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Soviet Empire was a controversial, politically charged and pejorative term used to critically describe the actions and nature of the Soviet Union. It gained popularity after U.S. President Ronald Reagan famously denounced the USSR as an "evil empire" in a 1982 speech to the United Kingdom House of Commons.

Motivation of the term

Though it was not ruled by an emperor and declared itself anti-imperialist, the Soviet Union exhibited certain tendencies common to historic empires:
  • Territorial expansion through invasion or subversion (e.g.: Poland, Finland, Afghanistan).
  • Strong central government controlling the governments of all subsidiary and satellite territories.
  • Interference (including through the use of military force) in the internal politics of its allies (see histories of Czechoslovakia, Hungary, Poland).

For these reasons and others, the Soviet Union is sometimes considered by certain historians to be one of the main empires of history, equal to such notables as the British Empire and the Roman Empire, and borrowing some of the foreign policy of the Tsarist Russian Empire that it replaced. Supporters of the Soviet Union, meanwhile, reject such claims and argue that the relationship between the Soviet Union and countries within its "empire" was in fact one of voluntary cooperation.

The Soviet sphere of influence

Though there never was any formal "Soviet Empire", the Soviet Union did exert a strong influence over a number of nations. Thus, the Soviet Empire was said to consist of the following:

Member states of the Soviet Union

See also Republics of the Soviet Union

Members of Comecon

These countries were the closest allies of the Soviet Union. They were members of the Comecon, a Soviet-led economic community founded in 1949. In addition, the ones located in Eastern Europe were also members of the Warsaw Pact. They were sometimes called the Eastern bloc in English and were widely viewed as Soviet satellite states.

North Korea was a Soviet ally, but always followed a highly isolationist foreign policy and therefore it did not join the Comecon or any other international organization of Communist states.

Countries with pro-Soviet governments for shorter periods of time

In the political terminology of the Soviet Union, these were "countries moving along the socialist road of development", as opposed to the "countries of developed socialism", listed above. Most received some aid, either military or economic, from the Soviet Union, and were influenced by it to varying degrees. Their support for the Soviet Union was short lived for various reasons; in some cases the pro-Soviet government lost power, while in other cases the same government remained in power but changed its relations with the Soviet Union.

Some of these countries were not Communist states. They are marked in italic.

Communist states opposed to the Soviet Union

Some Communist states were openly opposed to the Soviet Union and many of its policies. Though their forms of government may have been similar, they were completely sovereign from the USSR and held only formal ties. Relations were often tense, sometimes even to the point of armed conflict.

See also

Empires | Soviet Union

 

This article is licensed under the GNU Free Documentation License. It uses material from the "Soviet Empire".

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