Soviet Empire was a controversial, politically charged and pejorative term used to critically describe the actions and nature of the Soviet Union.
to be one of the main empires of history, equal to such notables as the British Empire and the Roman Empire, and borrowing some of the foreign policy of the TsaristRussianEmpire that it replaced.
Supporters of the Soviet Union (mostly intellectuals or Communist parties aligned with it, such as Cuba), meanwhile, reject such claims and argue that the relationship between the Soviet Union and countries within its "empire" was in fact one of voluntary cooperation.