Soviet Empire
During the Cold War, the informal term "Soviet Empire" referred to the Soviet Union's influence over a number of smaller nations who were nominally independent but subject to direct military force if they tried to leave the Soviet system; see Hungarian Revolution of 1956 and Prague Spring.
Though the Soviet Union was not ruled by an emperor and declared itself anti-imperialist, critics[1][2] argue that it exhibited tendencies common to historic empires. Some scholars hold that the Soviet Union was a hybrid entity containing elements common to both multinational empires and nation states.[3] It has also been argued that the USSR practiced colonialism as did other imperial powers.[4]
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[edit] Influence
The Soviet Empire consisted of the following:[5][6]
[edit] 
The Soviet Union and its satellite states
These countries were the closest allies of the Soviet Union. They were members of the Comecon, a Soviet-led economic community founded in 1949. In addition, the ones located in Eastern Europe were also members of the Warsaw Pact. They were sometimes called the Eastern bloc in English and were widely viewed as Soviet satellite states.
Bulgaria
Cuba
Czechoslovakia
East Germany
Hungary
Mongolia
Poland
Romania
North Vietnam/Vietnam (after 1975)
Albania (ended participation in Comecon after 1961 due to Sino-Soviet Split)
North Korea was a Soviet ally,[7] but always followed a highly isolationist foreign policy and therefore it did not join the Comecon or any other international organization of Communist states.
[edit] Soviet involvement in the Third World
A large number of countries in the Third World had pro-Soviet governments during the Cold War. In the political terminology of the Soviet Union, these were "countries moving along the socialist road of development", as opposed to the more advanced "countries of developed socialism", which were mostly located in Easten Europe, but also included Vietnam and Cuba. Most received some aid, either military or economic, from the Soviet Union, and were influenced by it to varying degrees. Sometimes, their support for the Soviet Union eventually stopped, for various reasons; in some cases the pro-Soviet government lost power, in other cases the pro-Soviet forces were overthrown by military coups promoted by the United States (such as in Chile), in some cases the pro-Soviet forces gained power by military aid from the Soviet Union (such as in Vietnam), while in other cases the same government remained in power but changed its relations with the Soviet Union.
Some of these countries were not Communist states. They are marked in italic.
Egypt (1954–1973)
Syria (1955–1991)
Iraq (1958–1961)
Guinea (1960–1978)
Somalia (1961–1977)
Ghana (1964–1966)
Peru (1968–1975)
Sudan (1968–1972)
Libya (1969–1991)
People's Republic of the Congo (1969–1991)
Chile (1970–1973)
People's Democratic Republic of Yemen (1969–1990)
Uganda (1966–1971)
Madagascar (1972-1991)
People's Democratic Republic of Ethiopia (1974–1991)
Lao People's Democratic Republic (1975–1991)
Benin (1975–1979)
People's Republic of Mozambique (1975–1990)
People's Republic of Angola (1977–1991)
Democratic Republic of Afghanistan (1978–1991)
Grenada (1979-1983)
Nicaragua (1979–1990)
People's Republic of Kampuchea (1979–1989)
[edit] Communist states opposed to the Soviet Union
Some Communist states were openly opposed to the Soviet Union and many of its policies. Though their forms of government may have been similar, they were completely sovereign from the USSR and held only formal ties. Relations were often tense, sometimes even to the point of armed conflict.
Yugoslavia (Informbiro 1948)- Albania (following the Sino-Soviet split)
China (following the Sino-Soviet split)
Cambodia (1975-1979, due to Sino-Soviet split and Cambodian-Vietnamese War)- Somali Democratic Republic (1977–1991, due to the Ogaden War)
[edit] See also
- Index of Soviet Union-related articles
- American imperialism
- Cominform
- Imperialism
- Evil Empire
- Communist state
- Sino-Soviet split
- Soviet republic
[edit] References
- ^ Beissinger, Mark R. 2006 "Soviet Empire as 'Family Resemblance,'" Slavic Review, 65 (2) 294-303; Dave, Bhavna. 2007 Kazakhstan: Ethnicity, language and power. Abingdon, New York: Routledge.
- ^ http://www.jstor.org/pss/20031013 Foreign Affairs, Vol. 32, No. 1, Oct., 1953 - Soviet Colonialism In Central Asia by Sir Olaf Caroe
- ^ Beissinger, Mark R. 2006 "Soviet Empire as 'Family Resemblance,'" Slavic Review, 65 (2) 294-303; Dave, Bhavna. 2007 Kazakhstan: Ethnicity, language and power. Abingdon, New York: Routledge.
- ^ Caroe, O. (1953). "Soviet Colonialism in Central Asia". Foreign Affairs 32 (1): 135–144. JSTOR 20031013.
- ^ Cornis-Pope, Marcel (2004). History of the Literary Cultures of East-Central Europe: Junctures and disjunctures in the 19th and 20th centuries. John Benjamins. pp. 29. ISBN 978-9027234520.
- ^ Dawson, Andrew H. (1986). Planning in Eastern Europe. Routledge. pp. 295. ISBN 978-0709908630.
- ^ Shin, Gi-Wook (2006). Ethnic nationalism in Korea: genealogy, politics, and legacy. Stanford University Press. pp. 94. ISBN 978-0804754088.
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