The USSR

One of the first things Lenin did was to get Russia out of World War I with the Treaty of Brest - Litovsk. Russia lost a great deal of land and many of its subjects. But alas, they finally had achieved peace, for a time.

This peace would be short lived. Not everyone supported the Bolsheviks. Those who did support them were called the "Reds" while those who did not were called the "Whites." A Civil War broke out that lasted from 1918 - 1921. Many people died during the war. The tsar, tsarina, and their children were all murdered.

The Bolsheviks proved to be victorious and after the Civil War, they set about rebuilding Russia and trying to make communism a success. One of the first things they did was rename Russia in order to break with the past. Russia became the USSR, or the Union of Soviet Socialists Republics.

The world at large was not a fan of communism or the revolution. Lenin created more enemies by repudiating all Russian debt. He proclaimed that his government had not accumulated the debt and thus they would not pay it. The USSR did not start out on good diplomatic footing

In 1924, Lenin died. A succession crisis occurred in which Joseph Stalin and Leon Trotsky both contended for Lenin's position.

Joseph Stalin

Leon Trotsky

Stalin was able to consolidate power and he ruled as a totalitarian dictator. He murdered his enemies or anyone he felt threatened by. He starved his own people to death. He had purges where he killed his own followers and comrades. This created more strife between the USSR and the outside world.

However, an evil came to be known in 1939 that was far worse than Joseph Stalin. Adolf Hitler set out on his mission for world domination and World War II broke out as a result. Hitler eventually invaded the Soviet Union, therefore causing Stalin to make alliances with England, the United States, and France. The Allied Powers, including the Soviet Union were able to defeat Nazi Germany.

After the war, the United States and the Soviet Union came out as the two main world powers. They both had competing ideologies that each wanted to spread. The United States wanted to spread democracy. The USSR wanted to spread communism. Each side wanted to create spheres of influence. For this reason and also because of Stalin's distrust of his allies that had persisted throughout World War II, the Cold War broke out in 1945 after World War II.

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