Little-known wars of the 20th century. ~wars in which the USSR participated

Wars are as old as humanity itself. The earliest documented evidence of war dates back to a Mesolithic battle in Egypt (Cemetery 117), which occurred approximately 14,000 years ago. Wars occurred across much of the globe, resulting in the deaths of hundreds of millions of people. In our review about the bloodiest wars in the history of mankind, which must not be forgotten in any case, so as not to repeat this.

1. Biafran War of Independence

1 million dead dead
The conflict, also known as the Nigerian Civil War (July 1967 - January 1970), was caused by an attempt to secede the self-proclaimed state of Biafra (Nigeria's eastern provinces). The conflict arose as a result of political, economic, ethnic, cultural and religious tensions that preceded the formal decolonization of Nigeria in 1960 - 1963. Most people during the war died from hunger and various diseases.

2. Japanese invasions of Korea

1 million dead
The Japanese invasions of Korea (or Imdin War) took place between 1592 and 1598, with the initial invasion in 1592 and the second invasion in 1597, after a brief truce. The conflict ended in 1598 with the withdrawal of Japanese troops. About 1 million Koreans died, and Japanese casualties are unknown.

3. Iran-Iraq War

1 million dead
The Iran–Iraq War was an armed conflict between Iran and Iraq that lasted from 1980 to 1988, making it the longest war of the 20th century. The war began when Iraq invaded Iran on September 22, 1980, and ended in a stalemate on August 20, 1988. In terms of tactics, the conflict was comparable to World War I, as it involved large-scale trench warfare, machine gun emplacements, bayonet charges, psychological pressure, and extensive use of chemical weapons.

4. Siege of Jerusalem

1.1 million dead
The oldest conflict on this list (it occurred in 73 AD) was the decisive event of the First Jewish War. The Roman army besieged and captured the city of Jerusalem, which was defended by the Jews. The siege ended with the sack of the city and the destruction of its famous Second Temple. According to historian Josephus, 1.1 million civilians died during the siege, mostly as a result of violence and starvation.

5. Korean War

1.2 million dead
Lasting from June 1950 to July 1953, the Korean War was an armed conflict that began when North Korea invaded South Korea. The United Nations, led by the United States, came to the aid of South Korea while China and the Soviet Union supported North Korea. The war ended after an armistice was signed, a demilitarized zone was created and prisoners of war were exchanged. However, no peace treaty was signed and the two Koreas are technically still at war.

6. Mexican Revolution

2 million dead
The Mexican Revolution, which lasted from 1910 to 1920, radically changed the entire Mexican culture. Given that the country's population was then only 15 million, the losses were appallingly high, but estimates vary widely. Most historians agree that 1.5 million people died and nearly 200,000 refugees fled abroad. The Mexican Revolution is often categorized as the most important socio-political event in Mexico and one of the greatest social upheavals of the 20th century.

7. Chuck's conquests

2 million dead
The Chaka Conquests is the term used for the series of massive and brutal conquests in South Africa led by Chaka, the famous monarch of the Zulu Kingdom. In the first half of the 19th century, Chaka, at the head of a large army, invaded and plundered a number of regions in South Africa. It is estimated that up to 2 million people from indigenous tribes died.

8. Goguryeo-Sui Wars

2 million dead
Another violent conflict in Korea was the Goguryeo-Sui Wars, a series of military campaigns waged by the Chinese Sui dynasty against Goguryeo, one of the Three Kingdoms of Korea, from 598 to 614. These wars (which the Koreans ultimately won) were responsible for the deaths of 2 million people, and the total death toll is likely much higher because Korean civilian casualties were not counted.

9. Religious wars in France

4 million dead
Also known as the Huguenot Wars, the French Wars of Religion, fought between 1562 and 1598, were a period of civil strife and military confrontations between French Catholics and Protestants (Huguenots). The exact number of wars and their respective dates are still debated by historians, but it is estimated that up to 4 million people died.

10. Second Congo War

5.4 million million dead
Also known by several other names, such as the Great African War or the African World War, the Second Congo War was the deadliest in modern African history. Nine African countries, as well as about 20 separate armed groups, were directly involved.

The war lasted five years (1998 to 2003) and resulted in 5.4 million deaths, mainly due to disease and starvation. This makes the Congo War the world's deadliest conflict since World War II.

11. Napoleonic Wars

6 million dead
Lasting between 1803 and 1815, the Napoleonic Wars were a series of major conflicts waged by the French Empire, led by Napoleon Bonaparte, against a variety of European powers formed in various coalitions. During his military career, Napoleon fought about 60 battles and lost only seven, mostly towards the end of his reign. In Europe, approximately 5 million people died, including due to disease.

12. Thirty Years' War

11.5 million million dead
The Thirty Years' War, fought between 1618 and 1648, was a series of conflicts for hegemony in Central Europe. The war became one of the longest and most destructive conflicts in European history, and initially began as a conflict between Protestant and Catholic states in the divided Holy Roman Empire. Gradually the war escalated into a much larger conflict involving most of the great powers of Europe. Estimates of the death toll vary widely, but the most likely estimate is that about 8 million people, including civilians, died.

13. Chinese Civil War

8 million dead
The Chinese Civil War was fought between forces loyal to the Kuomintang (the political party of the Republic of China) and forces loyal to the Communist Party of China. The war began in 1927, and it essentially ended only in 1950, when major active fighting ceased. The conflict eventually led to the de facto formation of two states: the Republic of China (now known as Taiwan) and the People's Republic of China (mainland China). The war is remembered for its atrocities on both sides: millions of civilians were deliberately killed.

14. Civil war in Russia

12 million dead
The Russian Civil War, which lasted from 1917 to 1922, broke out as a result of the October Revolution of 1917, when many factions began to fight for power. The two largest groups were the Bolshevik Red Army and the allied forces known as the White Army. During the 5 years of war in the country, from 7 to 12 million victims were recorded, who were mainly civilians. The Russian Civil War has even been described as the greatest national disaster Europe has ever faced.

15. Tamerlane's conquests

20 million dead
Also known as Timur, Tamerlane was a famous Turko-Mongol conqueror and military leader. In the second half of the 14th century he waged brutal military campaigns in Western, South and Central Asia, the Caucasus and southern Russia. Tamerlane became the most influential ruler in the Muslim world after his victories over the Mamluks of Egypt and Syria, the emerging Ottoman Empire and the crushing defeat of the Delhi Sultanate. Scholars estimate that his military campaigns resulted in the deaths of 17 million people, about 5% of the then world population.

16. Dungan uprising

20.8 million dead
The Dungan Rebellion was primarily an ethnic and religious war fought between the Han (a Chinese ethnic group native to East Asia) and the Huizu (Chinese Muslims) in 19th century China. The riot arose due to a price dispute (when a Han merchant was not paid the required amount by a Huizu buyer for bamboo sticks). Ultimately, more than 20 million people died during the uprising, mostly due to natural disasters and conditions caused by the war, such as drought and famine.

17. Conquest of North and South America

138 million dead
European colonization of the Americas technically began in the 10th century, when Norse sailors briefly settled on the shores of what is now Canada. However, we are mainly talking about the period between 1492 and 1691. During these 200 years, tens of millions of people were killed in battles between colonizers and Native Americans, but estimates of the total death toll vary greatly due to the lack of consensus regarding the demographic size of the pre-Columbian indigenous population.

18. Rebellion of An Lushan

36 million dead
During the Tang Dynasty, China experienced another devastating war - the An Lushan Rebellion, which lasted from 755 to 763. There is no doubt that the rebellion caused a huge number of deaths and significantly reduced the population of the Tang Empire, but the exact number of deaths is difficult to estimate even in approximate terms. Some scholars estimate that up to 36 million people died during the revolt, approximately two-thirds of the empire's population and approximately 1/6 of the world's population.

19. First World War

18 million dead
The First World War (July 1914 - November 1918) was a global conflict that arose in Europe and gradually involved all the economically developed powers of the world, which united into two opposing alliances: the Entente and the Central Powers. The total death toll was about 11 million military personnel and about 7 million civilians. About two-thirds of the deaths during the First World War occurred directly in battle, in contrast to the conflicts that took place in the 19th century, when most deaths were due to disease.

20. Taiping Rebellion

30 million dead
This rebellion, also known as the Taiping Civil War, lasted in China from 1850 to 1864. The war was fought between the ruling Manchu Qing dynasty and the Christian movement "Heavenly Kingdom of Peace". Although no census was kept at the time, most reliable estimates place the total number of deaths during the uprising at around 20 - 30 million civilians and soldiers. Most deaths were attributed to plague and famine.

21. Conquest of the Ming Dynasty by the Qing Dynasty

25 million dead
The Manchu Conquest of China was a period of conflict between the Qing dynasty (the Manchu dynasty ruling northeast China) and the Ming dynasty (the Chinese dynasty ruling the south of the country). The war that ultimately led to the fall of the Ming was responsible for the deaths of approximately 25 million people.

22. Second Sino-Japanese War

30 million dead
The war, fought between 1937 and 1945, was an armed conflict between the Republic of China and the Empire of Japan. After the Japanese attacked Pearl Harbor (1941), the war effectively became World War II. It became the largest Asian war of the 20th century, killing up to 25 million Chinese and more than 4 million Chinese and Japanese troops.

23. Wars of the Three Kingdoms

40 million dead
The Wars of the Three Kingdoms were a series of armed conflicts in ancient China (220-280). During these wars, three states - Wei, Shu and Wu competed for power in the country, trying to unite the peoples and take control of them. One of the bloodiest periods in Chinese history was marked by a series of brutal battles that could lead to the deaths of up to 40 million people.

24. Mongol conquests

70 million dead
Mongol conquests progressed throughout the 13th century, resulting in the vast Mongol Empire conquering much of Asia and Eastern Europe. Historians consider the period of Mongol raids and invasions to be one of the deadliest conflicts in human history. Additionally, the bubonic plague spread throughout much of Asia and Europe during this time. The total number of deaths during the conquests is estimated at 40 - 70 million people.

25. World War II

85 million dead
The Second World War (1939 - 1945) was global: the vast majority of countries in the world took part in it, including all the great powers. It was the most massive war in history, with more than 100 million people from more than 30 countries taking direct part in it.

It was marked by mass civilian deaths, including due to the Holocaust and strategic bombing of industrial and population centers, resulting in (according to various estimates) the deaths of between 60 million and 85 million people. As a result, World War II became the deadliest conflict in human history.

However, as history shows, man harms himself throughout his existence. What are they worth?

1. Soviet-Polish war, 1920 It began on April 25, 1920 with a surprise attack by Polish troops, who had more than a two-fold advantage in manpower (148 thousand people versus 65 thousand for the Red Army). By the beginning of May, the Polish army reached Pripyat and the Dnieper and occupied Kyiv. In May-June, positional battles began, in June-August the Red Army went on the offensive, carried out a number of successful operations (the May operation, the Kiev operation, the Novograd-Volyn operation, the July operation, the Rivne operation) and reached Warsaw and Lvov. But such a sharp breakthrough resulted in a separation from supply units and convoys. The First Cavalry Army found itself face to face with superior enemy forces. Having lost many people as prisoners, the Red Army units were forced to retreat. Negotiations began in October, which five months later ended with the signing of the Riga Peace Treaty, according to which the territories of Western Ukraine and Western Belarus were torn away from the Soviet state.

2. Sino-Soviet conflict, 1929 Provoked by the Chinese military on July 10, 1929. In violation of the 1924 agreement on the joint use of the Chinese Eastern Railway, which was built at the end of the 19th century by the Russian Empire, the Chinese side seized it and arrested over 200 citizens of our country. After this, the Chinese concentrated a 132,000-strong group in close proximity to the borders of the USSR. Violations of Soviet borders and shelling of Soviet territory began. After unsuccessful attempts to peacefully achieve mutual understanding and resolve the conflict, the Soviet government was forced to take measures to protect the territorial integrity of the country. In August, the Special Far Eastern Army was created under the command of V.K. Blucher, which in October, together with the Amur military flotilla, defeated groupings of Chinese troops in the areas of the cities of Lakhasusu and Fugdin and destroyed the enemy’s Sungari flotilla. In November, the successful Manchu-Zhalaynor and Mishanfu operations were carried out, during which the first Soviet T-18 (MS-1) tanks were used for the first time. On December 22, the Khabarovsk Protocol was signed, which restored the previous status quo.

3. Spanish Civil War (1936 - 1939) The USSR helped one of the parties with military and material assistance, and active Soviet military personnel in the form of “volunteers”. About 3,000 volunteers went from the Soviet Union to Spain: military advisers, pilots, tank crews, anti-aircraft gunners, sailors and other specialists...

4. Armed conflict with Japan at Lake Khasan, 1938 Provoked by the Japanese aggressors. Having concentrated 3 infantry divisions, a cavalry regiment and a mechanized brigade in the area of ​​Lake Khasan, the Japanese aggressors at the end of June 1938 captured the Bezymyannaya and Zaozernaya heights, which were of strategic importance for the area. On August 6-9, Soviet troops, with the forces of 2 rifle divisions and a mechanized brigade advanced to the conflict area, knocked out the Japanese from these heights. On August 11, hostilities ceased. The pre-conflict status quo was established.

5. Armed conflict on the Khalkhin Gol River, 1939 On July 2, 1939, after numerous provocations that began in May, Japanese troops (38 thousand people, 310 guns, 135 tanks, 225 aircraft) invaded Mongolia with the goal of seizing a bridgehead on the western bank of Khalkhin Gol and subsequently defeating the Soviet group opposing them (12.5 thousand people, 109 guns, 186 tanks, 266 armored vehicles, 82 aircraft). During three days of fighting, the Japanese were defeated and driven back to the eastern bank of the river.

In August, the Japanese 6th Army (75 thousand people, 500 guns, 182 tanks), supported by over 300 aircraft, was deployed in the Khalkhin Gol area. Soviet-Mongolian troops (57 thousand people, 542 guns, 498 tanks, 385 armored vehicles) with the support of 515 aircraft on August 20, forestalling the enemy, went on the offensive, surrounded and by the end of the month destroyed the Japanese group. Air combat continued until September 15. The enemy lost 61 thousand people killed, wounded and prisoners, 660 aircraft, the Soviet-Mongolian troops lost 18, 5 thousand killed and wounded and 207 aircraft.

This conflict seriously undermined Japan's military power and showed its government the futility of a large-scale war against our country.

6. Liberation campaign in Western Ukraine and Western Belarus. The collapse of Poland, this “ugly brainchild of the Versailles system,” created the preconditions for the reunification of Western Ukrainian and Western Belarusian lands, seized in the 1920s, with our country. On September 17, 1939, troops of the Belarusian and Kyiv special military districts crossed the former state border, reached the line of the Western Bug and San rivers and occupied these areas. During the campaign there were no major clashes with Polish troops.

In November 1939, the lands of Ukraine and Belarus, liberated from the Polish yoke, were accepted into our state.

This campaign contributed to strengthening the defense capability of our country.

7. Soviet-Finnish war. It began on November 30, 1939 after numerous unsuccessful attempts to achieve the signing of a territory exchange agreement between the USSR and Finland. According to this agreement, an exchange of territories was envisaged - the USSR would transfer part of Eastern Karelia to Finland, and Finland would lease the Hanko Peninsula, some islands in the Gulf of Finland and the Karelian Isthmus to our country. All this was vital to ensure the defense of Leningrad (now St. Petersburg). However, the Finnish government refused to sign such an agreement. Moreover, the Finnish government began to organize provocations at the border. The USSR was forced to defend itself, as a result of which on November 30 the Red Army crossed the border and entered the territory of Finland. The leadership of our country expected that within three weeks the Red Army would enter Helsinki and occupy the entire territory of Finland. However, a fleeting war did not work out - the Red Army stalled in front of the “Mannerheim Line” - a well-fortified strip of defensive structures. And only on February 11, after the reorganization of the troops and after strong artillery preparation, the Mannerheim line was broken through, and the Red Army began to develop a successful offensive. On March 5, Vyborg was occupied, and on March 12, an agreement was signed in Moscow, according to which all the territories required by the USSR were part of it. Our country received a lease on the Hanko Peninsula for the construction of a naval base, the Karelian Isthmus with the city of Vyborg, and the city of Sortavala in Karelia. The city of Leningrad was now reliably protected.

8. Great Patriotic War, 1941-45. It began on June 22, 1941 with a sudden attack by the troops of Germany and its satellites (190 divisions, 5.5 million people, 4,300 tanks and assault guns, 47.2 thousand guns, 4,980 combat aircraft), which were opposed by 170 Soviet divisions, 2 brigades, numbering 2 million 680 thousand people, 37.5 thousand guns and mortars, 1475 T-34 and KV 1 tanks and over 15 thousand tanks of other models). At the first, most difficult stage of the war (June 22, 1941 - November 18, 1942), Soviet troops were forced to retreat. In order to increase the combat effectiveness of the armed forces, 13 ages were mobilized, new formations and units were formed, and a people's militia was created.

In border battles in Western Ukraine, Western Belarus, the Baltic States, Karelia, and the Arctic, Soviet troops bled the enemy's strike forces dry and managed to significantly slow down the enemy's advance. The main events unfolded in the Moscow direction, where, in the battles for Smolensk that unfolded in August, the Red Army launched a counteroffensive and forced German troops to go on the defensive for the first time in World War II. The battle for Moscow, which began on September 30, 1941, ended in early 1942 with the complete defeat of the German forces advancing on the capital. Until December 5, Soviet troops fought defensive battles, holding back and crushing selected German divisions. On December 5-6, the Red Army launched a counteroffensive and pushed the enemy back 150-400 kilometers from the capital.

The successful Tikhvin operation was carried out on the northern flank, which contributed to the diversion of German forces from Moscow, and the Rostov offensive operation was carried out in the south. The Soviet army began to wrest the strategic initiative from the hands of the Wehrmacht, but it finally passed to our army on November 19, 1942, when the offensive at Stalingrad began, ending in the encirclement and defeat of the 6th German army.

In 1943, as a result of the fighting on the Kursk Bulge, Army Group Center was significantly defeated. As a result of the offensive that began, by the fall of 1943, Left Bank Ukraine and its capital, the city of Kyiv, were liberated.

The next year, 1944, was marked by the completion of the liberation of Ukraine, the liberation of Belarus, the Baltic states, the entry of the Red Army to the border of the USSR, the liberation of Sofia, Belgrade and some other European capitals. The war was inexorably approaching Germany. But before its victorious end in May 1945, there were also battles for Warsaw, Budapest, Koenigsberg, Prague and Berlin, where on May 8, 1945, the act of unconditional surrender of Germany was signed, putting an end to the most terrible war in the history of our country. A war that claimed the lives of 30 million of our compatriots.

9. Soviet-Japanese War, 1945 On August 9, 1945, the USSR, faithful to its allied duty and obligations, began a war against imperialist Japan. Conducting an offensive on a front of over 5 thousand kilometers, Soviet troops, in cooperation with the Pacific Fleet and the Amur Military Flotilla, defeated the Kwantung Army. Having advanced 600-800 kilometers. They liberated Northeast China, North Korea, South Sakhalin and the Kuril Islands. The enemy lost 667 thousand people, and our country returned what rightfully belonged to it - South Sakhalin and the Kuril Islands, which are strategic territories for our country.

10.War in Afghanistan, 1979-89. The last war in the history of the Soviet Union was the war in Afghanistan, which began on December 25, 1979 and was caused not only by our country’s obligation under the Soviet-Afghan treaty, but also by the objective need to protect our strategic interests in the Central Asian region.

Until mid-1980, Soviet troops did not directly participate in hostilities, being engaged only in protecting important strategic facilities and escorting convoys with national economic cargo. However, with the increase in the intensity of hostilities, the Soviet military contingent was forced to be drawn into battle. To suppress the rebels, large military operations were carried out in different provinces of Afghanistan, in particular, in Panjshir against the gangs of the field commander Ahmad Shah Massoud, to unblock a large provincial center - the city of Khost and others.

Soviet troops courageously completed all the tasks that were assigned to them. They left Afghanistan on February 15, 1989, leaving with banners flying, music and marches. They left as winners.

11. Undeclared wars of the USSR. In addition to the above, parts of our armed forces took part in local conflicts in hot spots of the world, defending their strategic interests. Here is a list of countries and conflicts. Where our soldiers participated:

Chinese Civil War: from 1946 to 1950.

Fighting in North Korea from Chinese territory: from June 1950 to July 1953.

Fighting in Hungary: 1956

Fighting in Laos:

from January 1960 to December 1963;

from August 1964 to November 1968;

from November 1969 to December 1970.

Fighting in Algeria:

1962 - 1964.

Caribbean crisis:

Fighting in Czechoslovakia:

Fighting on Damansky Island:

March 1969.

Combat operations in the area of ​​Lake Zhalanashkol:

August 1969.

Fighting in Egypt (United Arab Republic):

from October 1962 to March 1963;

June 1967;

from March 1969 to July 1972;

Fighting in the Yemen Arab Republic:

from October 1962 to March 1963 and

from November 1967 to December 1969.

Combat in Vietnam:

from January 1961 to December 1974.

Fighting in Syria:

June 1967;

March - July 1970;

September - November 1972;

October 1973.

Fighting in Mozambique:

1967 - 1969;

Fighting in Cambodia:

April - December 1970.

Fighting in Bangladesh:

1972 - 1973.

Fighting in Angola:

from November 1975 to November 1979.

Fighting in Ethiopia:

from December 1977 to November 1979.

Fighting in Syria and Lebanon:

June 1982.

In all these conflicts, our soldiers showed themselves to be courageous, selfless sons of their Fatherland. Many of them died defending our country on the distant approaches to it from the encroachments of dark enemy forces. And it is not their fault that the line of confrontation now runs through the Caucasus, Central Asia and other regions of the former Great Empire.

For almost three hundred years, the search has been ongoing for a universal way to resolve contradictions that arise between states, nations, nationalities, etc., without the use of armed violence.

But political declarations, treaties, conventions, negotiations on disarmament and the limitation of certain types of weapons only temporarily removed the immediate threat of destructive wars, but did not eliminate it completely.

Only after the end of World War II, more than 400 various clashes of so-called “local” significance, and more than 50 “major” local wars were recorded on the planet. More than 30 military conflicts annually - these are the real statistics of the last years of the 20th century. Since 1945, local wars and armed conflicts have claimed more than 30 million lives. Financially, the losses amounted to 10 trillion dollars - this is the price of human belligerence.

Local wars have always been an instrument of policy in many countries of the world and the global strategy of opposing world systems - capitalism and socialism, as well as their military organizations - NATO and the Warsaw Pact.

In the post-war period, more than ever before, an organic connection began to be felt between politics and diplomacy, on the one hand, and the military power of states, on the other, since peaceful means turned out to be good and effective only when they were based on a sufficient basis for the protection of the state and their interests military power.

During this period, the main thing for the USSR was the desire to participate in local wars and armed conflicts in the Middle East, Indochina, Central America, Central and South Africa, Asia and the Persian Gulf region, into which the United States and its allies were drawn in to strengthen own political, ideological and military influence in vast regions of the world.

It was during the Cold War that a series of military-political crises and local wars took place with the participation of domestic armed forces, which, under certain circumstances, could develop into a large-scale war.

Until recently, all responsibility for the emergence of local wars and armed conflicts (in the ideological coordinate system) was placed entirely on the aggressive nature of imperialism, and our interest in their course and outcome was carefully masked by declarations of selfless assistance to peoples fighting for their independence and self-determination.

So, the origin of the most common military conflicts unleashed after the Second World War is based on the economic rivalry of states in the international arena. Most other contradictions (political, geostrategic, etc.) turned out to be only derivatives of the primary feature, i.e., control over certain regions, their resources and labor. However, sometimes crises were caused by the claims of individual states to the role of “regional centers of power.”

A special type of military-political crisis includes regional, local wars and armed conflicts between state-formed parts of one nation, divided along political-ideological, socio-economic or religious lines (Korea, Vietnam, Yemen, modern Afghanistan, etc.) . However, their root cause is precisely the economic factor, and ethnic or religious factors are just a pretext.

A large number of military-political crises arose due to attempts by the leading countries of the world to retain in their sphere of influence states with which, before the crisis, they maintained colonial, dependent or allied relations.

One of the most common reasons that caused regional, local wars and armed conflicts after 1945 was the desire of national-ethnic communities for self-determination in various forms (from anti-colonial to separatist). The powerful growth of the national liberation movement in the colonies became possible after the sharp weakening of the colonial powers during and after the end of the Second World War. In turn, the crisis caused by the collapse of the world socialist system and the weakening influence of the USSR and then the Russian Federation led to the emergence of numerous nationalist (ethno-confessional) movements in the post-socialist and post-Soviet space.

A huge number of local conflicts that arose in the 90s of the 20th century pose a real danger of the possibility of a third world war. And it will be local-focal, permanent, asymmetrical, networked and, as the military says, non-contact.

As for the first sign of the third world war as a local focal point, we mean a long chain of local armed conflicts and local wars that will continue throughout the solution of the main task - mastery of the world. The commonality of these local wars, spaced from each other over a certain time interval, will be that they will all be subordinated to one single goal - mastery of the world.

Speaking about the specifics of the armed conflicts of the 1990s. -beginning of the 21st century, we can talk, among others, about their next fundamental point.

All conflicts developed in a relatively limited area within one theater of military operations, but with the use of forces and assets located outside it. However, conflicts that were essentially local were accompanied by great bitterness and resulted in a number of cases in the complete destruction of the state system (if there was one) of one of the parties to the conflict. The following table presents the main local conflicts of recent decades.

Table No. 1

After World War II, for a number of reasons, one of which was the emergence of nuclear missile weapons with their deterrent potential, humanity has so far managed to avoid new global wars. They were replaced by numerous local, or “small” wars and armed conflicts. Individual states, their coalitions, as well as various socio-political and religious groups within countries have repeatedly used force of arms to resolve territorial, political, economic, ethno-confessional and other problems and disputes.

It is important to emphasize that until the beginning of the 1990s, all post-war armed conflicts took place against the backdrop of intense confrontation between two opposing socio-political systems and military-political blocs unprecedented in their power - NATO and the Warsaw Division. Therefore, local armed clashes of that time were considered primarily as an integral part of the global struggle for the spheres of influence of two protagonists - the USA and the USSR.

With the collapse of the bipolar model of the world structure, the ideological confrontation between the two superpowers and socio-political systems has become a thing of the past, and the likelihood of a world war has significantly decreased. The confrontation between the two systems “ceased to be the axis around which the main events of world history and politics unfolded for more than four decades,” which, although it opened up wide opportunities for peaceful cooperation, also entailed the emergence of new challenges and threats.

Initial optimistic hopes for peace and prosperity, unfortunately, did not materialize. The fragile balance on the geopolitical scales was replaced by a sharp destabilization of the international situation and an exacerbation of hitherto hidden tensions within individual states. In particular, interethnic and ethno-confessional relations did not become complicated in the region, which provoked numerous local wars and armed conflicts. In the new conditions, the peoples and nationalities of individual states remembered old grievances and began to make claims to disputed territories, gaining autonomy, or even complete separation and independence. Moreover, in almost all modern conflicts there is not only a geopolitical, as before, but also a geocivilizational component, most often with an ethnonational or ethnoconfessional overtone.

Therefore, while the number of interstate and interregional wars and military conflicts (especially those provoked by “ideological opponents”) has declined, the number of intrastate confrontations, caused primarily by ethno-confessional, ethnoterritorial and ethnopolitical reasons, has sharply increased. Conflicts between numerous armed groups within states and crumbling power structures have become much more frequent. Thus, at the end of the 20th - beginning of the 21st century, the most common form of military confrontation became an internal (intrastate), local in scope, limited armed conflict.

These problems manifested themselves with particular severity in the former socialist states with a federal structure, as well as in a number of countries in Asia, Africa and Latin America. Thus, the collapse of the USSR and Yugoslavia led only in 1989-1992 to the emergence of more than 10 ethnopolitical conflicts, and in the global “South” around the same time more than 25 “small wars” and armed clashes broke out. Moreover, most of them were characterized by unprecedented intensity and were accompanied by mass migration of the civilian population, which created a threat of destabilization of entire regions and necessitated the need for large-scale international humanitarian assistance.

If in the first few years after the end of the Cold War the number of armed conflicts in the world decreased by more than a third, then by the mid-1990s it increased significantly again. Suffice it to say that in 1995 alone, 30 major armed conflicts took place in 25 different regions of the world, and in 1994, in at least 5 of the 31 armed conflicts, participating states resorted to the use of regular armed forces. According to estimates by the Carnegie Commission on the Prevention of Deadly Conflicts, in the 1990s, the seven largest wars and armed confrontations alone cost the international community $199 billion (excluding the costs of the countries directly involved).

Moreover, a radical shift in the development of international relations, significant changes in the field of geopolitics and geostrategy, and the emerging asymmetry along the North-South line have largely aggravated old problems and provoked new ones (international terrorism and organized crime, drug trafficking, smuggling of weapons and military equipment, danger environmental disasters) that require adequate responses from the international community. Moreover, the zone of instability is expanding: if earlier, during the Cold War, this zone passed mainly through the countries of the Near and Middle East, now it begins in the Western Sahara region and spreads to Eastern and South-Eastern Europe, Transcaucasia, South-Eastern and Central Asia. At the same time, we can assume with a reasonable degree of confidence that such a situation is not short-term and transitory.

The main feature of the conflicts of the new historical period was that there was a redistribution of the role of various spheres in armed confrontation: the course and outcome of the armed struggle as a whole is determined mainly by confrontation in the aerospace sphere and at sea, and land groups will consolidate the achieved military success and directly ensure the achievement political goals.

Against this background, increased interdependence and mutual influence of actions at the strategic, operational and tactical levels in the armed struggle has emerged. In fact, this suggests that the old concept of conventional wars, both limited and large-scale, is undergoing significant changes. Even local conflicts can be fought over relatively large areas with the most decisive goals. At the same time, the main tasks are solved not during a collision of advanced units, but through fire engagement from extreme ranges.

Based on an analysis of the most general features of conflicts at the end of the 20th and beginning of the 21st centuries, the following fundamental conclusions can be drawn regarding the military-political features of armed struggle at the present stage and in the foreseeable future.

The armed forces reaffirm their central role in carrying out security operations. The actual combat role of paramilitary forces, paramilitary forces, militias, and internal security forces units turns out to be significantly less than expected before the outbreak of armed conflicts. They turned out to be unable to conduct active combat operations against the regular army (Iraq).

The decisive moment for achieving military-political success is to seize the strategic initiative during an armed conflict. Passive conduct of hostilities in the hope of “exhaling” the enemy’s offensive impulse will lead to the loss of controllability of one’s own group and subsequently to the loss of the conflict.

The peculiarity of the armed struggle of the future will be that during the war, not only military facilities and troops will come under enemy attacks, but at the same time the country’s economy with all its infrastructure, civilian population and territory. Despite the development of the accuracy of weapons of destruction, all the studied armed conflicts of recent times were, to one degree or another, humanitarian “dirty” and entailed significant casualties among the civilian population. In this regard, there is a need for a highly organized and effective system of civil defense of the country.

The criteria for military victory in local conflicts will be different, however, in general, it is obvious that the main importance is the solution of political problems in an armed conflict, while military-political and operational-tactical tasks are primarily of an auxiliary nature. In none of the conflicts examined was the victorious side able to inflict the planned damage on the enemy. But, nevertheless, she was able to achieve the political goals of the conflict.

Today there is a possibility of escalation of modern armed conflicts both horizontally (drawing new countries and regions into them) and vertically (increasing the scale and intensity of violence within fragile states). Analysis of trends in the development of the geopolitical and geostrategic situation in the world at the current stage makes it possible to assess it as crisis-unstable. Therefore, it is absolutely obvious that all armed conflicts, regardless of the degree of their intensity and localization, require an early settlement, and ideally, complete resolution. One of the time-tested ways to prevent, control and resolve such “small” wars are various forms of peacekeeping.

Due to the increase in local conflicts, the world community, under the auspices of the UN, developed in the 90s such a means for maintaining or establishing peace as peacekeeping, peace enforcement operations.

But, despite the opportunity that emerged with the end of the Cold War to initiate peace enforcement operations, the UN, as time has shown, does not have the necessary potential (military, logistical, financial, organizational and technical) to carry them out. Evidence of this is the failure of the UN operations in Somalia and Rwanda, when the situation there urgently demanded an early transition from traditional peacekeeping operations to forced ones, and the UN was unable to do this on its own.

That is why, in the 1990s, a tendency emerged and subsequently developed for the UN to delegate its powers in the field of military peacekeeping to regional organizations, individual states and coalitions of states ready to take on crisis response tasks, such as NATO, for example.

Peacekeeping approaches create the opportunity to flexibly and comprehensively influence the conflict with the aim of resolving it and further final resolution. Moreover, in parallel, at the level of the military-political leadership and among the broadest sections of the population of the warring parties, work must necessarily be carried out aimed at changing psychological attitudes towards the conflict. This means that peacekeepers and representatives of the international community must, whenever possible, “break” and change the stereotypes of relations between the parties to the conflict that have developed in relation to each other, which are expressed in extreme hostility, intolerance, vindictiveness and intransigence.

But it is important that peacekeeping operations comply with fundamental international legal norms and do not violate human rights and sovereign states - no matter how difficult it may be to combine this. This combination, or at least an attempt at it, is especially relevant in the light of new operations in recent years, called “humanitarian intervention”, or “humanitarian intervention”, which are carried out in the interests of certain groups of the population. But, while protecting human rights, they violate the sovereignty of the state, its right to non-interference from outside - international legal foundations that have evolved over centuries and were considered unshakable until recently. At the same time, in our opinion, it is impossible to allow outside intervention in the conflict under the slogan of the struggle for peace and security or the protection of human rights to turn into overt armed intervention and aggression, as happened in 1999 in Yugoslavia.

Throughout the 19th century, Russia rose to prominence on the world stage. This era is rich in international contradictions and conflicts, from which our country has not remained aloof. The reasons are varied – from expanding borders to protecting one’s own territory. During the 19th century, there were 15 wars involving Russia, 3 of which ended in defeat for it. Nevertheless, the country withstood all the harsh tests, strengthening its own position in Europe, as well as drawing important conclusions from the defeats.

Map: Russian Empire in the first half of the 19th century

Opponents and their commanders:

Goals of the war:

• strengthen Russia's influence in the Caucasus, Georgia and Azerbaijan;
• resist Persian and Ottoman aggression.

Battles:

Peaceful agreement:

On October 12, 1813, the Gulistan Peace Treaty was signed in Karabakh. Its conditions:

• Russia's influence in Transcaucasia is preserved;
• Russia could maintain a navy in the Caspian Sea;
• add. export tax to Baku and Astrakhan.

Meaning:

In general, the outcome of the Russian-Iranian war for Russia was positive: expansion of influence in Asia and another access to the Caspian Sea gave the country tangible advantages. However, on the other hand, the acquisition of Caucasian territories resulted in a further struggle for the autonomy of the local population. In addition, the war marked the beginning of a confrontation between Russia and England, which continued for another hundred years.

Wars of anti-French coalitions 1805-1814.

Opponents and their commanders:

Goals of wars:

• liberate the territories captured by Napoleon;
• restore the previous, pre-revolutionary regime in France.

Battles:

Meaning:

As a result of the wars of the anti-French coalitions, France returned to its previous borders and to the pre-revolutionary regime. Most of the colonies lost in the wars were returned to her. In general, Napoleonic bourgeois empire contributed to the invasion of capitalism into the feudal order of Europe in the 19th century.

For Russia, a big blow was the forced severance of trade relations with England after the defeat of 1807. This led to a deterioration in the economic situation and a decline in the authority of the Tsar.

Russian-Turkish War 1806-1812

Opponents and their commanders:

Goals of the war:

• the Black Sea straits - the Turkish Sultan closed them to Russia;
• influence in the Balkans - Türkiye also laid claim to it.

Battles:

Peaceful agreement:

05/16/1812 – the Peace of Bucharest was accepted. Its conditions:

• Russia received Bessarabia, as well as the transfer of the border from the Dniester to the Prut;
• Turkey has recognized Russia's interests in the Transcaucasus;
• Anapa and the Danube principalities went to Turkey;
• Serbia was becoming autonomous;
• Russia patronized Christians living in Turkey.

Meaning:

The Bucharest Peace is also a generally positive decision for the Russian Empire, despite the fact that some of the fortresses were lost. However, now, with the increase in the border in Europe, Russian merchant ships were given greater freedom. But the main victory was that the troops were freed to conduct a military campaign against Napoleon.

Anglo-Russian War 1807-1812

Opponents and their commanders:

Goals of the war:

• Repel aggression aimed at Denmark, an ally of Russia

Battles:

There were no large-scale battles in this war, but only isolated naval clashes:

• in June 1808 near about. Nargen was attacked by a Russian gun boat;
• the biggest defeats for Russia ended in naval battles in the Baltic Sea in July 1808;
• On the White Sea, the British attacked the city of Kola and fishing settlements on the shores of Murmansk in May 1809.

Peaceful agreement:

On July 18, 1812, the opponents signed the Erebru Peace Treaty, according to which friendly and trade cooperation was established between them, and they also pledged to provide military support in the event of an attack on one of the countries.

Meaning:

The “strange” war without significant battles and events, which proceeded sluggishly for 5 years, was ended by the same person who provoked it - Napoleon, and the Peace of Erebru marked the beginning of the formation of the Sixth Coalition.

Russian-Swedish War 1808-1809

Opponents and their commanders:

Goals of the war:

• the capture of Finland in order to secure the northern border;
• oblige Sweden to dissolve allied relations with England

Battles:

Peaceful agreement:

09/05/1809 – Friedrichsham Peace Treaty between Russia and Sweden. According to it, the latter pledged to join the blockade of England, and Russia received Finland (as an autonomous principality).

Meaning:

Interaction between states contributed to their economic development, and the change in the status of Finland led to its integration into the Russian economic system.

Patriotic War of 1812

Opponents and their commanders:

Goals of the war:

• drive out the invaders from the country;
• preserve the territory of the country;
• increase the authority of the state.

Battles:

Peaceful agreement:

09.1814 – 06.1815 – The Congress of Vienna proclaims complete victory over Napoleon’s army. Russia's military goals have been achieved, Europe is free from the aggressor.

Meaning:

The war brought human losses and economic ruin to the country, but the victory contributed to a significant increase in the authority of the state and the tsar, as well as the unification of the population and an increase in their national consciousness, which led to the emergence of social movements, including the Decembrists. All this had an impact on the sphere of culture and art.

Russian-Iranian War 1826-1828

Opponents and their commanders:

Goals of the war:

• resist aggression

Battles:

Peaceful agreement:

02/22/1828 - the Turkmanchay Peace was concluded, according to which Persia agreed with the terms of the Gulistan Treaty and did not lay claim to the lost territories and undertook to pay an indemnity.

Meaning:

The annexation of part of eastern Armenia (Nakhichevan, Erivan) to Russia freed the Caucasian peoples from the threat of enslavement by eastern despotism, enriched their culture and provided the population with personal and property security. No less important is the recognition of Russia's exclusive right to have a military fleet in the Caspian Sea.

Russian-Turkish War 1828-1829

Opponents and their commanders:

Goals of the war:

• provide assistance to the Greeks who rebelled against the Turks;
• gain the opportunity to control the Black Sea straits;
• strengthen the position on the Balkan Peninsula.

Battles:

Peaceful agreement:

09/14/1829 – according to which territories on the eastern coast of the Black Sea were transferred to Russia, the Turks recognized the autonomy of Serbia, Moldavia, Wallachia, as well as the lands conquered by Russia from the Persians, and pledged to pay indemnity.

Meaning:

Russia achieved control over the Bosphorus and Dardanelles straits, which at that time were of the greatest military-strategic importance throughout the world.

Polish uprisings of 1830, 1863

1830 - the national liberation movement begins in Poland, but Russia prevents this and sends in troops. As a result, the uprising was suppressed, the Polish kingdom became part of the Russian Empire, and the Polish Sejm and army ceased to exist. The unit of administrative-territorial division becomes the province (instead of voivodships), and the Russian system of weights and measures and the monetary system are also introduced.

The uprising of 1863 was caused by Poles' dissatisfaction with Russian rule in Poland and the Western Territory. The Polish national liberation movement is making attempts to return its state to the borders of 1772. As a result, the uprising was defeated, and the Russian authorities began to pay more attention to these territories. Thus, the peasant reform was carried out in Poland earlier and on more favorable terms than in Russia, and attempts to reorient the population were manifested in the education of the peasantry in the spirit of the Russian Orthodox tradition.

Crimean War 1853-1856

Opponents and their commanders:

Goals of the war:

• gain priority in the Balkan Peninsula and the Caucasus;
• consolidate positions on the Black Sea straits;
• provide support to the Balkan peoples in the fight against the Turks.

Battles:

Peaceful agreement:

03/06/1856 – Treaty of Paris. Russia left Kars to the Turks in exchange for Sevastopol, renounced the Danube principalities, and renounced patronage of the Slavs living in the Bakans. The Black Sea was declared neutral.

Meaning:

The country's authority has fallen. The defeat revealed the country's weaknesses: diplomatic mistakes, the incompetence of the high command, but most importantly, technical backwardness due to the failure of feudalism as an economic system.

Russian-Turkish War 1877-1878

Opponents and their commanders:

Goals of the war:

• the final solution to the Eastern Question;
• restore lost influence over Turkey;
• provide assistance to the liberation movement of the Balkan Slavic population.

Battles:

Peaceful agreement:

02/19/1878 - conclusion of the San Stefano Peace Agreement. The south of Bessarabia went to Russia, Türkiye undertook to pay an indemnity. Bulgaria was granted autonomy, Serbia, Romania and Montenegro received independence.

07/1/1878 – Berlin Congress (due to dissatisfaction of European countries with the results of the peace treaty). The size of the indemnity decreased, Southern Bulgaria came under Turkish rule, Serbia and Montenegro lost part of the conquered territories.

Meaning:

The main result of the war was the liberation of the Balkan Slavs. Russia managed to partially restore its authority after its defeat in the Crimean War.

Numerous wars of the 19th century, of course, did not pass without a trace for Russia in economic terms, but their importance is difficult to overestimate. The Eastern Question, which for the Russian Empire was expressed in a long-term confrontation with Turkey, was practically resolved, new territories were acquired, and the Balkan Slavs were liberated. The major defeat in the Crimean War revealed all the internal imperfections and clearly proved the need to abandon feudalism in the near future.

Map: Russian Empire in the 19th century

The small victorious war, which was supposed to calm down revolutionary sentiments in society, is still regarded by many as aggression on the part of Russia, but few people look into history textbooks and know that it was Japan that unexpectedly began military action.

The results of the war were very, very sad - the loss of the Pacific fleet, the lives of 100 thousand soldiers and the phenomenon of complete mediocrity, both of the tsarist generals and the royal dynasty itself in Russia.

2. First World War (1914-1918)

A long-brewing conflict between the leading world powers, the first large-scale war, which revealed all the shortcomings and backwardness of Tsarist Russia, which entered the war without even completing rearmament. The Entente allies were frankly weak, and only heroic efforts and talented commanders at the end of the war made it possible to begin to tip the scales towards Russia.

However, society did not need the “Brusilovsky breakthrough”; it needed change and bread. Not without the help of German intelligence, the revolution was accomplished and peace was achieved, under very difficult conditions for Russia.

3. Civil War (1918-1922)

The troubled times of the twentieth century for Russia continued. The Russians defended themselves against the occupying countries, brother went against brother, and in general these four years were one of the most difficult, on par with the Second World War. It makes no sense to describe these events in such material, and military operations took place only on the territory of the former Russian Empire.

4. The fight against Basmachism (1922-1931)

Not everyone accepted the new government and collectivization. The remnants of the White Guard found refuge in Fergana, Samarkand and Khorezm, easily incited the dissatisfied Basmachi to resist the young Soviet army and could not calm them down until 1931.

In principle, this conflict, again, cannot be regarded as external, because it was an echo of the Civil War, “White Sun of the Desert” will help you.

Under Tsarist Russia, the CER was an important strategic object of the Far East, simplified the development of wild areas and was jointly managed by China and Russia. In 1929, the Chinese decided that it was time to take away the railway and adjacent territories from the weakened USSR.

However, the Chinese group, which was 5 times larger in number, was defeated near Harbin and in Manchuria.

6. Providing international military assistance to Spain (1936-1939)

500 Russian volunteers went to fight the nascent fascist and General Franco. The USSR also supplied about a thousand units of ground and air combat equipment and about 2 thousand guns to Spain.

Reflecting Japanese aggression near Lake Khasan (1938) and fighting near the Khalkin-Gol River (1939)

The defeat of the Japanese by small forces of Soviet border guards and subsequent major military operations were again aimed at protecting the state border of the USSR. By the way, after the Second World War, 13 military commanders were executed in Japan for starting the conflict at Lake Khasan.

7. Campaign in Western Ukraine and Western Belarus (1939)

The campaign was aimed at protecting the borders and preventing military action from Germany, which had already openly attacked Poland. The Soviet Army, oddly enough, during the fighting, repeatedly encountered resistance from both Polish and German forces.

Unconditional aggression on the part of the USSR, which hoped to expand the northern territories and cover Leningrad, cost the Soviet army very heavy losses. Having spent 1.5 years instead of three weeks on combat operations, and received 65 thousand killed and 250 thousand wounded, the USSR moved the border and provided Germany with a new ally in the coming war.

9. Great Patriotic War (1941-1945)

The current rewrites of history textbooks shout about the insignificant role of the USSR in the victory over fascism and the atrocities of Soviet troops in the liberated territories. However, reasonable people still consider this great feat to be a war of liberation, and advise at least looking at the monument to the Soviet soldier-liberator, erected by the people of Germany.

10. Fighting in Hungary: 1956

The entry of Soviet troops to maintain the communist regime in Hungary was undoubtedly a show of force in the Cold War. The USSR showed the whole world that it would use extremely cruel measures to protect its geopolitical interests.

11. Events on Damansky Island: March 1969

The Chinese again took up the old ways, but 58 border guards and the Grad UZO defeated three companies of Chinese infantry and discouraged the Chinese from contesting the border territories.

12. Fighting in Algeria: 1962-1964.

Assistance with volunteers and weapons to the Algerians who fought for independence from France again confirmed the growing sphere of interests of the USSR.

This will be followed by a list of combat operations involving Soviet military instructors, pilots, volunteers, and other reconnaissance groups. Undoubtedly, all these facts are interference in the affairs of another state, but in essence they are a response to exactly the same interference from the United States, England, France, Great Britain, Japan, etc. Here is a list of the largest arenas of confrontation in the Cold War.

• 13. Fighting in the Yemen Arab Republic: from October 1962 to March 1963; from November 1967 to December 1969
• 14. Combat in Vietnam: from January 1961 to December 1974
• 15. Fighting in Syria: June 1967: March - July 1970; September - November 1972; March - July 1970; September - November 1972; October 1973
• 16. Fighting in Angola: from November 1975 to November 1979
• 17. Fighting in Mozambique: 1967-1969; from November 1975 to November 1979
• 18. Fighting in Ethiopia: from December 1977 to November 1979
• 19. War in Afghanistan: from December 1979 to February 1989
• 20. Fighting in Cambodia: from April to December 1970
• 22. Fighting in Bangladesh: 1972-1973. (for personnel of ships and auxiliary vessels of the USSR Navy).
• 23. Fighting in Laos: from January 1960 to December 1963; from August 1964 to November 1968; from November 1969 to December 1970
• 24. Fighting in Syria and Lebanon: July 1982

25. Deployment of troops into Czechoslovakia 1968

The “Prague Spring” was the last direct military intervention in the affairs of another state in the history of the USSR, which received loud condemnation, including in Russia. The “swan song” of the powerful totalitarian government and the Soviet Army turned out to be cruel and short-sighted and only accelerated the collapse of the Department of Internal Affairs and the USSR.

26. Chechen wars (1994-1996, 1999-2009)

A brutal and bloody civil war in the North Caucasus happened again at a time when the new government was weak and was just gaining strength and rebuilding the army. Despite the coverage of these wars in the Western media as aggression on the part of Russia, most historians view these events as the Russian Federation’s struggle for the integrity of its territory.