How many wars were there in the 20th century. ~wars in which the USSR participated

Wars are as old as humanity itself. The earliest documented evidence of war comes from a Mesolithic battle in Egypt (cemetery 117) about 14,000 years ago. Wars have been fought across most of the globe, resulting in the deaths of hundreds of millions of people. In our review of the most bloody wars in the history of mankind, which should not be forgotten in any case, so as not to repeat this.

1. Biafran War of Independence

1 million dead dead
The conflict, also known as the Nigerian Civil War (July 1967 - January 1970), was caused by an attempted secession of the self-proclaimed state of Biafra (Nigeria's eastern provinces). The conflict arose as a result of political, economic, ethnic, cultural and religious tensions that preceded the formal decolonization of Nigeria in 1960-1963. Most of the people during the war died of starvation and various diseases.

2. Japanese invasions of Korea

1 million dead
The Japanese invasions of Korea (or the Imdin War) took place between 1592 and 1598, with the initial invasion taking place in 1592 and a second invasion in 1597, after a brief truce. The conflict ended in 1598 with the withdrawal of Japanese troops. Approximately 1 million Koreans were killed, and Japanese casualties are unknown.

3. Iran-Iraq War

1 million dead
The Iran-Iraq War is an armed conflict between Iran and Iraq that lasted from 1980 to 1988, making it the longest war of the 20th century. The war began when Iraq invaded Iran on September 22, 1980 and ended in a stalemate on August 20, 1988. In terms of tactics, the conflict was comparable to World War I as it featured large-scale trench warfare, machine gun emplacements, bayonet charges, psychological pressure, and extensive use of chemical weapons.

4. Siege of Jerusalem

1.1 million dead
The oldest conflict on this list (it occurred in 73 AD) was the decisive event of the First Jewish War. The Roman army besieged and captured the city of Jerusalem, which was defended by the Jews. The siege ended with the sack of the city and the destruction of its famous Second Temple. According to historian Josephus, 1.1 million civilians died during the blockade, mostly as a result of violence and starvation.

5. Korean War

1.2 million dead
Lasting from June 1950 to July 1953, the Korean War was an armed conflict that began when North Korea invaded South Korea. The United Nations, led by the US, came to the aid of South Korea while China and the Soviet Union supported North Korea. The war ended after a truce was signed, a demilitarized zone was established, and an exchange of prisoners of war took place. However, no peace treaty has been signed and the two Koreas are technically still at war.

6. Mexican Revolution

2 million dead
The Mexican Revolution, which lasted from 1910 to 1920, radically changed the entire Mexican culture. Considering that the country's population was then only 15 million, the losses were appallingly high, but numerical estimates vary widely. Most historians agree that 1.5 million people died and nearly 200,000 refugees fled abroad. The Mexican Revolution is often categorized as one of the most important socio-political events in Mexico and one of the biggest social upheavals of the 20th century.

7 Chuck's Conquests

2 million dead
The Chaka Conquests is a term used for a series of massive and brutal conquests in South Africa led by Chaka, the famous monarch of the Zulu Kingdom. In the first half of the 19th century Chaka at the head of a large army invaded and plundered a number of regions in South Africa. It is estimated that up to 2 million indigenous people died in the process.

8. Goguryeo-Suu Wars

2 million dead
Another violent conflict in Korea was the Goguryeo-Sui Wars, a series of military campaigns waged by the Chinese Sui dynasty against Goguryeo, one of Korea's three kingdoms, from 598 to 614. These wars (which were ultimately won by the Koreans) resulted in 2 million deaths, and the total death toll is likely much higher because Korean civilian casualties were not taken into account.

9. Wars of Religion in France

4 million dead
Also known as the Huguenot Wars, the French Wars of Religion, fought between 1562 and 1598, are a period of civil strife and military confrontation between French Catholics and Protestants (Huguenots). The exact number of wars and their respective dates are still debated by historians, but up to 4 million people are estimated to have died.

10. Second Congo War

5.4 million dead
Also known by several other names such as the Great African War or the African World War, the Second Congo War was the deadliest in modern African history. Nine African countries directly participated in it, as well as about 20 separate armed groups.

The war was fought for five years (from 1998 to 2003) and resulted in 5.4 million deaths, mainly due to disease and starvation. This makes the Congo War the deadliest conflict in the world since World War II.

11. Napoleonic Wars

6 million dead
The Napoleonic Wars, which lasted between 1803 and 1815, were a series of major conflicts waged by the French empire, led by Napoleon Bonaparte, against a multitude of European powers formed into various coalitions. During his military career, Napoleon fought about 60 battles and lost only seven, mostly towards the end of his reign. Approximately 5 million people died in Europe, including due to diseases.

12. Thirty Years' War

11.5 million million dead
The Thirty Years' War, which was fought between 1618 and 1648, was a series of conflicts for hegemony in Central Europe. This war became one of the longest and most destructive conflicts in European history, and it originally began as a conflict between Protestant and Catholic states in the divided Holy Roman Empire. The war gradually developed into a much larger conflict involving most of the great powers of Europe. Estimates of the death toll vary considerably, but the most likely tally is that around 8 million people died, including civilians.

13. Chinese Civil War

8 million dead
The Chinese Civil War was fought between forces loyal to the Kuomintang (a political party of the Republic of China) and forces loyal to the Communist Party of China. The war began in 1927, and ended in essence only in 1950, when the main active battles ceased. The conflict eventually led to the de facto formation of two states: the Republic of China (now known as Taiwan) and the People's Republic of China (mainland China). The war is remembered for its atrocities on both sides: millions of civilians were deliberately killed.

14. Russian Civil War

12 million dead
The civil war in Russia, which lasted from 1917 to 1922, broke out as a result of the October Revolution of 1917, when many factions began to fight for power. The two largest groups were the Bolshevik Red Army and the allied forces known as the White Army. During the 5 years of the war, from 7 to 12 million victims were recorded in the country, which were mostly civilians. The Russian Civil War has even been described as the greatest national catastrophe Europe has ever faced.

15. Tamerlane's conquests

20 million dead
Also known as Timur, Tamerlane was a famous Turkic-Mongolian conqueror and general. In the second half of the 14th century he waged brutal military campaigns in Western, Southern and Central Asia, the Caucasus and southern Russia. Tamerlane became the most powerful ruler in the Muslim world after victories over the Mamluks of Egypt and Syria, the emerging Ottoman Empire and the crushing defeat of the Delhi Sultanate. Scholars have calculated that his military campaigns resulted in the deaths of 17 million people, about 5% of the then world population.

16. Dungan uprising

20.8 million dead
The Dungan Rebellion was primarily an ethnic and religious war fought between the Han (Chinese ethnic group native to East Asia) and Huizu (Chinese Muslims) in 19th century China. The riot arose because of a price dispute (when the buyer of the Huizu did not pay the required amount for the bamboo sticks to the Hancu merchant). In the end, more than 20 million people died during the uprising, mostly due to natural disasters and war-induced conditions such as drought and famine.

17. Conquest of the Americas

138 million dead
European colonization of the Americas technically began as early as the 10th century, when Norwegian seafarers briefly settled on the coast of what is now Canada. However, it mostly refers to the period between 1492 and 1691. During those 200 years, tens of millions of people were killed in combat between the colonizers and Native Americans, but estimates of the total death toll vary widely due to a lack of consensus on the demographic size of the pre-Columbian indigenous population.

18. An Lushan Rebellion

36 million dead
During the reign of the Tang Dynasty, another devastating war took place in China - the An Lushan rebellion, which lasted from 755 to 763. There is no doubt that the rebellion resulted in a huge number of deaths and significantly reduced the population of the Tang Empire, but the exact number of deaths is difficult to estimate even in approximate terms. Some scholars suggest that up to 36 million people died during the uprising, about two-thirds of the empire's population and about 1/6 of the world's population.

19. World War I

18 million dead
The First World War (July 1914 - November 1918) was a global conflict that arose in Europe and which gradually involved all the economically developed powers of the world, which united in two opposing alliances: the Entente and the Central Powers. The total death toll was about 11 million military personnel and about 7 million civilians. About two-thirds of the deaths during World War I occurred directly during battles, in contrast to the conflicts that took place in the 19th century, when most deaths were due to disease.

20. Taiping Rebellion

30 million dead
This rebellion, also known as the Taiping Civil War, continued in China from 1850 to 1864. The war was fought between the ruling Manchu Qing Dynasty and the Christian movement "Heavenly Kingdom of Peace". Although no census was kept at the time, the most reliable estimate for the total death toll during the uprising was around 20 to 30 million civilians and soldiers. Most of the deaths were attributed to plague and famine.

21. Qing Dynasty Conquest of the Ming Dynasty

25 million dead
The Manchu conquest of China is a period of conflict between the Qing dynasty (the Manchu dynasty ruling northeast China) and the Ming dynasty (the Chinese dynasty ruling the south of the country). The war that ultimately led to the fall of the Ming caused about 25 million deaths.

22. Second Sino-Japanese War

30 million dead
The war fought between 1937 and 1945 was an armed conflict between the Republic of China and the Empire of Japan. After the Japanese attacked Pearl Harbor (1941), this war actually merged into World War II. It became the largest Asian war in the 20th century, with up to 25 million Chinese dead and over 4 million Chinese and Japanese military personnel.

23. Wars of the Three Kingdoms

40 million dead
Wars of the Three Kingdoms - a series of armed conflicts in ancient China (220-280). During these wars, three states - Wei, Shu and Wu vied for power in the country, trying to unite the peoples and take them under their control. One of the bloodiest periods in Chinese history was marked by a series of brutal battles that could have resulted in the deaths of up to 40 million people.

24. Mongol conquests

70 million dead
The Mongol conquests progressed throughout the 13th century, resulting in the vast Mongol Empire conquering much of Asia and Eastern Europe. Historians consider the period of Mongol raids and invasions to be one of the deadliest conflicts in human history. In addition, bubonic plague spread throughout most of Asia and Europe at this time. The total number of deaths during the conquests is estimated at 40 - 70 million people.

25. World War II

85 million dead
The Second World War (1939 - 1945) was global: the vast majority of the world's countries, including all the great powers, took part in it. It was the most massive war in history, with more than 100 million people from more than 30 countries of the world directly participating in it.

It was marked by massive civilian deaths, including due to the Holocaust and strategic bombing of industrial and populated areas, which led (according to various estimates) to the deaths of 60 million to 85 million people. As a result, World War II became the deadliest conflict in human history.

However, as history shows, a person harms himself all the time of his existence. What are they worth.

20th century

1. War with the Japanese Empire in 1904-1905.

2. World War I 1914-1918.

Defeat, a change in the political system, the beginning of a civil war, territorial losses, about 2 million 200 thousand people died and went missing. The population decline was approximately 5 million people. Russia's material losses amounted to approximately 100 billion US dollars in 1918 prices.

3. Civil war 1918-1922.

The establishment of the Soviet system, the return of part of the lost territories, according to approximate data, from 240 to 500 thousand people died and went missing from the Red Army, at least 175 thousand people died and went missing in the White Army, the total losses for the civilian population years of civil war amounted to about 2.5 million people. The decline in population amounted to approximately 4 million people. Material losses are estimated at approximately 25-30 billion US dollars in 1920 prices.

4. Soviet-Polish war of 1919-1921.

According to Russian researchers, about 100 thousand people died or went missing.

5. Military conflict between the USSR and the Empire of Japan in the Far East and participation in the Japanese-Mongolian war of 1938-1939.

About 15 thousand people died and went missing.

6. Soviet-Finnish war of 1939-1940.

Territorial acquisitions, about 85 thousand people died and went missing.

7. In 1923-1941, the USSR participated in the civil war in China and in the war between China and the Empire of Japan. And in 1936-1939 in the Spanish Civil War.

About 500 people died or went missing.

8. The Soviet occupation of the territories of Western Ukraine and Western Belarus, Latvia, Lithuania and Estonia in 1939 under the terms of the Molotov-Ribbentrop Treaty (Pact) with Nazi Germany on non-aggression and the division of Eastern Europe of August 23, 1939.

The irretrievable losses of the Red Army in Western Ukraine and Western Belarus amounted to about 1,500 people. There are no data on losses in Latvia, Lithuania and Estonia.

9. The Second World (Great Patriotic) War.

Territorial acquisitions in East Prussia (Kaliningrad region) and in the Far East as a result of the war with the Japanese Empire (part of Sakhalin Island and the Kuril Islands), total irretrievable losses in the army and among the civilian population from 20 million to 26 million people. The material losses of the USSR amounted, according to various estimates, from 2 to 3 trillion US dollars in 1945 prices.

10. Civil war in China 1946-1945.

About 1,000 military and civilian specialists, officers, sergeants and privates perished, died from wounds and diseases.

11. Korean Civil War 1950-1953.

Killed, died from wounds and diseases about 300 military personnel, mostly officers-pilots.

12. During the participation of the USSR in the Vietnam War of 1962-1974, in the military conflicts of the second half of the 20th century in Africa and the countries of Central and South America, in the Arab-Israeli wars from 1967 to 1974, in the suppression of the 1956 uprising in Hungary and 1968 in Czechoslovakia, as well as in border conflicts with China, about 3,000 people died. from among military and civilian specialists, officers, sergeants and privates.

13. War in Afghanistan 1979-1989.

About 15,000 people perished, died from wounds and diseases, went missing. from among military and civilian specialists, officers, sergeants and privates. The total costs of the USSR for the war in Afghanistan are estimated at about 70-100 billion US dollars in 1990 prices. The main result: The change of the political system and the collapse of the USSR with the withdrawal of 14 union republics from it.

Results:

Over the 20th century, the Russian Empire and the USSR took part in 5 major wars on their territory, of which World War I, Civil War and World War II can be safely attributed to mega-large ones.

The total number of losses of the Russian Empire and the USSR in wars and armed conflicts over the 20th century is estimated at approximately 30 to 35 million people, taking into account civilian losses from hunger and epidemics caused by the war.

The total cost of the material losses of the Russian Empire and the USSR is estimated at approximately 8 to 10 trillion US dollars in 2000 prices.

14. War in Chechnya 1994-2000.

There are no official exact numbers of combat and civilian losses killed, dead from wounds and diseases, and missing on both sides. The total combat losses on the Russian side are estimated at 10 thousand people. according to experts, up to 20-25 thousand, according to the estimates of the Union of Committees of Soldiers' Mothers. The total combat irretrievable losses of the Chechen rebels are estimated at between 10,000 and 15,000 people. The irretrievable losses of the civilian population of the Chechen and Russian-speaking population, including ethnic cleansing among the Russian-speaking population, are estimated at approximate figures from 1,000 according to official Russian data to 50,000 people according to unofficial data from human rights organizations. Exact material losses are not known, but there are rough estimates suggesting a total loss of at least US$20 billion in 2000 prices.

World War I

The birth of fascism. The world on the eve of World War II

The Second World War

The world wars of the 20th century brought the world civilization to the brink of death, they were a severe test for humanity, humanistic values ​​developed throughout its entire previous history. At the same time, they were a reflection of the fundamental changes that had taken place in the world, one of the terrible consequences of the very process of the development of civilization.

causes of world wars

Since wars in our century have acquired a global scale, it is more logical to start with an analysis of the causes of a global nature, and above all with a description of the state of Western civilization, the values ​​of which dominated and continue to play the same role in the modern world, determining the general direction of human development.

By the beginning of our century, the crisis phenomena that accompanied the industrial stage of the development of the West throughout the 19th century resulted in a global crisis, which actually continued throughout the first half of the 20th century. The material basis of the crisis was the rapid development of market relations based on industrial production, technological progress in general, which, on the one hand, allowed Western society to make a sharp leap forward in comparison with other countries, and on the other hand, gave rise to phenomena that threaten Western civilization with rebirth. Indeed, the filling of markets with goods and services more and more fully satisfied the needs of people, however, the retribution for this was the transformation of the overwhelming mass of workers into an appendage of machine tools and mechanisms, a conveyor, a technological process, more and more gave labor a collective character, etc. This led to the depersonalization of a person, which was clearly manifested in the formation of the phenomenon of mass consciousness, which displaced individualism, personal interests of people, i.e. values ​​on the basis of which the humanistic Western civilization actually arose and developed.

With the development of industrial progress, humanistic values ​​increasingly gave way to corporate, technocratic, and finally, totalitarian consciousness with all its known attributes. This trend was clearly manifested not only in the spiritual sphere in the form of a reorientation of people to new values, but contributed to an unprecedented strengthening of the role of the state, which turned into a bearer of a national idea that replaced the ideas of democracy.

This most general characteristic of the historical and psychological changes underlying the phenomenon of world wars we are considering can be a kind of background when considering their geoistrian, socio-economic, demographic, military-political and other causes.

The First World War, which began in 1914, engulfed 38 states in Europe, Asia and Africa. It was conducted on a vast territory, which amounted to 4 million square meters. km and involved more than 1.5 billion people, i.e. more than 3/4 of the world's population.

The reason for the war was the tragic shot in Sarajevo, but its true causes were rooted in complex contradictions between the participating countries.

It was said above about the growing global crisis of civilization as a result of industrial progress. By the beginning of the XX century. The logic of socio-economic development led to the establishment of a monopolistic regime in the economies of industrial countries, which was reflected in the domestic political climate of countries (growth of totalitarian tendencies, growth of militarization), as well as in world relations (intensification of the struggle between countries for markets, for political influence). The basis of these tendencies was the policy of the monopolies, with their exclusively expansionist, aggressive character. At the same time, there was a merging of monopolies with the state, the formation state-monopoly capitalism, which gave government policy an increasingly expansionist

character. This, in particular, was evidenced by: the widespread growth of militarization, the emergence of military-political alliances, the increased frequency of military conflicts, which until then were local in nature, the strengthening of colonial oppression, etc. The aggravation of rivalry between countries was also determined to a large extent by the relative unevenness of their socio-economic development, which influenced the degree and forms of their external expansion.

15.1. World War I

The situation on the eve of the war

At the beginning of the XX century. the formation of blocs of countries participating in the First World War took place. On the one hand, these were Germany, Austria-Hungary, Italy, which took shape in Triple Alliance(1882), and on the other - England, France and Russia, who created Entente(1904-1907). The leading role in the Austro-German and Romano-British blocs was played by Germany and England, respectively. The conflict between these two states was at the heart of the future world war. At the same time, Germany sought to win a worthy place in the sun, while England defended the established world hierarchy.

Germany at the beginning of the century took second place in the world in terms of industrial production (after the USA) and first place in Europe (in 1913, Germany smelted 16.8 million tons of pig iron, 15.7 million tons of steel;

England, respectively - 10.4 million tons and 9 million tons (for comparison, France - 5.2 million and 4.7 million tons, respectively, and Russia - 4.6 million tons and 4.9 million tons) . Other spheres of the national economy of Germany, science, education, etc. developed quite rapidly.

At the same time, the geopolitical position of Germany did not correspond to the growing power of its monopolies and the ambitions of a growing state. In particular, Germany's colonial possessions were quite modest in comparison with other industrialized countries. Of the 65 million square meters. km of the total colonial possessions of England, France, Russia, Germany, the USA and Japan, in which 526 million natives lived, Germany had 2.9 million square meters by the beginning of the First World War. km (or 3.5%) with a population of 12.3 million people (or 2.3%). It should be borne in mind that the population of Germany itself was the most numerous of all the countries of Western Europe.

Already at the beginning of the XX century. German expansion in the Middle East is intensifying in connection with the construction of the Baghdad railway; in China - in connection with the annexation of the port of Jiaozhou (1897) and the establishment of its protectorate over the Shandong Peninsula. Germany also establishes a protectorate over Samoa, the Caroline and Mariana Islands in the Pacific Ocean, acquires the colonies of Togo and Cameroon in East Africa. This gradually aggravated the Anglo-German, German-French and German-Russian contradictions. In addition, German-French relations were complicated by the problem of Alsace, Lorraine and the Ruhr; German-Russian - Germany's intervention in the Balkan issue, its support there for the policy of Austria-Hungary and Turkey. German-American trade relations in the field of exports of engineering products to Latin America, Southeast Asia and the Middle East also escalated (at the beginning of the century, Germany exported 29.1% of world exports of machinery, while the US share was 26.8%. The First World War was the Moroccan crises (1905, 1911), the Russo-Japanese War (1904-1905), the capture of Tripolitania and Cyrenaica by Italy, the Italo-Turkish War (1911-1912), the Balkan Wars (1912-1913 and 1913).

On the eve of the First World War, the propaganda of militarism and chauvinism intensified sharply in almost all countries. She lay down on the fertile ground. Developed industrial states, having achieved a tangible superiority in economic development in comparison with other peoples, began to feel their racial, national superiority, the ideas of which had already been around since the middle of the 19th century. cultivated by individual politicians, and by the beginning of the 20th century. become an essential component of the official state ideology. Thus, the Pan-German Union, created in 1891, openly proclaimed the main enemy of the peoples of England included in it, calling for the seizure of its territories, as well as Russia, France, Belgium, Holland. The ideological basis for this was the concept of the superiority of the German nation. In Italy, there was propaganda for the expansion of dominance in the Mediterranean; in Turkey, the ideas of pan-Turkism were cultivated, pointing to the main enemy - Russia and pan-Slavism. At the other extreme, the preaching of colonialism flourished in England, the army cult flourished in France, and the doctrine of the defense of all Slavs and pan-Slavism under the auspices of the empire flourished in Russia.

Preparing for war

At the same time, military-economic preparations were made for a world massacre. Yes, since the 1990s. By 1913, the military budgets of the leading countries had grown by more than 80%. The military defense industry developed rapidly: 115 thousand workers were employed in Germany, 40 thousand in Austria-Hungary, 100 thousand in France, 100 thousand in England, and 80 thousand in Russia. By the beginning of the war, the production of military products in Germany and Austria-Hungary was only slightly inferior to those in the Entente countries. However, the Entente received a clear advantage in the event of a protracted war or the expansion of its coalition.

Given the latter circumstance, German strategists have long been developing a blitzkrieg plan (A. Schliefen(1839-1913), X Moltke (1848-1916), 3. Schlichging, F. Bernardi and etc.). The German plan provided for a lightning-fast victorious strike in the West with simultaneous deterrent, defensive battles on the eastern front, followed by the defeat of Russia; The Austro-Hungarian headquarters planned a war on two fronts (against Russia and in the Balkans). The plans of the opposing side included the offensive of the Russian army in two directions at once (north-western - against Germany and south-western - against Austria-Hungary) with a force of 800 thousand bayonets with the passive wait-and-see tactics of the French troops. German politicians and military strategists pinned their hopes on the neutrality of England at the beginning of the war, for which in the summer of 1914 they pushed Austria-Hungary into a conflict with Serbia.

The beginning of the war

In response to the assassination on June 28, 1914 of the heir to the Austro-Hungarian throne, the Archduke Franz Ferdinand in Sarajevo, Austria-Hungary immediately opened hostilities against Serbia, in support of which on July 31, Nicholas II announced a general mobilization in Russia. Russia refused Germany's demand to stop mobilization. On August 1, 1914, Germany declared war on Russia, and on August 3, France. Germany's hopes for the neutrality of England, which issued an ultimatum in defense of Belgium, did not materialize, after which she began military operations against Germany at sea, officially declaring war on her on August 4.

At the beginning of the war, many states declared neutrality, including Holland, Denmark, Spain, Italy, Norway, Portugal, Romania, the USA, and Sweden.

Military operations in 1915-1918

Military operations in 1914 on the Western European Front were offensive on the part of Germany, whose troops, having passed Belgium from the north, entered the territory of France. In early September, a grandiose battle took place between the cities of Verdun and Paris (about 2 million people participated), lost by "German troops. The Russian army was advancing in the East European direction: the troops of the North-Western and Western fronts (under the command of General Raninkampf and general Samsonov) were stopped by the Germans; the troops of the Southwestern Front achieved success by occupying the city of Lvov. At the same time, hostilities unfolded on the Caucasian and Balkan fronts. On the whole, the Entente managed to frustrate the blitzkrieg plans, as a result of which the war acquired a protracted, positional character, and the scales began to tilt in its direction.

In 1915, there were no major changes on the Western European front. Russia as a whole lost the 1915 campaign, surrendering Lvov to the Austrians, and Liepaja, Warsaw, Novogeorgievsk to the Germans.

Contrary to pre-war obligations, in 1915 Italy declared war on Austria-Hungary, as a result of which a new Italian front was opened, where military operations did not reveal a clear advantage for the parties. This advantage in favor of the Entente in the south of Europe was neutralized by the registration in September 1915. Quadruple Austrian-German-Bulgarian-Turkish Union. One of the results of its formation was the defeat of Serbia, followed by the evacuation of its army (120 thousand people) to the island of Corfu.

In the same year, actions on the Caucasian front were transferred to the territory of Iran with the participation of not only Russia and Turkey, but also England; after the landing of the Anglo-French troops in Thessaloniki, the Thessaloniki Front took shape, the British occupied the territory of South-West Africa. The most significant naval battle of 1915 was the battle for the control of the Bosphorus and the Dardanelles.

1916 on the Western European Front was marked by two major battles: near the city of Verdun and on the river Somme where 1 million 300 thousand people were killed, wounded and taken prisoner on both sides. The Russian army this year carried out offensive operations on the Northwestern and Western fronts in support of the allies, during the battle of Verdun. In addition, a breakthrough was made on the Southwestern Front, which went down in history.

Military operations on the Eastern and Western fronts (1914-1918gg.)

Military operations on the Eastern Front in 1914-1917.

Military operations on the Western Front in 1914

by the name of the general A, Brusilova(1853-1926), as a result of which 409 thousand Austrian soldiers and officers were captured and an area of ​​​​25 thousand square meters was occupied. km.

In the Caucasus, parts of the Russian army occupied the cities of Erzerum, Trapezund, Ruvanduz, Mush, Bitlis. England won the North Sea in the largest naval battle of the First World War (Jutland battle).

V In general, the successes of the Entente provided a turning point in the course of hostilities. German command (generals Ludendorff(1865-1937) and Hindenburg) passed from the end of 1916 to defense on all fronts.

However, the next year, Russian troops left Riga. The weakened positions of the Entente were reinforced by the entry into the war on its side of the United States, China, Greece, Brazil, Cuba, Panama, Liberia and Siam. On the Western Front, the Entente failed to seize a decisive advantage, while on the new Iranian front the British occupied Baghdad, and in Africa they secured victory in Togo and Cameroon.

In 1918, a single allied command of the Entente countries was created. Despite the absence of the Russian front, the Germans and Austrians still kept up to 75 divisions in Russia, playing a difficult game in the prevailing conditions after the October Revolution. The German command launched a major offensive on the river. Somme, which ended in failure. The Allied counteroffensive forced the German General Staff to request an armistice. It was signed on November 11, 1918 in Compiègne, and on January 18, 1919. A conference of 27 allied countries opened at the Palace of Versailles, which determined the nature of the peace treaty with Germany. The treaty was signed on June 28, 1919, Soviet Russia, which concluded a separate peace with Germany in March 1918, did not participate in the development of the Versailles system.

The results of the war

By Treaty of Versailles the territory of Germany was reduced by 70 thousand square meters. km, she lost all the few colonies; military articles obligated Germany not to introduce military service, to dissolve all military organizations, not to have modern types of weapons, to pay reparations. The map of Europe was fundamentally redrawn. With the collapse of the Austro-Hungarian dualistic monarchy, the statehood of Austria, Hungary, Czechoslovakia, Yugoslavia was formalized, the independence and borders of Albania, Bulgaria, and Romania were confirmed. Belgium, Denmark, Poland, France and Czechoslovakia regained the lands occupied by Germany, having received part of the original German territories under their control. Syria, Lebanon, Iraq, Palestine were separated from Turkey and transferred as mandated territories to England and France. The new western border of Soviet Russia was also determined at the Paris Peace Conference (Curzon Line), while the statehood of parts of the former empire was consolidated:

Consequences of the First World War

Latvia, Lithuania, Poland, Finland and Estonia. The First World War demonstrated the crisis state of civilization. Indeed, in all the warring countries, democracy was curtailed, the sphere of market relations narrowed, giving way to strict state regulation of the sphere of production and distribution in its extreme statist form. These tendencies contradicted the economic foundations of Western civilization.

No less striking evidence of a deep crisis were cardinal political changes in a number of countries. Thus, following the October Revolution in Russia, socialist revolutions swept through Finland, Germany, and Hungary; in other countries there was an unprecedented rise in the revolutionary movement, and in the colonies - anti-colonial. This, as it were, confirmed the prediction of the founders of the communist theory about the inevitable death of capitalism, which was also evidenced by the emergence of the Communist 3rd International, the advent of the Socialist International, the coming to power in many countries of the socialist parties and, finally, the lasting conquest of power in Russia by the Bolshevik party.

World War I was the catalyst for industrial development. During the war years, 28 million rifles, about 1 million machine guns, 150 thousand guns, 9200 tanks, thousands of aircraft were produced, a submarine fleet was created (more than 450 submarines were built in Germany alone during these years). The military orientation of industrial progress became obvious, the next step was the creation of equipment and technologies for the mass destruction of people. However, already during the First World War, monstrous experiments were carried out, for example, the first use of chemical weapons by the Germans in 1915 in Belgium near Ypres.

1 Etatism - the active participation of the state in the economic life of society, mainly using direct methods of intervention.

The consequences of the war were catastrophic for the national economy of most countries. They resulted in widespread long-term economic crises, which were based on the gigantic economic disproportions that arose during the war years. Only the direct military spending of the warring countries amounted to 208 billion dollars. Against the backdrop of a widespread decline in civilian production and the standard of living of the population, there was a strengthening and enrichment of the monopolies associated with military production. Thus, by the beginning of 1918, the German monopolies accumulated 10 billion gold marks as profits, the American - 35 billion gold dollars, etc. Having strengthened during the war years, the monopolies increasingly began to determine the paths of further development, leading to the catastrophe of Western civilization. . This thesis is confirmed by the emergence and spread of fascism.

15.2. The birth of fascism. The world on the eve of World War II

Fascism was a reflection and result of the development of the main contradictions of Western civilization. His ideology absorbed (bringing to the grotesque) the ideas of racism and social equality, technocratic and statist concepts. An eclectic intertwining of various ideas and theories resulted in the form of accessible populist doctrine and demagogic politics. The National Socialist Workers' Party of Germany grew out of the Free Workers' Committee for a Good Peace, a circle founded in 1915 by workers Anton Drexler. At the beginning of 1919, other organizations of the National Socialist persuasion were created in Germany. In November 1921, a fascist party was created in Italy, with 300,000 members, 40% of them workers. Recognizing this political force, the king of Italy ordered in 1922 the leader of this party Benito Mussolini(1883-1945) to form a cabinet of ministers, which since 1925 becomes fascist.

According to the same scenario, the Nazis came to power in Germany in 1933. Party leader Adolf Gitler(1889-1945) receives the position of Reich Chancellor from the hands of the President of Germany Paul von Hindenburg (1847-1934).

From the first steps, the fascists proved themselves to be irreconcilable anti-communists, anti-Semites, good organizers, capable of reaching out to all segments of the population, and revanchists. Their activities could hardly have been so rapidly successful without the support of the revanchist monopoly circles in their countries. The presence of their direct ties with the Nazis is beyond doubt, if only because next to the dock in Nuremberg in 1945 were the leaders of the criminal regime and the largest economic magnates of Nazi Germany (G. Schacht, G. Krupp). It can be argued that the financial resources of the monopolies contributed to the fascisization of countries, the strengthening of fascism, designed not only to destroy the communist regime in the USSR (anti-communist idea), inferior peoples (the idea of ​​racism), but also to redraw the map of the world, destroying the Versailles system of the post-war system (revanchist idea).

The phenomenon of fascisization of a number of European countries has even more clearly demonstrated the critical state of the entire Western civilization. In essence, this political and ideological trend represented an alternative to its foundations by curtailing democracy, market relations and replacing them with a policy of etatism, building a society of social equality for the chosen peoples, cultivating collectivist forms of life, inhumane treatment of non-Aryans, etc. True, fascism did not imply total destruction of Western civilization. Perhaps, to a certain extent, this explains the relatively loyal attitude of the ruling circles of democratic countries towards this formidable phenomenon for a long time. In addition, fascism can be attributed to one of the varieties of totalitarianism. Western political scientists have proposed a definition of totalitarianism based on several criteria that have received recognition and further development in political science. Totalitarianism characterized by: 1) the presence of an official ideology, covering the most vital areas of human life and society and supported by the overwhelming majority of citizens. This ideology is based on the rejection of the hitherto existing order and pursues the task of rallying society to create a new way of life, not excluding the use of violent methods; 2) the dominance of a mass party built on a strictly hierarchical principle of government, as a rule, with a leader at the head. Party - performing the functions of control over the bureaucratic state apparatus or dissolving in it; 3) the presence of a developed system of police control, penetrating all public aspects of the life of the country; 4) the almost complete control of the party over the media; 5) full control of the party over law enforcement agencies, primarily the army; 6) management of the central government of the economic life of the country.

This characteristic of totalitarianism is applicable both to the regime that has developed in Germany, Italy and other fascist countries, and in many respects to the Stalinist regime that has developed in the 30s in the USSR. It is also possible that such a similarity of various guises of totalitarianism made it difficult for politicians who were at the head of democratic countries in that dramatic period of modern history to realize the danger posed by this monstrous phenomenon.

Already in 1935, Germany refused to comply with the military articles of the Treaty of Versailles, which was followed by the occupation of the Rhine demilitarized zone, withdrawal from the League of Nations, Italy's assistance in the occupation of Ethiopia (1935-1936), intervention in Spain (1936-1939), Anschluss (or accession) of Austria (1938), the dismemberment of Czechoslovakia (1938-1939) in accordance with the Munich Agreement, etc. Finally, in April 1939, Germany unilaterally terminates the Anglo-German naval agreement and the non-aggression pact with Poland, so the casus arose belli (cause for war).

15.3. The Second World War

Foreign policy of countries before the war

Finally, the Versailles system fell with the outbreak of World War II, for which Germany was quite thoroughly prepared. Thus, from 1934 to 1939, military production in the country increased 22 times, the number of troops - 35 times, Germany came second in the world in terms of industrial production, etc.

Currently, researchers do not have a unified view of the geopolitical state of the world on the eve of World War II. Some historians (Marxists) continue to insist on a two-state characterization. In their opinion, there were two socio-political systems in the world (socialism and capitalism), and within the framework of the capitalist system of world relations - two centers of a future war (Germany - in Europe and Japan - in Asia). A significant part of historians believe that on the eve of World War II there were three political systems: bourgeois-democratic, socialist and fascist-militarist. The interaction of these systems, the alignment of forces between them could ensure peace or disrupt it. A possible bloc between the bourgeois-democratic and socialist systems was a real alternative to the Second World War. However, a peaceful alliance did not work out. “The bourgeois-democratic countries did not agree to create a bloc before the start of the war, because their leadership continued to consider Soviet totalitarianism as the greatest threat to the foundations of civilization (the result of revolutionary changes in the USSR, including the 30s) than its fascist antipode, which openly proclaimed a crusade against communism.The USSR's attempt to create a system of collective security in Europe ended with the signing of treaties with France and Czechoslovakia in 1935. But even these treaties were not put into effect during the German occupation of Czechoslovakia due to the "appeasement policy" opposing them, pursued at that time by the majority European countries in relation to Germany.

Germany, in October 1936, formalized a military-political alliance with Italy ("Berlin-Rome Axis"), and a month later, the Anti-Comintern Pact was signed between Japan and Germany, to which Italy joined a year later (November 6, 1937). The creation of a revanchist alliance forced the countries of the bourgeois-democratic camp to become more active. However, only in March 1939 did Britain and France begin negotiations with the USSR on joint actions against Germany. But the agreement was never signed. Despite the polarity of interpretations of the reasons for the failed union of anti-fascist states, some of which shift the blame for the unbridled aggressor onto the capitalist countries, others attribute it to the policy of the leadership of the USSR, etc., one thing is obvious - the skillful use by fascist politicians of the contradictions between anti-fascist countries, which led to to grave consequences for the whole world.

Soviet policy on the eve of the war

The consolidation of the fascist camp against the background of the policy of appeasement of the aggressor pushed the USSR into an open struggle against the spreading aggressor: 1936 - Spain, 1938 a small war with Japan near Lake Khasan, 1939 - the Soviet-Japanese war at Khalkhin Gol. However, quite unexpectedly, on August 23, 1939 (eight days before the start of the world war, the Non-Aggression Pact between Germany and the USSR (called the Molotov-Ribbentrop Pact) was signed). The secret protocols to this pact delimiting the spheres of influence of Germany and the USSR in the north that became known to the world community and the south of Europe, as well as the division of Poland, forced to take a fresh look (especially domestic researchers) at the role of the USSR in the anti-fascist struggle on the eve of the war, as well as its activities from September 1939 to June 1941, at the history of the opening of the second front and much more.

There is no doubt that the signing of the Soviet-German non-aggression pact dramatically changed the balance of power in Europe:

The USSR avoided a seemingly inevitable clash with Germany, while the countries of Western Europe found themselves face to face with the aggressor, whom they continued to pacify out of inertia (an attempt by England and France from August 23 to September 1, 1939 to come to an agreement with Germany on the Polish issue on like the Munich Agreement).

Beginning of World War II

The immediate pretext for the attack on Poland was a rather frank provocation by Germany on their joint border (Gliwitz), after which on September 1, 1939, 57 German divisions (1.5 million people), about 2500 tanks, 2000 aircraft invaded the territory Poland. The Second World War began.

England and France declared war on Germany already on September 3, without providing, however, real assistance to Poland. From 3 to 10 September, Australia, New Zealand, India, Canada entered the war against Germany; The United States declared neutrality, Japan declared non-intervention in the European war.

Thus, World War II began as a war between the bourgeois-democratic and fascist-militarist blocs. The first stage of the war dates from September 1, 1939 - June 21, 1941, at the beginning of which the German army until

First stage of the war

On September 17, it occupied part of Poland, reaching the line (the cities of Lvov, Vladimir-Volynsky, Brest-Litovsk), marked by one of the mentioned secret protocols of the Molotov-Ribbentrop Pact.

Until May 10, 1940, England and France did not practically conduct military operations with the enemy, therefore this period was called the "strange war". Germany took advantage of the passivity of the allies, expanding its aggression, occupying Denmark and Norway in April 1940 and going on the offensive from the shores of the North Sea to the Maginot Line on May 10 of the same year. During May, the governments of Luxembourg, Belgium, and Holland capitulated. And already on June 22, 1940, France was forced to sign an armistice with Germany in Compiègne. As a result of the actual surrender of France, a collaborationist state was created in its south, headed by Marshal A. Peten(1856-1951) and the administrative center in Vichy (the so-called "Vichy regime"). France resisting was led by a general Charles de Gaulle ( 1890-1970).

On May 10, there were changes in the leadership of Great Britain; Winston Churchill(1874-1965), whose anti-German, anti-fascist and, of course, anti-Soviet sentiments were well known. The period of the "strange war" is over.

From August 1940 to May 1941, the German command organized systematic air raids on the cities of England, trying to force its leadership to withdraw from the war. As a result, during this time, about 190 thousand high-explosive and incendiary bombs were dropped on England, and by June 1941, a third of the tonnage of its merchant fleet was sunk at sea. Germany also increased its pressure on the countries of South-Eastern Europe. The accession to the Berlin Pact (the agreement of Germany, Italy and Japan of September 27, 1940) of the Bulgarian pro-fascist government ensured the success of the aggression against Greece and Yugoslavia in April 1941.

Italy in 1940 developed military operations in Africa, advancing on the colonial possessions of England and France (East Africa, Sudan, Somalia, Egypt, Libya, Algeria, Tunisia). However, in December 1940, the British forced the Italian troops to surrender. Germany rushed to the aid of an ally.

The policy of the USSR at the first stage of the war did not receive a unified assessment. A significant part of Russian and foreign researchers tend to interpret it as an accomplice in relation to Germany, which is based on the agreement between the USSR and Germany within the framework of the Molotov-Ribbentrop Pact, as well as the fairly close military-political and trade cooperation between the two countries until the beginning of Germany's aggression against the USSR. In our opinion, in such an assessment, a strategic approach at the pan-European, global level prevails to a greater extent. At the same time, the point of view, which draws attention to the benefits received by the USSR from cooperation with Germany at the first stage of World War II, somewhat corrects this unambiguous assessment, allowing us to speak about the well-known strengthening of the USSR within the time it won to prepare to repel imminent aggression, which ultimately ensured the subsequent Great Victory over fascism of the entire anti-fascist camp.

In this chapter, we will confine ourselves to this preliminary assessment of the participation of the USSR in World War II, since the rest of its stages are considered in more detail in Chap. 16. Here, it is advisable to dwell only on some of the most important episodes of the subsequent stages.

The second stage of the war (June 22, 1941 - November 1942) was characterized by the entry into the war of the USSR, the retreat of the Red Army and its first victory (the battle for Moscow), as well as the beginning of the intensive formation of the anti-Hitler coalition. So, on June 22, 1941, England declared its full support for the USSR, and the United States almost simultaneously (June 23) expressed its readiness to provide it with economic assistance. As a result, on July 12, a Soviet-British agreement was signed in Moscow on joint actions against Germany, and on August 16, trade turnover between the two countries was signed. In the same month, as a result of the meeting of F. Roosevelt(1882-1945) and W. Churchill was signed Atlantic Charter, to which the USSR joined in September. However, the United States entered the war on December 7, 1941 after the tragedy at the Pacific naval base Pearl Harbor. Developing the offensive from December 1941 to June 1942, Japan occupied Thailand, Singapore, Burma, Indonesia, New Guinea, and the Philippines. On January 1, 1942, in Washington, 27 states that were at war with the countries of the so-called "fascist axis" signed a declaration of the United Nations, which completed the difficult process of creating an anti-Hitler coalition.

Second phase of the war

The Second World War. Military operations from January 1, 1939 to June 22, 1941

Third stage of the war

The third stage of the war (mid-November 1942 - late 1943) was marked by a radical turning point in its course, which meant the loss of the strategic initiative by the countries of the fascist coalition on the fronts, the superiority of the anti-Hitler coalition in the economic, political and moral aspect. On the Eastern Front, the Soviet Army won major victories at Stalingrad and Kursk. Anglo-American troops successfully advanced in Africa, liberating Egypt, Cyrenaica, and Tunisia from German-Italian formations. In Europe, as a result of successful operations in Sicily, the Allies forced Italy to capitulate. In 1943, the allied relations of the countries of the anti-fascist bloc were strengthened: at the Moscow Conference (October 1943), England, the USSR and the USA adopted declarations on Italy, Austria and general security (signed also by China), on the responsibility of the Nazis for the crimes committed.

On the Tehran Conference(November 28 - December 1, 1943), where f. Roosevelt, I. Stalin and W. Churchill, it was decided to open a Second Front in Europe in May 1944 and a Declaration was adopted on joint actions in the war against Germany and post-war cooperation. At the end of 1943, at a conference of the leaders of Britain, China and the USA, the Japanese question was similarly resolved.

Fourth stage

At the fourth stage of the war (from the end of 1943 to May 9, 1945) there was an active process of liberation by the Soviet Army of the western regions of the USSR, Poland, Romania, Bulgaria, Czechoslovakia, etc. In Western Europe with some delay (6 June 1944 d.) the Second Front was opened, the countries of Western Europe were being liberated. In 1945, 18 million people, about 260 thousand guns and mortars, up to 40 thousand tanks and self-propelled artillery mounts, over 38 thousand aircraft took part on the battlefields in Europe at the same time.

On the Yalta Conference(February 1945) the leaders of England, the USSR and the USA decided the fate of Germany, Poland, Yugoslavia, discussed the issue of creating United Nations(created on April 25, 1945), signed an agreement on the entry of the USSR into the war against Japan.

The result of joint efforts was the complete and unconditional surrender of Germany on May 8, 1945, signed on the outskirts of Berlin by Karl-Horst.

Fifth stage of the war

The final, fifth stage of the Second World War took place in the Far East and Southeast Asia (from May 9 to September 2, 1945). By the summer of 1945, allied forces and forces of the national resistance had liberated all the lands occupied by Japan, and American troops occupied the strategically important islands of Irojima and Okinawa, inflicting massive bombing attacks on the cities of the island state. For the first time in world practice, the Americans carried out two barbaric atomic bombings of the cities of Hiroshima (August 6, 1945) and Nagasaki (August 9, 1945).

After the lightning defeat of the Kwantung Army by the USSR (August 1945), Japan signed an act of surrender (September 2, 1945).

Results of World War II

The Second World War, planned by the aggressors as a series of small lightning wars, turned into a global armed conflict. From 8 to 12.8 million people, from 84 to 163 thousand guns, from 6.5 to 18.8 thousand aircraft simultaneously participated in its various stages from both sides. The total theater of operations was 5.5 times larger than the territories covered by the First World War. In total, during the war of 1939-1945. 64 states with a total population of 1.7 billion people were drawn in. The losses incurred as a result of the war are striking in their scale. More than 50 million people died, and if we take into account the constantly updated data on the losses of the USSR (they range from 21.78 million to about 30 million), this figure cannot be called final. In the death camps alone, 11 million lives were destroyed. The economies of most of the warring countries were undermined.

It was these terrible results of the Second World War, which brought civilization to the brink of destruction, that forced its viable forces to become more active. This is evidenced, in particular, by the fact of the formation of an effective structure of the world community - the United Nations (UN), which opposes totalitarian tendencies in development, the imperial ambitions of individual states; the act of the Nuremberg and Tokyo trials that condemned fascism, totalitarianism, and punished the leaders of criminal regimes; a broad anti-war movement that contributed to the adoption of international pacts banning the production, distribution and use of weapons of mass destruction, etc.

By the time the war began, perhaps only England, Canada and the United States remained the centers of the reservation of the foundations of Western civilization. The rest of the world was slipping more and more into the abyss of totalitarianism, which, as we tried to show by the example of the analysis of the causes and consequences of world wars, led to the inevitable death of mankind. The victory over fascism strengthened the position of democracy and provided the way for the slow recovery of civilization. However, this path was very difficult and long. Suffice it to say that only since the end of the Second World War until 1982 there have been 255 wars and military conflicts, until recently there was a destructive confrontation between political camps, the so-called "cold war", humanity has repeatedly stood on the verge of a nuclear war, etc. Yes, even today we can see in the world the same military conflicts, bloc feuds, remaining islands of totalitarian regimes, etc. However, it seems to us that they no longer determine the face of modern civilization.

Questions for self-examination

What were the causes of the First World War? What stages are distinguished during the First World War, what groupings of countries participated in it? How did the First World War end, what consequences did it have?

Reveal the reasons for the emergence and spread of fascism in the 20th century, give its characteristics, compare it with totalitarianism. What caused the Second World War, what was the alignment of the countries participating in it, what stages did it go through and how did it end? Compare the human and material losses in the First and Second World Wars.

For almost three hundred years, the search for a universal way to resolve the contradictions that arise between states, nations, peoples, etc., has been going on, without the use of armed violence.

But political declarations, treaties, conventions, negotiations on disarmament and on the limitation of certain types of weapons only removed the direct threat of destructive wars for a while, but did not eliminate it completely.

Only after the end of World War II, more than 400 various clashes of the so-called "local" significance, more than 50 "major" local wars, were recorded on the planet. More than 30 military conflicts annually - these are the real statistics of the last years of the 20th century. Since 1945, local wars and armed conflicts have claimed more than 30 million lives. Financially, the loss amounted to 10 trillion dollars - this is the price of human militancy.

Local wars have always been an instrument of the policy of many countries of the world and the global strategy of the opposing world systems - capitalism and socialism, as well as their military organizations - NATO and the Warsaw Pact.

In the post-war period, as never before, an organic connection began to be felt between politics and diplomacy, on the one hand, and the military power of states, on the other, since peaceful means turned out to be good and effective only when they were based on sufficient resources to protect the state and their military power interests.

During this period, the main thing for the USSR was the desire to participate in local wars and armed conflicts in the Middle East, Indochina, Central America, Central and South Africa, Asia and the Persian Gulf, into which the United States and its allies were drawn into the orbit, to strengthen own political, ideological and military influence in vast regions of the world.

It was during the years of the Cold War that a series of military-political crises and local wars took place with the participation of domestic armed forces, which, under certain circumstances, could develop into a large-scale war.

Until recently, all responsibility for the emergence of local wars and armed conflicts (in the ideological system of coordinates) was entirely assigned to the aggressive nature of imperialism, and our interest in their course and outcome was carefully masked by declarations of disinterested assistance to peoples fighting for their independence and self-determination.

So, at the heart of the emergence of the most common military conflicts unleashed after the Second World War, lies the economic rivalry of states in the international arena. Most of the other contradictions (political, geostrategic, etc.) turned out to be only derivatives of the primary feature, i.e., control over certain regions, their resources and labor force. However, sometimes crises were caused by the claims of individual states to the role of "regional centers of power."

A special kind of military-political crises should include regional, local wars and armed conflicts between state-formed parts of one nation, divided along political, ideological, socio-economic or religious lines (Korea, Vietnam, Yemen, modern Afghanistan, etc.) . However, it is the economic factor that has to be named as their root cause, and the ethnic or religious factor is only a pretext.

A large number of military-political crises arose due to attempts by the leading countries of the world to keep states in their sphere of influence with which colonial, dependent or allied relations were maintained before the crisis.

One of the most common reasons that caused regional, local wars and armed conflicts after 1945 was the desire of national-ethnic communities for self-determination in various forms (from anti-colonial to separatist). The powerful growth of the national liberation movement in the colonies became possible after the sharp weakening of the colonial powers during and after the end of World War II. In turn, the crisis caused by the collapse of the world system of socialism and the weakening of the influence of the USSR, and then the Russian Federation, led to the emergence of numerous nationalist (ethno-confessional) movements in the post-socialist and post-Soviet space.

A huge number of local conflicts that arose in the 90s of the XX century pose a real danger of the possibility of a third world war. And it will be local-focal, permanent, asymmetric, networked and, as the military says, non-contact.

As for the first sign of the third world war as locally focal, this means a long chain of local armed conflicts and local wars that will be throughout the solution of the main task - the possession of the world. The common feature of these local wars, separated from each other at a certain time interval, will be that they will all be subordinated to one single goal - the possession of the world.

Speaking about the specifics of the armed conflicts of the 1990s. - the beginning of the 21st century, one can speak among others about their next fundamental moment.

All conflicts developed in a relatively limited area within the same theater of operations, but with the use of forces and means deployed outside it. However, local in essence, the conflicts were accompanied by great bitterness and in some cases resulted in the complete destruction of the state system (if any) of one of the participants in the conflict. The following table presents the main local conflicts of recent decades.

Table No. 1

	Country, year.	Features of the armed struggle, number of deaths, people	results armed struggle
		The armed struggle was of an air, land and sea character. Carrying out air operations, extensive use of cruise missiles. Naval missile battle. Military operations with the use of the latest weapons. coalition character.	The Israeli Armed Forces completely defeated the Egyptian-Syrian troops and carried out the seizure of territory.
	Argentina;	The armed struggle was mainly of a sea and land character. The use of amphibious assaults. widespread use of indirect, non-contact and other (including non-traditional) forms and methods of action, long-range fire and electronic destruction. Active information confrontation, disorientation of public opinion in individual states and the world community as a whole. 800	With the political support of the United States, Great Britain carried out a naval blockade of the territory
		The armed struggle was mainly of an air nature, the command and control of troops was carried out mainly through space. The high influence of information confrontation in military operations. Coalition character, disorientation of public opinion in individual states and the world community as a whole.	The complete defeat of the grouping of Iraqi troops in Kuwait.
	India - Pakistan;	The armed struggle was mainly ground-based. Maneuvering actions of troops (forces) in disparate directions with the wide use of airmobile forces, landing forces and special forces.	The defeat of the main forces of the opposing sides. Military goals have not been achieved.
	Yugoslavia;	The armed struggle was mainly of an air nature, the command and control of troops was carried out through space. The high influence of information confrontation in military operations. Widespread use of indirect, non-contact and other (including non-traditional) forms and methods of action, long-range fire and electronic destruction; active information confrontation, disorientation of public opinion in individual states and the world community as a whole. The desire to disorganize the system of state and military administration; the use of the latest highly efficient (including those based on new physical principles) weapons systems and military equipment. Increasing role of space intelligence.	The defeat of the Yugoslav troops, the complete disorganization of the military and state administration.
	Afghanistan;	The armed struggle was ground and air in nature with the extensive use of special operations forces. The high influence of information confrontation in military operations. coalition character. Troops were controlled mainly through space. Increasing role of space intelligence.	The main forces of the Taliban have been destroyed.
		The armed struggle was mainly of an air-ground nature, the command and control of troops was carried out through space. The high influence of information confrontation in military operations. coalition character. Increasing role of space intelligence. Widespread use of indirect, non-contact and other (including non-traditional) forms and methods of action, long-range fire and electronic destruction; active information confrontation, disorientation of public opinion in individual states and the world community as a whole; maneuvering operations of troops (forces) in disparate directions with the wide use of airmobile forces, landing forces and special forces.	Complete defeat of the Iraqi Armed Forces. Change of political power.

After the Second World War, due to a number of reasons, one of which was the emergence of nuclear missile weapons with their deterrent potential, humanity has so far managed to avoid new global wars. They were replaced by numerous local or "small" wars and armed conflicts. Individual states, their coalitions, as well as various socio-political and religious groups within countries have repeatedly used the force of arms to resolve territorial, political, economic, ethno-confessional and other problems and disputes.

It is important to emphasize that until the beginning of the 1990s, all post-war armed conflicts took place against the background of the most acute confrontation between two opposing socio-political systems and military-political blocs of unprecedented power - NATO and the Warsaw Pact. Therefore, local armed clashes of that time were considered mainly as an integral part of the global struggle for the spheres of influence of the two protagonists - the USA and the USSR.

With the collapse of the bipolar model of the world order, the ideological confrontation between the two superpowers and socio-political systems has become a thing of the past, and the likelihood of a world war has significantly decreased. The confrontation between the two systems “has ceased to be the axis around which the main events of world history and politics have unfolded for more than four decades,” which, although it opened up wide opportunities for peaceful cooperation, but also led to the emergence of new challenges and threats.

The initial optimistic hopes for peace and prosperity, unfortunately, did not come true. The fragile balance on the scales of geopolitical scales gave way to a sharp destabilization of the international situation, exacerbation of hitherto latent tensions within individual states. In particular, interethnic and ethno-confessional relations did not become complicated in the region, which provoked numerous local wars and armed conflicts. In the new conditions, the peoples and nationalities of individual states remembered old grievances and began to make claims for disputed territories, obtaining autonomy, or even complete secession and independence. Moreover, in almost all modern conflicts there is not only a geopolitical, as before, but also a geocivilizational component, most often with an ethno-national or ethno-confessional connotation.

Therefore, while the number of interstate and interregional wars and military conflicts (especially those provoked by "ideological opponents") began to decline, the number of intrastate confrontations, caused primarily by ethno-confessional, ethno-territorial and ethno-political reasons, has sharply increased. Conflicts between numerous armed groups within states and disintegrating power structures have become much more frequent. Thus, at the end of the 20th and the beginning of the 21st centuries, the most widespread form of military confrontation was an internal (intrastate), local in scope, limited armed conflict.

These problems manifested themselves with particular acuteness in the former socialist states with a federal system, as well as in a number of countries in Asia, Africa and Latin America. Thus, the collapse of the USSR and Yugoslavia led to the emergence of more than 10 ethno-political conflicts in 1989-1992 alone, and more than 25 “small wars” and armed clashes broke out in the global “South” around the same time. Moreover, most of them were characterized by unprecedented intensity, accompanied by mass migration of the civilian population, which posed a threat of destabilization of entire regions and necessitated large-scale international humanitarian assistance.

If in the first few years after the end of the Cold War the number of armed conflicts in the world decreased by more than a third, then by the mid-1990s it had again increased significantly. Suffice it to say that in 1995 alone, 30 major armed conflicts took place in 25 different regions of the world, and in 1994, in at least 5 of 31 armed conflicts, participating States resorted to the use of regular armed forces. The Carnegie Commission on the Prevention of Deadly Conflict estimated that in the 1990s, the seven biggest wars and armed confrontations alone cost the international community $199 billion (excluding the costs of the countries directly involved).

Moreover, a radical shift in the development of international relations, significant changes in the field of geopolitics and geostrategy, the asymmetry that arose along the North-South line, to a large extent exacerbated the old problems and provoked new ones (international terrorism and organized crime, drug trafficking, smuggling of weapons and military equipment, danger environmental disasters) that require adequate responses from the international community. Moreover, the zone of instability is expanding: if earlier, during the Cold War, this zone passed mainly through the countries of the Near and Middle East, now it begins in the Western Sahara region and extends to Eastern and Southeastern Europe, Transcaucasia, Southeast and Central Asia. At the same time, with a sufficient degree of confidence, it can be assumed that such a situation is not short-term and transient.

The main feature of the conflicts of the new historical period turned out to be that there was a redistribution of the role of various spheres in armed confrontation: the course and outcome of armed struggle as a whole is determined mainly by confrontation in the aerospace sphere and at sea, and land groupings will consolidate the military success achieved and directly ensure the achievement of political goals.

Against this background, an increase in the interdependence and mutual influence of actions at the strategic, operational and tactical levels in armed struggle was revealed. In fact, this suggests that the old concept of conventional wars, both limited and large-scale, is undergoing significant changes. Even local conflicts can be fought over relatively large areas with the most decisive goals. At the same time, the main tasks are solved not in the course of a collision of advanced units, but by means of fire damage from extreme ranges.

Based on an analysis of the most common features of conflicts in the late 20th and early 21st centuries, the following fundamental conclusions can be drawn regarding the military-political features of armed struggle at the present stage and in the foreseeable future.

The armed forces reaffirm their central role in the implementation of security operations. The real combat role of the paramilitary, paramilitary formations, militias, units of the internal security forces turns out to be significantly less than it was assumed before the outbreak of armed conflicts. They were unable to conduct active combat operations against the regular army (Iraq).

The decisive moment for achieving military-political success is the seizure of the strategic initiative in the course of an armed conflict. Passive conduct of hostilities, counting on "exhaling" the offensive impulse of the enemy, will lead to the loss of controllability of one's own grouping and, subsequently, to the loss of the conflict.

A feature of the armed struggle of the future will be that in the course of the war, not only military facilities and troops will be under the blows of the enemy, but at the same time the country's economy with all its infrastructure, civilian population and territory. Despite the development of the accuracy of means of destruction, all the recent armed conflicts studied were, to one degree or another, humanitarianly “dirty” and entailed significant casualties among the civilian population. In this regard, there is a need for a highly organized and effective system of civil defense of the country.

The criteria for military victory in local conflicts will be different, however, in general, it is obvious that the solution of political tasks in an armed conflict is of primary importance, while military-political and operational-tactical tasks are predominantly of an auxiliary nature. In none of the conflicts considered, the victorious side was able to inflict the planned damage on the enemy. But, nevertheless, she was able to achieve the political goals of the conflict.

Today, there is a possibility of escalation of modern armed conflicts both horizontally (drawing new countries and regions into them) and vertically (increasing the scale and intensity of violence within unstable states). An analysis of the trends in the development of the geopolitical and geostrategic situation in the world at the current stage makes it possible to assess it as a crisis-unstable one. Therefore, it is quite obvious that all armed conflicts, regardless of their degree of intensity and localization, require a speedy settlement, and ideally, a complete resolution. One of the time-tested ways to prevent, control and resolve such "small" wars are various forms of peacekeeping.

Due to the increase in local conflicts, the world community, under the auspices of the UN, developed in the 90s such a means for maintaining or establishing peace as peacekeeping, peace enforcement operations.

But, despite the possibility that appeared with the end of the Cold War to initiate peace enforcement operations, the UN, as time has shown, does not have the potential (military, logistical, financial, organizational and technical) necessary for their implementation. Evidence of this is the failure of the UN operations in Somalia and Rwanda, when the situation there urgently demanded a speedy transition from traditional to forced PKO, and the UN was unable to do it on its own.

That is why, in the 1990s, a tendency was outlined, and later developed, of delegating its powers to the UN in the field of forceful peacekeeping to regional organizations, individual states and coalitions of states ready to take on crisis response tasks, such as NATO, for example.

Peacekeeping approaches create an opportunity to flexibly and comprehensively influence the conflict with a view to its settlement and further final resolution. Moreover, in parallel, at the level of the military-political leadership and among the broadest sections of the population of the warring parties, work must necessarily be carried out aimed at changing the psychological attitudes towards the conflict. This means that peacekeepers and representatives of the world community should, as far as possible, “break” and change the stereotypes of relations between the parties to the conflict that are expressed in extreme hostility, intolerance, vindictiveness and intransigence.

But it is important that peacekeeping operations respect fundamental international legal norms and do not violate human rights and sovereign states - no matter how difficult it may be to reconcile. This combination, or at least an attempt at it, is especially relevant in the light of the new operations of recent years, called "humanitarian intervention", or "humanitarian intervention", which are carried out in the interests of certain groups of the population. But, protecting human rights, they violate the sovereignty of the state, its right to non-interference from outside - the international legal foundations that have evolved over the centuries and were considered unshakable until recently. At the same time, in our opinion, outside interference in the conflict under the slogan of fighting for peace and security or protecting human rights should not be allowed to turn into open armed intervention and aggression, as happened in 1999 in Yugoslavia.

War in Korea (1950 - 1953)

Patriotic liberation war of the people of the Democratic People's Republic of Korea (DPRK) against the South Korean military and American interventionists, one of the largest local wars after the Second World War.

It was unleashed by the South Korean military and the US ruling circles in order to eliminate the DPRK and turn Korea into a springboard for attacking China and the USSR.

The aggression against the DPRK continued for more than 3 years and cost the US $20 billion. More than 1 million people participated in the war on the part of the aggressor, up to 1 thousand tanks, St. 1600 aircraft, over 200 ships. Aviation played an important role in the aggressive actions of the Americans. During the war, the US Air Force flew 104,078 sorties and dropped about 700,000 tons of bombs and napalm. The Americans widely used bacteriological and chemical weapons, from which the civilian population suffered the most.

The war ended with the military and political defeat of the aggressors and showed that in modern conditions there are powerful social and political forces that have sufficient means to give a crushing rebuff to the aggressor.

Vietnam People's Resistance War (1960-1975)

This is a war against US aggression and the Saigon puppet regime. Victory over the French colonialists in the war of 1946-1954. created favorable conditions for the peaceful unification of the Vietnamese people. But this was not part of the US plans. A government was formed in South Vietnam, which, with the help of American advisers, began hastily building up an army. In 1958, it included 150 thousand people. In addition, there were 200,000 paramilitaries in the country, which were widely used in punitive expeditions against the patriots who did not stop the struggle for freedom and the national independence of Vietnam.

Up to 2.6 million American soldiers and officers took part in the Vietnam War. The interventionists were armed with over 5 thousand combat aircraft and helicopters, 2500 artillery pieces, hundreds of tanks.

14 million tons of bombs and shells were dropped on Vietnam, which is equivalent to the power of more than 700 atomic bombs of the type that destroyed Hiroshima.

US spending on the war reached $146 billion.

The war, which lasted 15 years, was victoriously ended by the Vietnamese people. During this time, more than 2 million people died in its fire, killed, while the United States and its allies lost up to 1 million killed and wounded, about 9 thousand aircraft and helicopters, as well as a large number of other military equipment. American losses in the war amounted to 360 thousand people, of which more than 55 thousand were killed.

Arab-Israeli wars of 1967 and 1973

The third war unleashed by Israel in June 1967 in the Middle East was a continuation of its expansionist policy, which relied on extensive assistance from the imperialist powers, primarily the United States, and Zionist circles abroad. The war plan provided for the overthrow of the ruling regimes in Egypt and Syria and the creation of "great Israel from the Euphrates to the Nile" at the expense of the Arab lands. By the beginning of the war, the Israeli army was completely re-equipped with the latest American and British weapons and military equipment.

During the war, Israel inflicted a serious defeat on Egypt, Syria and Jordan, occupying 68.5 thousand square meters. km of their territory. The total losses of the armed forces of the Arab countries amounted to over 40 thousand people, 900 tanks and 360 combat aircraft. Israeli forces lost 800 men, 200 tanks and 100 aircraft.

The reason for the Arab-Israeli war of 1973 was the desire of Egypt and Syria to return the territories occupied by Israel and take revenge for the defeat in the 1967 war. The ruling circles of Tel Aviv, preparing for the war, sought to consolidate the occupation of Arab lands, and, if possible, to expand their possessions .

The main means of achieving this goal was the continuous build-up of the military power of the state, which took place with the help of the United States and other Western powers.

The 1973 war was one of the largest local wars in the Middle East. It was conducted by the armed forces, equipped with all types of modern military equipment and weapons. According to US data, Israel was even preparing to use nuclear weapons.

In total, 1.5 million people, 6,300 tanks, 13,200 guns and mortars, and over 1,500 combat aircraft took part in the war. The losses of the Arab countries amounted to over 19 thousand people, up to 2000 tanks and about 350 aircraft. Israel lost over 15 thousand people, 700 tanks and up to 250 planes and helicopters in the war.

Results. The conflict had far-reaching consequences for many nations. The Arab world, humiliated by a crushing defeat in the six-day war, despite a new defeat, still felt that its pride was restored to some extent thanks to a series of victories at the beginning of the conflict.

Iran-Iraq War (1980-1988)

The main reasons for the war were the mutual territorial claims of Iran and Iraq, the sharp religious differences between the Muslims inhabiting these countries, as well as the struggle for leadership in the Arab world between S. Hussein and A. Khomeini. Iran has been putting forward demands to Iraq for a long time to revise the border on the 82-kilometer stretch of the Shatt al-Arab river. Iraq, in turn, demanded from Iran cessions of territory along the land border in the areas of Khorramsherhr, Fouko, Mehran (two sections), Neftshah and Kasre-Shirin with a total area of ​​about 370 km2.

Religious strife had a negative impact on Iranian-Iraqi relations. Iran has long been considered the stronghold of Shiism - one of the main currents of Islam. Representatives of Sunni Islam occupy a privileged position in Iraq's leadership, although more than half of the country's population are Shiite Muslims. In addition, the main Shiite shrines - the cities of An-Najav and Karbala - are also located on Iraqi territory. With the coming to power in Iran in 1979 of the Shiite clergy headed by A. Khomeini, religious differences between Shiites and Sunnis sharply escalated.

Finally, among the reasons for the war, one cannot fail to note some personal ambitions of the leaders of the two countries, who aspired to become the head of "the entire Arab world." Deciding to go to war, S. Hussein hoped that the defeat of Iran would lead to the fall of A. Khomeini and the weakening of the Shiite clergy. A. Khomeini also had a personal enmity towards S. Hussein due to the fact that in the late 70s the Iraqi authorities expelled him from the country, where he lived for 15 years, heading the Shah's opposition.

The beginning of the war was preceded by a period of aggravation of relations between Iran and Iraq. Beginning in February 1979, Iran periodically carried out aerial reconnaissance and bombardment of Iraqi territory, as well as artillery shelling of border settlements and guard posts. Under these conditions, the military-political leadership of Iraq decided to deliver a preemptive strike against the enemy with ground forces and aviation, quickly defeat the troops stationed near the border, occupy the oil-rich southwestern part of the country and create a puppet buffer state on this territory. Iraq managed to covertly deploy strike groups of troops on the border with Iran and achieve surprise in the start of hostilities.

By the summer of 1988, both sides involved in the war had finally reached a political, economic, and military impasse. The continuation of hostilities in any form on land, in the air and at sea became unpromising. The ruling circles of Iran and Iraq were forced to sit down at the negotiating table. On August 20, 1988, the war, which lasted almost 8 years and claimed more than a million lives, finally stopped. The USSR and other countries made a great contribution to the settlement of the conflict.

War in Afghanistan (1979-1989)

In April 1978, in one of the most backward countries in Asia, Afghanistan, a military coup was carried out to overthrow the royal monarchy. The People's Democratic Party of Afghanistan (PDPA), headed by M. Taraki, came to power in the country, which began the socio-economic transformation of the Afghan society.

After the April Revolution, the PDPA took a course not to demolish the old army (in whose ranks the revolutionary movement was born), but to improve it.

The progressive collapse of the army was a sign of the more and more obvious death of the republic in the conditions of the beginning of the general offensive of the armed forces of the counter-revolution.

The danger was brewing not only of the loss by the Afghan people of all the revolutionary gains of April 1978, but also of the creation of a hostile pro-imperialist state near the borders of the Soviet Union.

In these emergency circumstances, in December 1979, the Soviet Union brought its regular units into Afghanistan to protect the young republic from the onset of counter-revolutionary forces.

The war went on for 10 years.

On February 15, 1989, the last soldiers of the 40th Army, led by its commander, Lieutenant General B. Gromov, crossed the Soviet-Afghan border.

War in the Persian Gulf zone (1990-1991)

After Kuwait's refusal to comply with the economic and territorial claims put forward in 1990 by Baghdad, the Iraqi army occupied the territory of this country, and on August 2, 1990, Iraq announced the annexation of Kuwait. Washington had a convenient excuse to increase its influence in the region and, relying on the support of the world community, the United States deployed its military bases in the countries of the region.

At the same time, the UN Security Council (SC) sought to politically and economically influence Baghdad in order to withdraw Iraqi troops from Kuwait. However, Iraq did not obey the requirements of the UN Security Council, and as a result of Operation Desert Storm (Jan.

Features of military art in local wars

In most local wars, the goals of the operation and battle were achieved by the joint efforts of all branches of the ground forces.

The most important means of suppressing the enemy, both in the offensive and in defense, was artillery. At the same time, it is believed that large-caliber artillery in the conditions of the jungle and the guerrilla nature of the war does not give the desired results.

Under these conditions, as a rule, medium-caliber mortars and howitzers were used. In the Arab-Israeli war of 1973, according to foreign experts, self-propelled artillery and anti-tank guided missiles showed high efficiency. In the Korean War, American artillery was well supplied with aerial reconnaissance equipment (two spotters per division); which facilitated the task of reconnaissance of targets, skirmish and shooting to kill in conditions of limited observation. In the Arab-Israeli war of 1973, tactical missiles with warheads in conventional equipment were used for the first time.

Armored troops have found wide application in many local wars. They played a very important role in the outcome of the battle. Features of the use of tanks were determined by the conditions of a particular theater of operations and the forces of the opposing sides. In a number of cases, they were used as part of formations to break through the defense and the subsequent development of the offensive along the lines (Arab-Israeli war). However, in most local wars, tank units were used as tanks for direct infantry support, when breaking through the most prepared in engineering and anti-tank defense sectors in Korea, Vietnam, etc. At the same time, the interventionists used tanks to enhance artillery fire from indirect firing positions (especially in the Korean War). In addition, tanks were involved in the forward detachments and intelligence agencies (Israeli aggression in 1967). In South Vietnam, together with tanks, self-propelled artillery mounts were used, often in conjunction with tanks. In the fighting, amphibious tanks were increasingly used.

In local wars, the aggressors made extensive use of the air force. Aviation fought for air supremacy, supported ground forces, isolated the combat area, undermined the military and economic potential of the country, conducted aerial reconnaissance, transported manpower and military equipment in specific theaters of military operations (mountains, forests, jungles) and huge the scope of the partisan struggle; planes and helicopters were, in fact, the only highly maneuverable means in the hands of the interventionists, which is clearly confirmed by the war in Vietnam. During the war in Korea, the American command involved up to 35% of the regular air force.

Aviation actions often reached the scale of an independent air war. Military transport aviation was also used on a larger scale. All this led to the fact that in a number of cases the Air Force was reduced to operational formations - air armies (Korea).

New compared to World War II was the use of large numbers of jet aircraft. In order to interact more closely with the infantry units (subdivisions), the so-called light aviation of the ground forces was created. Using even a small number of aircraft, the interventionists were able to keep enemy targets under continuous influence for a long time. In local wars, helicopters were first used and widely developed. They were the main means for dropping tactical landings (for the first time in Korea), monitoring the battlefield, evacuating the wounded, adjusting artillery fire, delivering cargo and personnel to areas difficult to access for other modes of transport. Combat helicopters armed with anti-tank guided missiles have become an effective means of fire support for ground forces.

Various tasks were performed by the naval forces. The navy was especially widely used in the Korean War. In terms of numbers and activity, it surpassed the naval forces that participated in other local wars. The fleet freely carried out the transportation of military equipment and ammunition, constantly blocked the coast, which made it difficult to organize the supply of the DPRK by sea. The organization of amphibious landings was new. In contrast to the operations of the Second World War, helicopter aircraft, located on aircraft carriers, were used for landing.

Local wars are rich in examples of airborne landings. Their tasks were very varied. Airborne assault forces were used to capture important objects, road junctions, airfields behind enemy lines, were used as forward detachments in order to capture and hold lines and objects until the approach of the main forces (Israeli aggression of 1967). They also solved the tasks of organizing ambushes on the paths of movement of units of the people's liberation armies and partisans, strengthening units of the ground forces conducting military operations in certain areas, conducting punitive operations against civilians (aggression of American troops in South Vietnam), seizing bridgeheads and important areas in in order to ensure the subsequent landing of amphibious assault forces. In this case, both parachute and landing assault forces were used. Depending on the importance of the tasks, the forces and composition of the airborne assaults were different: from small groups of paratroopers to separate airborne brigades. In order to prevent the destruction of landing forces in the air or at the time of landing, various cargoes were first dropped by parachute. The defenders opened fire on them and thereby revealed themselves. Opened firing points were suppressed by aircraft, and then paratroopers were already thrown out.

Helicopter-borne infantry units were widely used as landing troops. The landing of landing or parachute troops was carried out at different depths. If the drop area was under the control of the aggressor troops, then it reached 100 km or more. In general, the depth of the drop was determined in such a way that the landing force could connect on the first or second day of the operation with the troops advancing from the front. In all cases, during the landing of an airborne assault, aviation support was organized, which included reconnaissance of the landing area and the upcoming combat operations of the landing, the suppression of enemy strongholds in this area, and direct aviation training.

The US military made extensive use of flamethrower and incendiary weapons, including napalm. American aviation during the war in Korea spent 70 thousand tons of napalm mixture. Napalm was also widely used in the Israeli aggression against the Arab states in 1967. The interventionists repeatedly used chemical mines, bombs and shells.

Ignoring international norms, the United States made extensive use of certain types of weapons of mass destruction: poisonous substances in Vietnam, and bacteriological weapons in Korea. According to incomplete data, from January 1952 to June 1953, about 3 thousand cases of the spread of infected bacteria in the territory of the DPRK were recorded.

In the course of hostilities against the interventionists, the military art of the people's liberation armies was improved. The strength of these armies lay in the broad support of their people and in the combination of their fighting with the nationwide guerrilla struggle.

Despite the poor technical equipment, they gained experience in combat operations with a strong enemy and, as a rule, switched from guerrilla warfare to regular operations.

The strategic actions of the patriotic forces were planned and carried out depending on the prevailing situation and, above all, on the balance of forces of the parties. Thus, the strategy of the liberation struggle of the South Vietnamese patriots was based on the idea of ​​"wedges". The territory they controlled was a wedge-shaped area that divided South Vietnam into isolated parts. In this situation, the enemy was forced to split up his forces and conduct combat operations in unfavorable conditions for himself.

Noteworthy is the experience of the Korean People's Army in concentrating efforts to repel aggression. The High Command of the Korean People's Army, having information about the preparation of the invasion, developed a plan that provided for bleeding the enemy in defensive battles, and then go on the counteroffensive, defeat the aggressors and liberate South Korea. It pulled up its troops to the 38th parallel and concentrated its main forces in the Seoul direction, where the main attack of the enemy was expected. The created grouping of troops ensured not only the successful repulsion of the treacherous attack, but also the delivery of a decisive retaliatory strike. The direction of the main attack was correctly chosen and the time for the transition to the counteroffensive was determined. His general plan, which consisted in defeating the main enemy forces in the Seoul area with the simultaneous development of an offensive in other directions, followed from the current situation, since in the event of the defeat of these enemy forces, all of his defenses south of the 38th parallel collapsed. The counteroffensive was carried out at a time when the aggressor's troops had not yet overcome the tactical defense zone.

However, in the planning and conduct of combat operations by the people's liberation armies, the real situation was not always fully and comprehensively taken into account. Thus, the absence of strategic reserves (the war in Korea) prevented the defeat of the enemy in the area of ​​the Pusan ​​bridgehead during the first period of the war, and in the second period of the war led to heavy losses and the abandonment of a significant part of the territory.

In the Arab-Israeli wars, the peculiarity of the preparation and conduct of defense was determined by the mountainous desert terrain. When building up the defense, the main efforts were concentrated on holding important areas, the loss of which led the enemy strike groupings along the shortest routes to the rear of the defending troops in other directions. Great importance was attached to the creation of a strong anti-tank defense. Considerable attention was paid to the organization of strong air defense (the Vietnam War, the Arab-Israeli wars). According to American pilots, the North Vietnamese air defense, thanks to the help of Soviet specialists and means, turned out to be the most advanced of all that they had to deal with.

In the course of local wars, methods of conducting offensive and defensive combat by the people's liberation armies were improved. The offensive was carried out mainly at night, often without artillery preparation. The experience of local wars once again confirmed the great effectiveness of night battles, especially against a technically superior enemy and with the dominance of his aircraft. The organization and conduct of combat in each war was largely determined by the nature of the terrain and other features inherent in a particular theater of operations.

Formations of the KPA and the Chinese People's Volunteers in the conditions of mountainous and wooded terrain often received offensive zones, which included only one road, along which their battle formation was deployed. As a result, the divisions did not have attached flanks, the gaps between the flanks reached 15-20 km. The battle order of formations was built in one or two echelons. The width of the penetration section of the divisions was up to 3 km or more. During the offensive, the formations fought along the roads with part of the forces, and the main forces sought to reach the flanks and rear of the defending enemy grouping. The lack of a sufficient number of vehicles and means of mechanical propulsion in the troops significantly limited their ability to encircle and destroy the enemy.

In defense, the armies showed high activity and maneuverability, where the focal nature of the defense is most consistent with the mountainous conditions of the theater of operations. In defense, according to the experience of the war in Korea and Vietnam, tunnels were widely used, in which closed firing positions and shelters were equipped. The tactics of tunnel warfare in mountainous terrain, enemy dominance in the air, and the widespread use of incendiary means such as napalm, according to Western experts, have fully justified themselves.

A characteristic feature of the defensive actions of the patriotic forces was the conduct of constant harassing fire on the enemy and frequent counterattacks by small groups in order to exhaust and destroy him.

Combat practice confirmed the need to organize a strong anti-tank defense. In Korea, due to the mountainous terrain, the actions of tanks outside the roads were limited. Therefore, anti-tank weapons were concentrated along roads and hard-to-reach valleys in such a way that enemy tanks were destroyed from short distances by flanking guns. Even more advanced anti-tank defense was in the Arab-Israeli war of 1973 (Syria, Egypt). It was built over the entire depth of tactical defense and included an anti-tank guided missile system (ATGM), direct fire guns, artillery located in tank-prone areas, anti-tank reserves, mobile obstacle detachments (POZ) and mine-explosive barriers. According to Western experts, in terms of their combat effectiveness, ATGMs were superior to any other anti-tank weapons, penetrating the armor of all types of tanks that participated in the war.

In the course of local wars, the organization of tactical antiamphibious defense was improved. Thus, during the maneuverable period of the war in Korea, troops were usually located at a considerable distance from the sea coast and were already engaged in combat with enemy landing forces that had already landed on the coast. In contrast, during the positional period of hostilities, the front line of defense was carried out to the water's edge, the troops were located not far from the front line, which made it possible to successfully repel enemy landings even when approaching the coast. At the same time, the special need for a clear organization of all types of reconnaissance was confirmed.

In local wars of the 50s, the experience of command and control gained in World War II was widely used. During the conduct of the war in Korea, the work of commanders and staffs was characterized by a desire to organize combat operations on the ground, to personal communication when setting combat missions. Considerable attention was paid to the engineering equipment of command posts.

A number of new moments in command and control of troops can be traced in the local wars of subsequent years. Space reconnaissance is organized, in particular by Israeli troops in October 1973. Air command posts are created on helicopters, for example, in the US war in Vietnam. At the same time, for the centralized control of the ground forces, aviation and naval forces, joint control centers were completed in the operational headquarters.

The content, tasks and methods of electronic warfare (EW) have expanded significantly. The main method of electronic suppression is the concentrated-massive use of forces and means of electronic warfare in a chosen direction. In the war in the Middle East, the automatic command and control systems were tested, as well as a unified communications system, including with the help of artificial earth satellites.

In general, the study of the experience of local wars contributes to the improvement of the methods of combat use of forces and means in combat (operations), influencing the art of war in present and future wars.