Repairing the harm of the unspeakable
Since February 2022, more than six million Ukrainians have been forced to flee their homeland, and an additional seven million have been displaced internally. Major cities such as the capital, Kyiv, and important port cities like Odessa have been all but destroyed by the Russian military. Ukrainian forces have put up a brave front and as of 2024, managed to push back the invaders.
One of the largest proxy wars fought during the Cold War was the Soviet-Afghan War that began in 1979 and ended in 1989 after an accord was signed between the four primary parties: the Soviet Union, Afghanistan, the United States, and Pakistan.
The world has been watching for almost two years now as Russian forces continue to invade the nation of Ukraine from multiple fronts. While the Ukrainian military has held strong, the conflict has wreaked unthinkable havoc on the cities and people of Ukraine.
Despite intense public outcry from Ukraine and the West, Russian forces went along with their invasion and declared Crimea a de facto republic of Russia. Tensions between Ukraine and Russia were extremely high for the eight years that followed, and finally boiled over with Russia's "special military operation" in the eastern territories of Ukraine. But these campaigns of invasion in recent years are far from Russia's first foray into imperialism. The nation in various forms over the years has sought to expand its power.
Operation Countenance was a joint invasion campaign into Iran carried out by the Soviet Union and the United Kingdom. The Imperial State of Iran was grossly outnumbered, and after losing about 800 troops between August 25 and August 30, 1941, signed a ceasefire agreement with the invading Allied forces.
There were many opposing factions who fought in the Soviet-Afghan War, including the US-backed Mujahideen, and the established government of the Democratic Republic of Afghanistan, backed by the Soviets. The war was catastrophic for Afghanistan, and it is estimated that between 6.5% and 11.5% of the country's total population died during the conflict.
In 2014, the Euromaidan protests in Kyiv ended with the pro-Russia ex-president of Ukraine Viktor Yanukovych being ousted in the Revolution of Dignity. Shortly afterwards, Russia mobilized its military and sent troops to Ukraine in order to complete the job Yanukovych had failed to finish: reinstating Russian rule in the region of Crimea.
The purpose of the invasion was to take over Iranian oil reserves and to establish secure Allied supply lines between the West and the USSR through what came to be known as the Persian Corridor.
In 1939, Estonia had signed a mutual-assistance pact with the Soviet Union. A year later, the much larger and more powerful USSR forced Estonia to conclude this pact, so that the USSR would be legally within their rights to build military bases in the small Baltic country.
Once established in the country, the USSR ousted the Estonian government and sent the president, Konstantin Päts, to Siberia. A Soviet puppet government was established. This invasion was just the first of many tragedies Estonia and the rest of the Baltic States would endure during World War II.
After losing much of the territory that once made up the Russian Empire at the end of World War I, Bolshevik Russia made many efforts to regain their lost territories: first the Baltic States, then Armenia, and then Georgia.
The Molotov-Ribbentrop Pact, signed by the Nazis and the Soviet Union in 1939, had a little-known additional "secret protocol," not made public until the end of the war, which divided the Baltic States into German and Russian spheres of influence.
Russia had recognized Georgia as an independent nation just one year before, but Bolshevik officials within Russia, including a young Joseph Stalin, convinced Russian leadership to retake the territory, citing a worker's rebellion taking place within Georgia. By February 1921, the Georgian Soviet Republic had been established.
After months of fighting through the brutal Finnish winter, the Moscow Peace Treaty was signed in March 1940, granting Russia 9% of previously-Finnish territory. More than 100,000 lives were lost during the conflict.
The USSR promptly proceed to invade Latvia to claim their "stake" in the independent nation shortly after the pact was finalized. Latvia remained part of the Soviet Bloc until it began to fight for its independence in 1989.
Once Manchuria was under Russian control, the army proceeded to execute any Chinese that spoke out against the occupation and destroyed numerous villages, forcing large groups of Manchurian residents to flee south. Russia lost control of most of Manchuria at the end of the Russo-Japanese War in 1905.
A few years after the dissolution of the Soviet Union, the newly-formed Russian Federation sought to regain some of its lost territory. One such campaign became known as the Battle of Grozny, which kicked off the First Chechen War.
Two years later, however, a group of Chechen militants invaded Russia's Dagestan region and attempted to declare it an independent state. Russia retaliated with a second full-on invasion of Chechnya, including a siege on the capital city of Grozny, which was still weakened from the First Chechen War.
Considered the first international European war of the 21st century, the Russo-Georgian War was caused by increasingly uneasy tensions between the two formerly-Soviet nations. After Georgia had declared independence from a weakened Soviet Union in 1991, two separatist movements emerged and declared themselves de facto sovereign states.
Just one year after their failed invasion of Estonia, the Red Army pushed into Armenia in an effort to support the growing interior Armenian Bolshevik forces who were attempting to stage an insurrection and fight off invading Turks at the same time.
The Bolshevik Red Army started an offensive campaign to take control of Estonia shortly after German troops left the area in 1917. By the end of 1918, the Russian army was at Estonia's doorstep, and while the infant nation had little chance of defending itself, Western allies provided support.
Russia's siege was successful, and the Federation assumed practical control of the region until 2009. Widespread conflict raged on during this decade, as Chechen and Russian forces fought against the extremists until the insurgency was sufficiently stamped out.
With the Armenian army so preoccupied and weakened by the Turkish invasion, the Bolshevik powers both native and Russian were able to topple the Republic of Armenia and establish the Armenian Soviet Republic.
Violence broke out in 2008 after South Ossetian separatists fired artillery into Georgian villages on their border, and Georgia promptly asserted control over the Ossetian capital of Tskhinvali. Russia, who had for years backed the Ossetian separatists, proceeded to launch a full-scale invasion into Georgia. Both Russia and South Ossetia have been accused of war crimes during this conflict, including the ethnic cleansing of Georgians.
Sources: (BBC) (Britannica)
See also: North Korea boosts missile production at plant supplying Russia
Russian operatives, whose involvement was initially denied by the Russian government, infiltrated the capital of Grozny and fortified the Chechen Provisional Council with armored vehicles and arms. The devastating conflict, which saw the deaths of at least 30,000 civilians, lasted until a treaty was signed in 1997 and all Russian troops retreated.
Soviet Russia invaded Finland in the winter of 1939, a few months after the Second World War broke out. Russia's motivations were purely expansionist, seeking to add territory to the USSR, in order to have a security line around the important border city of Leningrad.
Following the events of the Sino-Japanese War, the Russian Empire took advantage of the weakened state of both the Chinese and Japanese armies to make a move of expansion eastward, into Manchuria, in modern-day North China.
Both Britain and Finland provided Estonia with arms and ammunition. While the first months of the invasion saw Russia capture half of Estonia's territory, the tides of war shifted in 1919 and the Estonian military, along with Finnish support troops and volunteers, were able to push Russia back across the previously established border.
The Russo-Persian Wars raged intermittently for hundreds of years, with the first conflict beginning in 1651 and the last concluding in 1828, with the signing of the Treaty of Turkmenchay. These wars were fought primarily over each empire's claims to the territories along the Caucasus mountains, namely modern-day Georgia and Armenia.
Throughout these centuries of conflict, the regions being fought over changed hands numerous times between the two empires. The Treaty of Turkmenchay ceded most of the territories to the Russian Empire, although these regions fought for their independence numerous times during the following centuries.
Russia's invasion of Ukraine on February 24, 2022, has had the world on the edge of its seat, hoping that the conflict will end as soon as possible and Russia will turn back. Sadly, Russia shows no sign of stepping back
For many, the turbulent and tumultuous times that we live in today make it easy to forget the past. Unfortunately, these acts from Russia are far from unprecedented. For centuries, the many forms of Russia, from the Russian Empire to the USSR, have written a long and bloody history of imperialism, aggression, and expansionism.
Read on for a brief rundown of the current conflict caused by Russia, its context, and where its place is in the story of international Russian intervention.
All the countries invaded by Russia
A history of expansionist policy and aggressive geo-politics
LIFESTYLE Putin
Russia's invasion of Ukraine on February 24, 2022, has had the world on the edge of its seat, hoping that the conflict will end as soon as possible and Russia will turn back. Sadly, Russia shows no sign of stepping back
For many, the turbulent and tumultuous times that we live in today make it easy to forget the past. Unfortunately, these acts from Russia are far from unprecedented. For centuries, the many forms of Russia, from the Russian Empire to the USSR, have written a long and bloody history of imperialism, aggression, and expansionism.
Read on for a brief rundown of the current conflict caused by Russia, its context, and where its place is in the story of international Russian intervention.