Russia Goes Communist - The Birth of the Soviet Union

Just as in China, the Empire of Russia also ended in revolution.

In 1917, the third year of World War I, Russia had been suffering devastating losses of life and was low on food. In response, violent revolutionaries overthrew the royal government.

Russian communists, called Bolsheviks, used this chaos to seize power, execute the royal family (including their little dog, Jimmy), and install Communism. Communism meant that rich people were outlawed, their property taken and distributed to the peasants.

By the 1930s, a brutal dictator named Joseph Stalin (below, in white) was in charge of communist Russia, now called the Soviet Union. Stalin's policies of rapid industrialization and modernization led to millions starving to death as society was quickly reordered.

In the end, the Soviet Union was a powerful nation growing stronger. Hostile to democracies and other dictatorships, no one knew who the Soviets would fight, if a war happened.

One thing was sure: Stalin was evil, he was powerful, and he was going to fight someone.