In the two world wars, the outcome of Soviet Russia was very different. Tsarist Russia, one of the most important countries participating in the First World War, was the most tragic and miserable, and before the war was over, the October Revolution broke out in the country, the regime was overthrown, and the country collapsed. The Tsar's entire family was beheaded and large tracts of territory were lost. As soon as the new Soviet power was born, it was interfered with by the armed intervention of fourteen countries gathered by Britain and the United States, and a four-year civil war was fought. Twenty years later, however, World War II broke out. In these six years of war, the Soviet Union performed extraordinaryly, becoming the world's second largest power after the United States, and swallowing nearly 600,000 square kilometers of land. The very different performance of Soviet Russia in the two world wars is indeed lamentable!
The first is to occupy 70,000 square kilometers of land such as Karelia, Finland. Finland is originally Part of Sweden, located at the mouth of the Baltic Sea, and its geographical location is quite important. In 1712, in a bid for control of Northern Europe, Tsar Peter the Great moved his capital from Moscow to St. Petersburg. In 1809, the whole of Finland was captured from Sweden, and the gate to the Baltic Sea was opened. However, after Finland gained independence, Russia lost access to the Baltic Sea and made the capital St. Petersburg a border city, so the Soviet Union moved the capital back to Moscow.
In 1939, Stalin regained the question of entering the Baltic Sea and took the initiative to launch a war against Finland, but it was met with stubborn resistance from the Finns, and Stalin had to make a big move to force Finland to cede Karelia. However, in World War II, Finland once cooperated with Germany in order to regain lost territory, but due to the reversal of the war situation, Finland immediately made peace with the Soviet Union and agreed to permanently relinquish the sovereignty of Karelia.
The second is to occupy 180,000 square kilometers of the three Baltic states. The Soviet Union took the gateway to the Baltic Sea, Finland's Karelia, and was more worried about Lithuania, Estonia and Latvia in the heart of the Baltic Sea, because they were located in most of the Baltic Sea. For this reason, Russia did not hesitate to take control of the region for twenty years. However, in 1918, these three countries became independent and became a heart disease of the Soviet Union.
Seizing the outbreak of World War II, the Soviet Union divided the three countries into their own spheres of influence through a deal with Nazi Germany, and then incorporated them into their own territory in the name of the Republics.
The third is to occupy 200,000 square kilometers of eastern Poland. Poland and Russia belong to the same Slavic people, but because Poland believes in Catholicism and Russia believes in Orthodoxy, there are constant contradictions and differences. In 1610, the powerful Poland invaded Moscow, massacred and supported puppets, and Russia became a vassal state of Poland. Since then, Bosnia and Herzegovina have completely tied the knot. After Russia became strong, it was completely divided with Prussia and Austria twice. After the First World War, war broke out again, and the contradictions intensified.
In 1939, the Soviet Union and Germany secretly signed a contract, and Poland was divided for the third time. The Soviets invaded Poland from both the east and the west, and the Soviet Union occupied 200,000 square kilometers of land in eastern Poland. After the war, it refused to return it.
Fourth, it occupies most of East Prussia of 15,000 square kilometers. Successive tsars of Russia have been fighting for access to the sea, and opening up the Baltic Sea has always been their expectation, but the situation of the Baltic Sea outlet is too complicated, and the contradictions and interests are too prominent, so the Soviet Union has to approach the sea as close as possible. Coupled with the fact that it was too close to Western Europe, it was impossible to carry out the Soviet Union's best population replacement for the three Baltic countries. Under these circumstances, Stalin forcibly occupied East Prussia, with Königsberg at its core, expelled all Germans, and made it a purely Russian Kaliningrad.
Fifth, it occupies 50,000 square kilometers of Moldova and Transcarpathia. Moldova was originally called Bessarabia, and Romania belonged to the Dacian nation. Turkey rose and occupied Romania, while Pisa Libya was occupied by Russia. After Romania's independence, there were sharp contradictions over the ownership of Pisa libya. After World War II, a helpless Romania abandoned its claim to Bessarabia.
Located at the junction of Central and Eastern Europe, Czechoslovakia is the meeting point of Catholicism and Orthodoxy, so it has always been a multi-ethnic settlement. After World War II, the Soviet Union called the area a concentration of Ethnic Ukrainians and forcibly occupied the Transcarpathians.
Sixth, it occupies 50,000 square kilometers of South Sakhalin Island and Kuril Islands. As we all know, Sakhalin Island has always been Chinese territory. At the end of the seventeenth century, Japan and Tsarist Russia infiltrated and encroached from the north and south. In 1875, Japan traded South Sakhalin islands for the Kuril Islands in the hands of Tsarist Russia by signing a treaty with Russia. After Japan's victory in the Russo-Japanese War, it reoccupied South Sakhalin Island. In August 1945, in order to fulfill the Yalta agreement, the Soviet Union declared war on Japan, and at the same time sent troops to northeast China, it seized South Sakhalin Island and the Kuril Islands, and declared the two places to be inalienable territories of the Soviet Union.
In this way, the Soviet Union annexed nearly 600,000 square kilometers of land through World War II.