Search results
Results from the WOW.Com Content Network
On 23 August 1939, the Soviet Union signed a non-aggression pact with Germany which included a secret protocol that divided Eastern Europe into German and Soviet spheres of influence, anticipating potential "territorial and political rearrangements" of these countries. [2] Germany invaded Poland on 1 September 1939, starting World War II.
Total war-loss figures include territories annexed by the Soviet Union in 1939–1945. [citation needed] Although the population growth-rate decreased over time, it remained positive throughout the history of the Soviet Union in all republics, and the population grew each year by more than 2 million except during periods of wartime, and famine.
According to the official results, the total population of the USSR was found to be at 170,467,186. Compared with 1926 figures, the urban population more than doubled, from 26.3 million to 55.9 million, while the literacy rate rose from 51.1% to 81.2% in the same time frame. [ 10 ]
In 1993, the Russian Ministry of Defense report authored by a group headed by General G. F. Krivosheev detailed military casualties. [29] Their sources were Soviet reports from the field and other archive documents that were secret during the Soviet era, including a secret Soviet General Staff report from 1966 to 1968.
After the Soviet invasion of Poland following the corresponding German invasion that marked the start of World War II in 1939, the Soviet Union annexed the eastern parts of Poland (known as Kresy in Poland or known as West Belarus and West Ukraine in the USSR as well as in Belarus and Ukraine) of the Second Polish Republic, which then became ...
In late August 1939 (a week before the invasion of Poland and the start of World War II in Europe), Hitler sent his foreign minister Joachim von Ribbentrop to Moscow to arrange a pact of non-aggression with the Soviet Union. This became known as the Molotov–Ribbentrop Pact. Hitler's aim was to avoid having to fight on two fronts upon the ...
Between 1965 and 1975, another 15,000 Greeks emigrated from the Soviet Union and went to Greece. [47] After the dissolution of the Soviet Union, approximately 100,000 Greeks left the former USSR and emigrated to Greece. [48] Unlike many other 'punished' ethnic groups, the Soviet Greeks were never officially rehabilitated by the Soviet ...
The forces mobilized in the Soviet Union were not positioned for defensive, but for offensive aims". He concluded, "Hitler's invasion forces didn't outnumber [the Soviets], but were rather outnumbered themselves. The Soviets were unable to organize defenses. The troops were provided with maps that covered territories outside the Soviet Union". [73]