Soviet Empire: Encyclopedia II - Soviet Empire - Motivation of the term

Soviet Empire - Motivation of the term

Though it was not ruled by an emperor and declared itself anti-imperialist, the Soviet Union - according to its critics - exhibited certain tendencies common to historic empires:

• Territorial expansion through invasion or subversion (e.g.: Poland, Baltic States, Finland, Afghanistan).
• Strong central government controlling the governments of all subsidiary and satellite territories.
• Interference (including through the use of military force) in the internal politics of its allies (see histories of Czechoslovakia, Hungary, Poland).

For these reasons and others, the Soviet Union is sometimes considered by certain historians to be one of the main empires of history, equal to such notables as the British Empire and the Roman Empire, and borrowing some of the foreign policy of the Tsarist Russian Empire that it replaced. Supporters of the Soviet Union, meanwhile, reject such claims and argue that the relationship between the Soviet Union and countries within its "empire" was in fact one of voluntary cooperation.

Adapted from the Wikipedia article "Motivation of the term", under the G.N U Free Docmentation License. Please also see http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki