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183-454: [REDACTED] Leningrad Front [REDACTED] Karelian Front 1942 1943 1944 The Vyborg–Petrozavodsk offensive or Karelian offensive was a strategic operation by the Soviet Leningrad and Karelian Fronts against Finland on the Karelian Isthmus and East Karelia fronts of the Continuation War , on the Eastern Front of World War II . The Soviet forces captured East Karelia and Vyborg/Viipuri . After that, however,

366-655: A famine between 1930 and 1933 that killed millions. The Soviet forced labour camp system of the Gulag was expanded. During the late 1930s, Stalin's government conducted the Great Purge to remove opponents, resulting in mass death, imprisonment, and deportation. In 1939, the USSR and Nazi Germany signed a nonaggression pact , but in 1941, Germany invaded the Soviet Union in the largest land invasion in history, opening

549-716: A Soviet dictation of terms, was remembered, the government decided to interpret the Soviet response as a demand for unconditional surrender. It seemed that after Finnish unwillingness to accept the Soviet proposals in April 1944, owing to excessive reparation demands, Finland was to be offered only unconditional surrender. This was in line with Churchill's statement that as an Axis belligerent, Finland's surrender must be unconditional. The Soviet authorities denied this interpretation in an article published in Pravda on July 2, 1944, Furthermore, it

732-710: A beachhead behind the Finnish lines and also beyond the 'PSS'-line between the Viteleenjoki and Tuuloksenjoki rivers, severing the main road and railroad connections along the shore of Lake Ladoga. As Finns had previously moved most of the coastal defenses to the Karelian Isthmus the Soviet landing met only skeleton defense. Finnish attempts to drive the Soviets into the Ladoga proved unsuccessful but it had pushed

915-548: A boat), Alexei Krylov (author of the modern ship floodability theory), and Alexander Mozhaiski (co-inventor of aircraft). As early as 1861, the first armor-clad ships were built for the Baltic Fleet. In 1863, during the American Civil War , most of the fleet's ocean-going ships, including the flagship Alexander Nevsky were sent to New York City . At the same time ten Uragan -class monitors based on

1098-600: A close with the freezing of the Gulf of Finland during the exceptionally cold winter of that year. In the beginning of the German invasion the Baltic Fleet had 2 battleships (both of World War I vintage), 2 cruisers , 2 flotilla leaders , 19 destroyers , 48 MTBs , 65 submarines and other ships, and 656 aircraft. During the war, the fleet, commanded by the Vice-Admiral Vladimir Tributz , defended

1281-541: A closer relationship with France and Britain. In 1939, half a year after the Munich Agreement , the USSR attempted to form an anti-Nazi alliance with France and Britain. Adolf Hitler proposed a better deal, which would give the USSR control over much of Eastern Europe through the Molotov–Ribbentrop Pact . In September, Germany invaded Poland, and the USSR also invaded later that month, resulting in

1464-691: A division but only having a few hundred men assigned to maintain the equipment and guard the bases. "warfare.be" listings in 2013 report that the staff of the Ground and Coastal Defence Forces of the fleet may have been disbanded in November 2007. In 2007, according to the IISS, the fleet's aviation units were equipped with a total of 23 Su-27 , 26 Su-24 , 14 An-12 / 24 / 26 , 2 An-12 Cub (MR/EW), 11 Mi-24 Hind , 19 Ka-28 Helix , 8 Ka-29 Helix assault helicopters, and 17 Mi-8 Hip transport helicopters. As of 2020,

1647-588: A fellow Ally in the First World War in December 1915., Four of these submarines, AG 11, AG 12 , AG 15 and AG 16 were scuttled in the harbour of Hanko on 3 April 1918, just before the 10,000-strong Imperial German Baltic Sea Division landed in support of the "Whites" forces in the little known Finnish Civil War . During the war the fleet was aided by a detachment of British Royal Navy submarines . These subs were later scuttled by their crews near

1830-478: A fleet of strategic bombers and during war situation was to eradicate enemy infrastructure and nuclear capacity. The air force also had a number of fighters and tactical bombers to support the army in the war. Strategic missile forces had more than 1,400 intercontinental ballistic missiles (ICBMs), deployed between 28 bases and 300 command centers. Baltic Fleet The Baltic Fleet ( Russian : Балтийский флот , romanized :  Baltiyskiy flot )

2013-519: A greater union which he initially named as the Union of Soviet Republics of Europe and Asia (Russian: Союз Советских Республик Европы и Азии , romanized : Soyuz Sovyetskikh Respublik Evropy i Azii ). Joseph Stalin initially resisted Lenin's proposal but ultimately accepted it, and with Lenin's agreement he changed the name to the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics (USSR), although all republics began as socialist soviet and did not change to

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2196-470: A high proportion of these losses, concentrating deadly firepower with 250 artillery pieces sending 2,000 shells to one small target area the size of just 6 hectares in one minute. Red Army units saw no chances to penetrate through this fire power. The terrain favored the defenders forcing Soviet armor units into narrow death traps. Finnish radio intelligence intercepted many Red Army signals, giving data for effective artillery and air power counterattacks. After

2379-597: A new profitable market. In the late 1920s and early 1930s, Stalin ordered Marxist-Leninist parties across the world to strongly oppose non-Marxist political parties, labour unions or other organizations on the left, which they labelled social fascists . In the usage of the Soviet Union, and of the Comintern and its affiliated parties in this period, the epithet fascist was used to describe capitalist society in general and virtually any anti-Soviet or anti-Stalinist activity or opinion. Stalin reversed himself in 1934 with

2562-833: A single fleet under the command of Rozhestvensky with the Third Pacific Fleet, across the Indian Ocean to Cam Ranh Bay in French Indochina and then northward to its doomed encounter with the Japanese fleet at the Battle of Tsushima off the east coast of Korea in May, 1905, ending the Russo-Japanese War. The Imperial German civilian passenger Hamburg-Amerika Line provided 60 colliers to supply

2745-631: A status that is retained by the Russian Federation . Covering a sixth of Earth's land surface, its size was comparable to that of North America . Two other successor states, Kazakhstan and Ukraine , rank among the top 10 countries by land area, and the largest country entirely in Europe, respectively. The European portion accounted for a quarter of the country's area and was the cultural and economic center. The eastern part in Asia extended to

2928-450: A strengthening of these capabilities in the 2020s was being considered with various options (including both Improved Kilos and/or new Lada-class submarines ) apparently on the table. Training and readiness levels have also been emphasized to be of key importance. In June 2016, fleet commander Vice Admiral Viktor Kravchuk and his chief of staff, Vice Admiral Sergei Popov , were dismissed for "serious training shortcomings and distortion of

3111-475: A union of equals, in practice the Soviet Union was dominated by Russians . The domination was so absolute that for most of its existence, the country was commonly (but incorrectly) referred to as 'Russia'. While the Russian SFSR was technically only one republic within the larger union, it was by far the largest (both in terms of population and area), most powerful, and most highly developed. The Russian SFSR

3294-588: Is also known that at June 26 Stalin even told American ambassador Harriman that US diplomats could try to clarify to the Finns that he did not intend to take over the country. An unsigned draft document called "The Terms for Finnish Unconditional Surrender" was found in October 1993 in the Russian Foreign Ministry archive, which led some historians to conclude that unconditional surrender was indeed

3477-524: Is also the smallest of the Russian Navy's four principal fleets (in terms of surface warships and submarines combined) and therefore, due to its limited strength, would play primarily a defensive role in the Baltic Sea in most conflict or wartime scenarios. On Russia's "Navy Day" on July 31, 2022, President Putin reportedly indicated that the Baltic Fleet was to be prioritized for modernization in

3660-573: Is derived from the Russian word sovet (Russian: совет ), meaning 'council', 'assembly', 'advice', ultimately deriving from the proto-Slavic verbal stem of * vět-iti ('to inform'), related to Slavic věst ('news'), English wise . The word sovietnik means 'councillor'. Some organizations in Russian history were called council (Russian: совет ). In the Russian Empire ,

3843-655: Is his background, his education , his profession . These are the questions that will determine the fate of the accused. That is the meaning and essence of the Red Terror ." During his rule, Stalin always made the final policy decisions. Otherwise, Soviet foreign policy was set by the commission on the Foreign Policy of the Central Committee of the Communist Party of the Soviet Union , or by

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4026-479: Is not contiguous with the rest of the national territory of the Russian Federation . In the immediate post-Soviet period, the capabilities of the Baltic Fleet were significantly reduced. From 1991/1992 to 1994/95, vessels in the Baltic Fleet declined from 350 at the beginning of the decade to 109 available vessels. At the same time, with the dissolution of the Warsaw Pact , the formerly allied East German Navy

4209-946: Is the fleet of the Russian Navy in the Baltic Sea . Established 18 May 1703, under Tsar Peter the Great as part of the Imperial Russian Navy , the Baltic Fleet is the oldest Russian fleet. In 1918, the fleet was inherited by the Russian SFSR which then founded the Soviet Union in 1922, where it was eventually known as the Twice Red Banner(ed) Baltic Fleet as part of the Soviet Navy , as during this period it gained

4392-579: The Gangut class entered service with the fleet: Gangut ; Poltava ; Petropavlovsk ; and Sevastopol . Four more powerful battlecruisers of the Borodino class were under construction, but were never completed. On the whole the heavy units of the fleet remained in port during the war, as the Imperial German Navy 's superiority in battleships and other vessels was overwhelming and it

4575-507: The 11th Guards Army of the Baltic Military District were subordinated to a single command named the Ground and Coastal Forces of the Baltic Fleet under a deputy fleet commander. The 11th Guards Army remnant included the 7th Guards Motor Rifle Regiment and the brigade that was the former 18th Guards Motor Rifle Division , plus several Bases for Storage of Weapons and Equipment, holding enough vehicles and weaponry for

4758-515: The 303rd Assault Gun Brigade (at half strength) and the 122nd Infantry Division . Also, new German anti-tank weapons, Panzerfausts and Panzerschrecks , were issued to Finnish army troops. Late on June 21, German foreign minister von Ribbentrop arrived to Finland in an attempt to extract political concessions from the military help. On June 21, Stavka ordered continued attacks on the Imatra–Lappeenranta–Virojoki defence line, on

4941-543: The 7th Air Army . At the Karelian Isthmus front there were on average 120 Red Army artillery pieces for every kilometer of frontline, with up to 220 artillery pieces per kilometer on the breakthrough sector at Valkeasaari. In addition to heavy coastal artillery of the Leningrad area and the guns of the capital ships of the Baltic Fleet ( Oktyabrskaya Revolutsiya , Kirov , Maxim Gorky ) Stavka had also assigned heavy siege artillery (280 to 305 mm) in support of

5124-520: The Council of People's Commissars ), headed by the Chairman (Premier) and managing an enormous bureaucracy responsible for the administration of the economy and society. State and party structures of the constituent republics largely emulated the structure of the central institutions, although the Russian SFSR, unlike the other constituent republics, for most of its history had no republican branch of

5307-606: The Eastern Front of World War II . The Soviets played a decisive role in defeating the Axis powers , suffering an estimated 27 million casualties , which accounted for most Allied losses. In the aftermath of the war , the Soviet Union consolidated the territory occupied by the Red Army , forming satellite states , and undertook rapid economic development which cemented its status as a superpower . Geopolitical tensions with

5490-522: The Gulf of Finland . The Imperial Russian Baltic Fleet was created during the Great Northern War at the initiative of Tsar Peter the Great , who ordered the first ships for the Baltic Fleet to be constructed at Lodeynoye Pole in 1702 and 1703. The first commander was a recruited Dutch admiral, Cornelius Cruys , who in 1723 was succeeded by Count Fyodor Apraksin . In 1703, the main base of

5673-695: The Hanko Peninsula , Tallinn , several islands in Estonian SSR , and participated in the breakthrough breach of the Siege of Leningrad . 137 sailors of the Baltic Fleet were awarded a title of the Hero of the Soviet Union . For most of the war the fleet was trapped by German and Finnish minefields in Leningrad and nearby Kronstadt, the only bases left in Soviet hands on the Baltic coast. Another key factor

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5856-646: The Harmaja lighthouse outside Helsinki, Finland, on 4 April 1918. During the October Revolution the sailors of the Baltic Fleet (renamed "Naval Forces of the Baltic Sea" in March 1918) were among the most ardent supporters of Bolsheviks , and formed an elite among Red military forces. The fleet was forced to evacuate several of its bases after Russia's withdrawal from the First World War, under

6039-755: The Land Forces , the Air Force , the Navy , Joint State Political Directorate (OGPU) and the Internal Troops . The OGPU later became independent and in 1934 joined the NKVD secret police, and so its internal troops were under the joint leadership of the defense and internal commissariats. After World War II, Strategic Missile Forces (1959), Air Defense Forces (1948) and National Civil Defense Forces (1970) were formed, which ranked first, third, and sixth in

6222-528: The Moscow State Institute of International Relations . The Marxist-Leninist leadership of the Soviet Union intensely debated foreign policy issues and changed directions several times. Even after Stalin assumed dictatorial control in the late 1920s, there were debates, and he frequently changed positions. During the country's early period, it was assumed that Communist revolutions would break out soon in every major industrial country, and it

6405-827: The October Revolution of 1917. The new government, led by Vladimir Lenin , established the Russian Soviet Federative Socialist Republic (RSFSR), the world's first constitutionally socialist state . The revolution was not accepted by all within the Russian Republic , resulting in the Russian Civil War . The RSFSR and its subordinate republics were merged into the Soviet Union in 1922. Following Lenin's death in 1924, Joseph Stalin came to power, inaugurating rapid industrialization and forced collectivization that led to significant economic growth but contributed to

6588-657: The Pacific Ocean to the east and Afghanistan to the south, and, except some areas in Central Asia , was much less populous. It spanned over 10,000 kilometres (6,200 mi) east to west across 11 time zones , and over 7,200 kilometres (4,500 mi) north to south. It had five climate zones: tundra , taiga , steppes , desert and mountains . The USSR, like Russia , had the world's longest border , measuring over 60,000 kilometres (37,000 mi), or 1 + 1 ⁄ 2 circumferences of Earth. Two-thirds of it

6771-741: The Popular Front program that called on all Marxist parties to join with all anti-Fascist political, labour, and organizational forces that were opposed to fascism , especially of the Nazi variety. The rapid growth of power in Nazi Germany encouraged both Paris and Moscow to form a military alliance, and the Franco-Soviet Treaty of Mutual Assistance was signed in May 1935. A firm believer in collective security, Stalin's foreign minister Maxim Litvinov worked very hard to form

6954-421: The Russian Empire , it was nominally organized as a federal union of national republics , the largest and most populous of which was the Russian SFSR . In practice, its government and economy were highly centralized . As a one-party state governed by the Communist Party of the Soviet Union , it was a flagship communist state . Its capital and largest city was Moscow . The Soviet Union's roots lay in

7137-561: The Soviet 21st Army , spearheaded by 30th Guards Corps, opened the offensive on the Valkeasaari sector, which was defended by 1st Infantry Regiment of Finnish 10th Division. During the day, the Soviet units captured frontline trenches and destroyed fortifications, shattering the first Finnish defense line at the breakthrough sector. On June 13, the Soviet 21st Army's offensive reached the partially completed VT-line. The defensive position

7320-541: The Soviet evacuation of Tallinn in late August 1941. During the Immediate post-war period the importance of the Red-Banner Baltic Fleet increased despite the Baltic being a shallow sea with the exits easily becoming choke points by other countries. The Baltic Fleet was increased to two Fleets, the 4th Red-Banner Baltic Fleet and the 8th Red-Banner Baltic Fleet on 15 February 1946. However, during

7503-529: The Soviet republics , and the control of the Communist Party weakened. The failed coup attempt in August 1991 against Gorbachev by hardline communists hastened the end of the Soviet Union , which formally dissolved on December 26, 1991, ending nearly seven decades of Soviet rule. With an area of 22,402,200 square kilometres (8,649,500 sq mi), the Soviet Union was the world's largest country,

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7686-500: The State Council , which functioned from 1810 to 1917, was referred to as a Council of Ministers. The Soviets as workers' councils first appeared during the 1905 Russian Revolution . Although they were quickly suppressed by the Imperial army, after the February Revolution of 1917 , workers' and soldiers' Soviets emerged throughout the country and shared power with the Russian Provisional Government . The Bolsheviks, led by Vladimir Lenin , demanded that all power be transferred to

7869-489: The Universal Declaration of Human Rights (1948), saying that it was "overly juridical" and potentially infringed on national sovereignty. The Soviet Union later signed legally-binding human rights documents, such as the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights in 1973 (and the 1966 International Covenant on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights ), but they were neither widely known or accessible to people living under Communist rule, nor were they taken seriously by

8052-496: The largest arsenal of nuclear weapons in the world . As an Allied nation, it was a founding member of the United Nations as well as one of the five permanent members of the United Nations Security Council . Before its dissolution, the USSR was one of the world's two superpowers through its hegemony in Eastern Europe, global diplomatic and ideological influence (particularly in the Global South ), military and economic strengths, and scientific accomplishments. The word soviet

8235-485: The right to food , the right to work , and the right to education . The Soviet conception of human rights was very different from international law . According to Soviet legal theory , "it is the government who is the beneficiary of human rights which are to be asserted against the individual". The Soviet state was considered as the source of human rights. Therefore, the Soviet legal system considered law an arm of politics and it also considered courts agencies of

8418-411: The "Main line", which was constructed along the frontline of 1941, and the VT-line ( Vammelsuu - Taipale ) running 20 km behind the main line. These lines were reinforced with numerous concrete fortifications, but the work was still ongoing. The third line, the VKT-line (Viipuri- Kuparsaari -Taipale) was still on the drawing board and the construction of the fortifications began in late May 1944 at

8601-404: The 18th Guards Motorized Rifle Division was reconstituted, serving within the 13th Army Corps , headquartered in Kaliningrad. As of 2008 the Baltic Fleet included about 75 combat ships of various types. The main base is in Baltiysk and a second operational base is in Kronstadt. The Leningrad Naval Base is an administrative entity that is not a discrete geographic location but comprises all of

8784-481: The 1920s, it refused to rubber stamp proposals from the party and Council of Ministers. In 1990, Gorbachev introduced and assumed the position of the President of the Soviet Union , concentrated power in his executive office, independent of the party, and subordinated the government, now renamed the Cabinet of Ministers of the USSR , to himself. Tensions grew between the Union-wide authorities under Gorbachev, reformists led in Russia by Boris Yeltsin and controlling

8967-413: The 1930s onwards. Among the fleet's Soviet commanders were Gordey Levchenko in 1938–39 and Arseniy Golovko in 1952–56. Ships and submarines commissioned to the fleet included Soviet submarine M-256 , a Project 615 short-range attack diesel submarine of the Soviet Navy . The fleet also acquired a large number of ground-based aircraft to form a strong naval aviation force. In September 1939,

9150-424: The 1950s, the Soviet Union expanded its efforts in space exploration and took a lead in the Space Race with the first artificial satellite , the first human spaceflight , the first space station , and the first probe to land on another planet . In 1985, the last Soviet leader, Mikhail Gorbachev , sought to reform the country through his policies of glasnost and perestroika . In 1989, various countries of

9333-432: The 1990s, people in the West were also interested in the radioactive hazards of nuclear facilities, decommissioned nuclear submarines , and the processing of nuclear waste or spent nuclear fuel . It was also known in the early 1990s that the USSR had transported radioactive material to the Barents Sea and Kara Sea , which was later confirmed by the Russian parliament. The crash of the K-141 Kursk submarine in 2000 in

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9516-427: The 19th and early 20th Century a strong network of coastal artillery batteries was created to cover the approaches to St. Petersburg, Riga , and other important bases. By 1900, decades of modernization on the Baltic as well as the Pacific Fleet made Russia the fourth strongest country in the world in terms of naval forces after the UK, France and Germany, ahead of the US and Japan. The Baltic Fleet, re-organized into

9699-401: The American-designed Passaic -class monitors were launched. It was the policy of the Tsar and his government to show support for the Northern Union Army in the United States during their Civil War , observing and exchanging naval tactics and cooperation. In 1869, the fleet commissioned the first turret on a battleship in the world – Petr Veliky . Furthermore, in the second half of

9882-400: The Baltic Fleet on its journey. During its passage through the North Sea the fleet mistook a fleet of British fishing boats for Japanese torpedo boats and opened fire, killing three sailors in what is known as the Dogger Bank incident . The decision to send the fleet to the Pacific was made after Russia had suffered a string of naval defeats in the East China Sea and the Sea of Japan off

10065-442: The Battle of Ihantala: in Äyräpää until July 18 and in Karelian Front even in early August. All offensives continued until very end – when there was no chance of a final decisive breakthrough. There hardly were any "limited objectives" on the Karelian Isthmus and Karelia. In the official history of the Great Patriotic War, failed offensives usually disappeared from memory as happened with the Vyborg–Petrozavodosk offensive. After Vyborg,

10248-510: The British Navy from entering the Baltic sea. During the Russo-Swedish War (1788–1790) the fleet, commanded by Samuel Greig and Vasily Chichagov , checked the Swedes at Hogland (1788), Reval , and the Viborg (1790). An impetuous Russian attack on the Swedish galley flotilla on 9 July 1790 at the Second Battle of Svensksund resulted in a disaster for the Russian Navy who lost some 9,500 out of 14,000 men and about one third of their flotilla. The Russian defeat in this battle effectively ended

10431-427: The CPSU, being ruled directly by the union-wide party until 1990. Local authorities were organized likewise into party committees , local Soviets and executive committees . While the state system was nominally federal, the party was unitary. The state security police (the KGB and its predecessor agencies ) played an important role in Soviet politics. It was instrumental in the Red Terror and Great Purge , but

10614-411: The Communist authorities. Under Joseph Stalin , the death penalty was extended to adolescents as young as 12 years old in 1935. Sergei Kovalev recalled "the famous article 125 of the Constitution which enumerated all basic civil and political rights" in the Soviet Union. But when he and other prisoners attempted to use this as a legal basis for their abuse complaints, their prosecutor's argument

10797-407: The Finnish 61st Infantry Regiment to hold the Soviet advance, forcing the 21st Army to attempt to find a more suitable location for breaching the Finnish VKT-line. After 21st Army easily cleared the defending Finnish troops from Viborg on June 20, the Soviet forces attempted to press on the offensive, but met stubborn Finnish resistance at Tali and were forced to stop. After bringing fresh troops to

10980-515: The Finnish Navy soon evacuated the defending forces. This movement was largely unopposed. Although the eagerness of the commanders to evacuate preserved the defending forces, the loss of the islands proved costly because the Soviet Baltic Fleet gained a safe route to Vyborg Bay. After capturing Viborg, the lead elements of the 21st Army attempted to push forward along the main road leading north from Viborg. Strong artillery support, narrow area of operations, and very favorable terrain made it possible for

11163-426: The Finnish Parliament ( Eduskunta ) considered the terms received impossible to fulfill. After Finland had rejected these peace conditions, and Germany halted the Soviet advance, the Stavka (Main Command of the Armed Forces of the Soviet Union) started to prepare for an offensive to force Finland's exit from the war. In order to destroy the Finnish Army and to push Finland out of the war, the Stavka decided to conduct

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11346-439: The Finnish army was still a viable fighting force, it was estimated that should the Soviet offensive continue at its full strength, the Finnish army would be able to last for three months at most. For Finland the overall situation required peace especially when Germans had not much chance to keep Finns on their side longer. At the same time western allies had already made their crucial breakthrough in Normandy and were driving fast to

11529-407: The Finnish government, where Ryti and Tanner were willing to repeat the inquiry about the conditions, while others opposed the capitulation. During the meeting Marshal Mannerheim was called, and he stated that the Soviet demand constituted an unconditional surrender. When Paasikivi's negotiation trip to Moscow in March 1944, which was initiated by the Soviet ambassador in Stockholm, but turned out to be

11712-407: The Karakurt, and potentially the Steregushchiy-class, anticipated in the 2020s - though not necessarily at a rate that will be sufficient to replace the fleet's older Soviet-era corvettes and missile boats on a one-for-one basis. Nevertheless, utilizing Russia's internal waterways, additional cruise missile-armed light units, drawn from Russia's other Western fleets or from the Caspian Flotilla , have

11895-413: The Karelian Front's advance, allowing for the U-line, running northwards from Pitkäranta to Loimola and Kivijärvi, to be reinforced. The first 7th Army units reached the U-line on July 10, but were fatigued following the long offensive and failed to breach the defence line. Soviet attempts to break through the U-line at Nietjärvi ended with clear Soviet failure on July 17 when a Finnish counterattack regained

12078-481: The Politburo after the deaths of Lenin and Stalin, as well as after Khrushchev's dismissal, itself due to a decision by both the Politburo and the Central Committee. All leaders of the Communist Party before Gorbachev died in office, except Georgy Malenkov and Khrushchev, both dismissed from the party leadership amid internal struggle within the party. Between 1988 and 1990, facing considerable opposition, Mikhail Gorbachev enacted reforms shifting power away from

12261-420: The Russian name of the Soviet Union as СС has been taboo, the reason being that СС as a Russian Cyrillic abbreviation is associated with the infamous Schutzstaffel of Nazi Germany , as SS is in English. In English-language media, the state was referred to as the Soviet Union or the USSR. The Russian SFSR dominated the Soviet Union to such an extent that, for most of the Soviet Union's existence, it

12444-469: The Salpa Line sector of the front. Another group would attack northwards to Käkisalmi (now Priozersk, Russia) and surround the Finns defending the eastern VKT-line while preparations would be made for an advance towards Kotka , Kouvola and the Kymi river. On June 21 the Finnish government asked for Soviet peace terms. The response arrived on the next day and it demanded Finnish capitulation before any conditions could be presented. This created confusion in

12627-596: The Second Pacific Squadron (route around Africa) and the Third Pacific Squadron (Suez route, under the command of Admiral Nebogatov), took a prominent part in the Russo-Japanese War . After the defeat of earlier Siberian Military Flotilla vessels, in September 1904, the Second Squadron under the command of Admiral Zinovy Rozhestvensky was sent on a high-speed dash around South Africa . They stopped in French, German and Portuguese colonial ports: Tangier in Morocco , Dakar in Senegal , Gabon, Baía dos Tigres , Lüderitz Bay , and Nossi Be ( Madagascar ). They then formed

12810-450: The Soviet Union and turned into SSRs, which was not recognized by most of the international community and was considered an illegal occupation . After the Soviet invasion of Finland , the Karelo-Finnish SSR was formed on annexed territory as a Union Republic in March 1940 and then incorporated into Russia as the Karelian ASSR in 1956. Between July 1956 and September 1991, there were 15 union republics (see map below). While nominally

12993-477: The Soviet Union . Boris Yeltsin , the leader of the RSFSR, oversaw its reconstitution into the Russian Federation , which became the Soviet Union's successor state; all other republics emerged as fully independent post-Soviet states . During its existence, the Soviet Union produced many significant social and technological achievements and innovations . It had the world's second-largest economy and largest standing military. An NPT-designated state , it wielded

13176-699: The Soviet Union poured resources into building up the Northern Fleet and the Pacific Fleet , both of which had easy access to the open ocean, the Twice Red-Banner Baltic Fleet assumed the very important position of supporting the northern flank of the European Theatre in case of a confrontation with NATO. This role was under-rated from the blue water navies perspective, but was seen as a highly valuable one from

13359-662: The Soviet Union's priorities changed. Despite previous conflict with the United Kingdom , Vyacheslav Molotov dropped his post war border demands. The Cold War was a period of geopolitical tension between the United States and the Soviet Union and their respective allies, the Western Bloc and the Eastern Bloc , which began following World War II in 1945. The term cold war is used because there

13542-541: The Soviet Union's superpower status, the economy struggled due to its centralized nature, technological backwardness, and inefficiencies. The vast military expenditures and burdens of maintaining the Eastern Bloc, further strained the Soviet economy. In the 1980s, Mikhail Gorbachev 's policies of Glasnost (openness) and Perestroika (restructuring) aimed to revitalize the Soviet system but instead accelerated its unraveling. Nationalist movements gained momentum across

13725-546: The Soviet authorities admitted. The Soviet Union was the world's second largest producer of harmful emissions. In 1988, total emissions in the Soviet Union were about 79% of those in the United States. But since the Soviet GNP was only 54% of that of the United States, this means that the Soviet Union generated 1.5 times more pollution than the United States per unit of GNP. The Soviet Chernobyl disaster in 1986

13908-761: The Soviet breakthrough at Siiranmäki, the VT-line had already been breached at Kuuterselkä. Soviet 98th Infantry Corps fighting in Siiranmäki against Finnish 7th Regiment announced to have lost during period of June 13 to June 16: 3 784 soldiers including 887 killed in action based on their own report. Red Army and especially Guard units took heavy losses in Siiranmäki-Kuuterselkä with 20,000 KIA, MIA or WIA. The Finnish army attempted to buy time by engaging in delaying actions during its retreat so that additional forces from East Karelia would be able to reach

14091-574: The Soviet fleet in early November. In 1946 the Baltic Fleet was split into two commands, the 4th and 8th Fleets In 1956 the two fleets were reunited into a single Baltic Fleet command The breakup of the Soviet Union deprived the fleet of key bases in Estonia, Latvia and Lithuania , leaving Kaliningrad Oblast as the fleet's only ice-free naval outlet to the Baltic Sea. However, the Kaliningrad Oblast between Poland and Lithuania

14274-413: The Soviet goal. According to Baryshnikov this and similar drafts for the other countries the USSR was at war with existed since 1943, and they were replaced by new ones in the summer of 1944. With Finnish army reinforcements, there were 268,000 Finnish army troops with 2,350 guns (of which 1,030 field artillery, 393 heavy mortars), 110 tanks/assault guns and 250 planes facing the two Red Army Fronts; 40% of

14457-702: The Soviets, and gained support from the workers and soldiers. After the October Revolution , in which the Bolsheviks seized power from the Provisional Government in the name of the Soviets, Lenin proclaimed the formation of the Russian Socialist Federal Soviet Republic (RSFSR). During the Georgian Affair of 1922, Lenin called for the Russian SFSR and other national Soviet republics to form

14640-681: The Stavka assigned 11 divisions and 9 tank and assault gun regiments to the Leningrad Front . That meant that there were 19 divisions, 2 division strength fortified regions , 2 tank brigades, 14 tank and assault gun regiments at the Isthmus, all of which included over 220 artillery and rocket launcher batteries (almost 3,000 guns/launchers). Around 1,500 planes from the 13th Air Army and the Baltic Fleet naval aviation also contributed to

14823-587: The Supreme Soviet were members of the CPSU. Of the party heads themselves, Stalin (1941–1953) and Khrushchev (1958–1964) were Premiers. Upon the forced retirement of Khrushchev, the party leader was prohibited from this kind of double membership, but the later General Secretaries for at least some part of their tenure occupied the mostly ceremonial position of Chairman of the Presidium of the Supreme Soviet ,

15006-636: The Swedish coast to devastate coastal settlements. However, after the death of King Charles XII , the Royal Navy would rather protect Swedish interests after a rapprochement between the Kingdom of Sweden and King George I . A Russian attempt to reach the Swedish capital of Stockholm was checked at the Battle of Stäket in 1719. The losses suffered by the Russian Navy at the Grengam in 1720, as well as

15189-654: The US led to the Cold War . The American-led Western Bloc coalesced into NATO in 1949, prompting the Soviet Union to form its own military alliance, the Warsaw Pact , in 1955. Neither side engaged in direct military confrontation, and instead fought on an ideological basis and through proxy wars . In 1953, following Stalin's death , the Soviet Union undertook a campaign of de-Stalinization under Nikita Khrushchev , which saw reversals and rejections of Stalinist policies. This campaign caused tensions with Communist China . During

15372-430: The USSR. Moscow eventually stopped threatening other states, and instead worked to open peaceful relationships in terms of trade, and diplomatic recognition. The United Kingdom dismissed the warnings of Winston Churchill and a few others about a continuing Marxist-Leninist threat, and opened trade relations and de facto diplomatic recognition in 1922. There was hope for a settlement of the pre-war Tsarist debts, but it

15555-887: The VKT-line. Unlike many battles on the Eastern Front in the Karelian Isthmus the Red Army was unable to trap any large Finnish units – not even a single battalion. Finnish forces had managed to retreat. At the same time more and more Finnish reserves were arriving at the VKT-defense line, where terrain was much more favorable for defenders than for the armored Red Army units. The Soviet 21st Army also faced logistics issues after its fast 120 km advance to west. Mannerheim had asked for German help, and on June 17 Gefechtsverband Kuhlmey arrived in Finland, followed on June 21 by

15738-913: The Vuoksi River. It also reopened the original route of the Murman Railway and the White Sea Canal to the Karelian Front forces. However, the offensive failed to breach the VKT-line and reach the Kymi River as ordered by the Stavka. In fact by the end of summer 1944 the Finnish armed forces were stronger and better equipped than ever before. Despite the losses suffered, the Finnish army managed to avoid encirclement of battalion-size units and benefited from supplies delivered by Germany. Based on documents found after 1991 in Russia

15921-568: The Vuosalmi region of the Vuoksi waterway. Though Soviet forces successfully pushed Finnish troops from Äyräpää ridge dominating the crossing and managed to create a strong bridgehead on the opposing side, the defending Finnish troops were able to contain it. The Soviet Union's Karelian Front attacked in the Olonets sector of White Karelia on June 20. Weakened Finnish forces proved unable to stop

16104-685: The Vyborg sector of the line. At the northern bank of the Svir River ( Finnish : Syväri ) the Finnish army had prepared a defence in depth area which was fortified with strong-points with concrete pillboxes , barbed wire, obstacles and trenches. After the Winter War , the Salpa Line was built behind the 1940 border with concrete bunkers in front of the Kymi river . To overcome these obstacles,

16287-553: The Vyborg–Petrozavodsk offensive. The strategy called for a two-pronged offensive , one from Leningrad via Vyborg to the Kymi river , and the second across the Svir River through Petrozavodsk and Sortavala past the 1940 border, preparing for an advance deep into Finland. The plan called for the Finnish army to be destroyed on the Karelian Isthmus, and the remains blocked against the western shore of Lake Ladoga between

16470-469: The Warsaw Pact overthrew their Soviet-backed regimes , and nationalist and separatist movements erupted across the Soviet Union. In 1991, amid efforts to preserve the country as a renewed federation , an attempted coup against Gorbachev by hardline communists prompted the largest republics—Ukraine, Russia, and Belarus—to secede. On December 26, Gorbachev officially recognized the dissolution of

16653-503: The accident, but this led to a relatively low number of deaths (WHO data, 2005). Another major radioactive accident was the Kyshtym disaster . The Kola Peninsula was one of the places with major problems. Around the industrial cities of Monchegorsk and Norilsk , where nickel , for example, is mined, all forests have been destroyed by contamination, while the northern and other parts of Russia have been affected by emissions. During

16836-421: The actual amount to be paid, and so the Finns complained that the Soviets only pretended to lower the reparations. Despite not achieving all of the goals set by the Stavka, the offensive forced Finland from the war and to accept Soviet peace terms, or at least was an important factor leading to the ceasefire negotiations that were resumed a month after the offensive had ended. In Soviet propaganda, this offensive

17019-544: The arrival of a Royal Navy squadron under Admiral John Norris , also prevented further operations of any greater scale before the war ended in 1721. During the " Seven Years' War ", (1756–1763), the Russian Baltic Sea fleet was active on the Pomeranian coast of northern Germany and Prussia , helping the infantry to take Memel in 1757 and Kolberg in 1761. The Oresund was blockaded in order to prevent

17202-550: The attack. On June 9, a day before the main Soviet offensive, the 1,600-strong 13th Air Army conducted a major aerial assault. At the same time, artillery units of the Leningrad Front and the Baltic Fleet shelled Finnish positions for 10 hours. The Finnish Army was in a well-fortified position, but the Soviet air attacks surprised the defending Finnish army and undermined its resistance causing many Finnish units to retreat and suffer from thousands of desertions. On June 10,

17385-619: The buildup of a naval force, the city of St. Petersburg was built and developed an extensive port. The School of Mathematics and Navigation was moved to St. Petersburg and in 1752 it was renamed the Naval Cadet Corps. Today it is the St. Petersburg Naval Institute – Peter the Great Naval Corps. The Baltic Fleet began to receive new vessels in 1703. The fleet's first vessel was the 24-gun three- masted frigate Shtandart. She

17568-487: The capacity to reinforce the Baltic Fleet as may be needed. A further aspect of modernization has focused on the build-up of Russian shore-based anti-ship and air defence capabilities in the Kaliningrad region. In contrast to the three other Russian fleets, the Baltic Fleet's submarine capabilities are extremely modest with just one older Kilo-class boat deployed in 2020, largely for training purposes. Nevertheless,

17751-651: The coast of China and Korea near its Far East naval base and colony, at the hands of the newly emergent Imperial Japanese Navy and Army in Manchuria . The one-sided outcome of the Tsushima naval battle broke Russian strength in East Asia. It set the stage for the uprising in the abortive Russian Revolution of 1905 . That propelled the decline that would see the Romanov dynasty monarchy eventually brought down with

17934-461: The coming years. The pending entry of Sweden and Finland into NATO - in response to Russian invasion of Ukraine - would significantly strengthen NATO naval forces in the Baltic, particularly taking into account the strength of the Swedish Navy 's submarine fleet. Russian commentators suggested that a modernization and expansion of Russian submarine forces in the Baltic would therefore likely be

18117-501: The country was limited. The state restricted rights of citizens to private property . According to the Universal Declaration of Human Rights , human rights are the "basic rights and freedoms to which all humans are entitled." including the right to life and liberty , freedom of expression , and equality before the law ; and social, cultural and economic rights, including the right to participate in culture ,

18300-716: The creation of new state commissions and committees. It gained additional powers relating to the approval of the Five-Year Plans and the government budget . The Supreme Soviet elected a Presidium (successor of the Central Executive Committee ) to wield its power between plenary sessions, ordinarily held twice a year, and appointed the Supreme Court , the Procurator General and the Council of Ministers (known before 1946 as

18483-684: The defenders with the twin assaults at the Vyborg Bay and Vuosalmi . However, the Finnish army was able to hold its positions on these sectors of the front. On July 12 Stavka ordered Leningrad front to release offensive elements from the Finnish front, and on July 15, the Red Army troops were ordered to assume a defensive posture, and offensive elements (mostly armor) were transferred to the German front for use in Narva offensive and Operation Bagration . The Soviet troops tried to penetrate deep west after

18666-434: The defending Finnish units in battles fought in the wilderness of Karelia. The last attempt to resume the offensive was made further north by two divisions of the Soviet 32nd Army which were defeated by counterattacking Finns in the Battle of Ilomantsi . The Finnish Army had previously withdrawn most of its forces from the southern shore of the Svir River, so when the Red Army offensive started on 21 June, it did not achieve

18849-471: The defending Soviets to the difficult position as ammunition and supplies started running low. Situation in the beachhead was improved when the 3rd Naval Infantry Brigade started its landings on the evening of June 24. Bad weather hampered the efforts the brigade was finally unloaded on the June 26 and it was able to link up with the advancing 7th Army. Landing caused some trouble for the defending Finns as it cut

19032-589: The degree of power consolidation, it was either the Politburo as a collective body or the General Secretary, who always was one of the Politburo members, that effectively led the party and the country (except for the period of the highly personalized authority of Stalin, exercised directly through his position in the Council of Ministers rather than the Politburo after 1941). They were not controlled by

19215-417: The desired surprise. The Karelian Front's Soviet 7th Army – 37th Guards , 4th and 99th Corps – crossed the river using amphibious vehicles on the following day and secured a bridgehead 8 km deep and 16 km wide. After securing the crossing the Soviet forces continued to chase the withdrawing Finns towards the defenses of the 'PSS'-line. On June 23, 70th naval infantry brigade attacked and captured

19398-478: The disbanded 8th MTAD and the 128th Guards MTAD were transferred. The storage base lasted one year. Far from being reduced in importance, operations of the Red-Banner Baltic Fleet during the early- Cold War period earned it a great amount of prestige and profile, with the second awarding of the Order of Red Banner being presented on 7 May 1965 when the fleet was again renamed to Twice Red-Banner Baltic Fleet. Although

19581-553: The duty of the Russian Bolsheviks to protect what they had in Russia, and avoid military confrontations that might destroy their bridgehead. Russia was now a pariah state, along with Germany. The two came to terms in 1922 with the Treaty of Rapallo that settled long-standing grievances. At the same time, the two countries secretly set up training programs for the illegal German army and air force operations at hidden camps in

19764-424: The east. During the height of the offensive in June 1944, the Finns asked for negotiations and the Soviets responded with a demand for surrender, which in Finland was interpreted as an ambiguous demand for unconditional surrender and rejected. After the fighting had reached a stalemate in August 1944, another attempt to seek peace was made by Finland. In September 1944 the Soviets offered peace terms that were roughly

19947-456: The ensuing battle the divisions were surrounded and forced to escape the encirclement suffering heavy losses (est. 7,000-8,000 KIA, MIA, WIA if including losses of last week of July in Ilomantsi area ) and being forced to leave their artillery and other heavy equipment behind. The offensive succeeded in reclaiming East Karelia and driving the Finnish army to the northern side of Viborg Bay and

20130-538: The extending Finnish line nor to break through it. Soviet losses in Nietjärvi were 7,000 KIA, MIA and WIA while Finnish forces lost 1,200 soldiers. North of the U-line the Soviet 32nd Army, which consisted of 176th , 289th , 313th and 368th Rifle Divisions , advanced after capturing Petrozavodsk towards small Finnish town of Ilomantsi while being delayed by defending Finnish 21st Brigade . Lack of suitable roads and

20313-675: The fighting reached a stalemate. The operations of the strategic offensive can be divided into the following offensives: In January 1944, Soviet forces raised the Siege of Leningrad and drove the German Army Group North back to the Narva - Lake Ilmen - Pskov line. Finland had conducted peace negotiations intermittently during 1943–1944 with the Western Allies and the USSR, but no agreement had been reached. Finland asked for peace conditions again in February, but

20496-666: The fleet threatened the Baltic states as part of a series of military actions staged to encourage the Baltics to accept Soviet offers of "mutual assistance." Subsequently, in June 1940, the fleet blockaded the Baltics in support of the Soviet invasion. Finland, which had refused to sign a "pact of mutual assistance", was attacked by the USSR. The fleet played a limited role in the Winter War with Finland in 1939–1940, mostly through conducting artillery bombardments of Finnish coastal fortifications. Many fleet aircraft were involved in operations against Finland, however. Its operations came to

20679-673: The fleet was established in Kronshtadt . One of the fleet's first actions was the taking of Shlisselburg . In 1701 Peter the Great established a special school, the School of Mathematics and Navigation (Russian: Школа математических и навигацких наук), situated in the Sukharev Tower in Moscow. As the territory to the west around the Gulf of Finland was acquired by Russia for a "warm-water" port giving access for its merchantmen and

20862-668: The fleet's 355-ton submarines were made by Electric Boat Company of Groton, Connecticut in the United States, main supplier and builder of subs for the U.S. Navy . Five of these "AG (Holland)" class submarines were prefabricated by the British Pacific Engineering & Construction Company at Barnet (near Vancouver ), in Canada's British Columbia , also under contract to the Electric Boat Company. These Canadian-built subs were shipped to Russia,

21045-723: The founding republics who signed the Treaty on the Creation of the USSR in December 1922. In 1924, during the national delimitation in Central Asia, Uzbekistan and Turkmenistan were formed from parts of Russia's Turkestan ASSR and two Soviet dependencies, the Khorezm and Bukharan PSPs . In 1929, Tajikistan was split off from the Uzbekistan SSR. With the constitution of 1936, the Transcaucasian SFSR

21228-430: The frigate Storozhevoy . There were also numerous allegations by Sweden of Baltic Fleet submarines illegally penetrating its territorial waters. In October 1981, the Soviet Whiskey-class submarine U 137 ran aground in Swedish territorial waters, near the important naval base of Karlskrona , causing a serious diplomatic incident. Swedish naval vessels pulled the submarine into deeper water and permitted it to return to

21411-401: The front the 21st Army managed to push Finnish lines to Ihantala but failed to create any breakthroughs. The battle fought over the area is considered to be the largest battle in the history of the Nordic countries . The Soviet 23rd Army joined the offensive by attempting to break through the Finnish lines between Tali and Vuoksi towards Noskua but the repeated Soviet attacks were halted by

21594-469: The front, and the VKT-line could be prepared for combat. However, on June 19 forces of the first Leningrad Front had reached Vyborg, and the first phase of the offensive was completed by the capture of the city on June 20, when the defending Finnish 20th Infantry Brigade fled in panic. Though Leningrad Front had managed to capture Vyborg within the time table set by Stavka they had been unable to prevent retreating Finnish units from regrouping and fortifying on

21777-410: The general party membership, as the key principle of the party organization was democratic centralism , demanding strict subordination to higher bodies, and elections went uncontested, endorsing the candidates proposed from above. The Communist Party maintained its dominance over the state mainly through its control over the system of appointments . All senior government officials and most deputies of

21960-399: The globe, while another Baltic Fleet officer – Fabian Gottlieb von Bellingshausen – discovered the southern ice-covered continent, Antarctica . In the Crimean War , (1853–1856), the fleet – although stymied in its operations by the absence of steamships – prevented the British and French Allies from occupying Hangö , Sveaborg , and Saint Petersburg . Despite being greatly outnumbered by

22143-413: The globe. The post-Stalin leadership, particularly under Nikita Khrushchev , initiated a de-Stalinization process, leading to a period of liberalization and relative openness known as the Khrushchev Thaw . However, the subsequent era under Leonid Brezhnev , referred to as the Era of Stagnation , was marked by economic decline, political corruption, and a rigid gerontocracy . Despite efforts to maintain

22326-438: The government. Extensive extrajudicial powers were given to the Soviet secret police agencies . In practice, the Soviet government significantly curbed the rule of law , civil liberties , protection of law and guarantees of property , which were considered as examples of "bourgeois morality" by Soviet law theorists such as Andrey Vyshinsky . The USSR and other countries in the Soviet Bloc had abstained from affirming

22509-402: The highest bodies of the party and making the Supreme Soviet less dependent on them. The Congress of People's Deputies was established, the majority of whose members were directly elected in competitive elections held in March 1989, the first in Soviet history. The Congress now elected the Supreme Soviet, which became a full-time parliament, and much stronger than before. For the first time since

22692-554: The highly efficient Finnish artillery. In the end, the battle of Tali–Ihantala was a defensive strategic victory for the Finnish army. It blocked the possibility for the Soviet army to break through to the Finnish heartland and the road to Helsinki. Soviet military losses peaked on 28 June when Leningrad Front reported that it had lost during that single day over 5,000 soldiers including 1,800 killed in action, over 25% more than on 14 June when they reported losing almost 4,000 (including nearly 700 killed in action). The Finnish artillery caused

22875-402: The implementation of socialist policies and the New Economic Policy (NEP), which allowed for market-oriented reforms. The rise of Joseph Stalin in the late 1920s ushered in an era of intense centralization and totalitarianism. Stalin's rule was characterized by the forced collectivization of agriculture , rapid industrialization , and the Great Purge , which eliminated perceived enemies of

23058-409: The initial efforts of the 21st Army in Tali–Ihantala did not produce a breakthrough, the Leningrad Front ordered the 59th Army to capture the islands dominating the Viborg Bay and perform an amphibious landing on the opposing shore. Though the landings on the islands were ultimately successful, the attempted crossing failed. As the 21st Army was unable to advance, the 23rd Army attempted a crossing in

23241-430: The lost positions on the U-line causing severe losses to the Soviet 114th Division . Once the attempts to gain breakthrough into the Finnish U-line had failed Red Army attempted to go around the line by flanking it through the frontier north of the line. As Finns countered the flanking maneuvers the fighting extended far into the frontier in a makeshift extension of the U-line however Soviet 7th Army managed neither to flank

23424-708: The men and guns, and all the tanks were on the Isthmus. In total, the Red Army had a 1.7:1 advantage in men, 5.2:1 advantage in guns, and 6–7:1 advantage in planes and tanks against the Finnish army. However Finnish forces with 14 infantry divisions (a' 13,200), one armour division (9,200), 5 infantry brigades (a' 6,700), one cavalry regiment (4,300), 7 independent front border jaeger battalions, coastal defence forces and HQ/Corps artillery units even with full strength had less than 230,000 men. Less than 40 Finnish tanks and assault guns were modern (StuG III, T-34, KV-1) and less than 60 aircraft too ( Bf 109 dayfighter and Ju 88 medium bomber). With these figures Red Army material advantage

23607-416: The most common Russian initialization is Союз ССР (transliteration: Soyuz SSR ) which essentially translates to Union of SSRs in English. In addition, the Russian short form name Советский Союз (transliteration: Sovyetsky Soyuz , which literally means Soviet Union ) is also commonly used, but only in its unabbreviated form. Since the start of the Great Patriotic War at the latest, abbreviating

23790-408: The most important point of the plan - the destruction of Finnish forces in Karelian Isthmus in a determined time and reaching a certain line (Kotka) - had failed. Despite that, the psychological effect of the offensive on the Finnish leadership should not be underestimated. Even though the Finns had stopped the offensive at the Karelian Isthmus after 100 km and the Battle of Ilomantsi had shown that

23973-422: The naval institutions and facilities in the St. Petersburg area. During the 2010s renewed emphasis was placed on modernizing Russian naval capabilities. In the Baltic, this process has proceeded slowly though there has been particular emphasis on acquiring new light units. New corvettes (of the Steregushchiy , Buyan-M and Karakurt classes) have been incrementally added to the fleet with additional vessels from

24156-435: The new Imperial Russian Navy were the Gangut (Swedish: Hangöudd) in 1714 and, arguably, the Grengam (Swedish: Ledsund) in 1720. From 1715, the English Royal Navy intervened in the Baltic Sea on behalf of the German principality of Hanover , (dynastic home of the current British monarchy ) and more or less in a tacit alliance with Russia. During the concluding stages of the war, the Russian fleet would land troops along

24339-464: The new line at Vitele already on June 28 forcing the Finns to continue delaying the advancing Soviets while withdrawing towards the 'U'-line. For the Red Army the Svir–Petrozavodsk offensive cost losses of at least 45,000 soldiers while Finnish losses were 11,000. The Soviets themselves estimated having captured 933 Finnish artillery pieces and 18,000 rounds of ammunition however many of the guns had been spiked. The Finnish Army retreated further, delaying

24522-417: The newly elected Supreme Soviet of the Russian SFSR , and communist hardliners. On 19–21 August 1991, a group of hardliners staged a coup attempt . The coup failed, and the State Council of the Soviet Union became the highest organ of state power 'in the period of transition'. Gorbachev resigned as General Secretary, only remaining President for the final months of the existence of the USSR. The judiciary

24705-400: The nominal head of state . The institutions at lower levels were overseen and at times supplanted by primary party organizations . However, in practice the degree of control the party was able to exercise over the state bureaucracy, particularly after the death of Stalin, was far from total, with the bureaucracy pursuing different interests that were at times in conflict with the party, nor

24888-407: The offensive which reached Olonets on June 25 and on June 29 took Petrozavodsk, one of the main goals of the operation. The long advance and the delaying tactics of the Finnish forces sapped the Soviet strength and the main push of the 7th Army stopped at the Finnish U-line. The Soviet 7th Army and the 32nd Army tried to go around the U-line attacking further to the north but failed to break through

25071-552: The official Soviet system of importance (ground forces were second, Air Force fourth, and Navy fifth). The army had the greatest political influence. In 1989, there served two million soldiers divided between 150 motorized and 52 armored divisions. Until the early 1960s, the Soviet navy was a rather small military branch, but after the Caribbean crisis , under the leadership of Sergei Gorshkov , it expanded significantly. It became known for battlecruisers and submarines. In 1989, there served 500 000 men. The Soviet Air Force focused on

25254-420: The only legal party and the final policymaker in the country. At the top of the Communist Party was the Central Committee , elected at Party Congresses and Conferences. In turn, the Central Committee voted for a Politburo (called the Presidium between 1952 and 1966), Secretariat and the general secretary (First Secretary from 1953 to 1966), the de facto highest office in the Soviet Union. Depending on

25437-447: The operation which included surface and naval infantry units of the Baltic Fleet . To the east of Karelia, the Stavka planned to use 9 divisions, 2 sapper brigades, 2 tank brigades and 3 assault gun regiments, raising the whole strength to 16 divisions, 2 fortified regions, 5 separate rifle brigades, 2 tank brigades, 3 assault gun regiments and 3 tank battalions. They were supported by Lake Ladoga and Lake Onega naval flotillas and

25620-520: The other order until 1936 . In addition, in the regional languages of several republics, the word council or conciliar in the respective language was only quite late changed to an adaptation of the Russian soviet and never in others, e.g. Ukrainian SSR . СССР (in the Latin alphabet: SSSR ) is the abbreviation of the Russian-language cognate of USSR, as written in Cyrillic letters . The Soviets used this abbreviation so frequently that audiences worldwide became familiar with its meaning. After this,

25803-494: The partition of Poland. In response, Britain and France declared war on Germany, marking the beginning of World War II . Up until his death in 1953, Joseph Stalin controlled all foreign relations of the Soviet Union during the interwar period . Despite the increasing build-up of Germany 's war machine and the outbreak of the Second Sino-Japanese War , the Soviet Union did not cooperate with any other nation, choosing to follow its own path. However, after Operation Barbarossa ,

25986-429: The party's highest body the Politburo . Operations were handled by the separate Ministry of Foreign Affairs . It was known as the People's Commissariat for Foreign Affairs (or Narkomindel), until 1946. The most influential spokesmen were Georgy Chicherin (1872–1936), Maxim Litvinov (1876–1951), Vyacheslav Molotov (1890–1986), Andrey Vyshinsky (1883–1954) and Andrei Gromyko (1909–1989). Intellectuals were based in

26169-415: The plan was to reach the Kymi river. After the Soviet offensive on the Karelian Isthmus pushed north past Koivisto , the Finnish forces defending the Koivisto Islands (or in Russian : the Beryozovye Islands ) became isolated. After the Soviet 21st Army failed to attack the islands, the Leningrad front ordered the Soviet Baltic Fleet to capture the islands. The initial Soviet landing was contained but

26352-433: The post-Stalinist period and general reforms and downsizing in the Soviet Armed Forces the two fleets of the Baltic were again reduced, with many vessels, some built before the Revolution, were scrapped, and the fleet was again renamed Red-Banner Baltic Fleet on 24 December 1955. In Liepāja the Baltic Fleet's 14th submarine squadron, call sign "Kompleks" ("Комплекс") was stationed with 16 submarines ( 613 , 629a , 651 ); as

26535-430: The railroad line running along the coast of lake Ladoga. Cutting of the road was of less consequence as Finns had already previously constructed new parallel roads further inland in fear of landing. However the heavy traffic of the withdrawing forces totally ruined the new road forcing some of the equipment to be abandoned. Though the Finns managed to withdraw to the new defensive line the advancing Soviet units broke through

26718-427: The real situation". N. G. Kuznetsov Naval Academy commander Vice Admiral Alexander Nosatov was made acting commander of the fleet, a position in which he was confirmed on 17 September. Analysis undertaken by Anders Nielsen of the Royal Danish Defence College in 2019 concludes that the Russian Baltic Fleet is oriented to contributing to Russian global deployment and expeditionary operations in peacetime. However, it

26901-458: The same as in April 1944, though some of the demands, which had been seen by the Finns as impossible to concede to, were reduced. The $ 600 million war reparations were halved and the time to pay them off was extended. This was probably in part brought about by international pressure exerted on the Soviets, especially by the U.S. and Britain. However, after the ceasefire the Soviets demanded that payments be based on 1938 prices which nearly doubled

27084-399: The slow progress of 7th Army forced 32nd Army to move 313th and 368th Rifle Divisions to support 7th Army's offensive but they were blocked by the Finnish 1st Division. The Soviet attack towards Ilomantsi with the remaining 2 divisions (176th and 289th) was initially successful, and the divisions reached the border of 1940 on July 21, (the only Soviet units which did so in the offensive), but in

27267-427: The state. The Soviet Union played a crucial role in the Allied victory in World War II , but at a tremendous human cost, with millions of Soviet citizens perishing in the conflict. The Soviet Union emerged as one of the world's two superpowers, leading the Eastern Bloc in opposition to the Western Bloc during the Cold War . This period saw the USSR engage in an arms race, the Space Race , and proxy wars around

27450-403: The strains of World War I , in the Russian Revolutions of 1917 . Following the catastrophic losses in battleships during the Russo-Japanese War, Russia embarked on a new naval building program which was to incorporate a number of the most modern dreadnought -type battleships into the fleet along with other vessels and practices adopted from the Western navies. In late 1914, four dreadnoughts of

27633-399: The strategic perspective of the Soviet General Staff planning. The Twice Red-Banner Baltic Fleet remained a powerful force, which in the event of war was tasked with conducting amphibious assaults against the coast of Denmark and West Germany, in cooperation with allied Polish and East German naval forces. A notable incident involving the fleet occurred in 1975 when a mutiny broke out on

27816-469: The struggle for dominance was expressed via indirect means such as psychological warfare , propaganda campaigns, espionage , far-reaching embargoes , rivalry at sports events and technological competitions such as the Space Race . Constitutionally, the USSR was a federation of constituent Union Republics, which were either unitary states, such as Ukraine or Byelorussia (SSRs), or federations, such as Russia or Transcaucasia (SFSRs), all four being

27999-402: The technologically superior Allies, it was the Russian Fleet that introduced into naval warfare such novelties as torpedo mines, invented by Boris Yakobi . Other outstanding inventors who served in the Baltic Fleet were Alexander Stepanovich Popov (who was the first to demonstrate the practical application of electromagnetic (radio) waves ), Stepan Makarov (the first to launch torpedoes from

28182-405: The terms of the Treaty of Brest-Litovsk . The "Ice Cruise" of the Baltic Fleet (1918), led by Alexey Schastny who was later executed on Trotsky's orders, saw the evacuation of most of the fleet's ships to Kronstadt and Petrograd. Some ships of the fleet took part in the Russian Civil War , notably by clashing with the British navy operating in the Baltic as part of intervention forces . Over

28365-492: The truth". Human rights in the Soviet Union were severely limited. The Soviet Union was a totalitarian state from 1927 until 1953 and a one-party state until 1990. Freedom of speech was suppressed and dissent was punished. Independent political activities were not tolerated, whether these involved participation in free labour unions , private corporations , independent churches or opposition political parties . The freedom of movement within and especially outside

28548-415: The two assaults and Lake Saimaa . The main strategic objectives of the offensive were to push Finnish forces away from the north of Leningrad , to drive Finland out of the war, and to create better conditions for a major offensive to the south against Germany. The Finnish army had been preparing defensive fortifications since 1940, and three lines of defence on the Karelian Isthmus . The first two were

28731-412: The two awards of the Order of the Red Banner . Following the collapse of the Soviet Union in 1991, the Baltic Fleet was inherited by the Russian Federation and reverted to its original name as part of the Russian Navy. The Baltic Fleet is headquartered in Kaliningrad and its main base is in Baltiysk (Pillau), both in Kaliningrad Oblast , while another base is in Kronstadt , Saint Petersburg , in

28914-440: The war. During the series of Russo-Turkish Wars , (1710–1711, 1735–1739, 1768–1774, 1787–1792, 1806–1812, 1828–1829), the fleet sailed into the Mediterranean Sea on the First and Second Archipelago Expeditions and destroyed the Ottoman Imperial Navy at the sea Battles of Chesma (1770), the Dardanelles (1807), Athos (1807), and Navarino (1827). At about the same time, Russian Admiral Ivan Krusenstern circumnavigated

29097-403: The west further raised concerns. In the past, there were accidents involving submarines K-19 , K-8 , a K-129 , K-27 , K-219 and K-278 Komsomolets . There were three power hierarchies in the Soviet Union: the legislature represented by the Supreme Soviet of the Soviet Union , the government represented by the Council of Ministers , and the Communist Party of the Soviet Union (CPSU),

29280-406: The world's largest lakes; the Caspian Sea (shared with Iran ), and Lake Baikal , the world's largest (by volume) and deepest freshwater lake that is also an internal body of water in Russia. Neighbouring countries were aware of the high levels of pollution in the Soviet Union but after the dissolution of the Soviet Union it was discovered that its environmental problems were greater than what

29463-510: The years, however, the relations of the Baltic Fleet sailors with the Bolshevik regime soured, and they eventually rebelled against the Soviet government in the Kronstadt rebellion in 1921, but were suppressed and executed, and the fleet de facto ceased to exist as an active military unit. The fleet, renamed the Red-Banner Baltic Fleet on 11 January 1935, was developed further during the Soviet years, initially relying on pre-revolutionary warships, but adding modern units built in Soviet yards from

29646-452: Was a coastline . The country bordered Afghanistan , the People's Republic of China , Czechoslovakia , Finland , Hungary , Iran , Mongolia , North Korea , Norway , Poland , Romania , and Turkey from 1945 to 1991. The Bering Strait separated the USSR from the United States . The country's highest mountain was Communism Peak (now Ismoil Somoni Peak ) in Tajikistan , at 7,495 metres (24,590 ft). The USSR also included most of

29829-442: Was about 1:20 at mid June 1944 (armour and aircraft). The offensive continued on June 25, when the Red Army breached the VKT-line at Tali, between the Vyborg Bay and the Vuoksi river . On June 26 the Finnish president Ryti gave the guarantee to Ribbentrop that Finland would fight to the end alongside Germany. When it became evident that a breakthrough was not possible at Ihantala, the Leningrad Front attempted to double envelope

30012-401: Was absorbed by West Germany and the Polish Navy no longer supplemented the strength of the Baltic Fleet. Russian Land forces in the region were also sharply reduced. In 1989 3rd Guards Motor Rifle Division at Klaipėda was transferred to the fleet as a coastal defence division. It was disbanded on 1 September 1993. In the late 1990s the 336th Guards Naval Infantry Brigade and the remnant of

30195-408: Was also the industrial center of the Soviet Union. Historian Matthew White wrote that it was an open secret that the country's federal structure was 'window dressing' for Russian dominance. For that reason, the people of the USSR were usually called 'Russians', not 'Soviets', since 'everyone knew who really ran the show'. Under the Military Law of September 1925, the Soviet Armed Forces consisted of

30378-471: Was breached at Kuuterselkä by June 15. Though the line was breached, the Finnish resistance managed to delay further Soviet advances. Simultaneous to Kuuterselkä, the Soviet 23rd Army attempted to break through at a perceived weak point in the Finnish VT-line at Siiranmäki. Siiranmäki was the first place where Finnish troops were able to use anti-tank Panzerfausts and Panzerschrecks which were imported from Germany. Though Finnish troops managed to contain

30561-434: Was brought under strict party control after Stalin's death. Under Yuri Andropov , the KGB engaged in the suppression of political dissent and maintained an extensive network of informers, reasserting itself as a political actor to some extent independent of the party-state structure, culminating in the anti-corruption campaign targeting high-ranking party officials in the late 1970s and early 1980s. The constitution , which

30744-419: Was carried out within the terms of the Soviet Civil Code. Some Soviet legal scholars even said that "criminal repression" may be applied in the absence of guilt. Martin Latsis , chief of Soviet Ukraine 's secret police explained: "Do not look in the file of incriminating evidence to see whether or not the accused rose up against the Soviets with arms or words. Ask him instead to which class he belongs, what

30927-404: Was colloquially, but incorrectly, referred to as Russia . The history of the Soviet Union began with the ideals of the Bolshevik Revolution and ended in dissolution amidst economic collapse and political disintegration. Established in 1922 following the Russian Civil War , the Soviet Union quickly became a one-party state under the Communist Party . Its early years under Lenin were marked by

31110-469: Was difficult to communicate with Great Britain 's Royal Navy forces further west in the North Sea even though they had the Germans bottled up after the Battle of Jutland in 1916. The Imperial Russian Navy's Baltic Fleet included a submarine division that had about 30 submarines of several classes and various auxiliary vessels, the largest of which were the transport and mother ships Europa , Tosno , Khabarovsk , Oland and Svjatitel Nikolai . Some of

31293-404: Was dissolved, resulting in its constituent republics of Armenia , Georgia and Azerbaijan being elevated to Union Republics, while Kazakhstan and Kirghizia were split off from the Russian SFSR, resulting in the same status. In August 1940, Moldavia was formed from parts of Ukraine and Soviet-occupied Bessarabia , and Ukrainian SSR. Estonia , Latvia and Lithuania were also annexed by

31476-455: Was listed as one of Stalin's ten blows . Soviet Union The Union of Soviet Socialist Republics ( USSR ), commonly known as the Soviet Union , was a transcontinental country that spanned much of Eurasia from 1922 to 1991. During its existence, it was the largest country by area , extending across eleven time zones and sharing borders with twelve countries , and the third-most populous country . An overall successor to

31659-424: Was no large-scale fighting directly between the two superpowers , but they each supported major regional conflicts known as proxy wars . The conflict was based around the ideological and geopolitical struggle for global influence by these two superpowers, following their temporary alliance and victory against Nazi Germany in 1945. Aside from the nuclear arsenal development and conventional military deployment,

31842-450: Was not independent of the other branches of government. The Supreme Court supervised the lower courts ( People's Court ) and applied the law as established by the constitution or as interpreted by the Supreme Soviet. The Constitutional Oversight Committee reviewed the constitutionality of laws and acts. The Soviet Union used the inquisitorial system of Roman law , where the judge, procurator , and defence attorney collaborate to "establish

32025-433: Was promulgated in 1924 , 1936 and 1977 , did not limit state power. No formal separation of powers existed between the Party, Supreme Soviet and Council of Ministers that represented executive and legislative branches of the government. The system was governed less by statute than by informal conventions, and no settled mechanism of leadership succession existed. Bitter and at times deadly power struggles took place in

32208-477: Was repeatedly postponed. Formal recognition came when the new Labour Party came to power in 1924. All the other countries followed suit in opening trade relations. Henry Ford opened large-scale business relations with the Soviets in the late 1920s, hoping that it would lead to long-term peace. Finally, in 1933, the United States officially recognized the USSR, a decision backed by the public opinion and especially by US business interests that expected an opening of

32391-482: Was that "the Constitution was written not for you, but for American Negroes, so that they know how happy the lives of Soviet citizens are". Crime was determined not as the infraction of law, instead, it was determined as any action which could threaten the Soviet state and society. For example, a desire to make a profit could be interpreted as a counter-revolutionary activity punishable by death. The liquidation and deportation of millions of peasants in 1928–31

32574-452: Was that the Finns had recaptured outer islands of the Gulf of Finland, Suursaari being the most important of them. Many of the fleet sailors fought on land as infantry during the siege. Only submarines could risk the passage into the open sea to strike at German shipping. They were particularly successful towards the end of the war, sinking ships like Wilhelm Gustloff , Steuben and Goya , causing great loss of life. The fleet carried out

32757-400: Was the 6th group of rear supply of Baltic Fleet, and the 81st design bureau and reserve command center of the same force. On June 1, 1960, as part of the reduction of the USSR Armed Forces, the management of the 8th mine-torpedo Gatchina Red Banner Aviation Division and both of its regiments were disbanded. The 469th aircraft storage base was formed at the Dunaevka airfield, where the IL-28s of

32940-506: Was the Russian responsibility to assist them. The Comintern was the weapon of choice. A few revolutions did break out, but they were quickly suppressed (the longest lasting one was in Hungary)—the Hungarian Soviet Republic —lasted only from 21 March 1919 to 1 August 1919. The Russian Bolsheviks were in no position to give any help. By 1921, Lenin, Trotsky, and Stalin realized that capitalism had stabilized itself in Europe and there would not be any widespread revolutions anytime soon. It became

33123-404: Was the first major accident at a civilian nuclear power plant . Unparalleled in the world, it resulted in a large number of radioactive isotopes being released into the atmosphere. Radioactive doses were scattered relatively far. Although long-term effects of the accident were unknown, 4,000 new cases of thyroid cancer which resulted from the accident's contamination were reported at the time of

33306-444: Was the fleet's flagship , and is a prime example of the increasing role of the frigate design. By 1724, the fleet boasted 141 sail warships and hundreds of oar-propelled vessels (galleys). During the Great Northern War , the Baltic Fleet assisted in taking Viborg , Tallinn , ( Estonia ), Riga , ( Latvia ), the West Estonian archipelago (Moonsund archipelago), Helsinki , ( Finland ), and Turku . The first claimed victories of

33489-431: Was the party itself monolithic from top to bottom, although factions were officially banned . The Supreme Soviet (successor of the Congress of Soviets ) was nominally the highest state body for most of the Soviet history, at first acting as a rubber stamp institution, approving and implementing all decisions made by the party. However, its powers and functions were extended in the late 1950s, 1960s and 1970s, including

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