Timeline of Soviet Military History

DATE	CONFLICT	OUTCOME
1918–1920	Russian Civil War	The nascent Red Army defeats the White movement and their foreign allies.
1919–1921	Polish-Soviet War	The Soviets are defeated and concede substantial territory to Poland.
1921	Red Army invasion of Georgia	Soviet rule established in Georgia
1921	Kronstadt Rebellion	Last major uprising against the Bolsheviks. Put down by Red Army
1924	August Uprising in Georgia	Last major rebellion against Bolsheviks in Georgia. Put down by Red Army.
1929	Sino-Soviet conflict (1929)	Minor armed conflict between the Soviet Union and Chinese warlord Zhang Xueliang of the Republic of China over the Manchurian Chinese Eastern Railway.
1934	Soviet Invasion of Xinjiang	Red Army and GPU troops attack the Chinese Muslim 36th Division (National Revolutionary Army) and Han chinese Ili troops led by Generals Ma Zhongying and Zhang Peiyuan. Stalemate, with an entire column of Russian troops wiped out by Ma Zhongying. Mustard gas is used by the USSR.
1937	Xinjiang War (1937)	Red Army troops assist the provincial government of Xinjiang led by Sheng Shicai in fighting Uighur Rebels. Mustard Gas is used by the USSR.
1938	Soviet-Japanese border incident (1938)	The Soviets repel the Japanese incursion.
1939	Soviet-Japanese border incident (1939)	The Soviets defeat the Japanese Kwantung Army and retain their existing border with Manchukuo.
1939	Invasion of Poland and Bessarabia (World War II)	Nazi Germany and the Soviet Union divide up Eastern Europe according to the terms of the Molotov–Ribbentrop Pact.
1939–1940	Winter War (World War II)	The Soviet Union is expelled from the League of Nations and gains some Finnish territory.
1941–1945	Great Patriotic War(World War II)	In a titanic struggle with Nazi Germany, the Red Army defeats the Wehrmacht and becomes an occupying force in Eastern Europe.
1941–1944	Continuation War (World War II)	Soviet forces defeat Finland, procuring additional territory and Finland withdraws from World War II.
1944–1949	Ili Rebellion	Red Army troops and Republic of China troops clash in Xinjiang over Soviet support for the Second East Turkestan Republic. A Chinese Muslim unit loyal to the Chinese government, the 14th Tungan Cavalry regiment fights against Soviet forces on the Mongolian border.
1945–1974	Partisan wars in the Baltic States	Thousands of Baltic “forest brothers” wage a war of resistance against Soviet occupation. Major fighting ends in the late forties and early fifties. The last partisan, an Estonian, killed in 1974.
1945	Manchurian Strategic Offensive Operation(World War II)	The Red Army launches a short and successful campaign to evict the Japanese from mainland Asia. Soviets become occupying force in Manchuria, North Korea and the Kuril Islands.
1947–1991	Cold War	Nuclear war is frequently threatened, but never realized. In 1955, the Soviet Union establishes the Warsaw Pact in response to the West’s 1948 creation of NATO.
1948–1949	Berlin Blockade	The first of many Cold War standoffs as the Soviet Union seals Berlin from outside access. The West responds with the Berlin Airliftand the blockade is eventually called off.
1956	Hungarian Revolution	The Red Army forcibly suppresses a Hungarian anti-Soviet revolt. Thousands of casualties—both civilian and military—are the result.
1962	Cuban Missile Crisis	Another Cold War standoff over Soviet deployment of nuclear missiles in Cuba. The Soviets agreed to withdraw the missiles after a U.S. naval blockade of the island nation, and a U.S. guarantee not to invade Cuba and to withdraw nuclear missiles from Turkey.
1968	Invasion of Czechoslovakia	An invasion by the Warsaw Pact quiets a national movement for a more liberal Czech government.
1969	Sino-Soviet border conflict	A longstanding ideological feud between the Soviet Union and the People’s Republic of China] erupts into several occasions of inconclusive armed conflicts.
1979–1989	Soviet war in Afghanistan	The Soviet’s launch of a military intervention in Afghanistan quickly devolves into a quagmire. Troops are recalled after ten years of an indecisive “shooting war”, in which the U.S., China, Pakistan and Saudi Arabia fund and arm the Afghan Mujahideen.