Here is a question few have posed or even considered: What will be the fate of Russia after the war in Ukraine ends, as it must sometime? The history of Russia and the USSR after wars ended, and neither was on the winning side, offers a hint of what may lie ahead.

In 1917, Russia was forced to accept a draconian peace and withdraw from World War I. What followed was a catastrophic civil war, ultimately won by Lenin and his Bolsheviks, in which the Czar and his family -- and possibly millions of Russians -- were killed or uprooted. The Soviet Union emerged in 1922.

The USSR was on the winning side in World War II and was able to consolidate its holdings, dropping an Iron Curtain over much of Eastern Europe.

After waging nearly 10 years of war in Afghanistan and suffering at least 15,000

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