What other wars did the Soviet Union participate in after World War II? Did it cause a large number of civilian casualties? What is the background motivation for each occurrence?

After World War II, the Soviet Union did not engage in large-scale wars, but intervened in several military conflicts. For example, the Soviet Union invaded Czechoslovakia because the Czech Republic did not listen to the Soviet Union and the Soviet Union joined forces with other countries to invade. In all previous Middle East wars, the Soviet Union stood on the side of the Arab world, but never declared war openly. It only secretly sells weapons to Arab countries, helps them train pilots, sells them information and threatens war to force the United States and Israel to submit. The only post-war war in the Soviet Union was the invasion of Afghanistan. There was a Cuban missile crisis, but it did not turn into a war. Let's start with the missile crisis that invaded Afghanistan, Czech Republic and Cuba.

Soviet invasion of Afghanistan

Afghanistan is a landlocked country in Central Asia and a neighbor of the Soviet Union and China. It has an extremely important strategic geographical position. 1973 to 1979 September, the Soviet Union staged three coups in Afghanistan to support the puppet regime. However, Amin's government, which came to power after the third coup in 1979, is still a shaky regime. In order to consolidate its rule, Amin's government purged the more pro-Soviet flag faction of the People's Democratic Party. Therefore, the Soviet ruling group believed that its control over Afghanistan was seriously threatened. At the end of September, Brezhnev decided to carry out armed intervention in Afghanistan.

The Soviet Union first sent people to Afghanistan to get rid of the head of the Afghan security forces, the army chief of staff and Amin's nephew and cousin, and then disarmed the Kabul army by deception in late June+February, 5438. On the evening of 27th, the Soviet Union tore up the Treaty of Good-Neighborliness and Cooperation signed with Afghanistan in February 1978, dispatched nearly 654.38+million troops to invade Afghanistan, occupied Kabul, launched the fourth coup, overthrew Amin's regime, executed Amin's family, and propped up the pro-Soviet flag, who was then the ambassador abroad, to send Karmal to power.

The armed invasion of the Soviet Union has brought profound disasters to the Afghan people and seriously threatened peace in Asia and the world. The Afghan people have established many resistance organizations to arm themselves against the invaders. By 1980, the number of anti-Soviet armed forces in China had reached more than 654.38+million, controlling 75% of the country's rural areas and regions. Most countries in the world strongly condemn the Soviet occupation of Afghanistan. The sixth emergency special session of the United Nations adopted a resolution demanding the immediate, unconditional and complete withdrawal of Soviet troops from Afghanistan. Soviet troops suffered more than 30,000 casualties in Afghanistan.

After Gorbachev came to power, he decided to withdraw from Afghanistan. 1988 April 14 Geneva Agreement was signed, which stipulated that the Soviet Union would start withdrawing its troops on May of that year 15 and complete the withdrawal within 9 months. All Soviet troops leave Afghanistan.

Soviet invasion of Czechoslovakia

1On August 20th, 968, the Soviet Union assembled about 300,000 troops from Poland, GDR, Hungary, Bulgaria and other countries and suddenly attacked Czechoslovakia, occupying the whole territory of Czechoslovakia in just six hours. This is a typical example of a brazen invasion in the form of a sudden attack within the Warsaw Pact countries after the Second World War.

1968 65438+ 10, dubcek, who pursued the "liberalization" route, became the first secretary of Czech communist party. After Du took office, he reorganized the Presidium and Secretariat of Czech communist party, put forward a new "program of action", and became increasingly alienated from the Soviet Union. The Soviet Union was worried that the Czech political and economic reforms would shake its control over Eastern Europe, so it put political and economic pressure on the Czech Republic and forced it to change its political line. After the Czech Republic refused, the Soviet Union decided to resort to force, occupy Czech territory by military means, reorganize Czech leadership, and stifle Czech reform.

The Soviet invasion of Czechoslovakia was carried out under the cover of "negotiation" smoke, after careful planning and long-term preparation. In order to cover up the invasion intention, the Soviet Union used various diplomatic and political deception to deceive the Czech side. Soviet troops and other Warsaw Pact troops used "military exercises" as an excuse to move their troops to the attack starting point near the Czech border. An hour before the invasion, the Soviet ambassador to the Czech Republic lied to the Czech Republic that "there will never be military action." After 100 days of intense preparation, the Soviet Union assembled five divisions from four other "Warsaw Pact" countries and 18 Soviet divisions with nearly 1000 tanks. On the night of August 20th, it launched a surprise attack on the Czech Republic in various ways.

At the beginning of the invasion, Soviet special operations forces flew to Prague International Airport on a military transport plane, demanding an "emergency landing" at the airport on the pretext of "mechanical failure". After the plane landed at Jiejie airport, more than 70 special operations soldiers rushed out of the cabin, quickly captured the tower and the airport, and took control of the entire airport. Subsequently, a Soviet airborne division on standby in the Soviet Union was airlifted to Prague by more than 30 transport planes, and Soviet paratroopers rushed to Prague from the airport by tanks and armored vehicles. The Soviet army first controlled all the traffic arteries in the Czech capital, surrounded and occupied the central building in communist party, the Czech Ministry of Defence, posts and telecommunications, news and other key departments of the party, government and army, and arrested dubcek, the first secretary of the Czech communist party, and other important members of the Czech party, government and army. At the same time, the Warsaw Pact troops, composed of a large number of tanks and armored vehicles, crossed the border from the borders of the Soviet Union, Germany, Poland and Hungary in multiple ways and directions, occupied other large and medium-sized cities and strategic places in the Czech Republic, and blocked the border between the Czech Republic and Austria. The Czech army, with 230,000 troops, basically had no resistance when all barracks were controlled by the Soviet Union. On August 2 1 day, the Soviet Union, the Warsaw Pact follow-up troops and command posts at all levels successively entered the Czech territory, completing the occupation of Czechoslovakia.

On August 26th, dubcek, who was arrested in Moscow, was forced to reach an agreement with five countries, including the Soviet Union, to change the established route of the Czech Republic. Under the loyal opposition of the Czech people, the invading Soviet troops and Warsaw Pact troops withdrew from Czech territory one after another, but some Soviet troops remained on the western border of the Czech Republic.

The Soviet Union assembled Warsaw Pact troops to invade Czechoslovakia, which was a successful surprise attack in the military sense, but politically it attracted strong opposition from the Czech people and criticism from international public opinion. This aggressive behavior of interfering in the internal affairs of sovereign countries by force exposed the essence of "power politics" and military adventure of the Soviet Union.

Cuban missile crisis

After the Bay of Pigs incident, the United States imposed a comprehensive embargo on Cuba. Castro knew that he was weak, so it was convenient for him to send a delegation led by his brother Raul Castro to the Soviet Union for help in July 1962. At the same time, the Soviet Union has been seriously thinking about its strategy towards Cuba. According to Khrushchev, Americans will not tolerate the existence of the Castro regime. If the Soviet Union does not take decisive measures to defend Cuba, it will lead other Latin American countries to abandon the Soviet Union, which will greatly reduce the status of the Soviet Union in the world. According to this train of thought, the Soviet Union is determined to regard Cuba as a bridgehead extending deep into the west.

Khrushchev's plan is to secretly deploy nuclear missiles in Cuba and try to finish the work before the United States finds out. In this way, even if the United States finds them and takes measures to destroy them, it will not be afraid, because as long as there are110 missiles left, it will be a fatal blow to the United States.

The Soviet government approved Khrushchev's plan, and Khrushchev attended the talks with Raul Castro on July 3 and 8, and reached a secret agreement. The Soviet Union decided to deploy medium-range missiles in Cuba and provide the Il -28 jet bomber, which was implemented in July. The Soviet Union replaced the goods destined for Cuba with Soviet ships, unpacked dozens of missiles and dozens of planes and shipped them to Cuba. At the same time, 3,500 military technicians also went by boat. Each missile carries a nuclear warhead, which is 20 or 30 times more powerful than the Hiroshima atomic bomb. It was not until September 2 that the Soviet Union publicly announced that it would provide Cuba with weapons and technical experts according to the agreement reached between sogou and China. At this time, the transportation plan of Soviet weapons and experts has been basically completed, and the deployment work is coming to an end.

Putting a nuclear missile under the eyes of the Americans, Khrushchev seems to have an evil spirit. After all, a mine was buried at the door of the United States, which changed the world's perspective from the eastern hemisphere to the western hemisphere. However, he did not expect that it caused an uproar and the war crisis threatened the Soviet Union. Khrushchev also raised a question for himself.

The U-2 plane that once humiliated the United States won a sigh of relief for Kennedy. Prior to this, 1 May 5, 960, two days before sogou established diplomatic relations, Khrushchev announced an amazing news: On May1day, an American plane was shot down while flying over the Soviet airspace. The United States issued a statement saying that the plane was doing high-altitude meteorological research in Turkey and lost contact with the Soviet border due to lack of fuel. On the 7th, Khrushchev said cheerfully that his first speech deliberately concealed the facts. He has evidence to prove that the U-2 plane is engaged in espionage and is engaged in photographic reconnaissance in Soviet airspace. The wreckage of the plane has been found and will be exhibited in Moscow. The driver Bowles is still alive and will be brought to court for trial. The United States can't say anything about this incident. Sam's missiles were allowed to shoot down another U-2 plane, but after learning that Sam's missile facilities were found there, McNair, director of China's information department, thought it was necessary to take the risk. He ordered that the island in western Cuba be filmed immediately. Two air force colonels flew to western Cuba. They were told in advance that there might be gunshots on the ground, but the shooter of Sam's missile either left his post or fell asleep, and they had a safe trip. When they came back, the new evidence they obtained was chilling. It can be seen from these photos that 16 missiles can be launched from one or maybe 32 launch sites within one week. According to the estimate of the American Intelligence Committee, the Soviet Union can use these weapons to launch 40 warheads in the United States at a time. Moreover, at that time, Cuba's weapons were about half of the total launching capacity of Soviet intercontinental missiles. The analysis of these photos shows that they are aimed at some specific American cities. If it is launched, eight million Americans will die in a few minutes.

Americans can no longer sit still. The Pentagon immediately drew up a targeted training plan and used it as an excuse to assemble troops at US military bases near Florida and Cuba.

1962101October 16 noon1afternoon, Kennedy held two secret meetings at the White House to discuss the action plan for Cuba. The "hawks" in the Pentagon put forward two tough measures: First, the US armed forces directly attacked Cuba. The specific measures are: first, send planes to carry out air strikes against Cuba and destroy its defense facilities, warehouses and airports; Then the marines landed, and Soviet missiles, technicians and Castro regime were wiped out in one fell swoop. The second is to carry out carpet bombing of Cuba with 500 planes, with the main target being the missile launching site.

10 10 On October 22nd, Kennedy gave a speech warning Khrushchev: "Any missile launched from Cuba will be regarded as an attack by the Soviet Union on the United States, which will inevitably lead to full retaliation by the United States against the Soviet Union. Any vessel that tries to cross the blockade will be sunk by the US Navy. " Unexpectedly, just as Kennedy threatened to attack, the Pentagon reported to him that Russians and Cubans inexplicably parked their planes at the airport, waiting to be destroyed like American planes at Pearl Harbor 20 years ago. Kennedy jokingly ordered General Taylor to send a U-2 plane to Florida to take photos of the American Air Force Base. He said, "It would be interesting if we did the same." As a result, the American plane was indeed like that, and the frightened air force department quickly evacuated.

In Moscow, 13 hours did not respond, and then the US ambassador to the Soviet Union received a note accusing the United States of "piracy." And admitted that the missiles in Cuba were used for military purposes. This note was interpreted as that the Soviet Union had not yet decided, and Khrushchev was caught off guard and seemed to be stalling for time in order to consider countermeasures.

Nuclear war is imminent, and the cloud of war is thicker than at any time before or after. Things seem to be improving. At 6 o'clock in the afternoon (65438+ 0: 00 am Moscow time), a long and emotional letter from Khrushchev began to be transmitted through the special teletypewriter between the US Embassy in Moscow and the State Council, USA. The Soviet Prime Minister admitted for the first time that Cuba had Russian missiles. He said that he suggested that no more weapons should be sent to Cuba. As long as Kennedy promises not to attack Cuba, he can remove or destroy weapons in Cuba.

It's another sunny day. A few minutes before 9: 00 a.m. (4: 00 p.m. Russian capital time), Radio Moscow announced that an important statement would be broadcast at 9: 00 sharp. This is the last ray of hope for peace. If Khrushchev rejects Kennedy's terms, the United States will attack. McNamara later estimated that the number of casualties in the United States would reach 40,000 to 50,000.

The Soviet announcer began to read the Russian reply. The key lies in the third paragraph: in order to eliminate conflicts that endanger the cause of peace as soon as possible, the Soviet government has issued new orders to unload your so-called offensive weapons and pack them back to the Soviet Union.

The Russians didn't ask Castro beforehand. Castro therefore declared that he was betrayed and said that he would ignore the agreement. However, although he can delay the time, he can't stop the end of the crisis. Although the missile is located in Cuban territory, it is in the hands of Russians, and no Cuban knows how to launch it. In the afternoon 1: 30, the chiefs of staff of the three armed forces sent a signal to the task force 136 fleet: Don't board other countries' ships again, and don't show any more force. The executive Committee was in high spirits, but the chairman said that Khrushchev's concession was doomed to be extremely difficult; And warned them not to claim that the United States won. The Cuban missile crisis has finally come to an end, but the crisis between the United States and the Soviet Union has not been eliminated.

Respondent: HCCER