ELI5: Explain Like I'm 5

Soviet involvement in regime change

Okay kiddo, so basically back in the day, there was a country called the Soviet Union. They wanted to spread their way of doing things to other countries and sometimes that meant getting rid of the leaders in those countries who didn't agree with them. This is what we call "regime change."

Sometimes the Soviet Union would send in their own people to help overthrow the leader of a country. Other times, they would give support to rebels or opposition groups that were already trying to take down the leader.

Now, you might be wondering why the Soviet Union wanted to do this. Well, they believed that their way of doing things was better than other countries, and they wanted to spread their beliefs to as many people as possible. In their minds, getting rid of leaders who didn't agree with them was a way to make that happen.

In some cases, the Soviet Union was successful in their regime change efforts. For example, they helped overthrow the leader of Afghanistan in the 1970s and put their own friendly government in place there. However, in other cases, their efforts were less successful.

Overall, the Soviet Union's involvement in regime change was a complicated and controversial topic. Some people believe that they were trying to spread communism and take over the world, while others argue that they were just trying to protect their own interests and spread their beliefs. Either way, it's important to understand this history so we can learn from it and make the world a better place.