For the Soviet Communists the month of August has a special significance. It was in August that the First World War began, which resulted in revolution in Russia, Germany and Hungary. In August 1939 Georgi Zhukov succeeded in doing something that no one before him had managed to do: with a sudden blow he routed a group of Japanese forces in the Far East. It is possible that the blow had very far-reaching consequences: Japan decided against attacking the Soviet Union and chose to advance in other directions. Also in August 1939 a pact was signed in the Kremlin which opened the flood gates for the Second World War, as a result of which the USSR became a super-power. In August 1945 the Soviet Union carried out a treacherous attack on Japan and Manchuria. In the course of three weeks of intensive operations huge territories roughly equal in area and population to Eastern Europe were ‘liberated’. In August 1961 the Soviet Union built the Berlin Wall, in violation of international agreements it had signed. In August 1968 the Soviet Army ‘liberated’ Czechoslovakia and, to its great surprise, did not meet with any opposition from the West.
Suppose the Soviet Communists again choose August for starting a war…
-Viktor Suvorov, Spetsnaz: The Inside Story of the Soviet Specials Forces
