Stalin becomes chair of the State Defense Committee

Moscow demanded a new government and the entry of additional Soviet troops into Lithuania. Soviet pressure was followed by occupation and annexation, extinguishing Lithuanian independence. The episode...

Elections held under occupation offered voters a single approved list and were followed by petitions for incorporation into the Soviet Union. These procedures supplied a veneer of popular consent...

The USSR’s Supreme Soviet accepted Lithuania as a union republic after occupation and controlled elections. Soviet rule brought land nationalization, arrests, deportations, and the dismantling of...

An agent linked to Soviet security killed Trotsky, who died the next day. The assassination removed Stalin’s most prominent revolutionary rival abroad and extended Soviet political violence beyond its...

The invasion opened a war of annihilation across Soviet territory. Stalin’s government had failed to prepare effectively despite warnings; civilians and soldiers endured occupation, mass killing,...

A State Defense Committee decision formalized the evacuation apparatus as German forces advanced. Hundreds of factories and millions of people were moved eastward under extraordinary pressure. This...

A decree collectively accused Soviet Germans of collaboration and ordered their deportation to Siberia and Central Asia. Families were uprooted and subjected to forced settlement and labor; collective...

The siege cut the city’s main land connections and subjected civilians to starvation, bombardment, cold, and disease. Stalin’s wartime leadership did not remove the immense human cost; Leningraders’...

As German forces approached, the State Defense Committee ordered the evacuation of government bodies and diplomatic missions to Kuibyshev. The decision triggered panic and exposed the fragility of the...

Stalin’s order imposed a state of siege from 20 October, restricting movement and authorizing severe penalties as German forces neared the capital. The measure attempted to restore order after panic...