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The Union of Soviet Socialist Republics (USSR) (Russian Сою́з
Сове́тских
Социалисти́ческих
Респу́блик (СССР), Soyuz Sovetskikh
Sotsialisticheskikh Respublik (SSSR)), also called Soviet Union
(Сове́тский Сою́з, Sovetsky
Soyuz), was a state in much of the northern region of Eurasia that existed from
1922 until 1991. The list of republics in the Soviet
Union varied over the time. In its final years it consisted of 15 Soviet Socialist Republics (S.S.R.'s). Russia was by
far the largest Republic in the Soviet Union, dominating in nearly all respects: land area, population, economics, and political
influence. The territory of the Soviet Union also varied, and in its most recent times approximately corresponded to that of the
late Imperial Russia, with notable exclusions of Poland and Finland. The political organization of
the country was defined by the only recognized political party, the Communist Party of the Soviet Union.
History
Main article: History of the Soviet
Union.
Revolutionary activity in Russia began with the Decembrist Revolt, uncovered in 1825, and although serfdom was abolished in 1861, its abolition was
achieved on terms unfavorable to the peasants and served to encourage revolutionaries. A parliament, the Duma, was established in 1906, but political and social unrest continued
and was aggravated during World War I by military defeat and food
shortages.
The February Revolution and October Revolutions (see also Russian Revolution) were followed by a period of civil war
(see Russian Civil War), after which communist control
was complete under the Bolsheviks who soon renamed themselves the Communist Party.
The collapse of Tsarist rule was followed by the eviction of the landlord class and the
subdivision of land among peasant families. Poor and middle peasants generally did not benefit from the latter until Lenin
announced the New Economic Policy (NEP), which saw an end to
government requisitioning of food during the civil war. Peasants marketed most of their produce at free prices during the years
of the NEP.
After the death of the Soviet Union's revolutionary founding figure VI Lenin (1924), Joseph Stalin finally emerged as
uncontested leader, defeating Leon Trotsky and ultimately having him exiled
from the Soviet Union in 1929.
Under Stalin, who replaced Lenin's NEP with five year plans and
collective farming, the Soviet Union (established 1922) became a major industrial power, but with effective political opposition eliminated during
the 1930s by purges. World War II
established the Soviet Union as one of the two major world powers, a position maintained for four decades through military
strength, aid to developing countries, and scientific research, especially into space technology and weaponry. Growing tensions
between the Soviet Union and the United States, its former wartime ally
and the other superpower, led to the Cold War.
Communist Party General Secretary
Mikhail Gorbachev promoted Soviet glasnost (openness) and perestroika
(economic restructuring). A U.S.-Soviet summit meeting in 1986 and 1987 and a meeting of U.S. President Ronald Reagan and
Gorbachev in late 1988 brought a reduction in arms in Europe.
The disintegration of Communist allies in Eastern Europe heralded the dissolution of the Soviet Union. As the Russian
republic's Boris Yeltsin eclipsed Soviet leader Mikhail Gorbachev in
power, the Soviet Union was peacefully dissolved in December 1991. Most former Soviet republics joined the Commonwealth of Independent States.
Politics
Main article: Politics of the Soviet Union
According to the most recent Soviet Constitution of 1977, the Soviet Union theoretically
was a federal state consisting of fifteen republics joined together in a voluntary union and the government had a federal structure (see Constitution of the Soviet Union). The
government of the Soviet Union implemented decisions made by the Communist Party (see Organization of
the Communist Party of the USSR).
The organization of the CPSU was based on democratic
centralism, the Leninist method of intraparty decision making. According to democratic centralism, lower party bodies
executed the decisions of higher party bodies. The lowest bodies started from the town and district levels, working up to the
Central Committee,
the highest party body.
The party, using its nomenklatura authority, placed reliable individuals
in leadership posts throughout the government. CPSU bodies monitored the actions of government ministries, agencies, and
legislative organs. The highest government legislative body was the Supreme
Soviet.
The leader of the Communist Party was the General Secretary. The party chief would sometimes hold other positions, such as the
state presidency or premiership (see Leadership of the Soviet Union).
See also: Soviet law
Foreign relations
Main article: Foreign relations of the Soviet Union
The Soviet Union was denied recognition by most countries when it was founded in 1922. The Soviet Union joined the League of Nations in 1934, but was
expelled in 1939 amid the start of the Winter
War. However, World War II established the USSR as one of the two major world powers, a position maintained for four decades
through military strength, aid to developing countries, and scientific research, especially into space technology and
weaponry.
Soviet foreign policy played a major role determining the tenor of international relations for nearly four decades, and the Soviet Union had official relations with
the majority of the nations of the world by the late 1980s. The Soviet Union became a member of the United Nations at its foundation in 1945. It also became one of the five
permanent members of the UN Security Council which gave it
the right to veto any of its resolutions. (see Soviet Union and the United
Nations)
The Politburo of the Communist Party of the Soviet Union determined the major foreign policy guidelines. The overarching
objectives of Soviet foreign policy were national security and the maintenance of hegemony over the Warsaw Pact.
As the Soviet Union achieved rough nuclear parity with the United
States, superpower competition between the Soviet Union and the U.S. (see Cold War) gave way to a more complicated pattern of international relations in which the world was no longer
clearly split into two clearly opposed blocs in the 1960s and 1970s. 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 Treaty). Since the early
1970s, the Soviet Union concluded friendship and cooperation treaties with a number of states in the noncommunist world,
especially among Third World and Non-Aligned Movement states.
After the dissolution of the Soviet Union, Russia claimed to be the legal successor to the Soviet Union on the international
stage. Russian foreign policy repudiated Marxism-Leninism as a
guide to action, soliciting Western support for capitalist reforms in postcommunist Russia.
Republics
Main article: Republics of the Soviet
Union.
In its final decades of its existence, the Soviet Union consisted of 15 Socialist Soviet Republics
(SSR). Some of these had common history and geographical regions, and were referred by group names. These are
Baltic Republics, Transcaucasian Republics, and Central Asian Republics. With the Soviet collapse they all became independent countries, with some still
loosely organized under the heading Commonwealth of Independent States.
Geography
Main article: Geography of the Soviet
Union
The Soviet Union covered the area of the 15 current countries mentioned in the previous section, with a total area of
22,402,200 sq. km.
Economy
Main article: Economy of the Soviet
Union
Based on a system of state ownership, the Soviet economy was controlled through Gosplan (the State Planning Commission) and Gosbank (the State Bank). Since the dissolution of the Soviet Union, all but a handful of the 15
former Soviet republics scrapped their Soviet-era systems of centralized planning and state ownership (see History of post-Communist Russia).
Demographics
Main article: Demographics of
the Soviet Union
The Soviet Union was one of the world's most ethnically diverse countries, with more than 100 distinct national ethnicities
living within its borders. The total population was estimated at 293 million in 1991. The
Soviet Union was so large, in fact, that even after all associated republics gained independence, Russia remains the largest country by area, and remains quite ethnically diverse, including, e.g., minorities of
Tatars, Udmurts, and many other non-Russian
ethnicities.
Culture
Holidays
Related articles
Main article: List of
Soviet Union-related topics.
Further reading
- Brown, Archie, and others, eds. THE CAMBRIDGE ENCYCLOPEDIA OF RUSSIA AND THE SOVIET UNION. Cambridge: Cambridge University
Press, 1982.
- Gilbert, Martin. ATLAS OF RUSSIAN HISTORY. Great Britain: Dorset Press, 1985.
- Goldman, Minton. THE SOVIET UNION AND EASTERN EUROPE. Connecticut: Global Studies, Dushkin Publishing Group, Inc., 1986.
- Howe, G. Melvyn. THE SOVIET UNION: A GEOGRAPHICAL STUDY. Second edition. Great Britain: MacDonald and Evans, Ltd., 1983.
- Katz, Lev, and others. HANDBOOK OF MAJOR SOVIET NATIONALITIES. New York: The Free Press, 1975.
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