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[[File:Lviv_1939_Sov_Cavalry.jpg|thumbnail|250px|left|Soviet cavalry parade down the streets of Lwów, Poland 1939.]]The Soviet Union entered the World War II -era shackled to its past. Not only had the country suffered millions of casualties from the Great War and Russian Civil War, up until Stalin's Five Year Plans it had been substantially behind the Western powers economically-- Stalin had said that Russia was 100 years behind industrially. It had also faced humiliation in the aftermath of the First World War, having given up much of Russia's former territories in Eastern Europe. The Allied Powers had also intervened on behalf of White forces in the Russian Civil War. Russia joined the League of Nations and attempted a rapprochement with the Western powers cut short by Germany's expansionism. Instead, in August 1939 Soviet dictator Josef Stalin signed a pact with Germany.

Stalin's goals in the early days of World War II were similar to those at the end: to build a buffer for the Soviet Union. In late 1939 and 1940 Stalin invaded or seized part or all of all of Russia's European neighbors, Poland, Finland, Estonia, Latvia, and Lithuania, seeking to regain territory lost in World War I. Stalin paid a heavy price for this deal, allowing Hitler further influence in Eastern Europe and sending Germany important resources including grain and oil. Germany's invasion of June 22, 1941 , proved to be a turning point for Stalin, breaking the fragile peace in Eastern Europe and placing even more distrust in Stalin. As the Soviets turned the tide against Germany in 1943 Stalin utilized this experience to force Communism across Eastern Europe, at any cost.

As Soviet soldiers poured into Eastern Europe in 1944 and 1945 the Soviets established a series of puppet regime regimes while eliminating the leaders of non-Communist factions. In 1945, Soviet troops occupied almost all of Eastern Europe and Stalin consolidated this position to create a series of buffer states that would become the Warsaw Pact after the war. Stalin sought to completely demilitarize and deindustrialize Germany to prevent another invasion. The Allies rejected this idea, Stalin also engineered a massive resettlement of millions of Germans from Poland, Czechoslovakia, and other parts of Eastern Europe. The Soviet Union had suffered massively from the conflict, with much of the country's industry destroyed and approximately 20 million killed in the war. The massive toll on Russia helped shape the country's demands at the war's close. Stalin also armed and funded Communist groups across Europe and Asia, becoming indirectly involved in civil wars in Greece and China. The Western Allies exited the Second World War with a large and deepening distrust of Stalin, who at the time commanded the largest army in the world. <ref>Roberts, Geoffrey, ''[https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/0300112041/ref=as_li_tl?ie=UTF8&camp=1789&creative=9325&creativeASIN=0300112041&linkCode=as2&tag=dailyh0c-20&linkId=dbb7f8cf47e68e9f567313f57c42a1f8 Stalin's Wars]''. Yale: Yale University Press, 2006. Pages 121-133.</ref>