Satellite nation
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
A satellite nation is a country that is dominated politically and economically by another nation. In times of war, satellite nations sometimes serve as a buffer between an enemy country and the nation commanding the satellite.
The USSR was given satellite nations after World War II to form a buffer zone of countries to protect them from invasion through Europe. One such example is that of the Ukraine, which, until the breakup of the USSR in 1991, had been one of the largest of the satellite nations. These countries were overtaken by the R.S.F.S.R. and their land and associated resources was used for the benefit of the Soviet ecomomy. During the establishment of the Soviet Union, Ukraine was organized economically to be reliant upon Russia and the rest of the Union for stability. Huge surpluses of wheat and flax were annually exported to Ukraine, and the Ukrainian people benefited from Soviet construction of factories. The public facilities of Ukraine were modernized and maintained by the Soviet Government. Ukraine gained economic stability from the sale of natural gas to Russia, and for this reason is today still vastly dominated by Russia.
