Russia

====Superpower and Cold War====
[[File:Yalta Conference (Churchill, Roosevelt, Stalin) (B&W).jpg|thumb|The "[[Grand Alliance (World War II)|Big Three]]" at the [[Yalta Conference]] in February 1945, [[Winston Churchill]], [[Franklin D. Roosevelt]] and [[Joseph Stalin]]]]
After World War II, according to the [[Potsdam Conference]], the [[Red Army]] occupied parts of Eastern and Central Europe, including [[East Germany]] and the eastern regions of [[Austria]].<ref>{{cite web |last=Wills |first=Matthew |url=https://daily.jstor.org/potsdam-origins-cold-war/ |title=Potsdam and the Origins of the Cold War |work=[[JSTOR]] Daily |date=6 August 2015 |access-date=28 January 2022 |archive-date=7 April 2022 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20220407051631/https://daily.jstor.org/potsdam-origins-cold-war/ |url-status=live }}</ref> Dependent communist governments were installed in the [[Eastern Bloc]] satellite states.<ref>{{cite journal |last=Bunce |first=Valerie |title=The Empire Strikes Back: The Evolution of the Eastern Bloc from a Soviet Asset to a Soviet Liability |jstor=2706633 |journal=[[International Organization]] |volume=39 |number=1 |year=1985 |pages=1–46 |publisher=The [[MIT Press]]|doi=10.1017/S0020818300004859 |s2cid=154309589 |doi-access=free }}</ref> After becoming the world's second [[Russia and weapons of mass destruction|nuclear power]],<ref>{{cite journal |last=Holloway |first=David |title=Entering the Nuclear Arms Race: The Soviet Decision to Build the Atomic Bomb, 1939–1945 |publisher=[[SAGE Publishing]] |volume=11 |number=2 |date=May 1981 |pages=159–197 |journal=[[Social Studies of Science]]|doi=10.1177/030631278101100201 |s2cid=145715873}}</ref> the Soviet Union established the [[Warsaw Pact]] alliance,<ref>{{cite journal |last=Wolfe |first=Thomas W. |title=The Warsaw Pact in Evolution |date=May 1966 |volume=22 |number=5 |pages=191–198 |publisher=Royal Institute of International Affairs ([[Chatham House]]) |journal=[[The World Today (magazine)|The World Today]] |jstor=40393859}}</ref> and entered into a struggle for global dominance, known as the [[Cold War]], with the rivalling United States and [[NATO]].<ref>{{cite book |last1=Wagg |first1=Stephen |last2=Andrews |first2=David |title=East Plays West: Sport and the Cold War |year=2007 |publisher=[[Routledge]] |isbn=978-1-134-24167-5 |page=11}}</ref>