Soviet Union

The Union of Soviet Socialist Republics was a communist-ruled union with a single-party 
system that existed from 1922 until 1991. It stretched from the Baltic and Black
Seas to the Pacific Ocean. In its final years it consisted of 15 Soviet
Socialist Republics (SSRs). Russia was by far the largest Republic in the
Soviet Union in terms of both land area and population, and also dominated
it politically and economically.

                                       National motto: Workers of the
                                                       world, unite!
                                       Official
History                                language        Russian
                                       Capital         Moscow
                                       Area            Ranked 1st before
                                       Ê- Total        collapse
Severe social problems, widespread     Ê- % water      22,402,200 km2
dissatisfaction with the autocratic                    xx%
monarchy, and the tremendous setbacks                  Ranked 3rd before
being suffered by Russia in World War
I led to the Russian Revolution and    Population      collapse
the ousting of the monarchy in 1917. A Ê- Total        293,047,571 (July
multiparty provisional government was  Ê- Density      1991)
                                                       13,08/km2 (July
briefly instituted, but collapsed                      1991)
within a year. Popular pressure
prompted the Bolshevik Party to        Formation       Russian Revolution
declare its seizure of power in        Ê- Declared     1917
October of 1917. During the resultant  Ê- Recognised   1922
civil war, Communist forces known as   Dissolution     1991
Reds fought against the Whites, the    Currency        Ruble
pro-monarchist forces and their
European and American allies. The war  Time zone       UTC +3 to +11
ended with the victory of the Red Army                 (1917-1944) The
and the establishment of the Soviet
Union, the world's first communist     National anthem International,
                                                       (1944-1991) Hymn of
state, on December 30, 1922, with                      the Soviet Union
Bolshevik leader Vladimir Lenin as its
leader.                                Internet TLD    .SU (still in use)

The Soviet Union was the successor state of the Russian Empire but was
smaller as a result of the independence of Poland, Finland and the Baltic
States. Lenin instituted a policy whereby these conquests of the imperial
Russian Empire were granted independence, and many other conquered regions
were granted a great deal of autonomy.

After Lenin's death in 1924, there was a power struggle within the party
leadership. Party secretary Joseph Stalin emerged as the new leader. Stalin
began a program of rapid industrialization and forced agricultural reforms,
triggering several famines (arguably used to speed up the pace of
industrialisation by forcing people from the countryside to the cities. He
also drastically increased the scope of the state secret police (first the
NKVD then the KGB), and had many perceived political opponents and army
officers killed or exiled to the Gulags in a period known as the Great Purges.

The territory of the Soviet Union increased during its period of hostility
with Nazi Germany (known as the Great Patriotic War in the Soviet Union).
Under Joseph Stalin, the Soviet Union emerged from World War II as a major
world power, with a territory including the Baltic States and a significant
portion of the territory of pre-war Poland, together with a substantial
sphere of influence in Eastern Europe (see Soviet Empire). Political
confrontation between the Soviet Union and the United States persisted for
many years and is termed the Cold War.

After Stalin's death, another power struggle occurred, with Nikita
Khrushchev the new leader. A major low point of US-Soviet relations was the
Cuban Missile Crisis, when Khrushchev began installing medium-range nuclear
missiles on the newly-Communist island of Cuba.

Khrushchev who, throughout his period of power, oscillated between the poles
of radical de-Stalinisation (known as the "thaw") and defence of the old
order (such as through the invasion of Hungary in 1956) was, in 1964,
removed by internal party coup. This ushered in what became known in later
years as the "era of stagnation" as the rapid economic growth of the 1930s
and 1950s dramatically slowed.

President Mikhail Gorbachev dramatically reformed the oppressive nature of
the Soviet government in the 1980s with his glasnost, or openness program,
under which people were no longer arrested for criticizing the government.
His perestroika economic reforms meant the end of Soviet imperialism; the
Soviet army pulled out of Afghanistan, negotiated with the United States on
arms reduction, and the Soviet government ceased interfering in the affairs
of other Communist governments, specifically those in Eastern Europe.

In 1991, the Soviet Union fell apart after a failed coup attempt by military
leaders who were upset with the direction Gorbachev was leading the country.

Radical elements, led by Boris Yeltsin, used the coup to corner Gorbachev
(who still was formally committed to the ideals of Leninism), ban the
Communist Party and break the Union apart.

In retrospect the Soviet Union's greatest achievement was the destruction of
the Nazi war machine - broken in the epic battles for Moscow, Leningrad,
Stalingrad, Kursk and beyond. But the price in human misery the oppressive
regime itself created may never be calculated.

In chronological order, the leaders of the Soviet Union were:

  1. Vladimir Lenin (1917-1924)
  2. Joseph Stalin (1924-1953)
  3. Lavrenty Beria (1953)
  4. Nikita Khrushchev (1953-1964)
  5. Leonid Brezhnev (1964-1982)
  6. Yuri Andropov (1982-1984)
  7. Konstantin Chernenko (1984-1985)
  8. Mikhail Gorbachev (1985-1991)

Politics

After the revolution, the Communist Party of the Soviet Union (CPSU)
outlawed every other political party. The governing of the country was, in
theory, to be done by local and regional democratically elected soviets. In
practice, however, each level of government was controlled by its
corresponding party group (see democratic centralism). The highest
legislative body was the Supreme Soviet. The highest executive body was the
Politburo. (More about the political organization of the USSR can be found
on Organization of the Communist Party of the USSR.)

Republics

In its final decades of its existence, the Soviet Union consisted of 15
Socialist Soviet Republics (SSR). Three of these in particular shared some
common history and were referred to as the Baltic Republics. They are all
independent countries now, only very loosely organized under the heading
Commonwealth of Independent States.

  Former Soviet Republics     Current Independent Countries

     * Armenian SSR                Armenia
     * Azerbaijan SSR              Azerbaijan
     * Byelorussian SSR            Belarus
     * Estonian SSR                Estonia
     * Georgian SSR                Georgia
     * Kazakh SSR                  Kazakstan
     * Kirghiz SSR                 Kyrgyzstan
     * Latvian SSR                 Latvia
     * Lithuanian SSR              Lithuania
     * Moldavian SSR               Moldova
     * Russian SFSR                Russia
     * Tadzhik SSR                 Tajikistan
     * Turkmen SSR                 Turkmenistan
     * Ukrainian SSR               Ukraine
     * Uzbek SSR                   Uzbekistan

Geography

The Soviet Union covered the area of the 15 current countries mentioned in
the previous section, with a total area of 22,402,200 sq. km.

Economy

Main article: Economy of the Soviet Union

The Soviet Union was the first country to base its economy on communist
principles, where the state owned all the means of production and farming
was collectivized.

Demographics

The Soviet Union was one of the world's most ethnically diverse countries,
with more than 100 distinct national ethnicities living within its borders.
The total population was estimated at 293 million in 1991. The Soviet Union
was so large, in fact, that even after all associated republics gained
independence Russia, remains the largest country by area (with Canada
second), and remained quite ethnically diverse, including, e.g., minorities
of Tatars, Udmurts, and many other non-Russian ethnicities.

Culture

                                  Holidays

       Date              English Name                  Remarks
 January 1         New Year's Day          Ê        Ê

 January 7         Eastern Orthodox        Ê        Ê
                   Christmas
 February 23       Heroes Day              Ê        February Revolution,
                                                    1917,
                                                    Formation of the Red
                                                    Army, 1918

 March 8           International Women's   Ê        Ê
                   Day
 May 1             International Labor Day Ê        Ê

 May 9             Victory Day             Ê        Capitulation of Nazi
                                                    Germany, 1945
 November          Great October Socialist
 7-November 8      Revolution              Ê        October Revolution 1917

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