Is There Any Difference Between Russia and the USSR?

Recent talks between the United States and Russia in Saudi Arabia with the goal of ending the Russia-Ukraine War indicates a major change in American foreign policy regarding that conflict and also in the American attitude towards the Putin government. This brings up the question of just whom we are dealing with and whether there is any difference between contemporary Russia and its predecessor state, the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics (USSR)

Russia, under the absolute czar Nicholas II performed very poorly in World War I. Facing defeat and widespread disapproval and discontent, the incompetent Nicholas abdicated in January 1917 and an interim government, led by Prince Lvov succeeded him. After a short interim period, Lvov was succeeded by Alexander Kerensky who led a Menshevik regime. Kerensky failed to heed the popular demand for peace and the Bolshevik Party, led by Vladimir Lenin seized power in October 1917 with the slogan “bread, land and peace”. A civil war ensued and by 1921 the Bolsheviks achieved absolute power in Russia. Their goal was to promote world revolution and to establish communism  everywhere. Besides establishing communist rule in Mongolia, they failed. Lenin died in 1924 and Joseph Stalin assumed leadership of Russia, since 1918 renamed the USSR. Through a series of political power plays, by 1929, Stalin became supreme leader, vozhd and was unchallenged in this role until his death in 1953.  As opposed to Trotsky and other members of the left opposition, he favored socialism in one country (USSR) and through a series of five year plans rapidly and ruthlessly industrialized the USSR. Stalin led great terror purges during the 1930s which led to the destruction of most of the “old bolsheviks” who led and fought in the revolution. This created openings for new cadres to join the Communist Party. The result was a change in membership from idealistic Marxists who believed in scientific socialism and the inevitability of world communism to careerists and opportunists. Another result of the purges was the elimination of large numbers of non-Russians from the central committee of the Communist Party and government leadership positions. Stalin, a Georgian, who spoke Russian with a foreign accent, was an extreme Russian nationalist.  With this background, we can examine Russian behavior under the Communist regime and compare it to the post-Soviet behavior we are dealing with today.

Soviet policy has always been cautious, patient and opportunistic. They always take a long view, and surprisingly can be described as very conservative and risk averse. On the other hand, they have always carefully planned any action and understood clearly whom they are dealing with and the risks involved.  The USSR didn’t hesitate in signing a treaty with Nazi Germany which ushered in World War II.  Noteworthy is that this pact contained secret clauses dividing up major portions of eastern Europe. Ideological differences were of no concern to either of the totalitarian dictatorships as each side of the Molotov-Ribbentrop pact acted in a manner to their advantage. While Nazi Germany ruthlessly conquered most of the European continent, the USSR scrupulously observed the treaty’s terms. The last shipment of Soviet war materiel to the Nazis occurred on June 22, 1941, the day the Nazis attacked the USSR. Great Britain reached out to the USSR, now a belligerent, and the United States offered lend lease assistance. Various summit meetings between the Allied Big Three, Roosevelt, Churchill and Stalin, gave major diplomatic victories to the USSR, particularly at Yalta, where an ailing FDR ceded much of eastern Europe to the communist tyrant.  Roosevelt felt he could handle Uncle Joe, but Soviet troops made certain that the USSR’s sphere of influence now included satellite states in the east who had no choice but to become one party “people’s democracies” under communist rule.

Communism triumphed in China with USSR support. Proxy wars occurred in Korea and Vietnam, and world communism supported  independence movements in colonial Africa, the Middle East and Latin America where Cuba fell under communist rule (1959). Various clumsy Soviet efforts failed, particularly in installing offensive missiles in Cuba and invading Afghanistan which became the Soviet Vietnam. The death of many of the Soviet gerontocracy which ruled the politburo led to their replacement by a younger generation of leaders who never experienced the revolution, the terror purges or World War II. Bureaucrats and careerists par excellence, they were Marxist educated Russian nationalists poorly equipped to deal with a changing world. The Chinese communists called them “social imperialists” a severe denunciation in the Marxist lexicon. Russian nationalism is a powerful force and has even been utilized by the communist “internationalists” when it served them. The atheistic Stalin regime didn’t flinch for a second in resuscitating the Russian Orthodox Church to promote Russian nationalism to defend “mother Russia:” during World War II, which they styled the “Great Patriotic War”. Forgotten was the notorious Molotov- Ribbentrop Pact and Soviet collaboration with the Nazis.

The USSR finally collapsed in 1991. The satellite states, after two generations of living in communist hells, were finished with Communism. The USSR devolved into its constituent “republics”. Rump Russia created an entity called the Commonwealth of Independent States  in a vain effort to retain some sort of influence over its former constituents. An ex KGB Communist functionary, Vladimir Putin, ended up as President after promising not to prosecute the corruption of his predecessor, Boris Yeltsin and his associated kleptocrats who stole the wealth of the former people’s government of the USSR. Yeltsin and his associates were former members of the Communist Party: Yeltsin was an alternate member of the politburo and Moscow party secretary. He learned robber baron capitalism quickly.  Putin, in power now for over twenty-five years is rumored to be the richest man on earth. Forget Communist Internationalism. Russian nationalism is the new game in town and Putin and Co. are determined to regain the territory that was Russian, going all the way back to the czarist empire. Wars have been fought with Georgia and now with Ukraine. Contrary to UN declarations denouncing and banning the acquisition of territory by military force, a major portion of Crimea has already been annexed by imperialistic Russia.  Belarus is a satellite of Moscow and Russia has expressed its “concern” over the condition of Russians living in the independent Baltic States. Russian imperial behavior is reminiscent of the Third Reich’s desire to return all ethnic Germans to the Reich, not only the people, but the land too.

Kaliningrad oblast is not connected territorially to Russia. Whether Russia and its North Korean

mercenaries will ultimately try to seize Lithuanian and Polish territory to establish a land bridge between Kaliningrad and Russia remains to be seen. This is a serious European problem. The European Union (EU) must take a strong stand and step one would be to re-establish the defunct European Defense Community to replace NATO. A strong European response is urgently required. Europe must demonstrate if it learned anything from the years of appeasement that preceded World War II. The EU must support in any way possible Ukraine as the next battles will take place on EU territory. Russian nationalism is a legitimate sentiment of the Russian people, but the destruction of Ukraine is not. Europe must solve European problems and the time Is now.

To answer the question that the title of this essay asks, Is there any difference between Russia and the USSR?  NO!

Garry S. Sklar

Las Vegas, NV

March 9, 2025