{{Otheruses4|the socialist state|the ship with this name|SS Albert Ballin}}
{{Redirect4|USSR|CCCP}}
{{Otheruses4|the socialist state|the ship with this name|SS Albert Ballin}}
{{Redirect4|USSR|CCCP}}
{{infobox Former Country
|native_name = Союз Советских Социалистических Республик
Soyuz Sovetskikh Sotsialisticheskikh Respublik
|conventional_long_name = Union of Soviet Socialist Republics
Other names
|common_name = Soviet Union
|continent = Eurasia
|status = Federation
|government_type = Federal socialist republic, Single-party
communist stateIn political science, a Communist state is a state with a form of government characterized by single-party rule of a Communist party and a professed allegiance to a communist ideology as the guiding principle of the state....
|year_start = 1922
|year_end = 1991
|date_start = December 30
|date_end = December 26, 1991
1
|p1 = Russian SFSR
|flag_p1 = Flag RSFSR 1918.svg
|p2 = Transcaucasian SFSR
|flag_p2 = Flag of Transcaucasian SFSR.svg
|p3 = Ukrainian SSR
|flag_p3 = Flag of the Ukrainian SSR (1927-1937).svg
|p4 = Byelorussian SSR
|flag_p4 = Flag of the Byelorussian SSR (1919).svg
|p5 = Tuvan People's Republic
|flag_p5 = Tannu-Tuva-1933-1941.PNG
|p6 = Kresy
|flag_p6 = Flag of Poland.svg
|p7 = Bessarabia
|flag_p7 = Flag of Romania.svg
|p8 = Finnish Karelia
|flag_p8= Flag of Finland.svg
|p9 = Carpathian Ruthenia
|flag_p9 = Flag of Czechoslovakia.svg
|p10 = Estonia{{!}}Estonia
3
|flag_p10 = Flag of Estonia.svg
|p11 = Latvia{{!}}Latvia
3
|flag_p11 = Flag of Latvia.svg
|p12 = Lithuania{{!}}Lithuania
3
|flag_p12 = Flag of Lithuania 1918-1940.svg
|s1 = Russia
|flag_s1 = Flag of Russia 1991-1993.svg
|s2 = Belarus
|flag_s2 = Flag of Belarus (1991-1995).svg
|s3 = Ukraine
|flag_s3 = Flag of Ukraine.svg
|s4 = Moldova
|flag_s4 = Flag of Moldova.svg
|s5 = Georgia (country){{!}}Georgia
|flag_s5 = Flag of Georgia (1990-2004).svg
|s6 = Armenia
|flag_s6 = Flag of Armenia.svg
|s7 = Azerbaijan
|flag_s7 = Flag of Azerbaijan.svg
|s8 = Kazakhstan
|flag_s8 = Flag_of_Kazakhstan.svg
|s9 = Uzbekistan
|flag_s9 = Flag of Uzbekistan.svg
|s10 = Turkmenistan
|flag_s10 = Flag_of_Turkmenistan_1992.png
|s11 = Kyrgyzstan
|flag_s11 = Flag of Kyrgyz SSR.svg
|s12 = Tajikistan
|flag_s12 = Flag of Tajik SSR.svg
|s13 = Estonia{{!}}Estonia
3
|flag_s13 = Flag of Estonia.svg
|s14 = Lithuania{{!}}Lithuania
3
|flag_s14 = Flag of Lithuania 1989-2004.svg
|s15 = Latvia{{!}}Latvia
3
|flag_s15 = Flag of Latvia.svg
|s16 = South Ossetia
|flag_s16 = Flag of South Ossetia.svg
|s17 = Abkhazia
|flag_s17 = Flag of Abkhazia.svg
|
|
|image_flag = Flag of the Soviet Union.svg
|flag = Flag of the Soviet Union
|image_coat = Coat_of_arms_of_the_Soviet_Union.svg
|symbol = Coat of arms of the Soviet Union
|image_map = Union of Soviet Socialist Republics (orthographic projection).svg
|image_map_size = 220px
|image_map_caption = The Soviet Union after
World War IIWorld War II, or the Second World War , was a global military conflict which involved a majority of the world's nations, including all great powers, organized into two opposing military alliances: the Allies and the Axis...
|capital = Moscow
|latd=55 |latm=45 |latNS=N |longd=37 |longm=38 |longEW=E
|national_motto = Пролетарии всех стран, соединяйтесь!
(
Translit.Romanization of the Russian alphabet is the process of transliterating the Russian language from the Cyrillic alphabet into the Latin alphabet...
:
Proletarii vsekh stran, soyedinyaytes'!)
EnglishEnglish is a West Germanic language that developed in England during the Anglo-Saxon era. As a result of the military, economic, scientific, political, and cultural influence of the British Empire during the 18th, 19th, and early 20th centuries, and of the United States since the mid 20th century,...
:
Workers of the world, unite!The political slogan Workers of the world, unite!, is one of the most famous rallying cries of communism, found in The Communist Manifesto , by Karl Marx and Friedrich Engels...
|national_anthem =
The InternationaleThe Internationale is a famous socialist, communist, social-democratic and anarchist anthem and one of the most widely recognized songs in the world....
(1922–1944)
Hymn of the Soviet Union (1944–1991)
|common_languages =
RussianRussian is the most geographically widespread language of Eurasia, the most widely spoken of the Slavic languages, and the largest native language in Europe...
,
many othersThis articles details the demographics of the Soviet Union.According to data from the 1989 Soviet census, the majority of the population of Soviet Union was atheist, ethnic Russian and lived in Eastern Europe and in the Russian Soviet Federated Socialist Republic, the Soviet Republic which...
|demonym = Soviet
|currency =
RubleThe Soviet ruble or rouble was the currency of the Soviet Union. One ruble is divided into 100 kopeks, ....
(SUR)
|leader1 = Joseph Stalin
|leader2 = Mikhail Gorbachev
|year_leader1 = 1922–1953 (first)
|year_leader2 = 1985–1991 (last)
|title_leader =
General Secretary
|title_deputy =
PremierPremier of the Soviet Union is the commonly used English term for the offices of Chairman of the Council of People's Commissars of the USSR and Chairman of the Council of Ministers of the USSR...
|deputy1 = Vladimir Lenin
|year_deputy1 = 1923–1924 (first)
|deputy2 = Ivan Silayev
|year_deputy2 = 1991 (last)
|stat_year1 = 1991
|stat_area1 = 22402200
|stat_pop1 = 293047571
|footnotes =
1On December 21, 1991, eleven of the former socialist republics declared in Alma-Ata (with the twelfth republic –
GeorgiaThe Georgian Soviet Socialist Republic , also known as the Georgian SSR for short, was one of the republics that made up the former Soviet Union.- History :- Preceding Events :On November 28 1917, after October Revolution in Russia, there was established...
– attending as an observer) that with the formation of the
Commonwealth of Independent States{{Redirect|CIS}}{{Redirect|CIS}}{{Redirect|CIS}}{{Redirect|CIS}}{{Redirect|CIS}}{{Redirect|CIS}}{{Infobox Geopolitical organisation|native_name = Commonwealth of Independent States...
the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics ceases to exist.
2Assigned on September 19, 1990, existing onwards.
3The governments of Estonia, Latvia, and Lithuania view themselves as continuous and unrelated to the respective Soviet republics.
Russia views the Estonian, Latvian, and Lithuanian SSRs as legal constituent republics of the USSR and predecessors of the modern Baltic states.
The Government of the
United StatesThe United States of America is a federal constitutional republic comprising fifty states and a federal district...
and a number of other countries did not recognize the legal inclusion of Estonia, Latvia, and Lithuania in the USSR.
|utc_offset = +2 to +13
|cctld =
.su.su was assigned as the country code top-level domain for the Soviet Union on September 19, 1990. It remains in use today, even though the Soviet Union itself no longer exists, and is administered by the Russian Institute for Public Networks .In 2001, the managers of the domain stated that they...
2
|calling_code = 7
}}
{{Redirect6|Soviet|the term itself|Soviet (council)}}
{{pp-semi|small=yes}}
The
Union of Soviet Socialist Republics (
USSR) was a
constitutionallyThe Soviet Union was governed by three versions of its Constitution, modelled after the 1918 Constitution established by the Russian Federation, the immediate predecessor of the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics.-Chronology of Soviet constitutions:...
socialist stateThe term socialist republic can carry one of several different meanings.Strictly speaking, any real or hypothetical state that officially claims to support or uphold the principles of socialism may be called a socialist state...
that existed in
EurasiaEurasia is a large landmass covering about 52,990,000 km
2 or about 10.6% of the Earth's surface...
from 1922 to 1991. The name is a translation of the {{audio-ru|Союз Советских Социалистических Республик|Ru-CCCP.ogg}},
tr.Romanization of the Russian alphabet is the process of transliterating the Russian language from the Cyrillic alphabet into the Latin alphabet...
Soyuz Sovetskikh Sotsialisticheskikh Respublik, abbreviated СССР,
SSSR. The common short name is
Soviet Union, from {{lang|ru|Советский Союз}},
Sovetskiy Soyuz. A
sovietA soviet originally was a workers' local council in late Imperial Russia. According to the official historiography of the Soviet Union, the first Soviet was organized during the 1905 Russian Revolution in Ivanovo in May 1905...
is a council, the theoretical basis for the socialist society of the USSR.
Emerging from the
Russian EmpireThe Russian Empire was a state that existed from 1721 until the Russian Revolution of 1917. It was the successor to the Tsardom of Russia, and the predecessor of the Soviet Union...
following the
Russian Revolution of 1917The Russian Revolution is the collective term for the series of revolutions in Russia in 1917, which destroyed the Tsarist autocracy and led to the creation of the Soviet Union. In the first revolution of February 1917 the Czar was deposed and replaced by a Provisional government...
and the
Russian Civil WarThe Russian Civil War was a multi-party war that occurred within the former Russian Empire after the Russian provisional government collapsed and the Soviets under the domination of the Bolshevik party assumed power, first in Petrograd The Russian Civil War (1917–1923) was a multi-party war that...
of 1918–1921, the USSR was a union of several
Soviet republicsThe Republics of the Soviet Union or the Union Republics of the Soviet Union were ethnically based administrative units that were subordinated directly to the Government of the Soviet Union...
, but the
synecdocheSynecdoche is a figure of speech in which:* a term denoting a part of something is used to refer to the whole thing , or...
Russia—after the
Russian SFSRThe Russian Soviet Federative Socialist Republic , also called the Russian Soviet Federated Socialist Republic, the Russian SFSR and the RSFSR for short, was the largest and most populous of the fifteen Soviet republics of the Soviet Union and became the Russian...
, its largest and most populous
constituent stateA constituent state is a government that is part of a larger political entity. For example, California is a constituent state of the United States of America. The enclave of Nakhichevan is a constituent state of Azerbaijan...
—continued to be commonly used throughout the country's existence. The geographic boundaries of the USSR varied with time, but after the last major territorial annexations of the Baltic states,
eastern PolandImmediately after the German invasion of Poland in 1939, which marked the beginning of World War II, the Soviet Union invaded the eastern regions of the Second Polish Republic, which Poles referred to as the "Kresy," and annexed territories totaling 201,015 km² with an ethnically mixed...
,
BessarabiaBessarabia is a historical term for the geographic entity in Eastern Europe bounded by the Dniester River on the east and the Prut River on the west...
, and certain other territories during
World War IIWorld War II, or the Second World War , was a global military conflict which involved a majority of the world's nations, including all great powers, organized into two opposing military alliances: the Allies and the Axis...
, from 1945 until dissolution, the boundaries approximately corresponded to those of late Imperial Russia, with the notable exclusions of
PolandPoland , officially the Republic of Poland , is a country in Central Europe . Poland is bordered by Germany to the west; the Czech Republic and Slovakia to the south; Ukraine, Belarus and Lithuania to the east; and the Baltic Sea and Kaliningrad Oblast, a Russian exclave, to the north...
and
FinlandFinland , officially the Republic of Finland
, is a Nordic country and democracy situated in the Fennoscandian region of northern Europe. It borders Sweden on the west, Russia on the east, and Norway on the north, while Estonia lies to its south across the Gulf of Finland...
.
Initially established as a union of four Soviet Socialist Republics, the USSR grew to contain 15 constituent or "union republics" by 1956: Armenian SSR, Azerbaijan SSR, Byelorussian SSR, Estonian SSR, Georgian SSR, Kazakh SSR,
Kirghiz SSRThe Kirghiz Soviet Socialist Republic , also known as the Kirghiz SSR, the Kyrgyz SSR, or even Kirghizia, was one of republics that made up the Soviet Union...
, Latvian SSR, Lithuanian SSR, Moldavian SSR, Russian SFSR, Tajik SSR, Turkmen SSR, Ukrainian SSR and Uzbek SSR. (From annexation of the Estonian SSR on August 6, 1940 up to the reorganization of the Karelo-Finnish SSR into the
Karelian ASSRThe Karelian ASSR was an autonomous republic of the Soviet Union. Its capital was Petrozavodsk .The first incarnation of the Karelian A.S.S.R. existed from 1923 until 1940...
on July 16, 1956, the count of "union republics" was sixteen.) As the largest and oldest constitutionally
communist stateIn political science, a Communist state is a state with a form of government characterized by single-party rule of a Communist party and a professed allegiance to a communist ideology as the guiding principle of the state....
in existence, the Soviet Union became the primary model for future communist nations during the
Cold WarThe Cold War was the continuing state of political conflict, military tension, and economic competition existing after World War II , primarily between the USSR and its satellite states, and the powers of the Western world, including the United States...
; the government and the political organization of the country were defined by the only political party, the
Communist Party of the Soviet UnionThe Communist Party of the Soviet Union was the ruling and only legal political party in the Soviet Union and one of the largest communist organizations in the...
.
From 1945 until dissolution in 1991—a period known as the Cold War—the Soviet Union and the
United States of AmericaThe United States of America is a federal constitutional republic comprising fifty states and a federal district...
were the two world
superpowerA superpower is a state with a leading position in the international system and the ability to influence events and its own interests and project power on a worldwide scale to protect those interests; it is traditionally considered to be one step higher than a great power.Alice Lyman Miller ,...
s that dominated the global agenda of
economic policyEconomic policy refers to the actions that governments take in the economic field. It covers the systems for setting interest rates and government budget as well as the labour market, national ownership, and many other areas of government interventions into the economy.Such policies are often...
,
foreign affairsInternational relations or International studies represents the study of foreign affairs and global issues among states within the international system, including the roles of states, inter-governmental organizations , non-governmental organizations , and multinational corporations...
,
military operationThis article describes three distinct, but related terms: military operations, Operations as military events, and operational level of war.-Military operations:...
s, cultural exchange, scientific advancements including the pioneering of
space explorationSpace exploration is the use of astronomy and space technology to explore outer space. Physical exploration of space is conducted both by human spaceflights and by robotic spacecraft....
, and sports (including the
Olympic GamesThe Olympic Games are a major international event of summer and winter sports, in which thousands of athletes compete in a wide variety of events. The Games are currently held every two years, with Summer and Winter Olympic Games alternating. Originally, the ancient Olympic Games were held in...
and various
world championshipA world championship is the top achievement for any sport or contest. The title is usually awarded by contests, ranking systems, stature, ability, etc. This determines the best nation, team, individual in the world in a particular field. Certain sports do not have a world championship, instead...
s). The Russian Federation is the
successor stateSuccession of states is a theory in international relations regarding the recognition and acceptance of a newly created state by other states, based on a perceived historical relationship the new state has with a prior state...
to the USSR. Russia is the leading member of the
Commonwealth of Independent States{{Redirect|CIS}}{{Redirect|CIS}}{{Redirect|CIS}}{{Redirect|CIS}}{{Redirect|CIS}}{{Redirect|CIS}}{{Infobox Geopolitical organisation|native_name = Commonwealth of Independent States...
and a recognised global power, inheriting its foreign representatives and much of its military from the former Soviet Union.
History
{{Main|History of the Soviet Union}}
The Soviet Union is traditionally considered to be the successor of the
Russian EmpireThe Russian Empire was a state that existed from 1721 until the Russian Revolution of 1917. It was the successor to the Tsardom of Russia, and the predecessor of the Soviet Union...
and of its short-lived successor,
The Provisional GovernmentThe Russian Provisional Government was the short-lived administrative body which sought to govern Russia immediately following the abdication of Tsar Nicholas II in February 1917. In September 14, the State Duma of the Russian Empire officially dissolved the newly created Directorate, and the...
under Georgy Yevgenyevich Lvov and then
Alexander KerenskyAlexander Fyodorovich Kerensky was a Russian politician. He served as the second Prime Minister of the Russian Provisional Government until Vladimir Ilyich Ulyanov, known commonly as Lenin, was elected by the All-Russian Congress of Soviets following the October Revolution.- Early life and...
. The last Russian
TsarTsar or czar , occasionally spelled csar or Tzar in English, is a Slavic term with Bulgarian origins used to designate certain monarchs...
,
Nicholas IINicholas II was the last Emperor of Russia, Grand Duke of Finland, and claimed the title of King of Poland...
, ruled until March, 1917 when the Empire was overthrown and a short-lived
Russian provisional governmentThe Russian Provisional Government was the short-lived administrative body which sought to govern Russia immediately following the abdication of Tsar Nicholas II in February 1917. In September 14, the State Duma of the Russian Empire officially dissolved the newly created Directorate, and the...
took power, the latter to be overthrown in November 1917 by
Vladimir LeninVladimir Ilyich Lenin , born Vladimir Ilyich Ulyanov , was the Bolshevik Leader of the 1917 October Revolution, and the first Head of State of the Soviet Union; in the course of his political career, he used the pseudonyms Lenin, V. I. Lenin, Nikolai Lenin, and N. Lenin...
.
From 1917 to 1922, the predecessor to the Soviet Union was the Russian Soviet Federative Socialist Republic (RSFSR), which was an independent country, as were other Soviet republics at the time. The Soviet Union was officially established in December 1922 as the union of the Russian (colloquially known as
Bolshevist Russia), Ukrainian, Belarusian, and
TranscaucasianThe Transcaucasian Socialist Federative Soviet Republic , also known as the Transcaucasian Soviet Federative Socialist Republic, the Transcaucasian SFSR and the TSFSR for short, was a short-lived republic of the Soviet Union...
Soviet republics ruled by
BolshevikThe Bolsheviks, originally also Bolshevists were a faction of the Marxist Russian Social Democratic Labour Party which split apart from the Menshevik faction at the Second Party Congress in 1903...
parties.
Revolution and the foundation of a Soviet state
{{Main|History of Soviet Russia and the Soviet Union (1917-1927)|Russian Revolution (1917)|February Revolution|Russian Provisional Government|October Revolution|Russian Civil War}}
Modern revolutionary activity in the Russian Empire began with the
Decembrist RevoltThe Decembrist revolt or the Decembrist uprising took place in Imperial Russia on 14 December , 1825. Russian army officers led about 3,000 soldiers in a protest against Nicholas I's assumption of the throne after his elder brother Constantine removed himself from the line of succession...
of 1825, and although
serfdomThe origins of serfdom in Russia are traced to Kievan Rus in the 11th century. Legal documents of the epoch, such as Russkaya Pravda, distinguished several degrees of feudal dependency of peasants...
was abolished in 1861, its abolition was achieved on terms unfavorable to the peasants and served to encourage revolutionaries. A parliament—the
State DumaThe State Duma in the Russian Federation is the lower house of the Federal Assembly of Russia , the upper house being the Federation Council of Russia. The Duma is headquartered in central Moscow, a few steps from Manege Square. Its members are referred to as deputies...
—was established in 1906 after the
Russian Revolution of 1905The 1905 Russian Revolution was a wave of mass political unrest through vast areas of the Russian Empire. Some of it was directed against the government, while some was undirected. It included terrorism, worker strikes, peasant unrest, and military mutinies...
, but the Tsar resisted attempts to move from
absoluteAbsolute monarchy is a monarchical form of government where the king or queen has absolute power over all aspects of his/her subjects' lives. Although some religious authorities may be able to discourage the monarch from some acts and the sovereign is expected to act according to custom, in an...
to
constitutional monarchyA constitutional monarchy is a form of government in which a monarch acts as head of state within the parameters of a written , unwritten or blended constitution...
. Social unrest continued and was aggravated during
World War IWorld War I , also known as the First World War, the Great War, and the War to End All Wars, was a global military conflict which involved most of the world's great powers, assembled in two opposing alliances: the Triple Entente and the Triple Alliance...
by military defeat and food shortages in major cities.
A spontaneous popular uprising in
PetrogradSaint Petersburg is a city and a federal subject of Russia located on the Neva River at the head of the Gulf of Finland on the Baltic Sea. The city's other names were Petrograd and Leningrad...
, in response to the wartime decay of Russia's economy and morale, culminated in the "
February RevolutionThe February Revolution of 1917 was the first of two revolutions in Russia in 1917. It occurred March 8–12 and its immediate result was the abdication of Tsar Nicholas II, the collapse of Imperial Russia and the end of the Romanov dynasty. The non-Communist Russian Provisional Government under...
" and the toppling of the imperial government in March 1917. The
tsarist autocracyTsarist autocracy refers to a form of autocracy specific to Grand Duchy of Muscovy .- Alternative names :...
was replaced by the
Provisional GovernmentThe Russian Provisional Government was the short-lived administrative body which sought to govern Russia immediately following the abdication of Tsar Nicholas II in February 1917. In September 14, the State Duma of the Russian Empire officially dissolved the newly created Directorate, and the...
, whose leaders intended to conduct elections to
Russian Constituent AssemblyThe All Russian Constituent Assembly was a democratically elected constitutional body convened in Russia after the October Revolution of 1917. It met for 13 hours, from 4 PM to 5 AM 5 January–6 January 1918 . It was elected by popular vote and dissolved by the Bolshevik government...
and to continue participating on the side of the
EntenteThe Entente powers were the countries at war with the Central Powers during World War I. The key members of the Entente were the United Kingdom, France, and the Russian Empire. New Zealand, Belgium, Serbia, Canada, Australia, Italy, Romania and the United States were also drawn into the war...
in World War I.
At the same time, to ensure the rights of the
working classWorking class is a term used in academic sociology and in ordinary conversation to describe, depending on context and speaker, those employed in lower tier jobs as measured by skill, education, and compensation....
, workers' councils, known as
SovietsA soviet originally was a workers' local council in late Imperial Russia. According to the official historiography of the Soviet Union, the first Soviet was organized during the 1905 Russian Revolution in Ivanovo in May 1905...
, sprang up across the country. The
BolshevikThe Bolsheviks, originally also Bolshevists were a faction of the Marxist Russian Social Democratic Labour Party which split apart from the Menshevik faction at the Second Party Congress in 1903...
s, led by
Vladimir LeninVladimir Ilyich Lenin , born Vladimir Ilyich Ulyanov , was the Bolshevik Leader of the 1917 October Revolution, and the first Head of State of the Soviet Union; in the course of his political career, he used the pseudonyms Lenin, V. I. Lenin, Nikolai Lenin, and N. Lenin...
, pushed for
socialist revolutionA communist revolution is a proletarian revolution inspired by the ideas of Marxism that aims to replace capitalism with communism, typically with socialism as an intermediate stage...
in the Soviets and on the streets. In November 1917, during the "
October RevolutionTheOctober Revolution , also known as the Soviet Revolution or Bolshevik Revolution, was a political revolution and a part of the Russian Revolution. It began with an armed insurrection in Petrograd traditionally dated to 25 October 1917 Julian calendar...
," they seized power from the Provisional Government. In December, the Bolsheviks signed an
armisticeAn armistice is a situation in a war where the warring parties agree to stop fighting. It is not necessarily the end of a war, but may be just a cessation of hostilities while an attempt is made to negotiate a lasting peace...
with the
Central PowersThe Central Powers was one of the two sides that participated in World War I, the other being the Entente Powers.-Member states:...
. But, by February 1918, fighting had resumed. In March, the Soviets quit the war for good and signed the
Treaty of Brest-LitovskThe Treaty of Brest-Litovsk was a peace treaty signed on March 3, 1918, at Brest-Litovsk between the Russian SFSR and the Central Powers, marking Russia's exit from World War I....
.
Only after the long and bloody
Russian Civil WarThe Russian Civil War was a multi-party war that occurred within the former Russian Empire after the Russian provisional government collapsed and the Soviets under the domination of the Bolshevik party assumed power, first in Petrograd The Russian Civil War (1917–1923) was a multi-party war that...
was the new Soviet power secure. The civil war between the
RedsThe Red Army The Red Army The Red Army was the Soviet government’s revolutionary militia beginning in the Russian Civil War of 1918-1922. It grew into the national army of the USSR. Since 1946, after the Second World War, it was called the Soviet Army.The 'Red...
and the
WhitesThe White movement , whose military arm was the White Army aka the White Guard , and as the Whites comprised some of the politico-military Russian forces who unsuccessfully fought the Bolsheviks after the October Revolution and...
started in 1917 and ended in 1923. It included
foreign interventionThe Allied intervention was a multi-national military expedition launched in 1918 during the Russian Civil War and World War I. The intervention involved fourteen nations and was conducted over a vast expanse of territory...
and the execution of Nicholas II and his family. In March 1921, during
a related conflict with PolandThe Polish–Soviet War was an armed conflict between Soviet Russia and Soviet Ukraine against the Second Polish Republic and the Ukrainian People's Republic, four states in post-World War I Europe. The war was the result of the belligerents' desire to expand their territories and their influence...
, the
Peace of RigaThe Peace of Riga, also known as the Treaty of Riga; was signed in Riga on 18 March, 1921, between Poland on one side and Soviet Russia and Soviet Ukraine on the other...
was signed and split disputed territories in
BelarusBelarus is a landlocked country in Eastern Europe, bordered by Russia to the north and east, Ukraine to the south, Poland to the west, and Lithuania and Latvia to the north. Its capital is Minsk; other major cities include Brest, Grodno , Gomel , Mahilyow and Vitebsk...
and
UkraineUkraine is a country in Eastern Europe. It is bordered by Russia to the east; Belarus to the north; Poland, Slovakia, and Hungary to the west; Romania and Moldova to the southwest; and the Black Sea and Sea of Azov to the south. The city of Kiev is both the capital and the largest city of...
between the
Republic of PolandThe Second Polish Republic, Second Commonwealth of Poland or interwar Poland refers to Poland between the two world wars; from the creation of an independent Polish state in the aftermath of World War I, to the invasion of Poland in 1939 by Nazi Germany, the Soviet Union, and the Slovak Republic,...
and Soviet Russia. The Soviet Union had to resolve similar conflicts with the newly established
Republic of FinlandThe Finnish declaration of independence was adopted by the Parliament of Finland on 6 December 1917. It declared Finland an independent and sovereign nation-state rather than an autonomous Russian Grand Duchy.- Revolution in Russia :...
, the Republic of Estonia, the Republic of Latvia, and the
Republic of LithuaniaThe Lithuanian–Soviet War or Lithuanian–Bolshevik War was fought between newly independent Lithuania and the Russian Soviet Federated Socialist Republic in the aftermath of World War I. It was part of the larger Soviet westward offensive of 1918–1919...
.
Early relationship with Nationalist China
The
Qing DynastyThe Qing Dynasty , also known as the Manchu Dynasty, was the last ruling dynasty of China, ruling from 1644 to 1912...
, the last of the ruling Chinese dynasties, collapsed in 1911 and China was left under the control of several major and lesser warlords during the "
Warlord eraThe warlord era is the period in the history of the Republic of China, from 1916 to 1928, when the country was divided among military cliques, a division that continued until the fall of the Nationalist government in the mainland China regions of Sichuan, Shanxi, Qinghai, Ningxia, Guangdong,...
." To defeat these warlords, who had seized control of much of
Northern ChinaNorthern China or North China may mean:* North China* North China Plain* Northern and southern China - rough geographic regions in China* North China * Northeast China * Northeast China Plain* Northwest China...
, the anti-
monarchistMonarchism is the advocacy of the establishment, preservation, or restoration of a monarchy as a form of government in a nation. A monarchist is an individual who supports this form of government out of principle, independent from the person, the Monarch.In this system, the Monarch may be the...
and
national unificationistNationalism is an ideology, a sentiment, a form of culture, or a social movement that focuses on the nation. It is a type of collectivism emphasizing the collective of a specific nation...
KuomintangThe Kuomintang of China , translated as the Chinese Nationalist Party, is a political party of the Republic of China , commonly known as Taiwan since the 1970s. It is the founding and the ruling political party of the ROC...
(KMT) party and the
PresidentThe President of the Republic of China is the head of state of the Republic of China . The Republic of China was founded in 1911 governing China...
of the
Republic of ChinaThe history of the Republic of China begins after the Qing Dynasty in 1912, when the formation of the Republic of China put an end to over two thousand years of Imperial rule. The Qing Dynasty, also known as the Manchu Dynasty, ruled from 1644 to 1912...
,
Sun Yat-senSun Yat-sen was a Chinese revolutionary and political leader. As the foremost pioneer of Republican China, Sun is frequently referred to as the Father of the Nation. Sun played an instrumental role in overthrowing the Qing Dynasty in October 1911, the last imperial dynasty of China...
, sought the help of foreign powers.
However, Sun's efforts to obtain aid from the
Western democraciesThe Western world, also known as the West and the Occident , is a term that can have multiple meanings depending on its context...
were ignored. In 1921, Sun turned to the Soviet Union. For political expediency, the Soviet leadership initiated a dual policy of support for both the KMT and the newly established
Communist Party of ChinaThe Communist Party of China , also known as the Chinese Communist Party , is the founding and the ruling political party of the People's Republic of China and the world's largest political party...
(CPC). The USSR hoped for Communist consolidation, but were prepared for either side to emerge victorious. Thus the
struggle for power in ChinaThe Chinese Civil War was fought between the Kuomintang and the Communist Party of China . The war began in April 1927, amidst the Northern Expedition,. The war represented an ideological split between the Western-supported Nationalist KMT and the Soviet-supported Communist CPC...
began between the KMT and the CPC. In 1923, a joint statement by Sun and Soviet representative
Adolph JoffeAdolph Abramovich Joffe was a Communist revolutionary, a Bolshevik politician and a Soviet diplomat of Karaite Jewish descent.-Revolutionary career:Joffe was born in Simferopol, Crimea in a...
in
ShanghaiShanghai is the largest city in China, and one of the largest metropolitan areas in the world, with over 20 million people. Located on China's central eastern coast at the mouth of the Yangtze River, the city is administered as a municipality of the People's Republic of China with province-level...
pledged Soviet assistance for China's unification.
Unification of the Soviet Republics
On December 28, 1922 a conference of plenipotentiary delegations from the Russian SFSR, the
Transcaucasian SFSRThe Transcaucasian Socialist Federative Soviet Republic , also known as the Transcaucasian Soviet Federative Socialist Republic, the Transcaucasian SFSR and the TSFSR for short, was a short-lived republic of the Soviet Union...
, the Ukrainian SSR and the Byelorussian SSR approved the Treaty of Creation of the USSR and the Declaration of the Creation of the USSR, forming the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics. These two documents were confirmed by the 1st
Congress of SovietsThe Congress of Soviets was the supreme governing body of the Russian Soviet Federative Socialist Republic and the Soviet Union in two periods, from 1917 to 1936 and from 1989 to 1991...
of the USSR and signed by heads of delegations –
Mikhail KalininMikhail Ivanovich Kalinin was a Bolshevik revolutionary and the titular head of state of the Soviet Union from 1919 to 1946. Though only four years older than Joseph Stalin, Kalinin was celebrated as Dedushka by the Young Pioneers...
, Mikha Tskhakaya,
Mikhail FrunzeMikhail Vasilyevich Frunze was a Bolshevik leader during and just prior to the Russian Revolution of 1917.-Biography:...
and
Grigory PetrovskyGrigory Ivanovich Petrovsky was a revolutionary of Ukrainian origin, who was the Chairman of the Central Executive Committee of the USSR from December 30, 1922, to January 12, 1938....
,
Aleksandr ChervyakovAleksandr Grigoryevich Chervyakov was one of the founders and eventually became the leader of the Communist Party of Belorussia....
respectively on December 30, 1922.
On February 1, 1924, the USSR was recognized by the
British EmpireThe British Empire comprised the dominions, colonies, protectorates, mandates, and other territories ruled or administered by the United Kingdom, that had originated with the overseas colonies and trading posts established by England in the late 16th and early 17th centuries. At its height it was...
. Also in 1924, a
Soviet ConstitutionThe 1924 Soviet Constitution legitimized the December 1922 union of the Russian SFSR, the Ukrainian SSR, the Belarusian SSR, and the Transcaucasian SFSR to form the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics....
was approved which further legitimized the December 1922 union of the Russian SFSR, the Ukrainian SSR, the Belarusian SSR, and the Transcaucasian SFSR to form the "Union of Soviet Socialist Republics" (USSR).
The intensive restructuring of the economy, industry and politics of the country began in the early days of Soviet power in 1917. A large part of this was performed according to Bolshevik Initial Decrees, documents of the Soviet government, signed by Vladimir Lenin. One of the most prominent breakthroughs was the
GOELRO planGOELRO plan was the first-ever Soviet plan for national economic recovery and development. It became the prototype for subsequent Five-Year Plans drafted by Gosplan...
, that envisioned a major restructuring of the Soviet economy based on total electrification of the country. The Plan was developed in 1920 and covered a ten to 15 year period. It included construction of a network of 30 regional power plants, including ten large hydroelectric power plants, and numerous electric-powered large industrial enterprises. The Plan became the prototype for subsequent
Five-Year PlansThe Five-Year Plans for the National Economy of the USSR were a series of nation-wide centralized exercises in rapid economic development in the Soviet Union. The plans were developed by the Gosplan based on the Theory of Productive Forces that was part of the general guidelines of the Communist...
and was basically fulfilled by 1931.
Stalin's rule
{{Main|History of the Soviet Union (1927–1953)}}
From its beginning years, government in the Soviet Union was based on the
one-party ruleA single-party state, one-party system or single-party system is a type of party system government in which a single political party forms the government and no other parties are permitted to run candidates for election...
of the
Communist Party (Bolsheviks)The Communist Party of the Soviet Union was the ruling and only legal political party in the Soviet Union and one of the largest communist organizations in the...
. After the economic policy of
War CommunismWar communism or military communism was the economic and political system that existed in the Soviet Russia during the Russian Civil War, from 1918 to 1921...
during the Civil War, the Soviet government permitted some private enterprise to coexist with nationalized industry in the 1920s and total food requisition in the countryside was replaced by a food tax (
see New Economic PolicyThe New Economic Policy was an economic policy proposed by Vladimir Lenin to prevent the Russian economy from collapsing...
).
Soviet leaders argued that one party rule was necessary because it ensured that 'capitalist exploitation' would not return to the Soviet Union and that the principles of
Democratic CentralismDemocratic centralism is the name given to the principles of internal organization used by Leninist political parties, and the term is sometimes used as a synonym for any Leninist policy inside a political party...
would represent the people's will. Debate over the future of the economy provided the background for Soviet leaders to contend for power in the years after Lenin's death in 1924. Initially, Lenin
was to be replaced byLenin's Testament is the name given to a document written by Vladimir Lenin in the last weeks of 1922 and the first week of 1923. In the testament, Lenin proposed changes to the structure of the Soviet governing bodies...
a "
troikaA triumvirate is a political regime dominated by three powerful individuals, each a triumvir . The arrangement can be formal or informal, and though the three are usually equal on paper, in reality this is rarely the case...
" composed of
Grigory ZinovievGrigory Yevseevich Zinoviev was a Bolshevik revolutionary and a Soviet Communist politician.-Before the 1917 Revolution :Gregory Zinoviev was born in Yelizavetgrad , Ukraine,...
,
Lev KamenevLev Borisovich Kamenev was a Bolshevik revolutionary and a prominent Soviet politician. He was briefly the nominal head of the Soviet state in 1917 and a founding member and later chairman of the ruling Politburo.-Background:Kamenev was born in Moscow, the son of a Jewish railway worker...
, and
Joseph StalinJoseph Stalin was the General Secretary of the Communist Party of the Soviet Union's Central Committee from 1922 until his death in 1953...
of Georgia.
On 3 April 1922, Stalin had been named the
General Secretary of the Communist Party of the Soviet UnionThe General Secretary of the Central Committee of the Communist Party of the Soviet Union was the title synonymous with leader of the Soviet Union after Joseph Stalin's consolidation of power in the 1920s.- Background :In 1919 - 1922, the position of a Responsible Secretary was...
. Lenin had appointed Stalin to be the head of the Workers' and Peasants' Inspectorate, known by the acronym
RabkrinRabkrin, RKI or Workers' and Peasants' Inspectorate was a governmental establishment in Soviet Russia and the early Soviet Union responsible for scrutinizing the state, local and enterprise administrations during 1920-1934. It was established on February 7, 1920 to replace the People's...
, which gave Stalin considerable power. By
gradually consolidating his influence and isolating and out-maneuvering his rivals within the partyJoseph Stalin was the General Secretary of the Communist Party of the Soviet Union's Central Committee from 1922 until his death in 1953. In the years following Lenin's death in 1924, he rose to become the authoritarian leader of the Soviet Union....
, Stalin became the
undisputed leaderA dictator is a ruler who assumes sole and absolute power with military control but, without hereditary ascension such as an absolute monarch. When other states call the head of state of a particular state a dictator, that state is called a dictatorship...
of the Soviet Union by the end of the 1920s establishing totalitarian rule.
In 1928, Stalin introduced the
First Five-Year PlanThe First Five-Year Plan of the USSR was a list of economic goals that was designed to strengthen the country's economy between 1928 and 1932, making the nation both militarily and industrially self-sufficient. "We are fifty or a hundred years behind the advanced countries. We must make good this...
for building a
socialist economySocialist economics are the economics of socialism. According to many proponents, socialist economic theories and arrangements are united by the desire to: produce for use rather than profit, achieve greater equality, give workers greater control of the means of production, use rational scientific...
. While encompassing the
internationalismProletarian internationalism, sometimes referred to as international socialism, is a marxist social class concept based on the view that capitalism is now a global system, and therefore the working class must act as a global class if it is to defeat it...
expressed by Lenin throughout the course of the Revolution, it also aimed for building
socialism in one countrySocialism in One Country was a thesis put forth by Joseph Stalin in 1924, elaborated by Nikolai Bukharin in 1925 and finally adopted as state policy by Stalin. The thesis held that given the defeat of all communist revolutions in Europe from 1917–1921 except in Russia, the Soviet Union should begin...
. In industry, the state assumed control over all existing enterprises and undertook an intensive program of industrialization; in agriculture
collective farmsCollectivization in the Soviet Union was a policy pursued under Stalin between 1928 and 1940. The goal of this policy was to consolidate individual land and labour into collective farms...
were established all over the country.
It met widespread resistance from
kulakKulaks were a category of relatively affluent peasants in the later Russian Empire, Soviet Russia, and early Soviet Union. The word kulak originally referred to independent farmers in the Russian Empire who emerged as a result of the Stolypin reform which began in 1906...
s (private land and farm owners) and some prosperous peasants, who withheld some of the harvest they produced, resulting in a bitter struggle between the kulaks against the authorities and poor peasants{{Citation needed|date=August 2009}}. Famines occurred causing millions of deaths and surviving kulaks were politically persecuted and many sent to Gulags to do
forced labourUnfree labour is a generic or collective term for those work relations, especially in modern or early modern history, in which people are employed against their will by the threat of destitution, detention, violence , or other extreme hardship to themselves, or to members of their families.Many of...
. A wide range of death tolls has been suggested, from as many as 60 million kulaks being killed (suggested by
Aleksandr SolzhenitsynAleksandr Isayevich Solzhenitsyn was a Soviet and Russian novelist, dramatist, and historian. Through his writings he made the world aware of the Gulag, the Soviet Union's forced labor camp system — particularly The Gulag Archipelago and One Day in the Life of Ivan Denisovich, his two...
) to as few as 700 thousand (according to Soviet news sources).
Social upheaval continued in the mid-1930s. Stalin's
Great PurgeGreat Purge was a series of campaigns of political repression and persecution in the Soviet Union orchestrated by Joseph Stalin in 1937–1938. It involved a large-scale purge of the Communist Party and Government officials, repression of peasants, Red Army leadership, and the persecution of...
of the party killed many "Old Bolsheviks" who had participated in the October Revolution with Lenin. Yet despite the turmoil of the mid- to late 1930s, the Soviet Union developed a powerful industrial economy in the years before
World War IIWorld War II, or the Second World War , was a global military conflict which involved a majority of the world's nations, including all great powers, organized into two opposing military alliances: the Allies and the Axis...
.
The early 1930s saw closer cooperation between the
WestThe Western world, also known as the West and the Occident , is a term that can have multiple meanings depending on its context...
and the USSR. From 1932 to 1934, the Soviet Union participated in the
World Disarmament ConferenceThe Conference for the Reduction and Limitation of Armaments of 1932-34 was an effort by member states of the League of Nations, together with the U.S. and the Soviet Union, to actualize the ideology of disarmament...
. In 1933, diplomatic relations between the United States and the USSR were established. In September 1934, the Soviet Union joined the
League of NationsThe League of Nations was an inter-governmental organization founded as a result of the Treaty of Versailles in 1919–1920. At its greatest extent from 28 September 1934 to 23 February 1935, it had 58 members...
. After the
Spanish Civil WarThe Spanish Civil War was a major conflict that devastated Spain from 17 July 1936 to 1 April 1939. It began after an attempted coup d'état by a group of Spanish Army generals against the government of the Second Spanish Republic, then under the leadership of president Manuel Azaña...
broke out in 1936, the USSR actively supported the
Republican forcesThe Second Spanish Republic was the system of government in Spain between April 14, 1931, when King Alfonso XIII left the country following local and municipal elections in which republican candidates won the majority of votes in urban areas and April 1, 1939, when the last of the Republican ...
against the
NationalistsFrancisco Franco became the dictator of Spain when he defeated the Republican government in the Spanish Civil War. Franco declared an official end of hostilities on April 1, 1939, and reworked the name of the republic into the “Spanish State,” a new moniker attempting to distinguish the new regime...
. The Nationalists were supported by
Fascist ItalyThe Kingdom of Italy was a state forged in 1861 by the unification of Italy under the influence of the Kingdom of Sardinia which is its legal predecessor State, and with the decisive help of France and Great Britain...
and
Nazi GermanyNazi Germany and the Third Reich are the common English names for Germany between 1933 and 1945, while it was led by Adolf Hitler and the National Socialist German Worker's Party . The name Third Reich refers to the state as the successor to the Holy Roman Empire of the Middle Ages and the German...
.
In December 1936, Stalin unveiled a new
Soviet ConstitutionThe 1936 Soviet constitution, adopted on December 5, 1936, and also known as the "Stalin" constitution, redesigned the government of the Soviet Union. The constitution repealed restrictions on voting and added universal direct suffrage and the right to work to rights guaranteed by the previous...
. This constitution provided economic rights not included in constitutions in the western democracies. The constitution was seen as a personal triumph for Stalin, who on this occasion was described by
PravdaPravda was a leading newspaper of the Soviet Union and an official organ of the Central Committee of the Communist Party between 1912 and 1991....
as "genius of the new world, the wisest man of the epoch, the great leader of communism." By contrast, western historians and historians from former Soviet occupied countries have seen the constitution as a meaningless propaganda document.
The late 1930s saw a shift towards the
Axis powersThe Axis powers comprised the countries that were opposed to the Allies during World War II. The three major Axis powers—Germany, Italy, and Japan—were part of a military alliance on the signing of the Tripartite Pact in September 1940, which officially founded the Axis powers...
. In 1938 and 1939, armed forces of the USSR won several decisive victories during border clashes with the armed forces of the Japanese Empire. In 1938, after the
United KingdomThe United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland is a sovereign state located off the northwestern coast of continental Europe. It is an island country, spanning an archipelago including Great Britain, the northeastern part of Ireland, and many small islands...
and France concluded the
Munich AgreementThe Munich Agreement was an agreement permitting German annexation of Czechoslovakia's Sudetenland. The Sudetenland were areas along borders of Czechoslovakia, mainly inhabited by Czech Germans. The agreement was negotiated at a conference held in Munich, Germany, among the major powers of Europe...
with Germany, the USSR dealt with Germany as well.
The USSR dealt with Germany both militarily and economically during
extensive talksIn August 1939, Germany and the Soviet Union entered into the Molotov-Ribbentrop Pact, a non-aggression treaty that contained secret protocols effectively dividing eastern Europe between the parties. Thereafter, the countries invaded and annexed the eastern European countries within their "spheres...
and by concluding the
German-Soviet Nonaggression PactThe Molotov–Ribbentrop Pact, colloquially named after the Soviet foreign minister Vyacheslav Molotov and the German foreign minister Joachim von Ribbentrop, was an agreement officially titled the Treaty of Non-Aggression between Germany and the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics and signed in...
and the
German–Soviet Commercial AgreementThe 1940 German-Soviet Commercial Agreement was an economic arrangement between the Soviet Union and Nazi Germany signed on February 11, 1940 by which the Soviet Union agreed to trade large quantities of critical raw materials to Germany in exchange for German weapons, military technology and...
. The conclusion of the nonaggression pact made possible the Soviet occupation of Lithuania, Latvia, Estonia, Bessarabia, northern Bukovina, and
eastern PolandThe 1939 Soviet invasion of Poland was a military operation that started without a formal declaration of war on 17 September 1939, during the early stages of World War II, sixteen days after the beginning of the Nazi German attack on Poland...
. In late November of the same year, unable to force the
Republic of FinlandFinland , officially the Republic of Finland
, is a Nordic country and democracy situated in the Fennoscandian region of northern Europe. It borders Sweden on the west, Russia on the east, and Norway on the north, while Estonia lies to its south across the Gulf of Finland...
into agreement to move its border 25 kilometres back from
LeningradLeningrad is the former name of Saint Petersburg, Russia.Leningrad may also refer to:Places:* Leningrad Oblast, a federal subject of Russia, around Saint Petersburg* Leningrad, Tajikistan, capital of Muminobod district in Khatlon Province...
by diplomatic means, Stalin ordered the
invasion of FinlandThe Winter War was a military conflict between the Soviet Union and Finland. It began with a Soviet offensive on 30 November 1939, three months after the German invasion of Poland and the start of World War II, and ended on 13 March 1940 with the Moscow Peace Treaty...
. On April 1941, USSR signed the Soviet–Japanese Neutrality Pact with
Empire of JapanThe Empire of Japan was a Japanese political entity that existed during the period from the...
, recognizing the territorial integrity of
ManchukuoManchukuo was a puppet state in Manchuria and eastern Inner Mongolia. The region was the historical homeland of the Manchus, who founded the Qing Dynasty of China...
, a Japanese puppet state.
Although it has been debated whether the Soviet Union had the intention of invading Germany once it was strong enough, Germany itself broke the treaty and
invaded the Soviet UnionOperation Barbarossa was the code name for Nazi Germany's invasion of the Soviet Union during World War II that began on 22 June 1941. Over 4.5 million troops of the Axis powers invaded the USSR along a 2,900 km front...
in June 1941 and started what was known in the USSR as the "Great Patriotic War." The
Red ArmyThe Red Army The Red Army The Red Army was the Soviet government’s revolutionary militia beginning in the Russian Civil War of 1918-1922. It grew into the national army of the USSR. Since 1946, after the Second World War, it was called the Soviet Army.The 'Red...
stopped the initial German offensive during the
Battle of MoscowThe Battle of Moscow is the name given by Soviet historians to two periods of strategically significant fighting on a 600 km sector of the Eastern Front during World War II. It took place between October 1941 and January 1942...
. The
Battle of StalingradThe Battle of Stalingrad was a battle of World War II between Nazi Germany and its allies and the Soviet Union for control of the city of Stalingrad in southwestern Russia. The battle took place between 17 July 1942 and 2 February 1943....
, which lasted from late 1942 to early 1943, was a major defeat for the Germans and became a major turning point of the war. After Stalingrad, Soviet forces drove through
Eastern EuropeEastern Europe is a region lying in the Eastern part of Europe. The term is highly context-dependent and there are "almost as many definitions of Eastern Europe as there are scholars of the region"...
to
BerlinBerlin is the capital city and one of sixteen states of Germany. With a population of 3.4 million within its city limits, Berlin is Germany's largest city. It is the second most populous city and the eighth most populous urban area in the European Union...
before
Germany surrendered in 1945The final battles of the European Theatre of World War II as well as the German surrender took place in late April and early May 1945.- Timeline of surrenders and deaths :...
. The same year, the USSR, in fulfilment of its agreement with the Allies at the
Yalta ConferenceThe Yalta Conference, sometimes called the Crimea Conference and codenamed the Argonaut Conference, was the wartime meeting from 4 February 1945 to 11 February 1945 among the heads of government of the United States, the United Kingdom, and the Soviet Union—President Franklin D...
, denounced the Soviet–Japanese Neutrality Pact in April 1945 and invaded Manchukuo and other Japan-controlled territories on August 9, 1945.
This conflictThe Soviet-Japanese War , began on August 9, 1945, with the Soviet invasion of the Japanese puppet state of Manchukuo. The Soviets conquered Manchukuo, Mengjiang , northern Korea, southern Sakhalin, and the Kuril Islands...
ended with a decisive Soviet victory, contributing to the unconditional
surrender of JapanThe surrender of Japan in August 1945 brought World War II to a close. By August 1945, the Imperial Japanese Navy effectively ceased to exist, and an Allied invasion of Japan was imminent...
and the end of World war II. Although ravaged by the war, the Soviet Union emerged victorious from the conflict and became an acknowledged
superpowerA superpower is a state with a leading position in the international system and the ability to influence events and its own interests and project power on a worldwide scale to protect those interests; it is traditionally considered to be one step higher than a great power.Alice Lyman Miller ,...
.
During the immediate postwar period, the Soviet Union first rebuilt and then expanded its economy, while maintaining its
strictly centralized controlA planned economy or directed economy is an economic system in which the state or workers' councils manage the economy. It is an economic system in which the central government makes all decisions on the production and consumption of goods and services...
. The Soviet Union aided post-war reconstruction in the countries of Eastern Europe while turning them into Soviet satellite states, founded the
Warsaw PactThe Warsaw Pact is the informal name for the mutual defense Treaty of Friendship, Cooperation and Mutual Assistance subscribed by eight Communist states in Eastern Europe, that was established at the USSR’s initiative and realised on 14 May 1955, in Warsaw, Poland...
in 1955. Later, the
ComeconThe Council for Mutual Economic Assistance , 1949–1991, was an economic organization of communist states and a kind of Eastern Bloc equivalent to—but less geographically inclusive than—the European Economic Community...
, supplied aid to the eventually victorious Communists in the People's Republic of China, and saw its influence grow elsewhere in the world. Meanwhile, the rising tension of the
Cold WarThe Cold War was the continuing state of political conflict, military tension, and economic competition existing after World War II , primarily between the USSR and its satellite states, and the powers of the Western world, including the United States...
turned the Soviet Union's wartime allies, the United Kingdom and the United States, into enemies.
Post-Stalin
{{Main|History of the Soviet Union (1953–1985)}}
Stalin died on March 5, 1953. In the absence of an acceptable successor, the highest Communist Party officials opted to rule the Soviet Union jointly.
Nikita KhrushchevNikita Sergeyevich Khrushchev led the Soviet Union during the Cold War. He served as First Secretary of the Communist Party of the Soviet Union from 1953 to 1964, and as Chairman of the Council of Ministers, or Premier, from 1958 to 1964...
, who had won the power struggle by the mid-1950s, denounced Stalin's use of repression in 1956 and eased repressive controls over party and society. This was known as de-Stalinization.
At the same time, Soviet military force was used to suppress nationalistic uprisings in
HungaryThe Hungarian Revolution of 1956 was a spontaneous nationwide revolt against the Stalinist government of the People's Republic of Hungary and its Soviet-imposed policies, lasting from 23 October until 10 November 1956....
and
PolandThe Poznań 1956 protests were the first of several massive protests of the Polish people against the communist government of the People's Republic of Poland. Demonstrations by workers demanding better conditions began on June 28, 1956, at Poznań's Cegielski Factories and were met with violent...
in 1956. During this period, the Soviet Union continued to realize scientific and technological pioneering exploits; to launch the first artificial satellite,
Sputnik 1Sputnik 1 was the first Earth-orbiting artificial satellite. It was launched into an elliptical low earth orbit by the Soviet Union on 4 October 1957, and was the first in a series of satellites collectively known as the Sputnik program...
; a living dog,
LaikaLaika was a Soviet space dog who became the first animal to orbit the Earth and the first orbital death. Little was known about the impact of space flight on living things at the time Laika's mission was launched...
; and later, the first human being,
Yuri GagarinYuri Alekseyevich Gagarin , Hero of the Soviet Union, was a Soviet cosmonaut. On 12 April 1961, he became the first human in outer space and the first to orbit the Earth...
, into Earth's orbit.
Valentina TereshkovaValentina Vladimirovna Tereshkova is the first woman in space, now a retired Soviet cosmonaut. Out of more than four hundred applicants and then out of five finalists, she was selected to pilot Vostok 6 on 16 June 1963 and become the first woman to fly in space...
was the first woman in space aboard
Vostok 6Vostok 6 was the first human spaceflight mission to carry a woman, cosmonaut Valentina Tereshkova, into space. Data was collected on the female body's reaction to spaceflight. Like other cosmonauts on Vostok missions, she maintained a flight log, took photographs, and manually oriented the...
on June 16, 1963, and Alexey Leonov became the first person to walk in space on March 18, 1965. Khrushchev's reforms in agriculture and administration, however, were generally unproductive, and foreign policy towards China and the United States suffered difficulties, including those that led to the
Sino-Soviet splitThe Sino–Soviet split was the gradual worsening of relations between the People's Republic of China and the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics during the Cold War...
. Khrushchev was retired from power in 1964.
Following the ousting of Khrushchev, another period of rule by collective leadership ensued, lasting until
Leonid BrezhnevLeonid Ilyich Brezhnev was General Secretary of the Communist Party of the Soviet Union from 1964 to 1982, serving in that position longer than anyone except Joseph Stalin...
established himself in the early 1970s as the preeminent figure in Soviet political life. Brezhnev presided over a period of
DétenteDétente is a French term, meaning a relaxing or easing; the term has been used in international politics since the early 1970s. Generally, it may be applied to any international situation where previously hostile nations not involved in an open war de-escalate tensions through diplomacy and...
with the West while at the same time building up Soviet military strength; the arms buildup contributed to the demise of Détente in the late 1970s.
Another contributing factor was the Soviet invasion of Afghanistan in December 1979. The first term of President Ronald Reagan saw increased tension between the Soviet Union and the United States with the Sept. 1,1983 downing by the Soviets of Korean Air Lines Flight 007 with 269 passengers and crew, including a sitting U.S. congressman, Representative
Larry McDonaldLawrence Patton McDonald was an American politician and a member of the United States House of Representatives, representing the seventh congressional district of Georgia as a Democrat. He was a passenger on board Korean Air Flight 007 shot down by Soviet interceptors and presumed dead. He was a...
of Georgia.
In October 1977, at the Seventh (Special) Session of the Supreme Soviet of the USSR Ninth Convocation, the third and last
Soviet ConstitutionAt the Seventh Session of the Supreme Soviet of the USSR Ninth Convocation on October 7, 1977, the third and last Soviet Constitution, also known as the "Brezhnev Constitution", was unanimously adopted. The official name of the Constitution was "Constitution ofthe Union of Soviet Socialist...
, also known as the "Brezhnev Constitution," was unanimously adopted. The official name of the Constitution was "Constitution (Fundamental Law) of the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics." This was the first Soviet Constitution which explicitly stated the supremacy of the Communist Party.
Throughout the period, the Soviet Union maintained parity with or superiority to the United States in the areas of military numbers and technology, but this strained the economy. In contrast to the revolutionary spirit that accompanied the birth of the Soviet Union, the prevailing mood of the Soviet leadership at the time of Brezhnev's death in 1982 was one of aversion to change. The long period of Brezhnev's rule had come to be dubbed one of "standstill" (застой), with an aging and ossified top political leadership.
After some experimentation with economic reforms in the mid-1960s, the Soviet leadership reverted to established means of economic management. Industry showed slow but steady gains during the 1970s. Agricultural development continued, but could not keep up with the growing consumption and the USSR had to import food products like grain. Due to the low investment in consumer goods, the USSR was largely only able to export raw materials, notably oil, which made it vulnerable to global price shifts. Moreover,
human welfareThe Human Development Index is an index used to rank countries by level of "human development", which usually also implies whether a country is developed, developing, or underdeveloped.-Summary:...
in the Soviet Union was keeping behind Western and socialist Central-European levels, after initially converging in the 1950s and 60's. Even in absolute measurements, Soviet citizens were becoming less healthy between the 1960s and 1985: the crude death rate climbed from 6.9 per 1,000 in 1964 to 10.3 in 1980.
Reforms of Gorbachev and collapse of the Soviet Union
{{Main|Cold War (1985–1991)|History of the Soviet Union (1985–1991)|1991 Soviet coup d'état attempt|Commonwealth of Independent States}}
Two developments dominated the decade that followed: the increasingly apparent crumbling of the Soviet Union's economic and political structures, and the patchwork attempts at reforms to reverse that process. Kenneth S. Deffeyes argued in "Beyond Oil" that the Reagan Administration encouraged
Saudi ArabiaSaudi Arabia , is an Arab country and the largest country of the Arabian Peninsula. It is bordered by Jordan on the northwest, Iraq on the north and northeast, Kuwait, Qatar, Bahrain, and the United Arab Emirates on the east, Oman on the southeast, and Yemen on the south...
to lower the price of oil to the point where the Soviets could not make a profit from selling their oil, so that the USSR's
hard currencyHard currency or strong currency, in economics, refers to a globally traded currency that can serve as a reliable and stable store of value...
reserves became depleted.
After the rapid succession of
Yuri AndropovYuri Vladimirovich Andropov was a Soviet politician and General Secretary of the Communist Party of the Soviet Union from 12 November 1982 until his death fifteen months later.-Early life:...
and
Konstantin ChernenkoKonstantin Ustinovich Chernenko was a Soviet politician and General Secretary of the Communist Party of the Soviet Union. He led the Soviet Union from 13 February 1984, until his death just thirteen months later on 10 March 1985...
, transitional figures with deep roots in Brezhnevite tradition, beginning in 1985
Mikhail GorbachevMikhail Sergeyevich Gorbachev was the second-to-last General Secretary of the Communist Party of the Soviet Union, serving from 1985 until 1991, and the last head of state of the USSR, serving from 1988 until its collapse in 1991...
made significant changes in the economy (see
Perestroikais the Russian term for the political and economic reforms introduced in June 1987 by the Soviet leader Mikhail Gorbachev...
,
Glasnostwas the policy of maximal publicity, openness, and transparency in the activities of all government institutions in the Soviet Union, together with freedom of information, introduced by Mikhail Gorbachev in the second half of 1980s....
) and the party leadership. His policy of
glasnostwas the policy of maximal publicity, openness, and transparency in the activities of all government institutions in the Soviet Union, together with freedom of information, introduced by Mikhail Gorbachev in the second half of 1980s....
freed public access to information after decades of heavy government censorship. With the Soviet Union in bad economic shape and its satellite states in eastern Europe abandoning communism, Gorbachev moved to end the Cold War.
In 1988, the Soviet Union abandoned its
nine-year war with AfghanistanThe Soviet War in Afghanistan, also known as the Soviet–Afghan War, was a nine-year conflict involving the Soviet Union, supporting the Marxist government of the Democratic Republic of Afghanistan at their own request, against the Islamist Mujahideen Resistance...
and began to withdraw forces from the country. In the late 1980s, Gorbachev refused to send military support to defend the Soviet Union's former satellite states, resulting in multiple communist regimes in those states being forced from power. With the tearing down of the
Berlin Wall|-||-||-||-||}The Berlin Wall was a physical barrier erected by the German Democratic Republic completely encircling West Berlin, separating it from East Germany, including East Berlin. The longer inner German border demarcated the border between East and West Germany...
with East Germany and
West GermanyWest Germany is a common English name for the period of the Federal Republic of Germany between its' formation in May 1949 to German reunification in October 1990, when the German Democratic Republic was dissolved and the five states on its territory joined the Federal Republic of Germany,...
pursuing unification, the
Iron curtainThe concept of the Iron Curtain symbolized the ideological and physical boundary dividing Europe into two separate areas from the end of World War II in 1945 until the end of the Cold War in 1991...
took the final blow.
In the late 1980s, the constituent republics of the Soviet Union started legal moves towards or even declaration of
sovereigntySovereignty is the quality of having supreme, independent authority over a territory. It can be found in a power to rule and make law that rests on a political fact for which no purely legal explanation can be provided...
over their territories, citing Article 72 of the USSR Constitution, which stated that any constituent republic was free to secede. On April 7, 1990, a law was passed, that a republic could secede, if more than two-thirds of that republic's residents vote for it on a referendum. Many held their first free elections in the Soviet era for their own national legislatures in 1990. Many of these legislatures proceeded to produce legislation contradicting the Union laws in what was known as "The war of laws."
In 1989, the Russian SFSR, which was then the largest constituent republic (with about half of the population) convened a newly elected Congress of People's Deputies.
Boris YeltsinBoris Nikolayevich Yeltsin was the first President of the Russian Federation, serving from 1991 to 1999....
was elected the chairman of the Congress. On June 12, 1990, the Congress
declared Russia's sovereignty over its territoryDeclaration on State Sovereignty of the RSFSR - the political act that marked the start of constitutional reform in the Russian Federation. The Declaration was adopted by the First Congress of People's Deputies of the Russian SFSR in June 12, 1990...
and proceeded to pass laws that attempted to supersede some of the USSR's laws. The period of legal uncertainty continued throughout 1991 as constituent republics slowly became
de factoDe facto is a Latin expression that means "by [the] fact". In law, it is meant to mean "in practice but not necessarily ordained by law" or "in practice or actuality, but without being officially established"...
independent.
A
referendum for the preservation of the USSRA referendum on the future of the Soviet Union was held on 17 March 1991. The question put to voters wasDo you consider necessary the preservation of the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics as a renewed federation of equal sovereign republics in which the rights and freedom of an individual of any...
was held on March 17, 1991, with the majority of the population voting for preservation of the Union in nine out of fifteen republics. The referendum gave Gorbachev a minor boost, and, in the summer of 1991, the
New Union TreatyUnion of Sovereign States was proposed name of a reorganization of the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics into a new confederation body. Proposed by Mikhail Gorbachev, the proposal was an attempt to salvage the former Soviet Union from collapse. The proposal was never issued as the USSR fell...
was designed and agreed upon by eight republics which would have turned the Soviet Union into a much looser federation.
The signing of the treaty, however, was interrupted by the August Coup—an attempted
coup d'étatA coup d'état , or coup for short, is the sudden unconstitutional deposition of a legitimate government, usually by a small group of the existing state establishment—typically the military—to replace the deposed government with another, either civil or military...
against Gorbachev by hardline Communist Party members of the government and the KGB, who sought to reverse Gorbachev's reforms and reassert the central government's control over the republics. After the coup collapsed, Yeltsin came out as a hero while Gorbachev's power was effectively ended. The balance of power tipped significantly towards the republics. In August 1991, Latvia and Estonia immediately declared restoration of full independence (following Lithuania's 1990 example), while the other twelve republics continued discussing new, increasingly looser, models of the Union.
On December 8, 1991, the presidents of Russia,
UkraineUkraine is a country in Eastern Europe. It is bordered by Russia to the east; Belarus to the north; Poland, Slovakia, and Hungary to the west; Romania and Moldova to the southwest; and the Black Sea and Sea of Azov to the south. The city of Kiev is both the capital and the largest city of...
and
BelarusBelarus is a landlocked country in Eastern Europe, bordered by Russia to the north and east, Ukraine to the south, Poland to the west, and Lithuania and Latvia to the north. Its capital is Minsk; other major cities include Brest, Grodno , Gomel , Mahilyow and Vitebsk...
signed the
Belavezha AccordsThe Belavezha Accords is the agreement which declared the Soviet Union effectively dissolved and established the Commonwealth of Independent States in its place...
which declared the Soviet Union dissolved and established the
Commonwealth of Independent States{{Redirect|CIS}}{{Redirect|CIS}}{{Redirect|CIS}}{{Redirect|CIS}}{{Redirect|CIS}}{{Redirect|CIS}}{{Infobox Geopolitical organisation|native_name = Commonwealth of Independent States...
(CIS) in its place. While doubts remained over the authority of the Belavezha Accords to dissolve the Union, on December 21, 1991, the representatives of all Soviet republics except
GeorgiaThe Georgian Soviet Socialist Republic , also known as the Georgian SSR for short, was one of the republics that made up the former Soviet Union.- History :- Preceding Events :On November 28 1917, after October Revolution in Russia, there was established...
, including those republics that had signed the Belavezha Accords, signed the
Alma-Ata ProtocolThe Alma-Ata Protocols are the founding declarations and principles of the Commonwealth of Independent States. It was signed soon after the Belavezha Accords on 21 December 1991, between the states of Moldova, Azerbaijan, Armenia, Kazakhstan, Kyrgizstan, Tajikistan, Turkmenistan, and...
, which confirmed the dismemberment and consequential extinction of the USSR and restated the establishment of the CIS. The summit of Alma-Ata also agreed on several other practical measures consequential to the extinction of the Union. On December 25, 1991, Gorbachev yielded to the inevitable and resigned as the president of the USSR, declaring the office extinct. He turned the powers that until then were vested in the presidency over to
Boris YeltsinBoris Nikolayevich Yeltsin was the first President of the Russian Federation, serving from 1991 to 1999....
,
president of RussiaThe President of the Russian Federation is the head of state, supreme commander-in-chief and holder of the highest office within the Government of Russia. Executive power is split between the President and the Prime Minister, who is the head of government...
.
The following day, the Supreme Soviet, the highest governmental body of the Soviet Union, recognized the bankruptcy and collapse of the Soviet Union and dissolved itself. This is generally recognized as the official, final dissolution of the Soviet Union as a functioning state. Many organizations such as the Soviet Army and police forces continued to remain in place in the early months of 1992 but were slowly phased out and either withdrawn from or absorbed by the newly independent states.
Politics
{{Main|Politics of the Soviet Union}}
The government of the Soviet Union administered the country's economy and society. It implemented decisions made by the leading political institution in the country, the
Communist Party of the Soviet UnionThe Communist Party of the Soviet Union was the ruling and only legal political party in the Soviet Union and one of the largest communist organizations in the...
(CPSU).
In the late 1980s, the government appeared to have many characteristics in common with liberal democratic political systems. For instance, a constitution established all organizations of government and granted to citizens a series of political and civic rights. A legislative body, the Congress of People's Deputies, and its standing legislature, the
Supreme SovietThe Supreme Soviet of the Soviet Union was the Supreme Soviet in the Soviet Union in the interim of the sessions of the Congress of Soviets, and the only one with the power to pass constitutional amendments...
, represented the principle of popular sovereignty. The Supreme Soviet, which had an elected chairman who functioned as head of state, oversaw the Council of Ministers, which acted as the executive branch of the government.
The chairman of the Council of Ministers, whose selection was approved by the Supreme Soviet, functioned as head of government. A constitutionally based judicial branch of government included a court system, headed by the Supreme Court, that was responsible for overseeing the observance of
Soviet lawThe Law of the Soviet Union—also known as Socialist Law—was the law developed in the Soviet Union following the October Revolution of 1917...
by government bodies. According to the
1977 Soviet ConstitutionAt the Seventh Session of the Supreme Soviet of the USSR Ninth Convocation on October 7, 1977, the third and last Soviet Constitution, also known as the "Brezhnev Constitution", was unanimously adopted. The official name of the Constitution was "Constitution ofthe Union of Soviet Socialist...
, the government had a federal structure, permitting the republics some authority over policy implementation and offering the national minorities the appearance of participation in the management of their own affairs.
In practice, however, the government differed markedly from Western systems. In the late 1980s, the CPSU performed many functions that governments of other countries usually perform. For example, the party decided on the policy alternatives that the government ultimately implemented. The government merely ratified the party's decisions to lend them an aura of legitimacy.
The CPSU used a variety of mechanisms to ensure that the government adhered to its policies. The party, using its
nomenklaturaThe nomenklatura were a small, elite subset of the general population in the Soviet Union and other Eastern Bloc countries who held various key administrative positions in all spheres of those countries' activity: government, industry, agriculture, education, etc...
authority, placed its loyalists in leadership positions throughout the government, where they were subject to the norms of
democratic centralismDemocratic centralism is the name given to the principles of internal organization used by Leninist political parties, and the term is sometimes used as a synonym for any Leninist policy inside a political party...
. Party bodies closely monitored the actions of government ministries, agencies, and legislative organs.
The content of the Soviet Constitution differed in many ways from typical Western constitutions. It generally described existing political relationships, as determined by the CPSU, rather than prescribing an ideal set of political relationships. The Constitution was long and detailed, giving technical specifications for individual organs of government. The Constitution included political statements, such as foreign policy goals, and provided a theoretical definition of the state within the ideological framework of
Marxism-LeninismMarxism-Leninism is a communist ideological stream that emerged as the mainstream tendency among the Communist parties in the 1920s as it was adopted as the ideological foundation of the Communist International during Stalin's era....
. The CPSU leadership could radically change the constitution or remake it completely, as it did several times throughout its history.
The Council of Ministers acted as the executive body of the government. Its most important duties lay in the administration of the economy. The council was thoroughly under the control of the CPSU, and its chairman—the
Soviet prime ministerPremier of the Soviet Union is the commonly used English term for the offices of Chairman of the Council of People's Commissars of the USSR and Chairman of the Council of Ministers of the USSR...
—was always a member of the
PolitburoThe Politburo , known as the Presidium from 1952 to 1966, functioned as the central policymaking and governing body of the Communist Party of the Soviet Union...
. The council, which in 1989 included more than 100 members, was too large and unwieldy to act as a unified executive body. The council's
PresidiumThe Presidium of the Supreme Soviet was a Soviet governmental institution – a permanent body of the Supreme Soviets . This body was of the all-Union level , as well as in all Soviet republics and autonomous republics...
, made up of the leading economic administrators and led by the chairman, exercised dominant power within the Council of Ministers.
According to the Constitution, as amended in 1988, the highest legislative body in the Soviet Union was the Congress of People's Deputies, which convened for the first time in May 1989. The main tasks of the congress were the election of the standing legislature, the Supreme Soviet, and the election of the chairman of the Supreme Soviet, who acted as head of state. Theoretically, the Congress of People's Deputies and the Supreme Soviet wielded enormous legislative power.
In practice, however, the Congress of People's Deputies met infrequently and only to approve decisions made by the party, the Council of Ministers, and its own Supreme Soviet. The Supreme Soviet, the Presidium of the Supreme Soviet, the chairman of the Supreme Soviet, and the Council of Ministers had substantial authority to enact laws, decrees, resolutions, and orders binding on the population. The Congress of People's Deputies had the authority to ratify these decisions.
Judicial system
{{details|Soviet law}}
The judiciary was not independent from the other branches of government. The Supreme Court supervised the lower courts and applied the law as established by the Constitution or as interpreted by the Supreme Soviet. The Constitutional Oversight Committee reviewed the constitutionality of laws and acts.
The Soviet Union lacked an
adversarial court procedureThe adversarial system of law is the system of law that relies on the contest between each advocate representing his or her party's positions and involves an impartial person or group of people, usually a jury or judge, trying to determine the truth of the case...
known to many
common lawCommon law is law developed by judges through decisions of courts and similar tribunals , rather than through legislative statutes or executive action, and to corresponding legal systems that rely on precedential case law....
jurisdictions, but rather utilized the
Roman LawThe term Roman law denotes the legal system of ancient Rome, and the legal developments which occurred before the seventh century AD — when the Roman–Byzantine state adopted Greek as the official lingua franca. The development of Roman law comprises more than a thousand years of jurisprudence —...
inquisitorial systemAn inquisitorial system is a legal system where the court or a part of the court is actively involved in determining the facts of the case, as opposed to an adversarial system where the role of the court is solely that of an impartial referee between parties. Inquisitorial systems are used in some...
, where judge, procurator, and defense attorney work collaboratively to establish the truth. However, globally the inquisitorial system is more widespread than the adversarial system and indeed some countries such as Italy utilize a combination of both systems.
The Soviet state
The Soviet Union was a federal state made up of fifteen republics (sixteen between 1946 and 1956) joined together in a theoretically voluntary union; it was this theoretical situation that formed the basis of the Byelorussian and Ukrainian SSRs' membership in the
United NationsThe United Nations is an international organization whose stated aims are facilitating cooperation in international law, international security, economic development, social progress, human rights, and the achieving of world peace...
. In turn, a series of territorial units made up the republics. The republics also contained jurisdictions intended to protect the interests of national minorities. The republics had their own constitutions, which, along with the all-union Constitution, provide the theoretical division of power in the Soviet Union.
All the republics except Russian SFSR had their own communist parties. In 1989, however, the CPSU and the central government retained all significant authority, setting policies that were executed by republic, provincial, oblast, and district governments. In the Supreme Soviet of the USSR, there were two chambers that represented the population (in later constitutions). One was the
Soviet of the UnionSoviet of the Union , was one of the two chambers of the Supreme Soviet of the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics, elected on the basis of universal, equal and direct suffrage by secret ballot in accordance with the principles of Soviet democracy, and with the rule that there be one deputy for...
, which represented people indiscriminately, and the
Soviet of NationalitiesThe Soviet of Nationalities , was one of the two chambers of the Supreme Soviet of the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics, elected on the basis of universal, equal and direct suffrage by secret ballot in accordance with the principles of Soviet democracy...
, which represented the various ethnicities in the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics.
Leaders
{{Main|List of leaders of the Soviet Union}}
The de facto leader of the Soviet Union was the First Secretary or General Secretary of the CPSU. The head of government was considered the Premier, and the head of state was considered the chairman of the Presidium. The Soviet leader could also have one (or both) of these positions, along with the position of General Secretary of the party. The last leader of the Soviet Union was Mikhail Gorbachev, serving from 1985 until late December 1991.
- List of Soviet Premiers
Premier of the Soviet Union is the commonly used English term for the offices of Chairman of the Council of People's Commissars of the USSR and Chairman of the Council of Ministers of the USSR...
- Chairman of the Council of Ministers of the USSR (1946–1990); Prime Minister of the USSR (1991))
- eads of state of the Soviet Union|List of Soviet Heads of state]
- Chairman of the Central Executive Committee of the USSR (1922–1938); Chairman of the Presidium of the Supreme Soviet of the USSR (1938–1989); Chairman of the Supreme Soviet of the USSR (1989–1990); President of the Soviet Union (1990–1991)
Foreign relations post World War II
{{Main|Foreign relations of the Soviet Union}}
Once denied diplomatic recognition by the
free worldThe free world is a Cold War-era propaganda term used by the United States and its allies to describe non-communist countries collectively.The term was used to imply the greater personal freedoms enjoyed by citizens of non-communist countries that were democratic, such as the United States, Canada,...
, the Soviet Union had official relations with practically all nations of the world by the late 1940s. The Soviet Union also had progressed from being an outsider in international organizations and negotiations to being one of the arbiters of the world's fate after
World War IIWorld War II, or the Second World War , was a global military conflict which involved a majority of the world's nations, including all great powers, organized into two opposing military alliances: the Allies and the Axis...
. A member of the
United NationsThe United Nations is an international organization whose stated aims are facilitating cooperation in international law, international security, economic development, social progress, human rights, and the achieving of world peace...
at its foundation in 1945, the Soviet Union became one of the five permanent members of the UN Security Council which gave it the right to
vetoA veto, Latin for "I forbid", is used to denote that a certain party has the right to stop unilaterally a piece of legislation. In practice, the veto can be absolute A veto, Latin for "I forbid", is used to denote that a certain party has the right to stop unilaterally a piece of legislation....
any of its resolutions (
see Soviet Union and the United NationsThe Soviet Union took an active role in the United Nations and other major international and regional organizations. At the behest of the United States, the Soviet Union took a role in the establishment of the UN in 1945...
).
The Soviet Union emerged from
World War IIWorld War II, or the Second World War , was a global military conflict which involved a majority of the world's nations, including all great powers, organized into two opposing military alliances: the Allies and the Axis...
as one of the world's two superpowers, a position maintained for four decades through its hegemony in Eastern Europe (
see Eastern BlocThe terms Eastern Bloc, Communist Bloc or Soviet Bloc were used to refer to the former Communist states of Eastern and Central Europe, including the countries of the Warsaw Pact, along with Yugoslavia and Albania, which were not aligned with the Soviet Union after 1948 and 1960...
), military strength, economic strength, aid to
developing countriesDeveloping country is a term generally used to describe a nation with a low level of material well being. There is no single internationally-recognized definition of developed country, and the levels of development may vary widely within so-called developing countries, with some developing...
, and scientific research, especially into space technology and weaponry. The Soviet Union's growing influence abroad in the postwar years helped lead to a Communist system of states in Eastern Europe united by military and economic agreements.
It overtook the
British EmpireThe British Empire comprised the dominions, colonies, protectorates, mandates, and other territories ruled or administered by the United Kingdom, that had originated with the overseas colonies and trading posts established by England in the late 16th and early 17th centuries. At its height it was...
as a global superpower, both in a military sense and its ability to expand its influence beyond its borders. The Council for Mutual Economic Assistance (
ComeconThe Council for Mutual Economic Assistance , 1949–1991, was an economic organization of communist states and a kind of Eastern Bloc equivalent to—but less geographically inclusive than—the European Economic Community...
), 1949–1991, was an economic organization of communist states and a kind of Eastern Bloc equivalent to—but more geographically inclusive than—the European Economic Community. The military counterpart to the Comecon was the Warsaw Pact, though Comecon's membership was significantly wider.
The descriptive term Comecon was often applied to all multilateral activities involving members of the organization, rather than being restricted to the direct functions of Comecon and its organs. This usage was sometimes extended as well to bilateral relations among members, because in the system of socialist international economic relations, multilateral accords—typically of a general nature—tended to be implemented through a set of more detailed, bilateral agreements.
Moscow considered Eastern Europe to be a buffer zone for the forward defense of its western borders and ensured its control of the region by transforming the East European countries into
satellite stateA satellite state is a political term that refers to a country which is formally independent, but under heavy influence or control by another country...
s. Soviet troops intervened in the
1956 Hungarian RevolutionThe Hungarian Revolution of 1956 was a spontaneous nationwide revolt against the Stalinist government of the People's Republic of Hungary and its Soviet-imposed policies, lasting from 23 October until 10 November 1956....
and cited the
Brezhnev DoctrineThe Brezhnev Doctrine was a Soviet Union foreign policy, first and most clearly outlined by S. Kovalev in a September 26, 1968 Pravda article, entitled “Sovereignty and the International Obligations of Socialist Countries.” Leonid Brezhnev reiterated it in a speech at the Fifth Congress of the...
, the Soviet counterpart to the U.S.
Johnson DoctrineThe Johnson Doctrine, enunciated by U.S. President Lyndon B. Johnson after the United States' intervention in the Dominican Republic in 1965, declared that domestic revolution in the Western Hemisphere would no longer be a local matter when "the object is the establishment of a Communist...
and later
Nixon DoctrineThe Nixon Doctrine was put forth in a press conference in Guam on July 25, 1969 by Richard Nixon. He stated that the United States henceforth expected its allies to take care of their own military defense, but that the U.S. would aid in defense as requested...
, and helped oust the
CzechoslovakCzechoslovakia was a sovereign state in Central Europe which existed from October 1918, when it declared its independence from the Austro-Hungarian Empire, until 1992...
government in 1968, sometimes referred to as the
Prague SpringThe Prague Spring was a period of political liberalization in Czechoslovakia during the era of its domination by the Soviet Union after World War II...
.
In the late 1950s, a confrontation with China regarding the USSR's rapprochement with
the WestThe Western world, also known as the West and the Occident , is a term that can have multiple meanings depending on its context...
and what
Mao, is a Japanese remake of the Korean suspense drama series titled Ma Wang which aired on KBS 2TV in 2007. The drama stars Satoshi Ohno of Arashi and Toma Ikuta, both under the talent agency Johnny & Associates.- Synopsis :...
perceived as Khrushchev's revisionism led to the
Sino-Soviet splitThe Sino–Soviet split was the gradual worsening of relations between the People's Republic of China and the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics during the Cold War...
. This resulted in a break throughout the global Communist movement and Communist regimes in
AlbaniaAlbania , officially the Republic of Albania , is a Mediterranean country in South Eastern Europe. It is bordered by Montenegro to the north, Kosovo to the northeast, Macedonia to the east and Greece to the south-east...
and
CambodiaThe Kingdom of Cambodia , formerly known as Kampuchea , is a country in South East Asia with a population of over 14 million people. The kingdom's capital and largest city is Phnom Penh...
choosing to ally with China in place of the USSR. For a time, war between the former allies appeared to be a possibility; while relations would cool during the 1970s, they would not return to normality until the Gorbachev era.
During the same period, a tense confrontation between the Soviet Union and the United States over the Soviet deployment of nuclear missiles in
CubaThe Republic of Cuba is an island country in the Caribbean. It consists of the island of Cuba, the Isla de la Juventud, and several archipelagos. Havana is the largest city in Cuba and the country's capital. Santiago de Cuba is the second largest city. Cuba is home to over 11 million people and is...
sparked the
Cuban Missile CrisisThe Cuban Missile Crisis was a confrontation between the United States, the Soviet Union, and Cuba in October 1962, during the Cold War. In Russia, former Eastern Bloc, and communist countries , it is termed the "Caribbean Crisis" , while in Cuba it is called the "October Crisis"...
in 1962.
The
KGBThe KGB was the national security agency of the USSR. From 1954 until 1991, the Committee for State Security was the Communist state's premier secret police, internal security, and espionage organization, whose coat of arms—the Shield and the Sword—illustrate a national military hierarchy...
(Committee for State Security) served in a fashion as the Soviet counterpart to both the
Federal Bureau of InvestigationThe Federal Bureau of Investigation is an agency of the United States Department of Justice that serves as both a federal criminal investigative body and an internal intelligence agency. The FBI has investigative jurisdiction over violations of more than 200 categories of federal crime...
and the
Central Intelligence AgencyThe Central Intelligence Agency is a civilian intelligence agency of the United States government.It is an independent agency responsible for providing national security intelligence to senior United States policymakers....
in the U.S. It ran a massive network of informants throughout the Soviet Union, which was used to monitor violations in law. The foreign wing of the KGB was used to gather intelligence in countries around the globe. After the collapse of the Soviet Union, it was replaced in Russia by the
SVRThe Foreign Intelligence Service The Foreign Intelligence Service The Foreign Intelligence Service (Russian: Служба Внешней Разведки Sluzhba Vneshney Razvedki (or SVR) is Russia's primary external intelligence agency. The SVR is the successor of First Chief Directorate (FCD) of the KGB since...
(Foreign Intelligence Service) and the FSB (Federal Security Service of the Russian Federation).
The KGB was not without substantial oversight. The
GRUGRU or Glavnoye Razvedyvatel'noye Upravleniye is the acronym for the foreign military intelligence directorate of the General Staff of the Armed Forces of the Russian Federation,...
(Main Intelligence Directorate), not publicized by the Soviet Union until the end of the Soviet era during
perestroikais the Russian term for the political and economic reforms introduced in June 1987 by the Soviet leader Mikhail Gorbachev...
, was created by Lenin in 1918 and served both as a centralized handler of
military intelligenceMilitary intelligence is a military service that uses intelligence gathering disciplines to collect informations that informs commanders decision making process....
and as an institutional check-and-balance for the otherwise relatively unrestricted power of the KGB. Effectively, it served to spy on the spies, and, not surprisingly, the KGB served a similar function with the GRU. As with the KGB, the GRU operated in nations around the world, particularly in Soviet bloc and satellite states. The GRU continues to operate in Russia today, with resources estimated by some to exceed those of the SVR.
In the 1970s, the Soviet Union achieved rough nuclear parity with the United States, and eventually overtook it. It perceived its own involvement as essential to the solution of any major international problem. Meanwhile, the
Cold WarThe Cold War was the continuing state of political conflict, military tension, and economic competition existing after World War II , primarily between the USSR and its satellite states, and the powers of the Western world, including the United States...
gave way to
DétenteDétente is a French term, meaning a relaxing or easing; the term has been used in international politics since the early 1970s. Generally, it may be applied to any international situation where previously hostile nations not involved in an open war de-escalate tensions through diplomacy and...
and a more complicated pattern of international relations in which the world was no longer clearly split into two clearly opposed blocs. Less powerful countries had more room to assert their independence, and the two superpowers were partially able to recognize their common interest in trying to check the further spread and proliferation of nuclear weapons (
see SALT I, SALT II,
Anti-Ballistic Missile TreatyThe Anti-Ballistic Missile Treaty was a treaty between the United States of America and the Soviet Union on the limitation of the anti-ballistic missile systems used in defending areas against missile-delivered nuclear weapons.Signed in 1972, it was in force for the next thirty years until the US...
).
By this time, the Soviet Union had concluded friendship and cooperation treaties with a number of states in the non-Communist world, especially among Third World and
Non-Aligned MovementThe Non-Aligned Movement is an international organisation of states considering themselves not formally aligned with or against any major power bloc. The movement is largely the brainchild of India's first Prime Minister Jawaharlal Nehru, former president of Egypt Gamal Abdul Nasser and Yugoslav...
states like India and
EgyptEgypt , officially the Arab Republic of Egypt, is a country mainly in North Africa, with the Sinai Peninsula forming a land bridge in Western Asia...
. Notwithstanding some ideological obstacles, Moscow advanced state interests by gaining military footholds in strategically important areas throughout the Third World. Furthermore, the Soviet Union continued to provide military aid for revolutionary movements in the Third World. For all these reasons, Soviet foreign policy was of major importance to the non-Communist world and helped determine the tenor of international relations.
Although myriad bureaucracies were involved in the formation and execution of Soviet foreign policy, the major policy guidelines were determined by the Politburo of the Communist Party. The foremost objectives of Soviet foreign policy had been the maintenance and enhancement of national security and the maintenance of hegemony over Eastern Europe. Relations with the United States and Western Europe were also of major concern to Soviet foreign policy makers, and relations with individual Third World states were at least partly determined by the proximity of each state to the Soviet border and to Soviet estimates of its strategic significance.
After
Mikhail GorbachevMikhail Sergeyevich Gorbachev was the second-to-last General Secretary of the Communist Party of the Soviet Union, serving from 1985 until 1991, and the last head of state of the USSR, serving from 1988 until its collapse in 1991...
succeeded
Konstantin ChernenkoKonstantin Ustinovich Chernenko was a Soviet politician and General Secretary of the Communist Party of the Soviet Union. He led the Soviet Union from 13 February 1984, until his death just thirteen months later on 10 March 1985...
as General Secretary of the CPSU in 1985, he introduced many changes in Soviet foreign policy and in the economy of the USSR. Gorbachev pursued conciliatory policies towards the West instead of maintaining the Cold War status quo. The Soviet Union ended its occupation of
AfghanistanThe Islamic Republic of Afghanistan is a landlocked country in south central Asia. It is variously described as being located within Central Asia, South Asia, or the Middle East...
, signed strategic arms reduction treaties with the United States, and allowed its allies in Eastern Europe to determine their own affairs. However, soviet republics were treated differently from the satellite states, and troops were used to suppress cessation movements within the Union (see
Black JanuaryBlack January , also known as Black Saturday or the January Massacre was a crackdown of Azeri protest demonstrations by the Soviet army in Baku, Azerbaijan SSR on January 20, 1990...
) but ultimately to no avail.
Following the dissolution of the Soviet Union on December 25, 1991, Russia was internationally recognised to be the legal successor to the Soviet state on the international stage. To that end, Russia voluntarily accepted all Soviet foreign debt, and claimed overseas Soviet properties as its own.
To prevent subsequent disputes over Soviet property, "zero variant" agreements were proposed to ratify with newly independent states the status quo on the date of dissolution. (
UkraineUkraine is a country in Eastern Europe. It is bordered by Russia to the east; Belarus to the north; Poland, Slovakia, and Hungary to the west; Romania and Moldova to the southwest; and the Black Sea and Sea of Azov to the south. The city of Kiev is both the capital and the largest city of...
is the last former Soviet republic not to have entered into such an agreement.) The end of the Soviet Union also raised questions about treaties it had signed, such as the
Anti-Ballistic Missile TreatyThe Anti-Ballistic Missile Treaty was a treaty between the United States of America and the Soviet Union on the limitation of the anti-ballistic missile systems used in defending areas against missile-delivered nuclear weapons.Signed in 1972, it was in force for the next thirty years until the US...
; Russia has held the position that those treaties remain in force, and should be read as though Russia were the signatory.
{{details|Military history of the Soviet Union}}
Republics
{{Main|Republics of the Soviet Union}}
{{See also|Oblasts of the Soviet Union}}
The Soviet Union was a federation that consisted of
Soviet Socialist Republics (
SSR). The first Republics were established shortly after the
October RevolutionTheOctober Revolution , also known as the Soviet Revolution or Bolshevik Revolution, was a political revolution and a part of the Russian Revolution. It began with an armed insurrection in Petrograd traditionally dated to 25 October 1917 Julian calendar...
of 1917. At that time, republics were technically independent from one another but their governments acted in closely coordinated confederation, as directed by the CPSU leadership.
In 1922, four Republics (Russian SFSR, Ukrainian SSR, Belarusian SSR, and
Transcaucasian SFSRThe Transcaucasian Socialist Federative Soviet Republic , also known as the Transcaucasian Soviet Federative Socialist Republic, the Transcaucasian SFSR and the TSFSR for short, was a short-lived republic of the Soviet Union...
) joined into the Soviet Union. Between 1922 and 1940, the number of Republics grew to sixteen. Some of the new Republics were formed from territories acquired, or reacquired by the Soviet Union, others by splitting existing Republics into several parts. The criteria for establishing new republics were as follows:
- to be located on the periphery of the Soviet Union so as to be able to exercise their right to secession;
- be economically strong enough to survive on their own upon secession; and
- be named after the dominant ethnic group which should consist of at least one million people.
The system remained almost unchanged after 1940. No new Republics were established. One republic, Karelo-Finnish SSR, was disbanded in 1956, and the territory formally became the Karelian Autonomous Soviet Socialist Republic (ASSR) within the Russian SFSR. The remaining 15 republics lasted until 1991. Even though Soviet Constitutions established the right for a republic to secede, it remained theoretical and very unlikely, given Soviet centralism, until the 1991 collapse of the Union.
At that time, the
republics became independent countriesThe post-Soviet states, also commonly known as the Former Soviet Union or former Soviet republics, are the 15 independent nations that split off from the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics in its breakup in December 1991...
, with some still loosely organized under the heading
Commonwealth of Independent States{{Redirect|CIS}}{{Redirect|CIS}}{{Redirect|CIS}}{{Redirect|CIS}}{{Redirect|CIS}}{{Redirect|CIS}}{{Infobox Geopolitical organisation|native_name = Commonwealth of Independent States...
. Some republics had common history and geographical regions, and were referred by group names. These were Baltic Republics,
Transcaucasian RepublicsThe South Caucasus is a geopolitical region located on the border of Eastern Europe and Southwest Asia also referred to as Transcaucasia, or The Transcaucasus...
, and Central Asian Republics.
{{Union Republics}}
Economy
{{Main|Economy of the Soviet Union}}
Prior to its dissolution, the USSR had the second largest economy in the world, after the United States. The economy of the Soviet Union was the modern world's first centrally planned economy. It was based on a system of state ownership and managed through
GosplanGosplan or State Planning Committee was the committee responsible for economic planning in the Soviet Union. The word "Gosplan" is an abbreviation for Gosudarstvennyi Komitet po Planirovaniyu...
(the State Planning Commission),
GosbankGosbank was the central bank of the Soviet Union and the only bank whatsoever in the entire Union from the 1930s until the year 1987...
(the State Bank) and the
GossnabPeople's Commissariat for Food Supplies was the Commissariat of the Russian SFSR in charge of food supplies and industrial goods. The first Commissar was Ivan Teodorovich.The Narkomprod was responsible in June 1918 for the attempted organisation of 'committees of the poor' in provincial villages...
(State Commission for Materials and Equipment Supply).
The first major project of economic planning was the
GOELRO planGOELRO plan was the first-ever Soviet plan for national economic recovery and development. It became the prototype for subsequent Five-Year Plans drafted by Gosplan...
, which was followed by a series of other
Five-Year PlansThe Five-Year Plans for the National Economy of the USSR were a series of nation-wide centralized exercises in rapid economic development in the Soviet Union. The plans were developed by the Gosplan based on the Theory of Productive Forces that was part of the general guidelines of the Communist...
. The emphasis was put on a very fast development of
heavy industryHeavy industry does not have a single fixed meaning as compared to light industry. It can mean production of products which are either heavy in weight or in the processes leading to their production. In general, it is a popular term used within the name of many Japanese and Korean firms, meaning...
and the nation became one of the world's top manufacturers of a large number of basic and heavy industrial products, but it lagged behind in the output of light industrial production and
consumer durablesSoviet industry was usually divided into two major categories. Group A was "heavy industry," which included all goods that serve as an input required for the production of some other, final good...
.
Agriculture of the Soviet UnionAgriculture in the Soviet Union was organized into a system of state and collective farms, known as sovkhozes and kolkhozes, respectively. Organized on a large scale and relatively highly mechanized, the Soviet Union was one of the world's leading producers of cereals, although bad harvests ...
was organized into a system of collective farms (
kolkhozA kolkhoz , plural kolkhozy, was a form of collective farming in the Soviet Union that existed along with state farms . The word is a contraction of коллекти́вное хозя́йство, or "collective farm", while sovkhoz is a contraction of советское хозяйство...
es) and state farms (
sovkhozA sovkhoz , typically translated as state farm, is a state-owned farm. The term originated in the Soviet Union, hence the name. The term is still in use in some post-Soviet states, e.g., Russia and Belarus. It is usually contrasted with kolkhoz, which is a collective-owned farm...
es) but it was relatively unproductive. Crises in the agricultural sector reaped catastrophic consequences in the 1930s, when collectivization met widespread resistance from the kulaks, resulting in a bitter struggle of many peasants against the authorities, and famine, particularly in
UkraineUkraine is a country in Eastern Europe. It is bordered by Russia to the east; Belarus to the north; Poland, Slovakia, and Hungary to the west; Romania and Moldova to the southwest; and the Black Sea and Sea of Azov to the south. The city of Kiev is both the capital and the largest city of...
(see
HolodomorThe Holodomor refers to the famine of 1932–1933 in the Ukrainian SSR during which millions of people were starved to death due to Soviet policies. There were no natural causes for starvation and in fact, Ukraine - unlike other Soviet Republics - enjoyed a bumper wheat crop in 1932...
), but also in the Volga River area and Kazakhstan.
Comparison between USSR and USThe economy of the United States is the largest national economy in the world in both nominal value and by purchasing power parity. Its nominal gross domestic product was estimated as $14.4 trillion in 2008, which is about three times that of the world's second largest economy, Japan Its GDP by...
economies (1989)
according to 1990 CIA World Factbook |
|
USSR |
US |
| GDP (1989 – million $) |
2,659,500 |
5,233,300 |
| Population (July 1990) |
290,938,469 |
250,410,000 |
| GDP Per Capita ($) |
9,211 |
21,082 |
| Labour force (1989) |
152,300,000 |
125,557,000 |
As the Soviet economy grew more complex, it required more and more complex disaggregation of control figures (plan targets) and factory inputs. As it required more communication between the enterprises and the planning ministries, and as the number of enterprises, trusts, and ministries multiplied, the Soviet economy started stagnating.
The Soviet economy was increasingly sluggish when it came to responding to change, adapting cost-saving technologies, and providing incentives at all levels to improve growth, productivity and efficiency. Most information in the Soviet economy flowed from the top down and economic planning was often done based on faulty or outdated information, particularly in sectors with large numbers of consumers.
As a result, some goods tended to be under-produced, leading to shortages, while other goods were overproduced and accumulated in storage. Some factories developed a system of barter and either exchanged or shared raw materials and parts, while consumers developed a black market for goods that were particularly sought after but constantly under-produced.
Conceding the weaknesses of their past approaches in solving new problems, the leaders of the late 1980s, headed by Mikhail Gorbachev, were seeking to mold a program of economic reform to galvanize the economy. However, by 1990 the Soviet government had lost control over economic conditions. Government spending increased sharply as an increasing number of unprofitable enterprises required state support and consumer price subsidies to continue. Since the dissolution of the Soviet Union in 1991, almost all of the 15 former Soviet republics have dismantled their Soviet-style economies.
Geography
{{Main|Geography of the Soviet Union}}
The Soviet Union occupied the eastern portion of the European continent and the northern portion of the
AsiaAsia is the world's largest and most populous continent, located in the eastern and northern hemispheres. It covers 8.6% of the earth's total surface area and with approximately 4 billion people, it hosts 60% of the world's current human population.Asia is traditionally defined as part of the...
n continent. Most of the country was north of 50° north latitude and covered a total area of approximately 22,402,200 square kilometres (8,649,500
sq miThe square mile is an imperial and US unit of measure for an area equal to the area of a square of one statute mile.
). Due to the sheer size of the state, the
climateClimate encompasses the statistics of temperature, humidity, atmospheric pressure, wind, rainfall, atmospheric particle count and numerous other meteorological elements in a given region over long periods of time...
varied greatly from subtropical and
continentalContinental climate is a climate that is characterized by winter temperatures cold enough to support a fixed period of snow cover each year, and relatively moderate precipitation occurring mostly in summer, although east coast areas may show an even distribution of precipitation.Regions containing...
to
subarcticRegions having a subarctic climate are characterized by long, usually very cold winters, and short, cool to mild summers. It is found on large landmasses, away from the moderating effects of an ocean, generally at latitudes from 50° to 70°N poleward of the humid continental climates...
and
polarRegions with a polar climate are characterized by a lack of warm summers .The tundra covers over 20% of the earth...
. 11% of the land was
arableIn geography, arable land is an agricultural term, meaning land that can be used for growing crops. It is distinct from cultivated land and includes jungles that are not currently used for human purposes. Arable land covers an area of approximately 12 million square miles...
, 16% was
meadowA meadow is a field vegetated primarily by grass and other non-woody plants . It may be cut for hay or grazed by livestock such as cattle, sheep or goats.- Agricultural meadow :...
s and
pasturePasture is land with low-growing vegetation cover used for grazing of livestock as part of a farm, or in ranching or other unenclosed pastoral systems. Prior to the advent of factory farming, pasture was the primary source of food for grazing animals such as cattle and horses...
, 41% was
forestA forest is an area with a high density of trees. There are many definitions of a forest, based on the various criteria. These plant communities presently cover approximately 9.4% of the Earth's surface in many different regions and function as habitats for organisms, hydrologic flow modulators,...
and
woodlandEcologically, a woodland is an area covered in trees, usually at low density, forming an open habitat, allowing sunlight to penetrate between the trees, and limiting shade. Woodland may support an understory of shrubs and herbaceous plants including grasses. Woodland may form a transition to...
, and 32% was declared "other" (including
tundraIn physical geography, tundra is a biome where the tree growth is hindered by low temperatures and short growing seasons. The term tundra comes from Kildin Sami tūndâr, which means "uplands, treeless mountain tract." There are two types of tundra: Arctic tundra and alpine tundra...
).
The Soviet Union measured some 10,000 kilometres (6,200 mi) from
KaliningradKaliningrad is a seaport and the administrative center of Kaliningrad Oblast, the Russian exclave between Poland and Lithuania on the Baltic Sea...
on the in the west to Ratmanova Island (Big Diomede Island) in the
Bering StraitThe Bering Strait's technical name is Imakpik.The Bering Strait is a sea strait between Cape Dezhnev, Chukotka Autonomous Okrug, the easternmost point of the Asian continent and Cape Prince of Wales, Alaska, the westernmost point of the North American continent, with latitude of about 65° 40'...
, or roughly equivalent to the distance from
EdinburghEdinburgh is the capital city of Scotland. It is the second largest Scottish city, after Glasgow, and the seventh-most populous in the United Kingdom. The City of Edinburgh Council is one of Scotland's 32 local government council areas....
,
ScotlandScotland is a country that is part of the United Kingdom. Occupying the northern third of the island of Great Britain, it shares a border with England to the south and is bounded by the North Sea to the east, the Atlantic Ocean to the north and west, and the North Channel and Irish Sea to the...
, west to
Nome, AlaskaNome is a city in the Nome Census Area of the U.S. state of Alaska, located on the southern Seward Peninsula coast on Norton Sound of the Bering Sea. According to 2005 Census Bureau estimates, the city population was 3,590. Nome was incorporated on April 9, 1901, and was once the most populous...
. From the tip of the
Taymyr PeninsulaTaymyr Peninsula is a peninsula in Siberia that forms the most northern part of mainland Asia. It lies between the Yenisei Gulf of the Kara Sea and the Khatanga Gulf of the Laptev Sea in Krasnoyarsk Krai, Russia....
on the
ArcticThe Arctic is the region around the Earth's North Pole, opposite the Antarctic region around the South Pole. The Arctic includes the Arctic Ocean and parts of Canada, Greenland , Russia, the United States , Iceland, Norway, Sweden and Finland.The word Arctic comes from the Greek αρκτικός , "near...
Ocean to the Central Asian town of
KushkaKushka may refer to:*Serhetabat, Turkmenistan*Kushka, Balkh, Afghanistan...
near the
AfghanThe Islamic Republic of Afghanistan is a landlocked country in south central Asia. It is variously described as being located within Central Asia, South Asia, or the Middle East...
border extended almost 5,000 kilometres (3,100 mi) of mostly rugged, inhospitable terrain. The east-west expanse of the continental United States would easily fit between the northern and southern borders of the Soviet Union at their extremities.
Population and society
{{Main|Demographics of the Soviet Union}}
The Soviet Union was one of the world's most ethnically diverse countries, with more than 200 distinct ethnic groups within its borders. The total population was estimated at 293 million in 1991, having been the 3rd most populous nation after China and India for decades.
In the last years of the Soviet Union, the majority of the population were
RussiansThe Russian people are an ethnic group of the East Slavic peoples, primarily living in Russia and neighboring countries....
(50.78%), followed by
UkrainiansUkrainians are an East Slavic ethnic group primarily living in Ukraine, or more broadly—citizens of Ukraine...
(15.45%) and
UzbeksThe Uzbeks are a Turkic-speaking people in Central Asia. They comprise the majority population of Uzbekistan, and large populations can also be found in Afghanistan, Tajikstan, Kyrgyzstan, Turkmenistan, Pakistan, Kazakhstan, Russia and the Xinjiang Uyghur Autonomous Region of China...
(5.84%). Other ethnic groups included
ArmeniansThe Armenians are a nation and ethnic group which originated in the Caucasus and the Armenian Highland. It is estimated that there are 8 million Armenians around the world. There is a large concentration of Armenians in the Caucasus, especially in Armenia, and there is a significant presence in...
,
AzerbaijanisThe Azerbaijanis are an ethnic group mainly living in northwestern Iran and the Republic of Azerbaijan. Commonly referred to as Azeris/Āzarīs or Azeri Turks , they also live in a wider area from the Caucasus to the Iranian plateau...
,
BelarusiansBelarusians are an East Slavic ethnic group who populate the majority of the Republic of Belarus. Introduced to the world as a new state in the early 1990s, the Republic of Belarus brought with it the notion of a re-emerging Belarusian ethnicity, drawn upon the lines of the Belarusian language...
,
EstoniansEstonians are a Finnic people closely related to the Finns and inhabiting, primarily, the country of Estonia. The Estonians speak a Finno-Ugric language, known as Estonian...
,
GeorgiansThe Georgians are a South Caucasian people and nation mainly centered in Georgia. They also live in Turkey, Russia, the United States, Iran, and other countries....
,
KazakhsThe Kazakhs are a Turkic people of the northern parts of Central Asia ....
,
KyrgyzThe Kyrgyz are a Turkic ethnic group found primarily in Kyrgyzstan.-Etymology:There are several etymological theories on the ethnonym "Kyrgyz."...
, Latvians, Lithuanians,
MoldovansMoldovans or Moldavians are the native population of the medieval Principality of Moldavia, which nowadays corresponds to 8 north-eastern counties of Romania , the Republic of Moldova, and small parts of Ukraine...
, Tajiks, and
TurkmenThe Turkmen are a Turkic people located primarily in the Central Asian states of Turkmenistan, Afghanistan, northern Iraq and in northeastern Iran...
as well as
AbkhazThe Abkhaz or Abkhazians are a Caucasian ethnic group, mainly living in Abkhazia. A large Abkhazian diaspora population resides in Turkey, the origins of which lie in the emigration from the Caucasus in the late 19th century known as Muhajirism...
, Adyghes,
AleutThe Aleuts are the indigenous people of the Aleutian Islands of Alaska, United States and Kamchatka Krai, Russia.The name Aleut was given to the Unangan by Russian fur traders in the mid 18th century.-Location:The homeland of...
s,
AssyriansThe Assyrian/Chaldean/Syriac people are an ethnic group whose origins lie in the Fertile Crescent, their homeland today being divided between Northern Iraq, Syria, Western...
,
AvarsAvars or Caucasian Avars are a modern people of Caucasus, mainly of Dagestan, in which they are the predominant group. The Caucasian Avar language belongs to the Northeast Caucasian language family ....
,
BashkirsThe Bashkirs, are Turkic people indigenous to Bashkortostan, Russia. Groups of Bashkirs also live in the republic of Tatarstan, as well as in Perm Krai and Chelyabinsk, Orenburg, Kurgan, Sverdlovsk, Samara, and Saratov Oblasts of Russia.-Overview:...
,
BulgariansThe Bulgarians are a South Slavic people, generally associated with the Republic of Bulgaria and the Bulgarian language. Emigration has resulted in Bulgarian minorities or immigrant communities in a number of other countries.-Ethnogenesis:...
,
BuryatsThe Buryats or Buriyads, numbering approximately 436,000, are the largest ethnic minority group in Siberia and are mainly concentrated in their homeland, the Buryat Republic, a federal subject of Russia. They are the northernmost major Mongol group....
,
ChechensChechens constitute the largest native ethnic group originating in the North Caucasus region. They refer to themselves as Nokhchii , which comes from the name of a large Chechen tribe, the Nokhchmekhkakhoi, and their homeland.The isolated mountain terrain of the Caucasus and the strategic value...
,
ChineseHan Chinese are an ethnic group native to China and, by most modern definitions, the largest single ethnic group in the world.Han Chinese constitute about 92 percent of the population of the People's Republic of China , 98 percent of the population of the Republic of China , 75 percent of the...
,
ChuvashThe Chuvash are a Turkic-speaking people. According to the Russian census of 2002, the Chuvash population in Russia numbered 1 637 200; 889 268 of these lived in Chuvashia...
,
CossackCossacks were originally members of military communities in the uninhabited borderland areas in the steppe that lies North of Black Sea...
s,
EvenksThe Evenks are a Tungusic people of Northern Asia. In Russia, the Evenks are recognized as one of the Indigenous peoples of the Russian North, with a population of 35,527...
,
FinnsThe terms Finns and Finnish people are used in English to mean "a native or inhabitant of Finland". They are also used to refer to the ethnic group historically associated with Finland or Fennoscandia, and they are only used in that sense here....
,
GagauzThe Gagauz people are a small Turkic ethnic group living mostly in southern Moldova , southwestern Ukraine and north-eastern Bulgaria . Unlike most other Turkic peoples, the Gagauz are predominantly Orthodox Christians...
, Germans,
GreeksThe Greeks , also known as Hellenes, are a nation and ethnic group native to Greece, Cyprus and neighbouring regions, who can also be found in diaspora communities around the world....
,
HungariansHungarians are an ethnic group primarily associated with Hungary. There are around 10 million Hungarians in Hungary . Hungarians were the main inhabitants of the Kingdom of Hungary that existed through most of the second millennium...
,
IngushesThe Ingush are a native ethnic group of the North Caucasus, mostly inhabiting the Russian republic of Ingushetia. They refer to themselves as Ghalghai . The Ingush are predominantly Sufi Muslim and speak the Ingush language...
,
InuitInuit is a general term for a group of culturally similar indigenous peoples inhabiting the Arctic regions of Canada, Greenland, and Alaska...
, Jews, Kalmyks,
KarakalpaksThe Karakalpaks are a Turkic speaking people of Mongol origin. They mainly live in the lower reaches of the Amu Darya and in the delta of Amu Darya on the southern shore of the Aral Sea in Uzbekistan. However, small numbers can also be found in Iran and Turkey, and smaller communities in...
,
KareliansThe Karelians are a Baltic-Finnic ethnic group living mostly in the Republic of Karelia and in other north-western parts of the Russian Federation. The historic homeland of Karelians includes also parts of present-day Eastern Finland and the formerly Finnish territory of Ladoga Karelia...
,
KetsKets are a Siberian people who speak the Ket language. In Imperial Russia they were called Ostyaks, without differentiating them from several other Siberian peoples. Later they became known as Yenisey ostyaks, because they lived in the middle and lower basin of the Yenisei River in the Krasnoyarsk...
, Koreans,
LezginsThe Lezgins are an ethnic group, living predominantly in southern Dagestan and north-eastern Azerbaijan, who speak the Lezgian language.In the 19th century, the term was used more broadly for all ethnic groups speaking Northeast Caucasian languages,...
,
MarisThe Mari are a Volga-Finnic people who have traditionally lived along the Volga and Kama rivers in Russia. The majority of Maris today live in the Mari El Republic, with significant populations in the Tatarstan and Bashkortostan republics...
,
MongolsThe name Mongol specifies one or several ethnic groups, now mainly located in Mongolia, China, and Russia.-Definition:...
, Mordvins, Nenetses,
OssetiansThe Ossetians are an Iranic ethnic group indigenous to Ossetia, a region that spans the Caucasus Mountains. The Ossetians mostly populate North Ossetia-Alania in Russia, and South Ossetia which is now de facto independent from Georgia. They speak Ossetic, an Indo-European language of the Iranian...
,
PolesThe Polish people, or Poles , are a Western Slavic ethnic group of Central Europe, living predominantly in Poland. Poles are sometimes defined as people who share a common Polish culture and are of Polish descent. Their religion is predominantly Roman Catholic...
, Roma,
RomaniansThe Romanians are a nation and ethnic group native to Romania, who speak Romanian ; they are the majority inhabitants of România.In one prominent interpretation of the census results in Moldova, Moldovans are counted as Romanians, which would...
,
TatsTats are the Iranian ethnos, presently living on the territory of Republic of Azerbaijan and the Russian Federation . Variants of self-designation are Tati, Parsi, Daghli, Lohijon...
,
TatarsTatars , sometimes spelled Tartars, are a Turkic ethnic group mainly inhabiting Russia, Uzbekistan, Kazakhstan, Ukraine, Kyrgyzstan, Tajikistan, Azerbaijan, Turkmenistan and Afghanistan. They numbered 10 million in the late 20th Century, which includes all subgroups of Tatar people, such as...
,
TuvansTuvans or Tuvinians are a group of Mongolized Turkic people. They are historically known as Uriankhai, from the Mongolian designation....
, Udmurts,
YakutsYakuts , self-designation: Sakha, are a Turkic people associated with the Sakha Republic.The Yakut or Sakha language belongs to the Northern branch of the Turkic family of languages...
, and others. Mainly because of differences in birth rates among the Soviet nationalities, the share of the population that was Russian steadily declined in the post-World War II period.
Nationalities
The extensive multinational empire that the Bolsheviks inherited after their revolution was created by Tsarist expansion over some four centuries. Some nationality groups came into the empire voluntarily, others were brought in by force.
RussiansThe Russian people are an ethnic group of the East Slavic peoples, primarily living in Russia and neighboring countries....
,
BelarusiansBelarusians are an East Slavic ethnic group who populate the majority of the Republic of Belarus. Introduced to the world as a new state in the early 1990s, the Republic of Belarus brought with it the notion of a re-emerging Belarusian ethnicity, drawn upon the lines of the Belarusian language...
and
UkrainiansUkrainians are an East Slavic ethnic group primarily living in Ukraine, or more broadly—citizens of Ukraine...
shared close cultural ties while, generally, the other subjects of the empire shared little in common—
culturallyCulture is a term that has different meanings. For example, in 1952, Alfred Kroeber and Clyde Kluckhohn compiled a list of 164 definitions of "culture" in Culture: A Critical Review of Concepts and Definitions...
,
religiouslyA religion is a system of human thought which usually includes a set of narratives, symbols, beliefs and practices that give meaning to the practitioner's experiences of life through reference to a higher power, deity or deities, or ultimate truth...
, or
linguisticallyA language is a system for encoding and decoding information. In its most common use, the term refers to so-called "natural languages" — the forms of communication considered peculiar to humankind. In linguistics the term is extended to refer to the human cognitive facility of creating and using...
. More often than not, two or more diverse nationalities were co-located on the same territory. Therefore, national antagonisms built up over the years not only against the Russians but often between some of the subject nations as well.
For many years, Soviet leaders maintained that the underlying causes of conflict between nationalities of the Soviet Union had been eliminated and that the Soviet Union consisted of a family of nations living harmoniously together. In the 1920s and early 1930s, the government conducted a policy of
korenizatsiyaKorenizatsiya sometimes also called korenization, meaning "nativization" or "indigenization", literally "putting down roots", was the early Soviet nationalities policy promoted mostly in the 1920s but with a continuing legacy in later years...
(indigenization) of local governments in an effort to recruit non-Russians into the new Soviet political institutions and to reduce the conflict between Russians and the minority nationalities.
One area in which the Soviet leaders made concessions perhaps more out of necessity than out of conviction, was language policy. To increase literacy and
mass educationMass education refers to a state-run educational system, usually free, that aims to ensure that all children in society have at least a basic education....
, the government encouraged the development and publication in many of the "national languages" of the minority groups. While Russian became a required
subject of study in all Soviet schools in 1938, in the mainly non-Russian areas the chief language of instruction was the local language or languages. This practice led to widespread bilingualism in the educated population, though among smaller nationalities and among elements of the population that were heavily affected by the immigration of Russians, linguistic assimilation also was common, in which the members of a given non-Russian nationality lost facility in the historic language of their group.
The concessions granted national cultures and the limited autonomy tolerated in the union republics in the 1920s led to the development of national elites and a heightened sense of national identity. Subsequent repression and
RussianizationRussification is an adoption of the Russian language or some other Russian attribute by non-Russian communities...
fostered resentment against domination by Moscow and promoted further growth of national consciousness. National feelings were also exacerbated in the Soviet multinational state by increased competition for resources, services, and jobs, and by the policy of the leaders in Moscow to move workers—mainly Russians—to the peripheral areas of the country, the homelands of non-Russian nationalities.
By the end of the 1980s, encouraged in part by Gorbachev's policy of
glasnostwas the policy of maximal publicity, openness, and transparency in the activities of all government institutions in the Soviet Union, together with freedom of information, introduced by Mikhail Gorbachev in the second half of 1980s....
, unofficial groups formed around a great many social, cultural, and political issues. In some non-Russian regions ostensible
green movementGreen Movement refers to a series of actions after the Iranian presidential election, 2009, in which protesters demand removal of Mahmoud Ahmadinejad from office...
s or ecological movements were thinly disguised national movements in support of the protection of natural resources and the national patrimony generally from control by ministries in Moscow.
Religious groups
{{Main|Religion in the Soviet Union}}
Although the Soviet Union was officially secular, it supported atheist ideology and suppressed religion, though according to various Soviet and Western sources, over one-third of the people in the Soviet Union professed religious belief.
ChristianityChristianity is a monotheistic religion based on the life and teachings of Jesus of Nazareth as presented by the revelations in the New Testament....
and
IslamIslam Islam Islam ( al-’islām,
[There are ten pronunciations of Islam in English, differing in whether the first or second syllable has the stress, whether the s is or , and whether the a is pronounced as in father, as in cat, or (when the stress is on the i) as in the a of sofa...]
had the most believers. The
state was separated from churchSeparation of church and state is a political and legal doctrine that government and religious institutions are to be kept separate and independent from each other...
by the Decree of Council of People's Comissars on January 23, 1918. Two-thirds of the Soviet population, however, had no religious beliefs. About half the people, including members of the CPSU and high-level government officials, professed atheism. Official figures on the number of religious believers in the Soviet Union were not available in 1989.
Christians belonged to various churches: Orthodox, which had the largest number of followers;
CatholicCatholicism is a broad term for the body of the Catholic faith, its theologies and doctrines, its liturgical, ethical, spiritual, and behavioral characteristics, as well as a religious people as a whole...
; and
BaptistA Baptist is a Christian who subscribes to a theology and may belong to a church that, among other things, is committed to believer's baptism and, with respect to church polity, favors the congregational model...
and various other Protestant denominations.
Government persecution of Christianity continued unabated until the fall of the Communist government, with Stalin's reign the most repressive. Stalin is quoted as saying that "The Party cannot be neutral towards religion. It conducts an anti-religious struggle against any and all religious prejudices." In
World War IIWorld War II, or the Second World War , was a global military conflict which involved a majority of the world's nations, including all great powers, organized into two opposing military alliances: the Allies and the Axis...
, however, the repression against the
Russian Orthodox ChurchThe Russian Orthodox Church ; or The Moscow Patriarchate , also known...
temporarily ceased as it was perceived as "instrument of patriotic unity" in the war against "the western
TeutonicsThe Order of the Teutonic Knights of St. Mary's Hospital in Jerusalem , or for short the Teutonic Order , is a German Roman Catholic religious order. It was formed to aid Catholics on their pilgrimages to the Holy Land and to establish hospitals to care for the sick and injured...
." Repression against Russian Orthodox restarted from ca. 1946 onwards and more forcibly under
Nikita KhrushchevNikita Sergeyevich Khrushchev led the Soviet Union during the Cold War. He served as First Secretary of the Communist Party of the Soviet Union from 1953 to 1964, and as Chairman of the Council of Ministers, or Premier, from 1958 to 1964...
.
Although there were many ethnic Jews in the Soviet Union, actual practice of
JudaismJudaism is a set of beliefs and practices originating in the Hebrew Bible , as later further explored and explained in the Talmud and other texts...
was rare in Communist times. In 1928, Stalin created the
Jewish Autonomous OblastJewish Autonomous Oblast is a federal subject of Russia situated in the Russian Far East, bordering Khabarovsk Krai and Amur Oblast of Russia and Heilongjiang province of China. Its administrative center is Birobidzhan.The autonomous oblast was established in 1934...
in the far east of what is now Russia to try to create a "Soviet Zion" for a proletarian Jewish culture to develop.
The overwhelming majority of Muslims were Sunni. The Azerbaijanis, who were Shiite, were one major exception. The largest groups of Muslims in the Soviet Union resided in the Central Asian republics (Kyrgyzstan, Tajikistan, Turkmenistan, and
UzbekistanUzbekistan, officially the Republic of Uzbekistan , is a doubly landlocked country in Central Asia, formerly part of the Soviet Union...
) and Kazakhstan, though substantial numbers also resided in Central Russia (principally in Bashkiria and Tatarstan), in the North Caucasian part of Russia (Chechnya, Dagestan, and other autonomous republics) and in Transcaucasia (principally in Azerbaijan but also certain regions of Georgia).
Other religions, which were practiced by a relatively small number of believers, included
BuddhismBuddhism, as traditionally conceived, is a path of salvation attained through insight into the ultimate nature of reality. It encompasses a variety of traditions, beliefs and practices, largely based on teachings attributed to Siddhartha Gautama, commonly known as the Buddha...
(mostly
VajrayanaVajrayāna Buddhism is also known as Tantric Buddhism, Tantrayāna, Mantrayāna, Secret Mantra, Esoteric Buddhism and the Diamond Vehicle. The period of Vajrayana Buddhism has been classified as the fifth or final period of Indian Buddhism...
) and
paganismPaganism is a word with several different meanings.In its broadest definition, pagan denotes all non-Abrahamic religions, that is to say it denotes all religions other than Judaism, Christianity, and Islam.Other usages are:*Paganism may mean Polytheism: The group so defined includes most of the...
(which was largely
shamanicShamanism comprises a range of traditional beliefs and practices concerned with communication with the spirit world. It is a prominent term in anthropological research. A practitioner of shamanism is known as a shaman, , noun...
), a religion based on spiritualism. The role of religion in the daily lives of Soviet citizens thus varied greatly, but was far less integral in city dwellers where Party control was optimum.
Culture
{{Main|Culture of the Soviet Union}}
The
cultureCulture is a term that has different meanings. For example, in 1952, Alfred Kroeber and Clyde Kluckhohn compiled a list of 164 definitions of "culture" in Culture: A Critical Review of Concepts and Definitions...
of the Soviet Union passed through several stages during the USSR's 70-year existence. During the first eleven years following the Revolution (1918–1929), there was relative freedom and artists experimented with several different styles in an effort to find a distinctive Soviet style of art. Lenin wanted art to be accessible to the Russian people.
The government encouraged a variety of trends. In art and literature, numerous schools, some traditional and others radically experimental, proliferated. Communist writers Maksim Gorky and
Vladimir MayakovskyVladimir Vladimirovich Mayakovsky was a Russian and Soviet poet and playwright, among the foremost representatives of early-20th century Russian Futurism.- Early life :...
were active during this time. Film, as a means of influencing a largely illiterate society, received encouragement from the state; much of director
Sergei EisensteinSergei Mikhailovich Eisenstein was a revolutionary Soviet Russian film director and film theorist noted in particular for his silent films Strike, Battleship Potemkin and October, as well as historical epics Alexander Nevsky and Ivan the Terrible...
's best work dates from this period.
Later, during
Joseph StalinJoseph Stalin was the General Secretary of the Communist Party of the Soviet Union's Central Committee from 1922 until his death in 1953...
's rule, Soviet culture was characterised by the rise and domination of the government-imposed style of
Socialist realismSocialist realism is a teleologically-oriented style of realistic art which has as its purpose the furtherance of the goals of socialism and communism...
, with all other trends being severely repressed, with rare exceptions (e.g.
Mikhail BulgakovMikhail Afanasyevich Bulgakov was a Russian contemporary novelist and playwright active in the first half of the 20th century...
's works). Many writers were imprisoned and killed. Also religious people were persecuted and either sent to Gulags or were murdered in their thousands. The ban on the Orthodox Church was temporarily lifted in the 1940s, in order to rally support for the Soviet war against the invading forces of Germany. Under Stalin, prominent symbols that were not in line with communist ideology were destroyed, such as Orthodox Churches and Tsarist buildings.
Following the
Khrushchev ThawThe Khrushchev Thaw refers to the period from the mid 1950s to the early 1960s, when repression and censorship in the Soviet Union were partially reversed and millions of Soviet political prisoners were released from Gulag labor camps, due to Nikita Khrushchev's policies of de-Stalinisation and...
of the late 1950s and early 1960s, censorship was diminished. Greater experimentation in art forms became permissible once again, with the result that more sophisticated and subtly critical work began to be produced. The regime loosened its emphasis on
socialist realismSocialist realism is a teleologically-oriented style of realistic art which has as its purpose the furtherance of the goals of socialism and communism...
; thus, for instance, many protagonists of the novels of author
Yury TrifonovYury Valentinovich Trifonov was a leading representative of the so-called Soviet "urban prose", a 1970s movement inspired by the psychologically complicated works of Anton Chekhov and his 20th-century American followers....
concerned themselves with problems of daily life rather than with building socialism. An underground dissident literature, known as
samizdatSamizdat was a key form of dissident activity across the Soviet-bloc; individuals reproduced censored publications by hand and passed the documents from reader to reader, thus building a foundation for the successful resistance of the 1980s...
, developed during this late period. In architecture Khrushchev era mostly focused on functional design as opposed to highly decorated style of Stalin's epoch.
In the second half of 1980s, Gorbachev's policies of
perestroikais the Russian term for the political and economic reforms introduced in June 1987 by the Soviet leader Mikhail Gorbachev...
and
glasnostwas the policy of maximal publicity, openness, and transparency in the activities of all government institutions in the Soviet Union, together with freedom of information, introduced by Mikhail Gorbachev in the second half of 1980s....
significantly expanded freedom of expression in the media and press, eventually resulting in the complete abolishment of censorship, total freedom of expression and freedom to criticise the government.
See also
{{Main|List of Soviet Union-related topics}}
- Collapse of the Soviet Union
- Dates of establishment of diplomatic relations with the USSR
The USSR was established on December 30 1922 and existed until December 26 1991.-Europe:-Asia:-Americas:-Africa:-Oceania:-References and external links:...
- Droughts and famines in Russia and the USSR
- History of the Soviet Union (1953-1985)
This period of the Soviet Union was dominated by Cold War politics, as the Soviet Union and the United States struggled both directly and indirectly to expand their influence, while working to further their political ideologies...
- History of the Soviet Union (1985-1991)
The Soviet Union's collapse into independent nations began early in 1985. After years of Soviet military buildup at the expense of domestic development, economic growth was at a standstill. Failed attempts at reform, a stagnant economy, and war in Afghanistan led to a general feeling of...
- Human rights in the Soviet Union
The Soviet Union was a single-party state where the Communist Party ruled the country. Independent political activities were not tolerated, including the involvement of people with free labour unions, private corporations, non-sanctioned churches or opposition political parties. The government made...
- Kaliningrad Oblast
Kaliningrad Oblast , informally called Yantarny kray is a federal subject of Russia situated on the Baltic coast. Population: 968,200 ; ....
(see also: German East PrussiaEast Prussia is the main part of the region of Prussia along the southeastern Baltic Coast from the 13th century to the end of World War II in May 1945. From 1772–1829 and 1878–1945, the Province of East Prussia was part of the German state of Prussia...
)
- List of leaders of the Soviet Union
- List of Soviet Republics
- Military history of the Soviet Union
The military history of the Soviet Union began in the days following the 1917 October Revolution that brought the Bolsheviks to power. The new government formed the Red Army to fight various enemies in the Russian Civil War. The years 1918-1921 saw Red Army's defeats in Polish-Soviet war and...
- Population transfer in the Soviet Union
Population transfer in the Soviet Union may be classified into the following broad categories: deportations of "anti-Soviet" categories of population, often classified as "enemies of workers", deportations of nationalities, labor force transfer, and organized migrations in opposite directions to...
- Post-Soviet states
The post-Soviet states, also commonly known as the Former Soviet Union or former Soviet republics, are the 15 independent nations that split off from the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics in its breakup in December 1991...
- Premier of the Soviet Union
Premier of the Soviet Union is the commonly used English term for the offices of Chairman of the Council of People's Commissars of the USSR and Chairman of the Council of Ministers of the USSR...
- President of the Soviet Union
The President of the Soviet Union was the Head of State of the USSR from 15 March 1990 to 25 December 1991. Mikhail Gorbachev was the only person to occupy the office. Gorbachev was also General Secretary of the Communist Party of the Soviet Union between March 1990 and August 1991...
- Prometheism
Prometheism was a political project initiated by Poland's Józef Piłsudski. Its aim was to weaken Tsarist Russia and its successor state, the Soviet Union, by supporting nationalist independence movements of the major non-Russian peoples that lived within the borders of Russia and the Soviet...
- Public holidays in the Soviet Union
There were eight major Public holidays in the Soviet Union. There were over 30 holidays total....
- Soviet war in Afghanistan
The Soviet War in Afghanistan, also known as the Soviet–Afghan War, was a nine-year conflict involving the Soviet Union, supporting the Marxist government of the Democratic Republic of Afghanistan at their own request, against the Islamist Mujahideen Resistance...
- Sovietization
Sovietization is term that may be used with two distinct meanings:*the adoption of a political system based on the model of soviets .*the adoption of a way of life and mentality modelled after the Soviet Union....
- Totalitarianism
Totalitarianism is a political system where the state, usually under the control of a single party or faction, recognizes no limits to its authority and strives to regulate every aspect of public and private life wherever feasible...
Links
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