing to their advanced age and poor health, remained in office only briefly. Then Mikhail Gorbachev entered the political stage. He began his leadership with two key slogans: uskorienije [acceleration] and pierestrojka [restructuring]. The Party began to reveal subjects that had been suppressed for decades, above all the history of Stalinist terror, while citizens were encouraged to believe that totalitarianism belonged to the past. However, society demanded ever greater openness, whereas the authorities applied transparency only selectively. Instead of growing stronger, the Soviet economy resembled an ageing tractor: it was still running, but it could break down completely at any moment.

As the decade drew to a close, the Soviet Union found itself facing mounting challenges. In 1989, democratic transformation began in Poland; in Germany, the Berlin Wall fell and the movement towards the reunification of a country divided after the Second World War gathered pace; meanwhile, Lithuania declared the restoration of its independence, having previously been a Soviet republic from 1940 to 1941 and again from 1944 onwards. In 1990, following the example of democratic states, Gorbachev created the office of President of the Soviet Union and assumed the post himself. By then, however, the Soviet system was already beginning to unravel. In 1991, an attempted coup failed, while Boris Yeltsin emerged as an increasingly influential political figure at the head of the Russian Republic. In December of that year, he became one of the signatories of the Belovezha Accords, which declared that the Soviet Union had ceased to exist. Only the formalities remained. On 25 December 1991, Mikhail Gorbachev resigned as President, and the Soviet flag over the Kremlin was lowered and replaced by the Russian tricolour. The following day, the Soviet Union was formally dissolved. This was not the outcome Gorbachev had intended. His aim had been to reform the Soviet system, not to bring about its collapse. History, however, took a different course.

Return to the Past

Thus, a global superpower ceased to exist. It was, however, soon succeeded by a resurgent Russia. To this day, Moscow regards the collapse of the Soviet Union as the greatest geopolitical catastrophe in its history, and the ambition to restore the country’s former power continues to shape the thinking of those in the Kremlin. This longing for the Soviet past remains visible in many ways. The Russian Air Force still uses the red star as its insignia, Russian tanks are often seen carrying red flags, and in many Russian cities it is still possible to find monuments to… Joseph Stalin.

Piotr Bosko

Translated from Polish by Małgorzata Giełzakowska