A Brief History
On February 24, 2022, Russia declared the Ukrainian regions of Donetsk and Luhansk to be “independent states” and commenced an invasion of Ukraine with the aim of taking over the country in a matter of days. The invasion did not go as planned, and two years later the war continues, a major catastrophe for Russia’s military and economy.
Digging Deeper
Russia, in its various incarnations, has been no stranger to botched and ill-considered military adventures, and today we look at a two of those.
The Russo-Japanese War of 1904 to 1905 was an effort by Russia to secure Korean ports that would not be iced in over the winter, causing Japan to fight back. Japan trounced the much larger Russia, undermining the Russian Czar.
The Soviet invasion of Afghanistan in 1979 led to 10 years of frustration and defeat that along with failing to keep up with the West during the Cold War contributed to the dissolution of the USSR.
Bonus: Some other Russian military blunders include the Crimean War, entering World War I, trusting Germany in the “non-aggression pact” of 1939, the Winter War against Finland in 1939-1940, walking out of the UN in 1950 allowing the US and the West to use the UN against North Korea, and the economy ruining effort during the Cold War of trying to keep up with a much wealthier US and Western Bloc.
Question for students (and subscribers): What is the worst Russian military blunder? Please let us know in the comments section below this article.
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Historical Evidence
For more information, please see…
Gibbs, Peter. Crimean Blunder: The Story of War with Russia a Hundred Years Ago. Normandy Press, 1960.
Welfens, Paul. Russia’s Invasion of Ukraine: Economic Challenges, Embargo Issues and a New Global Economic Order. Palgrave Macmillan, 2023.
The featured image in this article, a map by Viewsridge of the War in Ukraine (2022), is licensed under the Creative Commons Attribution-Share Alike 4.0 International license.
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