Circle the area on this map
C. The 14 nations in eastern and central Europe were once controlled or dominated by the Soviet Union. Before invading Ukraine last week, Russia’s President Vladimir Putin demanded that Ukraine not be allowed to join NATO as it had wanted. He also accused the U.S. and its allies of trying to “crush us, beat us down and finish us off” after the fall of the Soviet Union.
A. Three small nations on the Baltic Sea – Estonia, Latvia, and Lithuania – were the first republics to declare independence from the tottering Soviet Union in 1990. The rest emerged after the Soviet dissolution in 1991. The three Baltic nations are members of NATO, which has vowed to protect “every inch” of its members’ territory.
C. The Warsaw Pact got its name from Poland’s capital. The then communist governments of Albania, Bulgaria, Czechoslovakia, East Germany, Hungary, Poland, Romania, and the Soviet Union signed the pact in 1955. When Hungary tried to leave the Pact in 1956, Soviet troops invaded and overthrew the government.
D. A small part of Turkey is in Europe, while most of it occupies Asia’s Anatolian Peninsula. Turkey and its Mediterranean Sea neighbor – and historic rival – Greece joined NATO in 1952. They were the first nations to join the original 12 nations of the alliance.