Russia, Soviet Union and The Cold War: Stalin's Legacy | Russia's Wars Ep.2 | Documentary

Documentary - Russia's Wars 1917 marks a new start in Russia in the October  Revolution Lenin and the Bolsheviks have violently   seized power but the situation is chaotic the  country descends into Civil War great parts of   this giant Empire are in the hands of the balik's  enemies white forces loyal to the tar nationalists   and separatists now threaten the victory of  the Revolution the Russian Revolution becomes   really one of the most terrible and bloody and  bloodthirsty events on the planet up to that date the horror of civil war is always awful the give the violence of the Civil  War quite simply meant that the country   and its people suffered murder and  killing were the everyday reality t under the bolik need a new Army to  hold on to power but most of the   revolutionaries are industrial workers and peasant Farmers there are very few trained officers  building a new Army seems a Herculean task and it falls to a civilian to turn  the revolutionaries into an effective Army Lev davidovic brunstein known as Leon Trotsky trosy was goodlooking  uh handsome vain flamboyant   um and loquacious but very bad at making friends  and actually didn't bother to cultivate a party   he just thought he was a genius and he would  win everything he'd spent his life as a orator   and journalist he was an extremely good writer  but it turned out he was also an extremely good strategist Trotsky is a key member of the  Revolutionary Inner Circle in 1918 he's appointed   the people's commissar for war and begins  to build up the Red Army trosky it turned   out was an extremely talented military  commander and as Napoleon said um war   and prostitution are two professions that  are often done better by amateurs than by Professionals in building the  Red Army Trotsky soon ditches   revolutionary ideas instead of  recruiting mainly volunteers   workers and peasants he integrates nearly 50,000  officers and 215,000 ncos from the tar Army to be   the backbone of the new Red Army tr's success in  building up the Red Army was based on principles   he would have rejected as antisocial just  5 years before drastic measures and iron   discipline never mind a workers Army of volunteers  he created an Army that relied as armies always   had on iron discipline perhaps with the one  difference that the discipline here was much harsher trosky relies on unquestioning obedience  and brutality he introduces the death penalty   political commissars are to execute any  soldiers who try to retreat this Prin   the principle of enforcing obedience in  the Army by violence and threats was fully   developed in the Red Army but that's not  something Russian soldiers weren't already   familiar with the Zar Army had already use such  drastic measures to force people to fight in   the Red Army trosky and his successors  perfected those techniques [Applause] the Red Army grows at a furious  Pace founded in 1918 by 1919 it   already numbers a million and a Half Men by  1920 there are 5 million Red Army soldiers   the most modern Weaponry is deployed  in the Civil War Machine Guns rapid   fire artillery armored trains and Armored Cars  aircraft too play an important role you could   say that was try's great skill seeing what  forms of combat what weapons made an army most effective bur for example he used armored  railway trains that could advance to forward positions those are the kinds of  ideas he introduced with a form   of professionalism completely unexpected in  someone who had never served in the military the Civil War takes a terrible toll  in human life by the start of 1921   Russian society and its economy are in a  catastrophic State the whole country faces starvation one focus of opposition to the  bolik is konad the Naval Base at the gates   of St Petersburg at the beginning  of 1921 sailor Mutiny against Soviet despotism you have to remember that the sailors   of krads were actually the  very first supporters of the Bolsheviks but when Moscow gets wind of events in   konad that don't fit with the bik's  plans none of that matters anymore 50,000 Red Army troops crush the uprising in  a merciless and Savage campaign survivors face   summary execution nothing must be allowed to  get in the way of the balik's hold on power in   1921 the Red Army finally defeats tarist forces  in Crimea aaban Armenia and Georgia fall to the   Red Army too the Civil War is Over 19 22 marks the  birth of the USSR the Union of Soviet Socialist   republics this gigantic Empire covers more than  22 million square kilm a sixth of the Earth's surface but the toll in human life is high up  to 10 million people die in the Russian Civil   War in combat through political purges and  starvation about 2 million are forced into   Exile the Bolsheviks had come to power believing  in Terror they believed in the restructuring of   society using violence they were also organized  in a sort of Vanguard in a very hierarchical   organized manner which was actually very well  suited to controlling Russia with the founding   of the Soviet Union Lenin has achieved his  goal he becomes the first head of government   of this newly created country for him the  terror since the revolution is the price   to be paid for the victory of the proletariat  well if you actually look at the history of   the Bolsheviks from the very beginning Al  Lenin is a is a mass murderer I mean it's   a Despicable character and starts this scale  of this escalation and scale of violence that   carries throughout the whole Soviet regime  it becomes part of the DNA of the Soviet system but in 1922 the founding year of the Soviet  Union Lenin suffers a stroke two years later after   a further series of Strokes he dies behind the  scenes there's a vicious struggle over the [Music]   succession besides Leon Trotsky Joseph Stalin  is also determined to inherit Lenin's mantle [Music] St Stalin builds his power base slowly  from the end of the Civil War in the early 20s   and accelerates in the second half of that decade  Stalin was no great orator who could appeal to   the masses like TR TR for Trotsky the Soviet  Union is just the beginning he wants Global   Revolution Stalin by contrast wants to achieve  socialism in his own country in a strong Soviet Union there's often a suggestion that  Stalin was just say a crafty ruthless Yoko not so he was highly intelligent  trosky had made himself a target for   everyone he' attacked everyone and always knew  better he made himself unpopular Stalin by   worked in the background creating a giant network  of people who became so dependent on him he ended   up able to do whatever he liked with them  that was his kind of political intelligence intelligence in 1925 Stalin uses his extensive  network to have trosky dismissed as head of the   Red Army in 1927 he has him thrown out of the  party two years later Trotsky is forced into Exile Stalin is in sole control working to  consolidate his power against all possible [Music] challenges at the end of the 1920s  Stalin starts to transform his devastated   country he plans to suppress private Enterprise  and industrialize the Soviet Union as fast as possible he tried to do this in a very short  term in 5 years to fund it to fund the American   Technology most of the technology came  from the United States and Germany of   course um he paid for it with grain and to  to do that he had to send the grain abroad Stalin dictates that agricultural yield  must be increased peasant farmers are   to be gathered in great production units  known as koses it's the start of forced [Music] collectivization Stalin had the suspicion  and he was right that the peasants weren't   at all convinced by the new system they  were opposed to it and were blocking it and this stubbornness was to be  broken by collectivization broken by force Stalin declares war on his own  people peasant farmers who refused to   be collectivized face drastic punishments 5 to  10 years in the notorious prison camps of the gulak but the effects of forced collectivization  are catastrophic there are fewer and fewer Farmers   to work the fields and fewer and fewer Fields  the yield of the Harvest shrinks to make matters   worse each village now has to pay a tax in Grain  that leaves them with almost nothing to eat in   1932 and 33 there is a massive famine in every  wheat producing region of the Soviet Union the   horror is that these millions of people  are deliberately starved to death as the   production from their Farms of their agricultural  production is simply stolen from [Music] them   and so of course this is a traumatic event  and it's a traumatic event in world [Music] history in spite of the famine star  insists on transforming the country   into an industrialized state it doesn't matter  who suffers no one and nothing must stand in the way the export of grain [Music] continues in  1931 the Soviet Union exports 5.2 million tons   of grain in the famine year of 1933 1.7  million tons are still exported to Europe   and the United States Ukraine is especially hard  hit by the resulting famine UK is Ukraine is an   extremely fertile agricultural land there's a high  proportion of peasant farmers in the population   and that's obviously why such a disproportionate  number of ukrainians became victims of the famine to UK Ians this desperate  famine is known as The holor Killing by starvation H hore is a word  invented in Ukraine and the   Famine of 1932 and 33 has a particular meaning for ukrainians of the approximately 7 million  victims of the famine about half died in Ukraine Ukrainian historians see the hore as  an attempted genocide of the Ukrainian [Music] people while the population starves  the Soviet Union continues to rearm   and everywhere Stalin sees enemies to be  annihilated from the mid 1930s a wave of   terror strikes every part of society  this is the time of the great Terror   Stalin's great Terror was one of the most  extraordinary political events of the 20th century never has a great state a great  power mutilated and destroyed its own EMP   power its own Personnel to such an extent as  Stalin did in the great Terror from 1936 to [Music] 39 but his idea was first of all um  better to kill 10 innocent men than   to let one Spy Escape and by spy he meant  not someone who was actually un betraying   the country but someone who might one  day think about betraying the country   the dreaded secret political police crack  down ruthlessly those Under Suspicion for   any reason fall into the hands of its agents  they face show trials with verdicts decided in advance between July 1937 and  mid November 19 19 38 1 and a   half million people are arrested 700,000 are executed most of the others land in the Soviet  punishment and work camps of the gulag lists are   drawn up across the country of people to be killed  Stalin personally signs hundreds of death lists   ironically some of these groups of people were  the people who actually could have enhanced his   power much more than others and one of these  uh groups of many were for example his own military more than 30,000 officers generals  and field Marshals fall victim to the purges in 1937 Stalin is suffering from  paranoia and this is the moment when the   Great Purge is Strike they take the most important   members of the officer Corp the thinkers  those who have experience of the Civil War Leon trotsky's supporters are  especially suspect he himself is in   Exile in Far Away Mexico but Stalin still  fears his old rival in 1940 he decides   to eliminate him a Soviet agent murders  Trotsky in Mexico City with an ice pick nearly 300,000 lined the streets for  his [Music] funeral trosky certainly   doesn't deserve to be admired he's  responsible for a large part of the   brutal system that characterized not just  the Red Army but really the whole Soviet Union try's idealization in Latin  America is down to the fact that   Stalin's regime turned the screw of brutality even further so trosky may seem the more harmless of   the two but that doesn't make  him in any sense a model to be followed on paper the Soviet Union is a  Federation of equal Partners but Giant   Russia dominates the smaller Soviet republics  in the 1930s a policy of russification is   introduced the Russian language supplants other  national languages like Ukrainian or Bellar Russian the idea of making the Soviet Union  into a homogeneous nation is an impossible   nonsense basically the Soviet Union is the  successor to the multiethnic Russian Empire   a confused mishmash of peoples Stalin  himself is the best example a Georgian   who might have loved to be a Russian but  he could never hide his heavy Georgian accent but Stalin is still suspicious of  his Empire's ethnic minorities one of the   great fears was that ukrainians poles um  Georgians Armenians would seek National   Independence or national autonomy from the  center and therefore in 1937 he launched the   national operations to literally kill by quota  vast numbers of any of the national um ethnic minorities Soviet citizens of Polish origin  are among the countless victims of the   national operations around 100 ,000 die in a  campaign of mass murder Stalin is too afraid   they could subvert the system he combines his  nationalism with ambitions to become a global   power an important Milestone is the Nazi Soviet  non-aggression pact of August 1939 Soviet foreign   minister Molotov and his German counterart  Fon ribbentrop sign the so-called Hitler   Stalin pact in Moscow a Secret Annex seals  the fate of Poland divided between the two countries on September the 1st 1939 Germany  invades Poland the start of the second World War 2 weeks later the Red Army  marches into Poland from the East   German and Russian troops stage a joint military  parade in breast bov but there's more in the   Hitler Stalin impact than the division of Poland  Finland in the Secret Annex Finland was allocated   to the Soviet Union sphere of influence so  were the Baltic states of Estonia lvia and Lithuania under massive pressure  the three Baltic states were forced   to accept Soviet garrisons the red Army on their soil but the Finnish  government rejected the same s demand at the end of November 1939 the Soviet  Union invades Finland it's an unequal struggle   the Red Army attacking with heavy weapons  is far bigger than its Finnish adversary the   Russians were extremely arant they were sure  that the fins would just simply collapse and   instead the fins resisted efficiently and with  amazing courage to the extent that they killed   over 130,000 Soviet troops this campaign  soon known as the winter War Bears little   similarity to Conventional Warfare the fins  counter the mighty Soviet army with improvised   highly effective methods the broad sparsely  populated Landscapes favor Guerilla tactics   ambushes with small mobile  units and critical use of snipers the fins are unbelievably Brave and put up   heroic resistance and the first assault  by the Great Red Army fails to defeat Finland more pictures illustrating the  wonderful fight that Finland is putting   up against Russia keep arriving and  here are some of the latest they show   a Russian Convoy after it had been  trapped and put out of action by the Finn it was a serious embarrassment for the Soviet   Union they didn't achieve their main  goal they couldn't manage to defeat Finland after regrouping the  Soviets launch a new offensive   with fresh troops they finally break  through Finnish lines in February 1940 but Victory comes at a price 130,000  Soviet troops are killed in the winter   War Finnish casualties are 70,000 dead and wounded spring 1940 in the peace treaty Finland  remains independent but gives up land to the   Soviet Union this gives Stalin a buffer zone  around Leningrad as St Petersburg is now known   in the summer of 1940 Estonia lvia and Lithuania  are absorbed into the USSR through his alliance   with Hitler Stalin also has eastern Poland under  his control imperialism in the name of communism June the 22nd 1941 German  armies invade Russia Hitler   plans a war of annihilation codenamed operation Barbarosa Hitler has broken the  Nazi Soviet non-aggression B the Red Army doesn't have a proper defense plan  it's completely taken by surprise because Stalin   refused to believe warnings of a German invasion  and banned any [Music] preparations in the very   first weeks the Red Army suffered horrendous  losses by the end of 1941 the Red Army no   longer existed in the form it had in June its  soldiers were either dead or prisoners of War Kang Germany's surprise attack has  apparently been entirely successful   Army groups North Center and South have split  the invasion between them from the Baltic to   the Black Sea by the end of August the Baltic  bellarus and large parts of Ukraine have been occupied it's Iran iic that when Barbarosa  begins and the Germans arrive in villages   and towns in Ukraine or B Russia or the  Baltic States they're greeted with bread   and salt and and wreaths of flowers  and people are so relieved because if   you've just been through the holid war  under Stalin anybody is looking pretty good the Germans hadn't come to  liberate them but to suppress them   as the ukrainians the Bell Russians and  the Baltic peoples soon have to recognize in this war of annihilation of  bolshevism there are no more   rules it's a Manhunt of Soviet  soldiers civilians and above all Jews Hitler makes it very clear that  his war in the East is not a war for   territory merely for territory  it's a racial War it's a war of extermination for's it's a war that's going to   completely changed the ethnic map  of Central and Eastern [Music] Europe German soldiers can commit crimes against  civilians without any fear of facing a military   Court Red Army political commissars are not to be  treated as prisoners of War but shot on site the   Germans deliberately let Soviet prisoners starve  to death approximately 3 million captured Soviet   soldiers die of hunger and disease the remarkable  thing is the enormous ability of the Red Army to   pick itself up and confront the enemy again and  again always to carry on fighting no one expected that to raise public morale the struggle against  Hitler's Germany is dubbed the Great Patriotic War   the Soviet Union soon has 5 million soldiers underarms Hitler and his generals  underestimate the quality of Soviet Weaponry the appearance of  the t34 tank in the summer   of 1941 is a huge shock it's soon  recognized as a formidable opponent the Germans have enormous problems countering  it it's Superior to all their own tanks but a   war isn't won by just one technology but  usually through mass production the t34   was simple to manufacture it had a diesel  engine it was suited to the terrain it   became a symbol of Victory though of course  that wasn't the only reason the Red Army won the Red Army also uses unorthodox  methods in Autumn 1941 a new night   bomber regiment comes into being  consisting entirely of women they   fly twoa p2s usually used for training  and farming sluggish biplanes of wood and canvas they take off at dusk singly at  intervals of several minutes [Music] close to the Target the pilots  switch off their engines and   glide in since the night attacks come  without warning the Germans call them   night witches Darkness protects  them from much faster German Fighters the pilots become Soviet Stars 23 become heroins of the Soviet Union the decisive Factor was the willingness  of individual Soviet citizens to fight they   didn't just say I've had enough I'm not  fighting for Stalin probably very few of   them were fighting for Stalin they  were fighting for their Village for   their connection to their Homeland that  was the decisive factor that stopped the Germans in autumn and winter 1941 Germany's  Advance falters the troops are ill equipped   for the oncoming Russian winter soon more  soldiers are dying from cold than from combat meanwhile the Soviet Union is moving  more and more efficiently onto a war footing Stalin delegates military decisions to  his generals one of them is gari constantinovich [Music] zukov with the other generals he  stems the German Advance you any means necessary zov jukov certainly plays a  significant role as a leading general   he's involved in almost all the important  battles and he's one of the capable thinkers   responsible for stopping the German Advance  before Moscow he's presented as the great   Victorious figurehead the great General the  Hannibal of the Red Army of course he wasn't   that jukov exemplifies the positive and also  the negative aspects of the Red Army he would   walk over corpses and he wasn't too worried  about losses jukov also left his trail of blood jukov is a product of the tough  Soviet military ethos he deals mercilessly   with deserters and he doesn't hesitate to  throw more and more soldiers into battle 1942 the Germans attacked the city of  Stalingrad they soon hold 90% of it but   by Autumn zukov and other generals have  bottled up 300,000 German soldiers in the city a bitter struggle ensues [Music] the Red Army Cuts all the German supply lines in January 1943 the German Fifth Army surrenders the battle for Stalingrad is a  psychological turning point for the Soviets   too for the first time they prove they can  mount a complex operation to bottle up an   ENT entire German Army psychologically that  matters it gives them hope they can force the   Germans back the big question is at what  price about 150,000 German soldiers die   at Stalingrad in combat or from hunger and  cold on the Soviet side an estimated 400,000 die German losses at Stalingrad are lower than  the Soviet We Believe 20,000 Red Army soldiers   were shot as deserters alone they drowned  the German advance in their own soldiers blood victory at Stalingrad is an  important signal for Great Britain   and the USA the Soviet Union's two main  allies in the fight against Hitler the   Americans also help with supplies by the  agreements known as the Lend Lease Act   the Soviet Union receives weapons vehicles  and raw materials worth more than 11 billion they would have succeeded  in halting the German Advance with   their own resources maybe even push  them back some but they certainly   couldn't have forced them back to Berlin  their offensive capabilities were based   on more than 400,000 American trucks on radio  transmitters uniforms Food Supplies and so on with support from the Western  allies the red army forces the   Germans to withdraw further and further  in February 1945 General jov's forces   win the Battle of Berlin bringing  the second world war in Europe to a close when the Red Army raised the  red flag over the rice tag on May   the 2nd 1945 it was partly thanks  to Logistics help from the USA and Britain roughly 24 million Soviet citizens lose  their lives in the second world war 13 million   Are Soldiers higher losses than any other  Nation victory in the Great Patriotic War   against Hitler's Germany is the most celebrated  achievement in the Soviet culture of remembrance   it's the nation's second founding myth even  taking precedence over the October [Music] Revolution what inspired and moved  people what spoke to their hearts   it was this war in which every family lost [Music] someone this legend of the Great  Patriotic War the heroic Victory it's one   of the crucial ideas that has been  carried over since the collapse of   the Soviet Union it has become part of  the collective memory of the Russian [Music] [Applause] people in Russia the  May holidays celebrating victory in the   second world war are the most  important holidays of the year they still are I'd say more than ever at the end of the second world war the Soviet   Union is stronger than ever it's now the  world's second superpower alongside the USA but soon these allies are Rivals the war is over at the potam conference in  the summer of 1945 Great Britain the USA and the   Soviet Union sit down to decide the post-war world  order the anti-hitler Coalition collapses [Music]   now it's all about National self-interest  Stalin the Communist plays classic great power politics after the war the Soviet Union  creates a buffer zone of communist satellite states its military Alliance The warsa Pact  faces the Western Alliance NATO Stalin had   always believed in Marxist leninism and he was  always convinced that ultimately there would be a   struggle with the capitalist West that was inbuilt  into his world view already but first of all he   wanted to make sure that the Soviet Union was as  safe as possible and that led him to take control   of Eastern Europe but that met with opposition in  some Eastern European countries in October 1956   the Hungarian popular demanded Democratic reforms  communist one party dictatorship seemed to be over Hungary in 1956 was especially dangerous  because Hungary announced its withdrawal from   the Warsaw Pact and the Hungarian Army changed  sides and they had to defeat this Army came from a the Red Army brutally suppresses the  struggle for Freedom the hunger for   democracy remains unfulfilled  Hungary stays in the Eastern block it was very clear the  Soviet Union was not going   to allow any state along its buffer zone to break rank there was no confusion mosco decides it  isn't going to be trifled with the Soviet Union   pursues its interests in many other countries in  1953 The Red Army helps Crush an uprising in East Germany in 1968 Soviet troops March into  Czechoslovakia putting a violent end to the Prague spring and there are proxy wars around the world   in the Korean War Soviet military advisers and  fighter pilots fight on the side of the North   in Vietnam the Communist North receives  weapons and advice in its war against the USA and in Africa the Soviet Union supports  the Socialists in the angolan Civil War [Music]   that's the logic of power blocks they  support or install political systems   aligned with their own interests  all over the world in that respect   the USA differs little from the Soviet  Union it's simply a global struggle for influence after 1949 the Soviets have  nuclear weapons and threaten to use them an atomic arms race starts with  the USA in 1961 the Soviets test   a hydrogen bomb setting off the largest explosion   the world has ever known the so-called s  bomb destroys everything in a radius of 35 km it has a deterrent effect on both sides I would argue that Atomic weapons  led to a relatively stable balance   of power because it was clear to  everyone or at least to heads of   government that a nuclear war could never  be fought so it must be avoided at all costs and yet nuclear war threatens in the  Autumn of 1962 when the Soviet Union secretly   stations Atomic weapons on Cuba American  spy planes discover Soviet launching pads   on the island President Kennedy demands the  missiles be removed and threatens a nuclear   response if they're fired but when Kennedy  offers to withdraw us missiles stationed in   Turkey Soviet Premier Nikita kusov backs down  and removes the missiles from Cuba [Music] I don't believe that either Kennedy or  krov were really prepared to see the   destruction of their own country in  an argument over a Caribbean [Music] Island the great resolution for the Cuban  Missile Crisis in 62 between Kennedy and   Cru was that we really cannot use nuclear weapons  because if we do then it's the end of the world but the explosive arms race  between East and West doesn't stop by 1990 the US has 21,000 nuclear warheads the Soviets have 33,000 more than enough to destroy all of humanity [Music] one of the cold War's most  significant conflicts is in   Afghanistan the Soviet Union's  Southern neighbor seems to be   unstable islamist and anti-communist  tendencies are making the Soviet Union nervous the plan is to bring order and  install a Soviet friendly government   and so in December 1979 a KGB unit murders  the Afghan president in his [Music] Palace   the Soviets appoint a puppet leader in  his [Music] [Applause] place the Soviet   Union's great fear was that islamists  in Afghanistan would take over the government and that radical islamism  could then leech into the southern Soviet Union Afghanistan must at all costs  remain in the Soviet sphere of influence a few days later 880,000  heavily armed Soviet troops marched   into Afghanistan to stabilize the [Music] country isn't they marched in to impose a sovietization  of the system believing there was a ground   swell of popular approval for the government they   thought the Soviet invasion would meet  with a degree of acceptance they were [Music] wrong it quickly becomes clear   the Soviet intervention has no  support among the Afghan people The Invasion soon falters the Afghan mujahadin  engage in a brutal struggle with Soviet forces it's interesting that the  Soviet Union doesn't understand   Afghanistan and above all they  have no idea how to resolve the   conflict politically they only have their  military card or rather a wrecking ball unmotivated Soviet troops fail to bring  Afghanistan under their control the   mujahadin disappear into the mountains  and Harry the Russians with Guerilla tactics the USA intervenes supplying  the mujahadin with money and weapons that land over there is  yours you'll go back to it one   day because your fight will prevail  and you'll have your homes and your   mosques back again because your cause  is right and God is on your [Applause] side the Americans equipped the muah with  very flexible Weapons Systems that are   particularly effective in this terrain Stinger  missiles for example for bringing down Soviet [Music] helicopters in the process the Americans  support a mujahadin commander Osama Bin Laden of course the Americans say  we're giving the Soviets their Vietnam and it works the Americans  don't have much in common with   radical islamists like the mjad  but the enemy of my enemy is my friend the war in Afghanistan lasts 10  years the world's second biggest military   power is unable to win it in 1989 the Soviet  Union pulls out militarily and politically humiliated casualty estimates diverge up to a   million people may have been  killed 7 million Afghans are displaced official figures on the Soviet  side 15,000 soldiers killed 50,000 [Music] wounded the Soviet withdrawal  has a lot to do with the new man at   the head of the USSR mik gorbachov  his policies of glasnost and Perrier   openness and rest structuring have far-reaching  consequences for the whole of the Soviet [Music] Union the Afghan war plays an  important role in the fall of   the Soviet Union because it  strengthens the doubts in   Soviet Society in the different Soviet  republics that the Soviet system can survive AF Afghanistan was one factor in the  fall of the Soviet Union but by no means the   only one I would argue that the Soviet  Union would have collapsed even without   the war in Afghanistan perhaps 3 years later  but the Soviet Union was forced by the west   by NATO by the USA into an arms race and  this arms race this economic rivalry was unsustainable and so the end of the  Afghan war also so Heralds the end   of the Cold War but against the hopes of  many it will not Usher in a lasting peace

Channel: criminals and crime fighters

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Keywords: Russia, russia wars, empire, Kremlin, Crimean War, War and Peace, revolution, Lenin, Trotsky, russia documentary, documentary, history documentary, crime, criminals and crime fighters, russia's wars documentary, russia's wars tsarist russia, soviet union, russian revolution, Bolsheviks, civil war, red army, russia red army, stalin, Stalin documentary, cold war, world war 2, Hitler, october revolution, october revolution russia

Id: WhXOrv1ZtZc

Length: 51min 17sec (3077 seconds)

Published: Fri Jun 14 2024