The Union of Soviet Socialist RepublicsThe Union of Soviet Socialist Republics, commonly referred to as the USSR, was one of the Allied Powers, a group of countries working together to overthrow Germany, Italy and Japan, or the Axis Powers, in World War II. The USSR included several former countries including Russia, Ukraine, Kazakhstan, and dozens of other countries to create one of the strongest and largest countries in the world. The USSR played a major role in the second world war and was part of what lead the Allied Powers to ultimately win the war and overthrow Adolf Hitler and the Nazi Party.
|
|
The Union of Socialist Republics was a union of countries all part of one country. After World War I, Russia began a civil war which would lead the country to its downfall. The Bolshevik people began to overthrow all of Russia and the surrounding countries. Once the civil war was over, the Bolsheviks asked if the surrounding countries including Ukraine, Kazakhstan and others if they would be interested in creating a union of countries. By 1922, a treaty was signed by all of the participating countries to create the Soviet Union. After the creation of the USSR, it automatically became the largest and most powerful nation in the world. With a population of just over 150 million.
|
Many civilians within the USSR had mixed feelings about the war and the USSR itself. In agricultural areas, many people were less than found of Stalin. This is because he had begun claiming farmland for the government in an attempt to control all USSR agriculture so he could expand Russian industry. This resulted in famine throughout the USSR, specifically the Ukraine.
When the Germans began invading the USSR, many different cities had varying opinions on how they felt about the Germans, themselves. Cities such as Belarus (formerly a part of Poland), which had been affected by the famines caused by Stalin, welcomed them as liberators. However, this was not the case in Russian dominant cities such as Moscow or Stalingrad. These citities were heavily militarized and were not taken over by the Germans, in fact, their citizens fought back against the Germans. |