Lithuania is incorporated into the Soviet Union

Soviet forces crossed the Finnish border after failed negotiations over security near Leningrad. The war exposed the costs of Stalin’s coercive diplomacy and the Red Army’s weaknesses after the...

The Soviet Politburo approved a proposal to execute thousands of Polish officers and prisoners held by the NKVD. The killings at Katyn and other sites were part of a broader effort to eliminate Polish...

The treaty ended the Winter War and transferred Finnish territory, including the Karelian Isthmus, to the Soviet Union. Soviet security demands gained territory but at high military and diplomatic...

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...

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,...

The emergency body concentrated wartime authority and coordinated the state, economy, and military. Soviet survival depended on the labor and sacrifice of diverse peoples, including workers, women,...

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...