Sorry I know this isnt really fiction but i felt like posting it is a paper i wrote for a project on the korean war in lit class and apperently mine was the best shes had in her over 30 years of teaching. sorry its long i couldnt help myself the page limit said it must be atleast 2 pages i think mine was 12... so anyway heres my paper on why russia got involved int the korean war (its mostly about the could war though XD)

Why did the U.S.S.R. get involved in the Korean War? The Soviet Union got into the war because of the Cold War. The Cold War was the biggest aspect of the Soviet Unions involvement, but, it was also for the spread of communism. The last reason that played into the list of reasons is war with America. The U.S.S.R wanted to go to war with America, but did not directly want to have one with them. They wanted to avoid going into a direct contact war with America. A direct contact war with America would mean not only loss of men from the war, but also a bigger loss of money, so the Soviet Union went with the way that would be the cheapest and easiest way to get at America. This is why the USSR joined the Korean War.

You can not have a war without weapons. This would include planes and tanks, and all countries have their own types. The most common Russian plane at the time was the Mikoyan-Gurevich 15, or the MiG-15, for a shorter, easier to pronounce name. The MiG can hit speeds up to 684 mph and comes equipped with three N-23 cannons and a whopping 1102 pounds of bombs and/or rockets. (Winchester, 186). In this time period, the U.S.S.R. had many different tanks. The first one is the BT Medium Tank Series, which included the BT1, the BT2, the BT5 and the BT7. The BT family entered service at different times. The BT1 entered combat in 1932, the BT2 in 1933, the BT5 in 1935 and the BT7 in 1936. (Forty, 47). The second and third tanks were the JS1 Heavy Tank and JS2 Heavy Tank. The JS1 had a crew of four men and saw its first sight of combat in 1943. The JS2 also had a crew of four men, but didn t see combat until 1944. (59). The SMK Heavy Tank lives up to its title having entered combat in 1939 with its crew of seven men, it weighed an impressive 45 tons.(111). The KV family of tanks is yet another Russian made tank family. This family of tanks includes the KV1 Heavy Tank with its crew of five and the KV2 Heavy Tank with its crew of 6. The KV1 did not see battle until1939 and the KV2 was soon after - introduced in 1940 it weighs almost 54 tons. (60) The last Russian vehicles of mass destruction was the T-34/76A Medium Tank. This part of the Russian tank family was brought out to the field in 1940 carrying its four men. Also in the T-34 family is the T-34/85 Medium Tank, having its go at war in 1944 with its crew of five and weighing in at approximately 32 tons. (118-119)

In war, every aspect of it is important, but, in every war there are more important parts than others. The first major event of the Cold War was the Yalta Conference on February 4, 1945, a few years after that the Soviet Union started to discuss the building of a wall through Berlin, Germany. On October 1, 1949 the Communist party took control of China, leading to the beginning of the Korean War on June 25, 1950. After the Korean war started in 1950, the first H-bomb was tested on November the 1st in 1952. Following the H-bomb, the Russian-made satellite Sputnik took its first launch on October 4, 1957. Not until the 17th of August, 1961, was the Berlin wall finally built. The Apollo-Soyuz mission came about on July 17th, 1975, giving Russia a competitor in the space race. It was not until December 8th of 1987 that the Cold War officially ended with the signing of an arms cut by President Ronald Reagan of the U.S.A and Mikhail Gorbachev of Russia. Leading off of the Cold War s end was the lifting of the Iron Curtain, as the world called the Berlin Wall, due to the fact no one could pass to the other side without risk of death by open fire. This curtain of iron finally fell on November 9th 1989. With the Berlin Wall down, the world was officially rid of the threats of the Soviet Union. (Grant 4-44).

With every country, there are a unique set of important people. In the time of the Cold War, some of the most important people of the U.S.S.R. included Leonid Brezhnev (1902-1982), Alexander Dubcek (1921-1992), Mikhail Gorbachev (1931-), Nikita Khrushchev (1894-1971), Joseph Stalin (1879-1953), and Lech Walesa (1943-). Leonid Brezhnev was a secretary-general after Khrushchev lost power. Brezhnev also was President of State in 1977, he managed to keep at peace with the west but at the same time increase the Soviet s nuclear force, and increase the spread of Communism to Africa and more of Asia. His rule was unbiblical and made it necessary to reform the Russian ways, after he fell from power. Alexander Dubcek was the first Czechoslovakian Secretary for the Communists and made many wide spread reforms during his time as Secretary. Alexander s power ended after Soviet Troupes invaded Czechoslovakia August of 1968. Dubcek later became the Chairman of Czechoslovakia s Federal Assembly after the fall of the Soviet Union in 1989. Mikhail Gorbachev was the General Secretary for the Soviet Communist Party. He was appointed to this position in March of 1985. During his time in power, he reformed Soviet Communist ways. These reforms went under Glasnost, meaning openness, and Perestroika, meaning restructuring, as their watchwords. Gorbachev wanted to end the Cold War and tried to start Nuclear Disarmament. He also wanted to take Soviet Troupes out of Afghanistan. Mikhail was elected the U.S.S.R. s President in 1990, but only a short year later, the Soviet Union fell, leaving him with nothing to lead. Nikita Khrushchev was the first Secretary of the Soviet Party. He gained power after Stalin died in 1953. Khrushchev possessed a flamboyant personality that gave the Soviet space program a big leap. He was also the one responsible for almost causing another world war with nuclear weapons, by deciding to base the Soviet missiles on Cuba in 1962. Khrushchev was forced from his power by other Soviet leaders making room for Brezhnev to take up power. Joseph Stalin was the reason for millions of the U.S.S.R. s citizens to meet their early deaths. After the U.S.S.R. defeated Germany in 1945, his blood stained rule continued to spread through Europe. Stalin said that the war alliances in the West were strictly temporary. Stalin continually taunted the U.S. to cross the Berlin Wall, but was at the same time cautious not to start WWIII. Lech Walesa was an electrician at Lenin Shipyard, (which is located in Gdansk, Poland). He was the founder of the Solidarity Labor Union in the year 1980. Walesa also lead the movement that protested the Communist government. Lech was later arrested in 1981, when Solidarity was made illegal. Walesa was released a year later and won the Nobel Peace Prize in 1983. After the Iron Curtin fell ,he became the President of Poland in December of 1990. (Grant 46).
The Soviet Union started with a literal bang when on the 9th of January 1905 the Tsar Nicholas II ordered his men to shoot people marching to Winter Palace in a peaceful protest. His men killed over a thousand people and left even more injured. After this event, later named Bloody Sunday, people began to protest against the Tsarist rule. This end to Tsarist rule did not come until Prince Golitsyn stepped down from power on February 27th of 1917, and became the last Russian Tsar. After the end of the Tsarist rule, the Bolsheviks took power on October 25th and 26th after the October revolution. After the Bolsheviks took power, a volunteer army was formed to stop the Bolsheviks in January, 1918. In November, there was an attempt on Lenin s life which failed, and Lenin lived another four years before dying on January 21, 1921. In 1919, the communists started to take charge, creating the Communist International on March 4th, which lead to the famine of 1921-22. In the period of the famine, Stalin took power and the U.S.S.R. was officially established on April 2, 1922.( Kenez 284-285).

America and the Soviet Union collected a great number of nuclear weapons for almost 45 years. From 1945 to 1989, both of these world Super Powers had the idea of nuclear weapons, and spread it to the other countries of the world. When World War II ended, the world changed dramatically. All the old strong countries, such as Britain, Germany, France and Italy were severely weakened from the war and this left room for the U.S. and Soviet Union to rise to the title of Superpower. Even though America was one of the countries most involved in the war, America became even more powerful and was prospering at the end of the war. This was due to the fact the war was not on American ground; if you do not count the bombing of Pearl Harbor. With this, the American industries were not affected by the war and America s economy doubled, as Americans continued to make supplies to aid the war, making over half the world s manufactured goods. But on the other side of the world it was the exact opposite. Millions of people were homeless, many factories and transportation systems were destroyed, leaving almost 100 million citizens of Europe and Asia starving. In the Soviet Union alone, an estimated 32,000 factories were reduced to nothing, along with the damage of 100,000 farms and more than 71,000 towns. Villages and cities were completely blown off the map! The only thing worse than the death of these many towns and farms wass the death rate of the people by the end of the war - an estimated 27,000,000 Soviets died, and for those lucky enough to survive, 167,000,000 were living in terrible conditions. Dying from lack of proper supplies and food, while the people in power sat back and watched from the palace windows with there five star meals at hand. (Budden, 5-14). None of the survivors had much freedom with things like speech and were imprisoned, or worse yet, executed for even making small gestures of rebellion to the government. Even with its people starving and homeless, the USSR managed to rise quickly to the title of the only European Superpower. When the Soviet Union had officially put Communist governments in place for every East European country with the exception of Czechoslovakia, the U.S. started to show concern, and ever since the Russian Revolution led up to the forming of the Communist Soviet Union and the U.S.S.R. showed that their only goal was to put Communism in every country, and for the first time after WWII, did the U.S. realize just how close the U.S.S.R. was to painting the world red as the Communists called it, meaning spreading communism and being under the control of the red army of Russia hence the words painting it red. But on the other hand the USSR was also subconscious of the United States. Once allies of WWII, now the two countries had now become bitter rivals. With this the Cold War began. (Budden, 5-14, 17-19).
The Cold War officially started after the death of President Roosevelt in February of 1945. After the death of Roosevelt, the Soviets took power in East Germany and other Eastern European countries after WWII. The German Invasion during WWII left a big gash in the Russian confidence and devastated the country and its people. This is when Russia decided to start blocking the way between East Prussia and West Germany. Things only got worse in 1946 when Stalin gave a speech which made the alliances of Russia and America even worse. The development of world capitalism proceeds not in the path of smooth and even progress but through crisis and the catastrophes of war, Joseph Stalin, February 1946. These words put America on guard. Some of the people in Washington said things along the line of these words of a policy adviser in the State Department who claimed that these words were a delayed declaration of war against the United States . And others had no clue how to react to Stalin s words. This was the start of the Iron Curtain discussion on what it would do if built. In this time, the people in Washington came to the conclusion that the West would have to take a stand against the Soviet Union. The opportunity for the West to take a stand arose in March in the country of Iran. Iran at the time was under both British and Russian rule. After WWII, they signed an agreement to both leave. But the Soviets refused to do so and stayed. The Russians are refusing to take their troops out - as agreed to do in their treaty with the British - and this may lead to war, America must act Said U.S. President Truman. (Isaacs 26-29,31)

The war in Korea had a big affect on the Cold War. (Grant 13) Some say that the Cold War was the only reason Russia joined in. This statement is only partly true, Yes the main reason was to go to war with America without a direct war, but also to spread their cause. The Communists had no respect for human life - all they cared about was spreading communism to the rest of the world. (Roy Barnes) The Korean War was known to some as the only real battle of the Cold War, even though the name Cold War is because they never actually got into an official battle, and there was no bloodshed on either side from this war . This Battle of the Cold War started when China became Communist in 1949. From there, the war started to show its bloodshed on June 25, 1950, when North Korea launched an invasion on South Korea. (Grant, 13) After the war started was when Russia got even more involved. The U.S.S.R. could be considered the reason for the Korean War, through its spread of Communism. (Roy Barnes) From here on, the Russians took the side of Communist South Korea. Even though Russians didn t actually fight in the war, they had a big influence on the war. The U.S.S.R. supplied the South Korean Communists with weapons, such as tanks and planes. (Timeless Media Group) Russia didn t only start the war, but also played a big part of the end. The end of the Korean War was greatly effected by the death of the Russian Premier Joseph Stalin.
During the time of the Korean War, Stalin started to feel cornered and he started to trust no one. As father got older he had begun to feel lonely. He was so isolated from everybody at this time, so elevated, that he seemed to be living in a vacuum. He hadn t a soul he could talk to It was the system of which he himself was a prisoner and in which he was stifling from loneliness, emptiness, and lack of human companionship. These are the words of Stalin s own daughter Svetlana talking about what he was like in his last years of life. Stalin lived his last few months of his life paranoid. The last phase of Stalinism showed itself at the Nineteenth Party Congress in October of 1952. At this meeting, Stalin distanced himself from all the others in attendance, sitting by himself. Due to a drop in his good health, Stalin missed most of the Congress. Stalin was given a standing ovation when he was finally there and spoke, the crowd cheered for him as he made his way to the podium. The speech ended quickly, and after more cheering came at the end, that s when Stalin finally snapped. He started firing all those closest to him, including having his sister-in-laws arrested because she knew too much . He arrested many more people including 9 doctors that served in the Kremlin for supposedly plotting to kill some of the Soviet leaders, most in which were Jewish. Then Stalin started to become the next Hitler and sent his men to arrest any Jewish doctor. Stalin said that all Jewish doctors were monsters in human form, trampling the holy banner of science . With this his men arrested a total of 28 Jewish doctors along with there wives and children. Finally on March 1st 1953, Stalin didn t appear at one of his meeting at his usual time, the attendees of the meeting started to worry, and at 11 pm after a whole day of waiting, went to Stalin s room, and in doing that they found Stalin on the floor in his night clothes. He had had a stroke that made it impossible to speak. The delegates of the meeting tried to convince Beria, the head of the N.K.V.D. to call a doctor, but he just left. Stalin didn t receive medical attention until 18 hours later, but since his trusted doctors were all in jail, the new doctors were told by Beria that Stalin s health was their responsibility. Stalin never talked after the stroke and eventually died on March 5th, 1953 at 9:50. (Isaacs 119-121)

After Stalin s death, Malenkov took power, but gave it up and Nikita Khrushchev took control of Russia. Later, a ceasefire was issued in Korea on July 27th, 1953. Even though Khrushchev wanted peace with the U.S., the Berlin Wall still went up in August of 1961. Khrushchev made many speeches explaining his wanting of peace. These speeches made by Khrushchev included phrases such as the following: There is no dispute or unsolved question, in which could not be settled by peaceful means with any foreign country, including the United States. When Khrushchev got power, all those arrested by Stalin were released. After the wall went up in 1961, many people in East Berlin tried to cross over the wall to the West but once they got over the first wall in the East, they had to make a run to the other wall on the West side. Many didn t make it to the West wall because the ones that were lucky enough to get over the East wall were now in the open fire zone where soldiers would fire at will at anyone in the middle of the two walls. (Isaacs 125-179)

On December the 8th of 1987, an arms reduction pact was signed marking the end of the Cold War. After the arms cut, the Berlin Wall fell and the U.S.S.R. would never be the same again. The fall of the Soviet Union started when Boris Yeltsin and others like him, win the spots of Soviet Congress. Then, the Berlin Wall opened and countries like Hungary and East Germany left the Communist rule. Yeltsin was elected president in May of 1990 and he now has control of the largest part of the Soviet Union the Russian Federation. In October, East and West Germany became one single Germany. Then, in December of 1991, the Soviet Union took its final blow with the resignation of Gorbachev which marked the official end of the U.S.S.R.

The Cold War, Joseph Stalin, and the USSR played a huge role in the Korean War, but if the U.N. and U.S. would not have involved themselves Korea would be a much different place today. From the time the Soviet Union began to the time it ended the Russian Federation continually changed and is still changing today.