Soviet Union

The Soviet Union,[e] officially the Union of Soviet Socialist

Republics[f] (USSR),[g] was a federal socialist state in Union of Soviet Socialist Republics
Northern Eurasia that existed from 1922 to 1991. Nominally Союз Советских Социалистических Республик
a union of multiple national Soviet republics,[h] it was a one- Soyuz Sovetskikh Sotsialisticheskikh Respublik
party state (until 1990) governed by the Communist Party,
1922–1991
with Moscow as its capital in its largest republic, the Russian
SFSR. Other major urban centers were Leningrad (Russian
SFSR), Kiev (Ukrainian SSR), Minsk (Byelorussian SSR),
Tashkent (Uzbek SSR), Alma-Ata (Kazakh SSR) and
Novosibirsk (Russian SFSR). It was the largest country in the
world by surface area,[7] spanning over 10,000 kilometers Flag
(6,200 mi) east to west across 11 time zones and over 7,200 (1955–1991) State emblem
(1956–1991)
kilometers (4,500 mi) north to south. Its territory included
much of Eastern Europe, parts of Northern Europe, and all of Motto:
Northern and Central Asia. Its five climate zones were tundra, "Пролетарии всех стран, соединяйтесь!"
taiga, steppes, desert, and mountains. Its diverse population Proletarii vsekh stran, soyedinyaytes'!
was collectively known as Soviet people. ("Workers of the world, unite!")
Anthem:
The Soviet Union had its roots in the October Revolution of "Интернационал"
1917 when the Bolsheviks, headed by Vladimir Lenin, Internatsional
overthrew the Provisional Government that had earlier ("The Internationale")
(1922–1944)
replaced the monarchy of the Russian Empire. They
established the Russian Soviet Republic,[i] beginning a civil
war between the Bolshevik Red Army and many anti- 0:00 / 0:00
Bolshevik forces across the former Empire, among whom the
largest faction was the White Guard, which engaged in "Государственный гимн СССР"
Gosudarstvennyy gimn SSSR
violent anti-communist repression against the Bolsheviks and ("State Anthem of the USSR")
their worker and peasant supporters known as the White (1944–1991)[1]
Terror. The Red Army expanded and helped local Bolsheviks
take power, establishing soviets, repressing their political 0:00 / 0:00
opponents and rebellious peasants through Red Terror. By
1922, the Bolsheviks had emerged victorious, forming the
Soviet Union with the unification of the Russian,
Transcaucasian, Ukrainian and Byelorussian republics. The
New Economic Policy (NEP), which was introduced by
Lenin, led to a partial return of a free market and private
property; this resulted in a period of economic recovery.

Following Lenin's death in 1924, Joseph Stalin came to

power. Stalin suppressed all political opposition to his rule
inside the Communist Party and initiated a centrally planned
economy. As a result, the country underwent a period of
rapid industrialization and forced collectivization, which led
to significant economic growth, but also led to a man-made
famine in 1932–1933 and expanded the Gulag labour camp The Soviet Union from 1945 to 1991
system founded back in 1918. Stalin also fomented political Capital Moscow
paranoia and conducted the Great Purge to remove his actual and largest city 55°45′N 37°37′E
and perceived opponents from the Party through mass arrests Official languages Russian[a][2]
Recognised Ukrainian · Belarusian ·
of military leaders, Communist Party members, and ordinary regional languages Uzbek · Kazakh ·
citizens alike, who were then sent to correctional labor camps Georgian · Azerbaijani ·
Lithuanian · Moldavian ·
or sentenced to death. Latvian · Kyrgyz · Tajik ·
Armenian · Turkmen ·
On 23 August 1939, after unsuccessful efforts to form an Estonian
anti-fascist alliance with Western powers, the Soviets signed
Minority languages Abkhaz · Bashkir · Buryat
the non-aggression agreement with Nazi Germany. After the · Chechen · Finnish ·
start of World War II, the formally neutral Soviets invaded Volga German · Korean ·
and annexed territories of several Eastern European states, Ossetian · Polish · Tatar ·
including eastern Poland and the Baltic states. In June 1941 various others
the Germans invaded, opening the largest and bloodiest Ethnic groups (1989) 70% East Slavs
theater of war in history. Soviet war casualties accounted for
12% Turkic
the highest proportion of the conflict in the cost of acquiring
18% other
the upper hand over Axis forces at intense battles such as
Stalingrad. Soviet forces eventually captured Berlin and won Religion Secular state[1][2]
World War II in Europe on 9 May 1945. The territory State atheism[b]
overtaken by the Red Army became satellite states of the Demonym(s) Soviet
Eastern Bloc. The Cold War emerged in 1947 as a result of a
post-war Soviet dominance in Eastern Europe, where the Government 1922–1990:
Eastern Bloc confronted the Western Bloc that united in the de facto Unitary one-
North Atlantic Treaty Organization in 1949. party socialist republic

Federal one-party
Following Stalin's death in 1953, a period known as de- socialist republic
Stalinization and the Khrushchev Thaw occurred under the 1990–1991:
leadership of Nikita Khrushchev. The country developed Federal multi-party semi-
rapidly, as millions of peasants were moved into industrialized presidential republic[3]
cities. The USSR took an early lead in the Space Race with Leader
the first ever satellite and the first human spaceflight. In the
• 1922–1924 Vladimir Lenin
1970s, there was a brief détente of relations with the United • 1924–1953 Joseph Stalin
States, but tensions resumed when the Soviet Union deployed • 1953[c] Georgy Malenkov
troops in Afghanistan in 1979. The war drained economic • 1953–1964 Nikita Khrushchev
resources and was matched by an escalation of American • 1964–1982 Leonid Brezhnev
military aid to Mujahideen fighters. • 1982–1984 Yuri Andropov
• 1984–1985 Konstantin Chernenko
In the mid-1980s, the last Soviet leader, Mikhail Gorbachev, • 1985–1991 Mikhail Gorbachev
sought to further reform and liberalize the economy through Head of state
his policies of glasnost and perestroika. The goal was to • 1922–1946 (first) Mikhail Kalinin
preserve the Communist Party while reversing economic • 1988–1991 (last) Mikhail Gorbachev
stagnation. The Cold War ended during his tenure and in Head of government
1989, Warsaw Pact countries in Eastern Europe overthrew • 1922–1924 (first) Vladimir Lenin
their respective Marxist-Leninist regimes. This led to the rise • 1991 (last) Ivan Silayev
of strong nationalist and separatist movements inside the
Legislature Congress of Soviets
USSR as well. Central authorities initiated a referendum— (1922–1936)[d]
boycotted by the Baltic republics, Armenia, Georgia, and Supreme Soviet
Moldova—which resulted in the majority of participating (1936–1991)
citizens voting in favor of preserving the Union as a renewed • Upper house Soviet of Nationalities
federation. In August 1991, a coup d'état was attempted by • Lower house Soviet of the Union
Communist Party hardliners. It failed, with Russian President
Historical era 20th century
Boris Yeltsin playing a high-profile role in facing down the
coup, resulting in the banning of the Communist Party. On 25 • Bolshevik Coup 7 November 1917
December 1991, Gorbachev resigned and the remaining • Established 30 December 1922
twelve constituent republics emerged from the dissolution of • Civil War ended 16 June 1923
the Soviet Union as independent post-Soviet states. The • First constitution 31 January 1924
• Second constitution 5 December 1936
Russian Federation (formerly the Russian SFSR) assumed the
• Operation 22 June 1941
Soviet Union's rights and obligations and is recognized as its Barbarossa
continued legal personality. • Victory in World War II 9 May 1945
The USSR produced many significant social and • De-Stalinization 25 February 1956
technological achievements and innovations of the 20th • Last constitution 9 October 1977
century, including the world's first ministry of health, first • First republic 11 March 1990
human-made satellite, the first humans in space and the first secedes
• Multi-party system 14 March 1990
probe to land on another planet, Venus. The country had the
• August Coup 19–22 August 1991
world's second-largest economy and the largest standing
• Belovezha Accords 8 December 1991
military in the world.[8][9][10] The USSR was recognized as • Proclaimed 26 December 1991[3]
one of the five nuclear weapons states. It was a founding dissolved
permanent member of the United Nations Security Council as
Area
well as a member of the Organization for Security and Co-
• Total 22,402,200 km2
operation in Europe, the World Federation of Trade Unions (8,649,500 sq mi)
and the leading member of the Council for Mutual Economic
Assistance and the Warsaw Pact. Before the dissolution, the Population
country had maintained its status as one of the world's two • 1989 census 286,730,819[4] (3rd)
superpowers for four decades after World War II through its • Density 12.7/km2 (32.9/sq mi)
hegemony in Eastern Europe, military strength, economic GDP (PPP) 1990 estimate
strength, aid to developing countries, and scientific research, • Total $2.7 trillion[5] (2nd)
especially in space technology and weaponry.[11] • Per capita $9,000
GDP (nominal) 1990 estimate
• Total $2.7 trillion[5] (2nd)
Contents • Per capita $9,000 (28th)

Etymology Gini (1989) 0.275

low
Geography
HDI (1990) 0.920[6]
History very high
Revolution and foundation (1917–1927)
Currency Soviet ruble (руб) (SUR)
Stalin era (1927–1953)
Time zone (UTC+2 to +12)
De-Stalinization and Khrushchev Thaw (1953–
1964) Date format dd-mm-yyyy
Era of Stagnation (1964–1985) Driving side right
Perestroika and Glasnost reforms (1985–1991)
Calling code +7
Dissolution and aftermath
ISO 3166 code SU
Foreign relations
Early policies (1919–1939) Internet TLD .su[4]
World War II (1939–1945) Preceded by Succeeded by
Cold War (1945–1991)
1922: 1990:
Politics Russian SFSR Lithuania
Communist Party Ukrainian SSR 1991:
Byelorussian SSR Georgia
Government
Transcaucasian Estonia
Separation of power and reform SFSR Latvia
Judicial system 1924: Ukraine
Bukharan SSR Belarus
Administrative divisions
Khorezm SSR Transnistria
Military 1939: Moldova
Poland Kyrgyzstan
Space program
1940: Uzbekistan
Economy Finland Tajikistan
Energy Romania Armenia
Science and technology Estonia Azerbaijan
Latvia Turkmenistan
Transport
Lithuania Chechnya
Demographics 1944: Russia
Women and fertility Tuva Kazakhstan
 Education 1945:
Germany
Nationalities and ethnic groups 1946:
Health Czechoslovakia
Language
Religion Notes

Legacy 1. ^ Declaration № 142-Н of the Soviet of the

Republics of the Supreme Soviet of the Soviet
In the former Soviet Republics Union, formally establishing the dissolution of
By the left the Soviet Union as a state and subject of
international law (in Russian).
Culture
2. ^ Original lyrics used from 1944 to 1956
Sport praised Stalin. No lyrics from 1956 to 1977.
Revised lyrics from 1977 to 1991 displayed.
Environment
3. ^ All-union official since 1990, constituent
See also republics had the right to declare their own
official languages.
Notes
4. ^ Assigned on 19 September 1990, existing
References onwards.
Bibliography
Further reading
Surveys
Lenin and Leninism
Stalin and Stalinism
World War II
Cold War
Collapse
Social and economic history
Nationalities
Specialty studies
External links

Etymology
The word soviet is derived from the Russian word sovet (Russian: совет), meaning "council", "assembly", "advice",
"harmony", "concord",[note 1] ultimately deriving from the proto-Slavic verbal stem of vět-iti ("to inform"), related to
Slavic věst ("news"), English "wise", the root in "ad-vis-or" (which came to English through French), or the Dutch
weten ("to know"; cf. wetenschap meaning "science"). The word sovietnik means "councillor".[12]

Some organizations in Russian history were called council (Russian: совет). In the Russian Empire, the State Council
which functioned from 1810 to 1917 was referred to as a Council of Ministers after the revolt of 1905.[12]

During the Georgian Affair, Vladimir Lenin envisioned an expression of Great Russian ethnic chauvinism by Joseph
Stalin and his supporters, calling for these nation-states to join Russia as semi-independent parts of a greater union
which he initially named as the Union of Soviet Republics of Europe and Asia (Russian: Союз Советских
Республик Европы и Азии, tr. Soyuz Sovetskikh Respublik Evropy i Azii).[13] Stalin initially resisted the proposal but
ultimately accepted it, although with Lenin's agreement changed the name to the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics
(USSR), albeit all the republics began as socialist soviet and did not change to the other order until 1936. In addition,
in the national languages of several republics, the word council or conciliar in the respective language was only quite
late changed to an adaptation of the Russian soviet and never in others, e.g. Ukraine.

СССР (in Latin alphabet: SSSR) is the abbreviation of USSR in Russian. It is written in Cyrillic alphabets. The
Soviets used the Cyrillic abbreviation so frequently that audiences worldwide became familiar with its meaning.
Notably, both Cyrillic letters used have orthographically-similar (but transliterally distinct) letters in Latin alphabets.
Because of widespread familiarity with the Cyrillic abbreviation, Latin alphabet users in particular almost always use
the orthographically-similar Latin letters C and P (as opposed to the transliteral Latin letters S and R) when rendering
the USSR's native abbreviation.

After СССР, the most common short form names for the Soviet state in Russian were Советский Союз
(transliteration: Sovetskiy Soyuz) which literally means Soviet Union, and also Союз ССР (transliteration: Soyuz SSR)
which, after compensating for grammatical differences, essentially translates to Union of SSR's in English.

In the English language media, the state was referred to as the Soviet Union or the USSR. In other European
languages, the locally translated short forms and abbreviations are usually used such as Union soviétique and URSS in
French, or Sowjetunion and UdSSR in German. In the English-speaking world, the Soviet Union was also informally
called Russia and its citizens Russians,[14] although that was technically incorrect since Russia was only one of the
republics.[15] Such misapplications of the linguistic equivalents to the term Russia and its derivatives were frequent in
other languages as well.

Geography
With an area of 22,402,200 square kilometres (8,649,500 sq mi), the Soviet Union was the world's largest country, a
status that is retained by the Russian Federation.[16] Covering a sixth of Earth's land surface, its size was comparable
to that of North America.[17] Two other successor states, Kazakhstan and Ukraine, rank among the top 10 countries
by land area, and the largest country entirely in Europe, respectively. The European portion accounted for a quarter of
the country's area and was the cultural and economic center. The eastern part in Asia extended to the Pacific Ocean to
the east and Afghanistan to the south, and, except some areas in Central Asia, was much less populous. It spanned
over 10,000 kilometres (6,200 mi) east to west across 11 time zones, and over 7,200 kilometres (4,500 mi) north to
south. It had five climate zones: tundra, taiga, steppes, desert and mountains.

The USSR, like Russia, had the world's longest border, measuring over 60,000 kilometres (37,000 mi), or 11 ⁄2
circumferences of Earth. Two-thirds of it was a coastline. The country bordered Afghanistan, China, Czechoslovakia,
Finland, Hungary, Iran, Mongolia, North Korea, Norway, Poland, Romania, and Turkey from 1945 to 1991. The
Bering Strait separated the USSR from the United States.

The country's highest mountain was Communism Peak (now Ismoil Somoni Peak) in Tajikistan, at 7,495 metres
(24,590 ft). The USSR also included most of the world's largest lakes; the Caspian Sea (shared with Iran), and Lake
Baikal, the world's largest (by volume) and deepest freshwater lake that is also an internal body of water in Russia.

History

Revolution and foundation (1917–1927)

Modern revolutionary activity in the Russian Empire began with the 1825 Decembrist revolt. Although serfdom was
abolished in 1861, it was done on terms unfavorable to the peasants and served to encourage revolutionaries. A
parliament—the State Duma—was established in 1906 after the Russian Revolution of 1905, but Tsar Nicholas II
resisted attempts to move from absolute to a constitutional monarchy. Social unrest continued and was aggravated
during World War I by military defeat and food shortages in major cities.

A spontaneous popular uprising in Petrograd, in response to the wartime decay of Russia's economy and morale,
culminated in the February Revolution and the toppling of Nicholas II and the imperial government in March 1917.
The tsarist autocracy was replaced by the Russian Provisional Government, which intended to conduct elections to the
Russian Constituent Assembly and to continue fighting on the side of the Entente in World War I.

At the same time, workers' councils, known in Russian as "Soviets", sprang up across the country. The Bolsheviks,
led by Vladimir Lenin, pushed for socialist revolution in the Soviets and on the streets. On 7 November 1917, the Red
Guards stormed the Winter Palace in Petrograd, ending the rule of the Provisional Government and leaving all political
power to the Soviets.[18] This event would later be officially known in Soviet bibliographies as the Great October
Socialist Revolution. In December, the Bolsheviks signed an armistice with the Central Powers, though by February
1918, fighting had resumed. In March, the Soviets ended involvement in the war and signed the Treaty of Brest-
Litovsk.

A long and bloody Civil War ensued between the Reds and the Whites, starting in 1917 and ending in 1923 with the
Reds' victory. It included foreign intervention, the execution of the former tsar and his family, and the famine of 1921,
which killed about five million people.[19] In March 1921, during a related conflict with Poland, the Peace of Riga
was signed, splitting disputed territories in Belarus and Ukraine between the Republic of Poland and Soviet Russia.
Soviet Russia had to resolve similar conflicts with the newly established republics of Estonia, Finland, Latvia, and
Lithuania.

On 28 December 1922, a conference of plenipotentiary delegations from the Russian SFSR, the Transcaucasian
SFSR, the Ukrainian SSR and the Byelorussian SSR approved the Treaty on the Creation of the USSR[20] and the
Declaration of the Creation of the USSR, forming the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics.[21] These two documents
were confirmed by the first Congress of Soviets of the USSR and signed by the heads of the delegations,[22] Mikhail
Kalinin, Mikhail Tskhakaya, Mikhail Frunze, Grigory Petrovsky, and Alexander Chervyakov,[23] on 30 December
1922. The formal proclamation was made from the stage of the Bolshoi Theatre.

An 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 done according to the Bolshevik Initial Decrees, government documents signed by
Vladimir Lenin. One of the most prominent breakthroughs was the GOELRO plan, which envisioned a major
restructuring of the Soviet economy based on total electrification of the country.[24] The plan became the prototype for
subsequent Five-Year Plans and was fulfilled by 1931.[25] After the economic policy of "War communism" during the
Russian Civil War, as a prelude to fully developing socialism in the country, the Soviet government permitted some
private enterprise to coexist alongside nationalized industry in the 1920s, and total food requisition in the countryside
was replaced by a food tax.

From its creation, the government in the Soviet Union was based on the one-party rule of the Communist Party
(Bolsheviks).[26] The stated purpose was to prevent the return of capitalist exploitation, and that the principles of
democratic centralism would be the most effective in representing the people's will in a practical manner. The debate
over the future of the economy provided the background for a power struggle in the years after Lenin's death in 1924.
Initially, Lenin was to be replaced by a "troika" consisting of Grigory Zinoviev of the Ukrainian SSR, Lev Kamenev
of the Russian SFSR, and Joseph Stalin of the Transcaucasian SFSR.

On 1 February 1924, the USSR was recognized by the United Kingdom. The same year, a Soviet Constitution was
approved, legitimizing the December 1922 union. Despite the foundation of the Soviet state as a federative entity of
many constituent republics, each with its own political and administrative entities, the term "Soviet Russia" – strictly
applicable only to the Russian Federative Socialist Republic – was often applied to the entire country by non-Soviet
writers and politicians.

Stalin era (1927–1953)

On 3 April 1922, Stalin was named the General Secretary of the Communist
Party of the Soviet Union. Lenin had appointed Stalin the head of the
Workers' and Peasants' Inspectorate, which gave Stalin considerable power.
By gradually consolidating his influence and isolating and outmanoeuvring
his rivals within the party, Stalin became the undisputed leader of the country
and, by the end of the 1920s, established a totalitarian rule. In October 1927,
Zinoviev and Leon Trotsky were expelled from the Central Committee and
forced into exile.
Lenin, Trotsky and Kamenev
celebrating the second anniversary In 1928, Stalin introduced the first five-year plan for building a socialist
of the October Revolution economy. In place of the internationalism expressed by Lenin throughout the
Revolution, it aimed to build Socialism in One Country. In industry, the state
assumed control over all existing enterprises and undertook an intensive
program of industrialization. In agriculture, rather than adhering to the "lead by example" policy advocated by
 Lenin,[29] forced collectivization of
farms was implemented all over the
country.

Famines ensued as a result, causing

deaths estimated at three to seven
million; surviving kulaks were
persecuted, and many were sent to
Gulags to do forced labor.[30][31]
Social upheaval continued in the
The 1921–22 Povolzhye famine mid-1930s. Despite the turmoil of the
killed an estimated 5 million people. mid-to-late 1930s, the country
[27][28] developed a robust industrial Construction of the bridge through
economy in the years preceding the Kolyma (part of the Road of
Bones from Magadan to Jakutsk) by
World War II.
the workers of Dalstroy
Closer cooperation between the USSR and the West developed in the early
1930s. From 1932 to 1934, the country participated in the World
Disarmament Conference. In 1933, diplomatic relations between the United
States and the USSR were established when in November, the newly elected
President of the United States, Franklin D. Roosevelt, chose to recognize
Stalin's Communist government formally and negotiated a new trade
agreement between the two countries.[32] In September 1934, the country
joined the League of Nations. After the Spanish Civil War broke out in 1936,
the USSR actively supported the Republican forces against the Nationalists,
who were supported by Fascist Italy and Nazi Germany.[33]
Five Marshals of the Soviet Union
In December 1936, Stalin unveiled a new constitution that was praised by in 1935. Only two of them –
supporters around the world as the most democratic constitution imaginable, Budyonny and Voroshilov – survived
though there was some skepticism.[j] Stalin's Great Purge resulted in the Great Purge. Blyukher, Yegorov and
detainment or execution of many "Old Bolsheviks" who had participated in Tukhachevsky were executed.
the October Revolution with Lenin. According to declassified Soviet
archives, the NKVD arrested more than one and a half million people in 1937
and 1938, of whom 681,692 were shot.[35] Over those two years, there were an average of over one thousand
executions a day.[36][k]

In 1939, the Soviet Union made a dramatic shift toward Nazi Germany. Almost a year after Britain and France had
concluded the Munich Agreement with Germany, the Soviet Union made agreements with Germany as well, both
militarily and economically during extensive talks. The two countries concluded the Molotov–Ribbentrop Pact and the
German–Soviet Commercial Agreement in August 1939. The former made possible the Soviet occupation of
Lithuania, Latvia, Estonia, Bessarabia, northern Bukovina, and eastern Poland. In late November, unable to coerce the
Republic of Finland by diplomatic means into moving its border 25 kilometres (16 mi) back from Leningrad, Stalin
ordered the invasion of Finland. In the east, the Soviet military won several decisive victories during border clashes
with the Empire of Japan in 1938 and 1939. However, in April 1941, the USSR signed the Soviet–Japanese
Neutrality Pact with Japan, recognizing the territorial integrity of Manchukuo, a Japanese puppet state.

World War II

Germany broke the Molotov–Ribbentrop Pact and invaded the Soviet Union on 22 June 1941 starting what was
known in the USSR as the Great Patriotic War. The Red Army stopped the seemingly invincible German Army at the
Battle of Moscow, aided by an unusually harsh winter. The Battle of Stalingrad, which lasted from late 1942 to early
1943, dealt a severe blow to Germany from which they never fully recovered and became a turning point in the war.
After Stalingrad, Soviet forces drove through Eastern Europe to Berlin before Germany surrendered in 1945. The
German Army suffered 80% of its military deaths in the Eastern Front.[40] Harry Hopkins, a close foreign policy
advisor to Franklin D. Roosevelt, spoke on 10 August 1943 of the USSR's decisive role in the war.[l]
 In the same year, the USSR, in
fulfilment of its agreement with the
Allies at the Yalta Conference,
denounced the Soviet–Japanese
Neutrality Pact in April 1945[42] and
The Battle of Stalingrad, considered invaded Manchukuo and other
by many historians as a decisive Japan-controlled territories on 9
turning point of World War II August 1945.[43] This conflict ended
with a decisive Soviet victory,
contributing to the unconditional
surrender of Japan and the end of World War II. From left to right, the Soviet General
Secretary Joseph Stalin, US
The USSR suffered greatly in the war, losing around 27 million people.[44] President Franklin D. Roosevelt and
Approximately 2.8 million Soviet POWs died of starvation, mistreatment, or British Prime Minister Winston
Churchill confer in Tehran, 1943
executions in just eight months of 1941–42.[45][46] During the war, the
country together with the United States, the United Kingdom and China were
considered the Big Four Allied powers,[47] and later became the Four
Policemen that formed the basis of the United Nations Security Council.[48] It emerged as a superpower in the post-
war period. Once denied diplomatic recognition by the Western world, the USSR had official relations with practically
every country by the late 1940s. A member of the United Nations at its foundation in 1945, the country became one of
the five permanent members of the United Nations Security Council, which gave it the right to veto any of its
resolutions.

Cold War

During the immediate post-war period, the Soviet Union rebuilt and
expanded its economy, while maintaining its strictly centralized control. It
took effective control over most of the countries of Eastern Europe (except
Yugoslavia and later Albania), turning them into satellite states. The USSR
bound its satellite states in a military alliance, the Warsaw Pact, in 1955, and
an economic organization, Council for Mutual Economic Assistance or
Comecon, a counterpart to the European Economic Community (EEC), from
1949 to 1991.[49] The USSR concentrated on its own recovery, seizing and
transferring most of Germany's industrial plants, and it exacted war
reparations from East Germany, Hungary, Romania, and Bulgaria using
Soviet-dominated joint enterprises. It also instituted trading arrangements
deliberately designed to favor the country. Moscow controlled the Communist Map showing greatest territorial
parties that ruled the satellite states, and they followed orders from the extent of the Soviet Union and the
Kremlin.[n] Later, the Comecon supplied aid to the eventually victorious states that it dominated politically,
Communist Party of China, and its influence grew elsewhere in the world. economically and militarily in 1960,
Fearing its ambitions, the Soviet Union's wartime allies, the United Kingdom after the Cuban Revolution of 1959
and the United States, became its enemies. In the ensuing Cold War, the two but before the official Sino-Soviet
sides clashed indirectly in proxy wars. split of 1961 (total area: c.
35,000,000 km2)[m]

De-Stalinization and Khrushchev Thaw (1953–1964)

Stalin died on 5 March 1953. Without a mutually agreeable successor, the highest Communist Party officials initially
opted to rule the Soviet Union jointly through a troika headed by Georgy Malenkov. This did not last, however, and
Nikita Khrushchev eventually won the ensuing power struggle by the mid-1950s. In 1956, he denounced Stalin's use
of repression and proceeded to ease controls over the party and society. This was known as de-Stalinization.

Moscow considered Eastern Europe to be a critically vital buffer zone for the forward defence of its western borders,
in case of another major invasion such as the German invasion of 1941. For this reason, the USSR sought to cement
its control of the region by transforming the Eastern European countries into satellite states, dependent upon and
 subservient to its leadership. Soviet military force was used to suppress anti-
Stalinist uprisings in Hungary and Poland in 1956.

In the late 1950s, a confrontation with China regarding the Soviet

rapprochement with the West, and what Mao Zedong perceived as
Khrushchev's revisionism, led to the Sino–Soviet split. This resulted in a
break throughout the global Marxist–Leninist movement, with the
governments in Albania, Cambodia and Somalia choosing to ally with China.

During this period of the late 1950s and early 1960s, the USSR continued to
Soviet leader Nikita Khrushchev (left) realize scientific and technological exploits in the Space Race, rivaling the
with US President John F. Kennedy United States: launching the first artificial satellite, Sputnik 1 in 1957; a living
in Vienna, 3 June 1961 dog named Laika in 1957; the first human being, Yuri Gagarin in 1961; the
first woman in space, Valentina Tereshkova in 1963; Alexei Leonov, the first
person to walk in space in 1965; the first soft landing on the Moon by
spacecraft Luna 9 in 1966; and the first Moon rovers, Lunokhod 1 and Lunokhod 2.[51]

Khrushchev initiated "The Thaw", a complex shift in political, cultural and economic life in the country. This included
some openness and contact with other nations and new social and economic policies with more emphasis on
commodity goods, allowing a dramatic rise in living standards while maintaining high levels of economic growth.
Censorship was relaxed as well. Khrushchev's reforms in agriculture and administration, however, were generally
unproductive. In 1962, he precipitated a crisis with the United States over the Soviet deployment of nuclear missiles in
Cuba. An agreement was made with the United States to remove nuclear missiles from both Cuba and Turkey,
concluding the crisis. This event caused Khrushchev much embarrassment and loss of prestige, resulting in his
removal from power in 1964.

Era of Stagnation (1964–1985)

Following the ousting of Khrushchev, another period of collective leadership

ensued, consisting of Leonid Brezhnev as General Secretary, Alexei Kosygin
as Premier and Nikolai Podgorny as Chairman of the Presidium, lasting until
Brezhnev established himself in the early 1970s as the preeminent Soviet
leader.

In 1968, the Soviet Union and Warsaw Pact allies invaded Czechoslovakia to
halt the Prague Spring reforms. In the aftermath, Brezhnev justified the
Soviet General Secretary Leonid invasion along with the earlier invasions of Eastern European states by
Brezhnev and US President Jimmy introducing the Brezhnev Doctrine, which claimed the right of the Soviet
Carter sign the SALT II arms Union to violate the sovereignty of any country that attempted to replace
limitation treaty in Vienna on 18 June Marxism–Leninism with capitalism.
1979
Brezhnev presided throughout détente with the West that resulted in treaties
on armament control (SALT I, SALT II, Anti-Ballistic Missile Treaty) while
at the same time building up Soviet military might.

In October 1977, the third Soviet Constitution was unanimously adopted. 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", with an ageing and ossified top political leadership. This period is also
known as the Era of Stagnation, a period of adverse economic, political, and social effects in the country, which began
during the rule of Brezhnev and continued under his successors Yuri Andropov and Konstantin Chernenko.

In late 1979, the Soviet Union's military intervened in the ongoing civil war in neighboring Afghanistan, effectively
ending a détente with the West.

Perestroika and Glasnost reforms (1985–1991)

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 Arabia to lower the price of oil to the point where the Soviets could not
make a profit selling their oil, and resulted in the depletion of the country's
hard currency reserves.[52]

Brezhnev's next two successors, transitional figures with deep roots in his
Mikhail Gorbachev in one-to-one
tradition, did not last long. Yuri Andropov was 68 years old and Konstantin
discussions with US President
Chernenko 72 when they assumed power; both died in less than two years. In
Ronald Reagan
an attempt to avoid a third short-lived leader, in 1985, the Soviets turned to
the next generation and selected Mikhail Gorbachev. He made significant
changes in the economy and party leadership, called perestroika. His policy
of glasnost freed public access to information after decades of heavy
government censorship. Gorbachev also moved to end the Cold War. In
1988, the USSR abandoned its war in Afghanistan and began to withdraw its
forces. In the following year, Gorbachev refused to interfere in the internal
affairs of the Soviet satellite states, which paved the way for the Revolutions
of 1989. With the tearing down of the Berlin Wall and with East and West
Germany pursuing unification, the Iron Curtain between the West and Soviet-
controlled regions came down.
T-80 tank on Red Square during the
At the same time, the Soviet republics started legal moves towards potentially
August Coup
declaring sovereignty over their territories, citing the freedom to secede in
Article 72 of the USSR constitution.[53] On 7 April 1990, a law was passed
allowing a republic to secede if more than two-thirds of its residents voted for
it in a referendum.[54] 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 convened a newly elected Congress of People's Deputies. Boris Yeltsin
was elected its chairman. On 12 June 1990, the Congress declared Russia's sovereignty over its territory and
proceeded to pass laws that attempted to supersede some of the Soviet laws. After a landslide victory of Sąjūdis in
Lithuania, that country declared its independence restored on 11 March 1990.

A referendum for the preservation of the USSR was held on 17 March 1991 in nine republics (the remainder having
boycotted the vote), with the majority of the population in those republics voting for preservation of the Union. The
referendum gave Gorbachev a minor boost. In the summer of 1991, the New Union Treaty, which would have turned
the country into a much looser Union, was agreed upon by eight republics. The signing of the treaty, however, was
interrupted by the August Coup—an attempted coup d'état by hardline 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 was seen as a hero for his decisive actions, while Gorbachev's power was effectively ended. The
balance of power tipped significantly towards the republics. In August 1991, Latvia and Estonia immediately declared
the restoration of their full independence (following Lithuania's 1990 example). Gorbachev resigned as general
secretary in late August, and soon afterwards, the party's activities were indefinitely suspended—effectively ending its
rule. By the fall, Gorbachev could no longer influence events outside Moscow, and he was being challenged even
there by Yeltsin, who had been elected President of Russia in July 1991.

Dissolution and aftermath

The remaining 12 republics continued discussing new, increasingly looser, models of the Union. However, by
December all except Russia and Kazakhstan had formally declared independence. During this time, Yeltsin took over
what remained of the Soviet government, including the Moscow Kremlin. The final blow was struck on 1 December
when Ukraine, the second-most powerful republic, voted overwhelmingly for independence. Ukraine's secession
ended any realistic chance of the country staying together even on a limited scale.
On 8 December 1991, the presidents of Russia, Ukraine and Belarus
(formerly Byelorussia), signed the Belavezha Accords, which declared the
Soviet Union dissolved and established the Commonwealth of Independent
States (CIS) in its place. While doubts remained over the authority of the
accords to do this, on 21 December 1991, the representatives of all Soviet
republics except Georgia signed the Alma-Ata Protocol, which confirmed the
accords. On 25 December 1991, Gorbachev resigned as the President of the
USSR, declaring the office extinct. He turned the powers that had been
vested in the presidency over to Yeltsin. That night, the Soviet flag was
lowered for the last time, and the Russian tricolor was raised in its place. Changes in national boundaries after
the end of the Cold War
The following day, the Supreme Soviet, the highest governmental body,
voted both itself and the country out of existence. This is generally
recognized as marking the official, final dissolution of the Soviet Union as a
functioning state, and the end of the Cold War.[55] The Soviet Army initially
remained under overall CIS command but was soon absorbed into the
different military forces of the newly independent states. The few remaining
Soviet institutions that had not been taken over by Russia ceased to function
by the end of 1991.

Following the dissolution, Russia was internationally recognized[56] as its Internally displaced Azerbaijanis
legal successor on the international stage. To that end, Russia voluntarily from Nagorno-Karabakh, 1993
accepted all Soviet foreign debt and claimed Soviet overseas properties as its
own. Under the 1992 Lisbon Protocol, Russia also agreed to receive all
nuclear weapons remaining in the territory of other former Soviet republics.
Since then, the Russian Federation has assumed the Soviet Union's rights and
obligations. Ukraine has refused to recognize exclusive Russian claims to
succession of the USSR and claimed such status for Ukraine as well, which
was codified in Articles 7 and 8 of its 1991 law On Legal Succession of
Ukraine. Since its independence in 1991, Ukraine has continued to pursue
claims against Russia in foreign courts, seeking to recover its share of the
foreign property that was owned by the USSR.

The dissolution was followed by a severe drop in economic and social

conditions in post-Soviet states,[57][58] including a rapid increase in
poverty,[59][60][61][62] crime,[63][64] corruption,[65][66] unemployment,[67]
homelessness,[68][69] rates of disease,[70][71][72] infant mortality and domestic
violence,[73] as well as demographic losses[74] and income inequality and the Country emblems of the Soviet
rise of an oligarchical class,[75][59] along with decreases in calorie intake, life Republics before and after the
expectancy, adult literacy, and income. [76] Between 1988/1989 and dissolution of the Soviet Union (note
1993/1995, the Gini ratio increased by an average of 9 points for all former that the Transcaucasian Soviet
socialist countries. [59] The economic shocks that accompanied wholesale Federative Socialist Republic (fifth in
privatization were associated with sharp increases in mortality. Data shows the second row) no longer exists as
a political entity of any kind and the
Russia, Kazakhstan, Latvia, Lithuania and Estonia saw a tripling of
emblem is unofficial)
unemployment and a 42% increase in male death rates between 1991 and
1994.[77][78] In the following decades, only five or six of the post-communist
states are on a path to joining the wealthy capitalist West while most are
falling behind, some to such an extent that it will take over fifty years to catch up to where they were before the fall of
the Soviet Bloc.[79][80]

In summing up the international ramifications of these events, Vladislav Zubok stated: "The collapse of the Soviet
empire was an event of epochal geopolitical, military, ideological, and economic significance."[81] Before the
dissolution, the country had maintained its status as one of the world's two superpowers for four decades after World
War II through its hegemony in Eastern Europe, military strength, economic strength, aid to developing countries, and
scientific research, especially in space technology and weaponry.[11]
Post-Soviet states

The analysis of the succession of states for the 15 post-Soviet states is complex. The Russian Federation is seen as the
legal continuator state and is for most purposes the heir to the Soviet Union. It retained ownership of all former Soviet
embassy properties, as well as the old Soviet UN membership and permanent membership on the Security Council.

Of the two other co-founding states of the USSR at the time of the dissolution, Ukraine was the only one that had
passed laws, similar to Russia, that it is a state-successor of both the Ukrainian SSR and the USSR.[82] Soviet treaties
laid groundwork for Ukraine's future foreign agreements as well as they led to Ukraine agreeing to undertake 16.37%
of debts of the Soviet Union for which it was going to receive its share of USSR's foreign property. Although it had a
tough position at the time, due to Russia's position as a "single continuation of the USSR" that became widely
accepted in the West as well as a constant pressure from the Western countries, allowed Russia to dispose state
property of USSR abroad and conceal information about it. Due to that Ukraine never ratified "zero option"
agreement that Russian Federation had signed with other former Soviet republics, as it denied disclosing of
information about Soviet Gold Reserves and its Diamond Fund.[83][84] The dispute over former Soviet property and
assets between the two former republics is still ongoing:

The conflict is unsolvable. We can continue to poke Kiev handouts in the calculation of "solve the
problem", only it won't be solved. Going to a trial is also pointless: for a number of European countries
this is a political issue, and they will make a decision clearly in whose favor. What to do in this situation is
an open question. Search for non-trivial solutions. But we must remember that in 2014, with the filing of
the then Ukrainian Prime Minister Yatsenyuk, litigation with Russia resumed in 32 countries.

— Sergey Markov[85]

Similar situation occurred with restitution of cultural property. Although on 14 February 1992 Russia and other former
Soviet republics signed agreement "On the return of cultural and historic property to the origin states" in Minsk, it was
halted by Russian State Duma that had eventually passed "Federal Law on Cultural Valuables Displaced to the USSR
as a Result of the Second World War and Located on the Territory of the Russian Federation" which made restitution
currently impossible.[86]

There are additionally four states that claim independence from the other internationally recognised post-Soviet states
but possess limited international recognition: Abkhazia, Nagorno-Karabakh, South Ossetia and Transnistria. The
Chechen separatist movement of the Chechen Republic of Ichkeria lacks any international recognition.

Foreign relations
During his rule, Stalin always made the final policy decisions. Otherwise,
Soviet foreign policy was set by the commission on the Foreign Policy of the
Central Committee of the Communist Party of the Soviet Union, or by the
party's highest body the Politburo. Operations were handled by the separate
Ministry of Foreign Affairs. It was known as the People's Commissariat for
Foreign Affairs (or Narkomindel), until 1946. The most influential
spokesmen were Georgy Chicherin (1872–1936), Maxim Litvinov (1876–
1951), Vyacheslav Molotov (1890–1986), Andrey Vyshinsky (1883–1954)
and Andrei Gromyko (1909–1989). Intellectuals were based in the Moscow
State Institute of International Relations.[87] 1960s Cuba-Soviet friendship poster
with Fidel Castro and Nikita
Comintern (1919–1943), or Communist International, was an Khrushchev
international communist organization based in the Kremlin that
advocated world communism. The Comintern intended to
"struggle by all available means, including armed force, for the overthrow of the international
bourgeoisie and the creation of an international Soviet republic as a transition stage to the complete
abolition of the state".[88] It was abolished as a conciliatory measure toward Britain and the United
States.[89]
 Comecon, the Council for Mutual Economic Assistance (Russian:
Совет Экономической Взаимопомощи, Sovet Ekonomicheskoy
Vzaimopomoshchi, СЭВ, SEV) was an economic organization
from 1949 to 1991 under Soviet control that comprised the
countries of the Eastern Bloc along with several communist states
elsewhere in the world. Moscow was concerned about the
Marshall Plan, and Comecon was meant to prevent countries in
the Soviets' sphere of influence from moving towards that of the
Americans and Southeast Asia. Comecon was the Eastern Bloc's
reply to the formation in Western Europe of the Organization for
European Economic Co-Operation (OEEC),[90][91]
The Warsaw Pact was a collective defence alliance formed in
1955 among the USSR and its satellite states in Eastern Europe
during the Cold War. The Warsaw Pact was the military
complement to the Comecon, the regional economic organization
for the socialist states of Central and Eastern Europe. The
Warsaw Pact was created in reaction to the integration of West
Soviet stamp 1974 for friendship
Germany into NATO.[92]
between USSR and India as both
The Cominform (1947–1956), informally the Communist nations shared strong ties, although
Information Bureau and officially the Information Bureau of the India was a prominent member of
Communist and Workers' Parties, was the first official agency of Non-Aligned Movement
the international Marxist-Leninist movement since the dissolution
of the Comintern in 1943. Its role was to coordinate actions
between Marxist-Leninist parties under Soviet direction. Stalin
used it to order Western European communist parties to abandon
their exclusively parliamentarian line and instead concentrate on
politically impeding the operations of the Marshall Plan.[93] It also
coordinated international aid to Marxist-Leninist insurgents during
the Greek Civil War in 1947–1949.[94] It expelled Yugoslavia in
1948 after Josip Broz Tito insisted on an independent program. Its
newspaper, For a Lasting Peace, for a People's Democracy!,
promoted Stalin's positions. The Cominform's concentration on
Europe meant a deemphasis on world revolution in Soviet foreign Gerald Ford, Andrei Gromyko, Leonid
policy. By enunciating a uniform ideology, it allowed the Brezhnev and Henry Kissinger
speaking informally at the
constituent parties to focus on personalities rather than issues.[95]
Vladivostok Summit in 1974

Early policies (1919–1939)

The Marxist-Leninist leadership of the Soviet Union intensely debated

foreign policy issues and change directions several times. Even after Stalin
assumed dictatorial control in the late 1920s, there were debates, and he
frequently changed positions.[96]

During the country's early period, it was assumed that Communist revolutions
would break out soon in every major industrial country, and it was the Soviet
responsibility to assist them. The Comintern was the weapon of choice. A Mikhail Gorbachev and George H. W.
few revolutions did break out, but they were quickly suppressed (the longest Bush signing bilateral documents
during Gorbachev's official visit to
lasting one was in Hungary)—the Hungarian Soviet Republic—lasted only
the United States in 1990
from 21 March 1919 to 1 August 1919. The Russian Bolsheviks were in no
position to give any help.

By 1921, Lenin, Trotsky, and Stalin realized that capitalism had stabilized itself in Europe and there would not be any
widespread revolutions anytime soon. It became the duty of the Russian Bolsheviks to protect what they had in
Russia, and avoid military confrontations that might destroy their bridgehead. Russia was now a pariah state, along
with Germany. The two came to terms in 1922 with the Treaty of Rapallo that settled
long-standing grievances. At the same time, the two countries secretly set up training
programs for the illegal German army and air force operations at hidden camps in the
USSR.[97]

Moscow eventually stopped threatening other states, and instead worked to open
peaceful relationships in terms of trade, and diplomatic recognition. The United
Kingdom dismissed the warnings of Winston Churchill and a few others about a
continuing Marxist-Leninist threat, and opened trade relations and de facto diplomatic
recognition in 1922. There was hope for a settlement of the pre-war Tsarist debts, but
it was repeatedly postponed. Formal recognition came when the new Labour Party
came to power in 1924.[98] All the other countries followed suit in opening trade
relations. Henry Ford opened large-scale business relations with the Soviets in the late
1920s, hoping that it would lead to long-term peace. Finally, in 1933, the United
1987 Soviet stamp
States officially recognized the USSR, a decision backed by the public opinion and
especially by US business interests that expected an opening of a new profitable
market.[99]

In the late 1920s and early 1930s, Stalin ordered Marxist-Leninist parties across the world to strongly oppose non-
Marxist political parties, labor unions or other organizations on the left. Stalin reversed himself in 1934 with the
Popular Front program that called on all Marxist parties to join together with all anti-Fascist political, labor, and
organizational forces that were opposed to fascism, especially of the Nazi variety.[100][101]

In 1939, half a year after the Munich Agreement, the USSR attempted to form an anti-Nazi alliance with France and
Britain.[102] Adolf Hitler proposed a better deal, which would give the USSR control over much of Eastern Europe
through the Molotov–Ribbentrop Pact. In September, Germany invaded Poland, and the USSR also invaded later that
month, resulting in the partition of Poland. In response, Britain and France declared war on Germany, marking the
beginning of World War II.[103]

World War II (1939–1945)

Cold War (1945–1991)

Politics
There were three power hierarchies in the Soviet Union: the legislature represented by the Supreme Soviet of the
Soviet Union, the government represented by the Council of Ministers, and the Communist Party of the Soviet Union
(CPSU), the only legal party and the final policymaker in the country.[104]

Communist Party

At the top of the Communist Party was the Central Committee, elected at
Party Congresses and Conferences. In turn, the Central Committee voted for
a Politburo (called the Presidium between 1952 and 1966), Secretariat and the
General Secretary (First Secretary from 1953 to 1966), the de facto highest
office in the Soviet Union.[105] Depending on the degree of power
consolidation, it was either the Politburo as a collective body or the General
Secretary, who always was one of the Politburo members, that effectively led
Military parade on the Red Square in the party and the country[106] (except for the period of the highly
Moscow, 18 September 1990 personalized authority of Stalin, exercised directly through his position in the
Council of Ministers rather than the Politburo after 1941).[107] They were not
controlled by the general party membership, as the key principle of the party organization was democratic centralism,
demanding strict subordination to higher bodies, and elections went uncontested, endorsing the candidates proposed
from above.[108]

The Communist Party maintained its dominance over the state mainly through its control over the system of
appointments. All senior government officials and most deputies of the Supreme Soviet were members of the CPSU.
Of the party heads themselves, Stalin (1941–1953) and Khrushchev (1958–1964) were Premiers. Upon the forced
retirement of Khrushchev, the party leader was prohibited from this kind of double membership,[109] but the later
General Secretaries for at least some part of their tenure occupied the mostly ceremonial position of Chairman of the
Presidium of the Supreme Soviet, the nominal head of state. The institutions at lower levels were overseen and at
times supplanted by primary party organizations.[110]

However, in practice the degree of control the party was able to exercise over the state bureaucracy, particularly after
the death of Stalin, was far from total, with the bureaucracy pursuing different interests that were at times in conflict
with the party.[111] Nor was the party itself monolithic from top to bottom, although factions were officially
banned.[112]

Government

The Supreme Soviet (successor of the Congress of Soviets) was nominally

the highest state body for most of the Soviet history,[113] at first acting as a
rubber stamp institution, approving and implementing all decisions made by
the party. However, its powers and functions were extended in the late 1950s,
1960s and 1970s, including the creation of new state commissions and
committees. It gained additional powers relating to the approval of the Five-
Year Plans and the government budget.[114] The Supreme Soviet elected a
Presidium (successor of the Central Executive Committee) to wield its power
The Grand Kremlin Palace, the seat between plenary sessions,[115] ordinarily held twice a year, and appointed the
of the Supreme Soviet of the Soviet Supreme Court,[116] the Procurator General[117] and the Council of Ministers
Union, 1982 (known before 1946 as the Council of People's Commissars), headed by the
Chairman (Premier) and managing an enormous bureaucracy responsible for
the administration of the economy and society.[115] State and party structures
of the constituent republics largely emulated the structure of the central institutions, although the Russian SFSR, unlike
the other constituent republics, for most of its history had no republican branch of the CPSU, being ruled directly by
the union-wide party until 1990. Local authorities were organized likewise into party committees, local Soviets and
executive committees. While the state system was nominally federal, the party was unitary.[118]

The state security police (the KGB and its predecessor agencies) played an important role in Soviet politics. It was
instrumental in the Great Purge,[119] but was brought under strict party control after Stalin's death. Under Yuri
Andropov, the KGB engaged in the suppression of political dissent and maintained an extensive network of
informers, reasserting itself as a political actor to some extent independent of the party-state structure,[120] culminating
in the anti-corruption campaign targeting high-ranking party officials in the late 1970s and early 1980s.[121]

Separation of power and reform

The constitution, which was promulgated in 1924, 1936 and 1977,[122] did not limit state power. No formal separation
of powers existed between the Party, Supreme Soviet and Council of Ministers[123] that represented executive and
legislative branches of the government. The system was governed less by statute than by informal conventions, and no
settled mechanism of leadership succession existed. Bitter and at times deadly power struggles took place in the
Politburo after the deaths of Lenin[124] and Stalin,[125] as well as after Khrushchev's dismissal,[126] itself due to a
decision by both the Politburo and the Central Committee.[127] All leaders of the Communist Party before Gorbachev
died in office, except Georgy Malenkov[128] and Khrushchev, both dismissed from the party leadership amid internal
struggle within the party.[127]
Between 1988 and 1990, facing considerable opposition, Mikhail Gorbachev
enacted reforms shifting power away from the highest bodies of the party and
making the Supreme Soviet less dependent on them. The Congress of
People's Deputies was established, the majority of whose members were
directly elected in competitive elections held in March 1989. The Congress
now elected the Supreme Soviet, which became a full-time parliament, and
much stronger than before. For the first time since the 1920s, it refused to
rubber stamp proposals from the party and Council of Ministers.[129] In 1990,
Gorbachev introduced and assumed the position of the President of the Soviet
Nationalist anti-government riots in
Union, concentrated power in his executive office, independent of the party, Dushanbe, Tajikistan, 1990
and subordinated the government,[130] now renamed the Cabinet of Ministers
of the USSR, to himself.[131]

Tensions grew between the Union-wide authorities under Gorbachev, reformists led in Russia by Boris Yeltsin and
controlling the newly elected Supreme Soviet of the Russian SFSR, and communist hardliners. On 19–21 August
1991, a group of hardliners staged a coup attempt. The coup failed, and the State Council of the Soviet Union became
the highest organ of state power "in the period of transition".[132] Gorbachev resigned as General Secretary, only
remaining President for the final months of the existence of the USSR.[133]

Judicial system

The judiciary was not independent of the other branches of government. The Supreme Court supervised the lower
courts (People's Court) 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 used the
inquisitorial system of Roman law, where the judge, procurator, and defence attorney collaborate to establish the
truth.[134]

Administrative divisions
Constitutionally, the USSR was a federation of constituent Union Republics, which were either unitary states, such as
Ukraine or Byelorussia (SSRs), or federations, such as Russia or Transcaucasia (SFSRs),[104] all four being the
founding republics who signed the Treaty on the Creation of the USSR in December 1922. In 1924, during the
national delimitation in Central Asia, Uzbekistan and Turkmenistan were formed from parts of Russia's Turkestan
ASSR and two Soviet dependencies, the Khorezm and Bukharan SSRs. In 1929, Tajikistan was split off from the
Uzbekistan SSR. With the constitution of 1936, the Transcaucasian SFSR was dissolved, resulting in its constituent
republics of Armenia, Georgia and Azerbaijan being elevated to Union Republics, while Kazakhstan and Kirghizia
were split off from Russian SFSR, resulting in the same status.[135] In August 1940, Moldavia was formed from parts
of Ukraine and Bessarabia and northern Bukovina. Estonia, Latvia and Lithuania (SSRs) were also admitted into the
union which was not recognized by most of the international community and was considered an illegal occupation.
Karelia was split off from Russia as a Union Republic in March 1940 and was reabsorbed in 1956. Between July
1956 and September 1991, there were 15 union republics (see map below).[136]

While nominally a union of equals, in practice the Soviet Union was dominated by Russians. The domination was so
absolute that for most of its existence, the country was commonly (but incorrectly) referred to as "Russia". While the
RSFSR was technically only one republic within the larger union, it was by far the largest (both in terms of population
and area), most powerful, most developed, and the industrial center of the Soviet Union. Historian Matthew White
wrote that it was an open secret that the country's federal structure was "window dressing" for Russian dominance.
For that reason, the people of the USSR were usually called "Russians", not "Soviets", since "everyone knew who
really ran the show".[137]
 Republic Map of the Union Republics between 1956 and 1991
Russian
1
SFSR

2 Ukrainian
SSR

3 Byelorussian
SSR
Uzbek
4
SSR
Kazakh
5
SSR

6 Georgian
SSR

7 Azerbaijan
SSR

8 Lithuanian
SSR

9 Moldavian
SSR
Latvian
10
SSR
Kirghiz
11
SSR
Tajik
12
SSR

13 Armenian
SSR

14 Turkmen
SSR

15 Estonian
SSR

Military
Under the Military Law of September 1925, the Soviet Armed Forces consisted of three components, namely the
Land Forces, the Air Force, the Navy, Joint State Political Directorate (OGPU), and the Internal Troops.[138] The
OGPU later became independent and in 1934 joined the NKVD, and so its internal troops were under the joint
leadership of the defense and internal commissariats. After World War II, Strategic Missile Forces (1959), Air Defense
Forces (1948) and National Civil Defense Forces (1970) were formed, which ranked first, third, and sixth in the
official Soviet system of importance (ground forces were second, Air Force Fourth, and Navy Fifth).

The army had the greatest political influence. In 1989, there served two million soldiers divided between 150
motorized and 52 armored divisions. Until the early 1960s, the Soviet navy was a rather small military branch, but
after the Caribbean crisis, under the leadership of Sergei Gorshkov, it expanded significantly. It became known for
battlecruisers and submarines. In 1989 there served 500 000 men. The Soviet Air Force focused on a fleet of strategic
bombers and during war situation was to eradicate enemy infrastructure and
nuclear capacity. The air force also had a number of fighters and tactical
bombers to support the army in the war. Strategic missile forces had more
than 1,400 intercontinental ballistic missiles (ICBMs), deployed between 28
bases and 300 command centers.

In the post-war period, the Soviet Army was directly involved in several
military operations abroad. These included the suppression of the uprising in A medium-range SS-20 ballistic
East Germany (1953), Hungarian revolution (1956) and the invasion of missile that would be able to destroy
Czechoslovakia (1968). The Soviet Union also participated in the war in virtually any military target in Europe
Afghanistan between 1979 and 1989. in a very short time, the deployment
of which in the late 1970s launched a
In the Soviet Union, general conscription applied. new arms race in Europe in which
NATO deployed Pershing II missiles
Space program in West Germany, among other
things

At the end of the 1950s, with the

help of engineers and technologies
captured and imported from defeated
Nazi Germany, the Soviets
constructed the first satellite - Sputnik
1 and thus overtook the United
States. This was followed by other
successful satellites and experimental
dogs were sent. On April 12, 1961,
the first cosmonaut, Yuri Gagarin,
From left to right: Yuri Gagarin, Pavel was sent to the space. He once flew
Popovich, Valentina Tereshkova and around the Earth and successfully
Nikita Khrushchev at the Lenin's
landed in the Kazakh steppe. At that
Mausoleum in 1963
time, the first plans for space shuttles
and orbital stations were drawn up in
Soviet design offices, but in the end
personal disputes between designers and management prevented this.

The first big fiasco for the USSR was the landing on the moon by the
Americans, when the Russians were not able to respond to the Americans in Soyuz rocket at the Baikonur
time with the same project. In the 1970s, more specific proposals for the Cosmodrome
design of the space shuttle began to emerge, but shortcomings, especially in
the electronics industry (rapid overheating of electronics), postponed the
program until the end of the 1980s. The first shuttle, the Buran, flew in 1988, but without a human crew. Another
shuttle, Ptichka, eventually ended up under construction, as the shuttle project was canceled in 1991. For their launch
into space, there is today an unused superpower rocket, Energia, which is the most powerful in the world.

In the late 1980s, the Soviet Union managed to build the Mir orbital station. It was built on the construction of Salyut
stations and its tasks were purely civilian and research. In the 1990s, when the US Skylab was shut down due to lack
of funds, it was the only orbital station in operation. Gradually, other modules were added to it, including American
ones. However, the technical condition of the station deteriorated rapidly, especially after the fire, so in 2001 it was
decided to bring it into the atmosphere where it burned down.

Economy
The Soviet Union adopted a command economy, whereby production and distribution of goods were centralized and
directed by the government. The first Bolshevik experience with a command economy was the policy of War
communism, which involved the nationalization of industry, centralized distribution of output, coercive requisition of
agricultural production, and attempts to eliminate money circulation, private enterprises and free trade. After the severe
economic collapse, Lenin replaced war communism by the New
Economic Policy (NEP) in 1921, legalizing free trade and private
ownership of small businesses. The economy quickly recovered as a
result.[139]

After a long debate among the members of the Politburo about the
course of economic development, by 1928–1929, upon gaining control
of the country, Stalin abandoned the NEP and pushed for full central The Soviet Union in comparison to other
planning, starting forced collectivization of agriculture and enacting countries by GDP (nominal) per capita in
draconian labor legislation. Resources were mobilized for rapid 1965 based on a West-German school book
industrialization, which significantly expanded Soviet capacity in (1971)
heavy industry and capital goods during the 1930s.[139] The primary > 5,000 DM 500–1,000 DM
motivation for industrialization was preparation for war, mostly due to 2,500–5,000 DM 250–500 DM
distrust of the outside capitalist world.[140] As a result, the USSR was 1,000–2,500 DM < 250 DM
transformed from a largely agrarian economy into a great industrial
power, leading the way for its emergence as a superpower after World
War II.[141] The war caused extensive devastation of the Soviet
economy and infrastructure, which required massive reconstruction.[142]

By the early 1940s, the Soviet economy had become relatively self-sufficient;
for most of the period until the creation of Comecon, only a tiny share of
domestic products was traded internationally.[143] After the creation of the
Eastern Bloc, external trade rose rapidly. However, the influence of the world
economy on the USSR was limited by fixed domestic prices and a state
monopoly on foreign trade.[144] Grain and sophisticated consumer
manufactures became major import articles from around the 1960s.[143]
During the arms race of the Cold War, the Soviet economy was burdened by
The DneproGES, one of many military expenditures, heavily lobbied for by a powerful bureaucracy
hydroelectric power stations in the dependent on the arms industry. At the same time, the USSR became the
Soviet Union largest arms exporter to the Third World. Significant amounts of Soviet
resources during the Cold War were allocated in aid to the other socialist
states.[143]

From the 1930s until its dissolution in late 1991, the way the Soviet economy
operated remained essentially unchanged. The economy was formally
directed by central planning, carried out by Gosplan and organized in five-
year plans. However, in practice, the plans were highly aggregated and
provisional, subject to ad hoc intervention by superiors. All critical economic
decisions were taken by the political leadership. Allocated resources and plan
targets were usually denominated in rubles rather than in physical goods.
Credit was discouraged, but widespread. The final allocation of output was
achieved through relatively decentralized, unplanned contracting. Although in
theory prices were legally set from above, in practice they were often Picking cotton in Armenia in the
negotiated, and informal horizontal links (e.g. between producer factories) 1930s
were widespread.[139]

A number of basic services were state-funded, such as education and health care. In the manufacturing sector, heavy
industry and defence were prioritized over consumer goods.[145] Consumer goods, particularly outside large cities,
were often scarce, of poor quality and limited variety. Under the command economy, consumers had almost no
influence on production, and the changing demands of a population with growing incomes could not be satisfied by
supplies at rigidly fixed prices.[146] A massive unplanned second economy grew up at low levels alongside the
planned one, providing some of the goods and services that the planners could not. The legalization of some elements
of the decentralized economy was attempted with the reform of 1965.[139]
 Although statistics of the Soviet economy are
notoriously unreliable and its economic
growth difficult to estimate
precisely,[147][148] by most accounts, the
economy continued to expand until the mid-
1980s. During the 1950s and 1960s, it had
comparatively high growth and was catching
up to the West.[149] However, after 1970, the
growth, while still positive, steadily declined Volzhsky Avtomobilny Zavod (VAZ)
much more quickly and consistently than in in 1969
Workers of the Salihorsk
other countries, despite a rapid increase in the
potash plant, Belarus, 1968
capital stock (the rate of capital increase was
only surpassed by Japan).[139]

Overall, the growth rate of per capita income in the Soviet Union between 1960 and 1989 was slightly above the
world average (based on 102 countries). According to Stanley Fischer and William Easterly, growth could have been
faster. By their calculation, per capita income in 1989 should have been twice higher than it was, considering the
amount of investment, education and population. The authors attribute this poor performance to the low productivity
of capital.[150] Steven Rosenfielde states that the standard of living declined due to Stalin's despotism. While there was
a brief improvement after his death, it lapsed into stagnation.[151]

In 1987, Mikhail Gorbachev attempted to reform and revitalize the economy with his program of perestroika. His
policies relaxed state control over enterprises but did not replace it by market incentives, resulting in a sharp decline in
output. The economy, already suffering from reduced petroleum export revenues, started to collapse. Prices were still
fixed, and the property was still largely state-owned until after the country's dissolution.[139][146] For most of the
period after World War II until its collapse, Soviet GDP (PPP) was the second-largest in the world, and third during
the second half of the 1980s,[152] although on a per-capita basis, it was behind that of First World countries.[153]
Compared to countries with similar per-capita GDP in 1928, the Soviet Union experienced significant growth.[154]

In 1990, the country had a Human Development Index of 0.920, placing it in the "high" category of human
development. It was the third-highest in the Eastern Bloc, behind Czechoslovakia and East Germany, and the 25th in
the world of 130 countries.[155]

Energy

The need for fuel declined in the Soviet Union from the 1970s to the
1980s,[156] both per ruble of gross social product and per ruble of industrial
product. At the start, this decline grew very rapidly but gradually slowed
down between 1970 and 1975. From 1975 and 1980, it grew even slower,
only 2.6%.[157] David Wilson, a historian, believed that the gas industry
would account for 40% of Soviet fuel production by the end of the century.
His theory did not come to fruition because of the USSR's collapse.[158] The
USSR, in theory, would have continued to have an economic growth rate of
2–2.5% during the 1990s because of Soviet energy fields.[159] However, the Soviet stamp depicting the 30th
energy sector faced many difficulties, among them the country's high military anniversary of the International
expenditure and hostile relations with the First World.[160] Atomic Energy Agency, published in
1987, a year following the Chernobyl
In 1991, the Soviet Union had a pipeline network of 82,000 kilometres nuclear disaster
(51,000 mi) for crude oil and another 206,500 kilometres (128,300 mi) for
natural gas.[161] Petroleum and petroleum-based products, natural gas, metals,
wood, agricultural products, and a variety of manufactured goods, primarily machinery, arms and military equipment,
were exported.[162] In the 1970s and 1980s, the USSR heavily relied on fossil fuel exports to earn hard currency.[143]
At its peak in 1988, it was the largest producer and second-largest exporter of crude oil, surpassed only by Saudi
Arabia.[163]
Science and technology

The Soviet Union placed great emphasis on science and technology within its
economy,[164] however, the most remarkable Soviet successes in technology, such as
producing the world's first space satellite, typically were the responsibility of the
military.[145] Lenin believed that the USSR would never overtake the developed
world if it remained as technologically backward as it was upon its founding. Soviet
authorities proved their commitment to Lenin's belief by developing massive
networks, research and development organizations. In the early 1960s, the Soviets
awarded 40% of chemistry PhDs to women, compared to only 5% in the United
States.[165] By 1989, Soviet scientists were among the world's best-trained specialists
in several areas, such as energy physics, selected areas of medicine, mathematics,
welding and military technologies. Due to rigid state planning and bureaucracy, the
Soviets remained far behind technologically in chemistry, biology, and computers
when compared to the First World.
Soviet stamp showing the
Under the Reagan administration, Project Socrates determined that the Soviet Union orbit of Sputnik 1
addressed the acquisition of science and technology in a manner that was radically
different from what the US was using. In the case of the US, economic prioritization
was being used for indigenous research and development as the means to acquire science and technology in both the
private and public sectors. In contrast, the USSR was offensively and defensively maneuvering in the acquisition and
utilization of the worldwide technology, to increase the competitive advantage that they acquired from the technology
while preventing the US from acquiring a competitive advantage. However, technology-based planning was executed
in a centralized, government-centric manner that greatly hindered its flexibility. This was exploited by the US to
undermine the strength of the Soviet Union and thus foster its reform.[166][167][168]

Transport

Transport was a vital component of the country's economy. The economic

centralization of the late 1920s and 1930s led to the development of
infrastructure on a massive scale, most notably the establishment of Aeroflot,
an aviation enterprise.[169] The country had a wide variety of modes of
transport by land, water and air.[161] However, due to inadequate
maintenance, much of the road, water and Soviet civil aviation transport were
Aeroflot's flag during the Soviet era
outdated and technologically backward compared to the First World.[170]

Soviet rail transport was the largest and most intensively used in the
world;[170] it was also better developed than most of its Western counterparts.[171] By the late 1970s and early 1980s,
Soviet economists were calling for the construction of more roads to alleviate some of the burdens from the railways
and to improve the Soviet government budget.[172] The street network and automotive industry[173] remained
underdeveloped,[174] and dirt roads were common outside major cities.[175] Soviet maintenance projects proved
unable to take care of even the few roads the country had. By the early-to-mid-1980s, the Soviet authorities tried to
solve the road problem by ordering the construction of new ones.[175] Meanwhile, the automobile industry was
growing at a faster rate than road construction.[176] The underdeveloped road network led to a growing demand for
public transport.[177]

Despite improvements, several aspects of the transport sector were still riddled with problems due to outdated
infrastructure, lack of investment, corruption and bad decision-making. Soviet authorities were unable to meet the
growing demand for transport infrastructure and services.

The Soviet merchant navy was one of the largest in the world.[161]

Demographics
Excess deaths throughout World War I and the Russian Civil War
(including the postwar famine) amounted to a combined total of
18 million,[178] some 10 million in the 1930s,[37] and more than
26 million in 1941–5. The postwar Soviet population was 45 to 50 million
smaller than it would have been if pre-war demographic growth had
continued.[44] According to Catherine Merridale, "... reasonable estimate
would place the total number of excess deaths for the whole period
somewhere around 60 million."[179]
Population of the Soviet Union (red) and
The birth rate of the USSR decreased from 44.0 per thousand in 1926 to the post-Soviet states (blue) from 1961
18.0 in 1974, mainly due to increasing urbanization and the rising average to 2009 as well as projection (dotted
age of marriages. The mortality rate demonstrated a gradual decrease as blue) from 2010 to 2100
well – from 23.7 per thousand in 1926 to 8.7 in 1974. In general, the birth
rates of the southern republics in Transcaucasia and Central Asia were
considerably higher than those in the northern parts of the Soviet Union, and in some cases even increased in the post–
World War II period, a phenomenon partly attributed to slower rates of urbanistion and traditionally earlier marriages
in the southern republics.[180] Soviet Europe moved towards sub-replacement fertility, while Soviet Central Asia
continued to exhibit population growth well above replacement-level fertility.[181]

The late 1960s and the 1970s witnessed a reversal of the declining trajectory of the rate of mortality in the USSR, and
was especially notable among men of working age, but was also prevalent in Russia and other predominantly Slavic
areas of the country.[182] An analysis of the official data from the late 1980s showed that after worsening in the late-
1970s and the early 1980s, adult mortality began to improve again.[183] The infant mortality rate increased from 24.7
in 1970 to 27.9 in 1974. Some researchers regarded the rise as mostly real, a consequence of worsening health
conditions and services.[184] The rises in both adult and infant mortality were not explained or defended by Soviet
officials, and the Soviet government stopped publishing all mortality statistics for ten years. Soviet demographers and
health specialists remained silent about the mortality increases until the late-1980s, when the publication of mortality
data resumed, and researchers could delve into the real causes.[185]

Women and fertility

Under Lenin, the state made explicit commitments to promote the equality of men and
women. Many early Russian feminists and ordinary Russian working women actively
participated in the Revolution, and many more were affected by the events of that
period and the new policies. Beginning in October 1918, Lenin's government
liberalized divorce and abortion laws, decriminalized homosexuality (re-criminalized
in the 1930s), permitted cohabitation, and ushered in a host of reforms.[186] However,
without birth control, the new system produced many broken marriages, as well as
countless out-of-wedlock children.[187] The epidemic of divorces and extramarital
affairs created social hardships when Soviet leaders wanted people to concentrate
their efforts on growing the economy. Giving women control over their fertility also
led to a precipitous decline in the birth rate, perceived as a threat to their country's
military power. By 1936, Stalin reversed most of the liberal laws, ushering in a Valentina Tereshkova, the
pronatalist era that lasted for decades.[188] first woman in space,
visiting the Lviv
By 1917, Russia became the first great power to grant women the right to vote.[189] confectionery, Ukrainian
SSR, 1967
After heavy casualties in World War I and II, women outnumbered men in Russia by
a 4:3 ratio.[190] This contributed to the larger role women played in Russian society
compared to other great powers at the time.

Education
Anatoly Lunacharsky became the first People's Commissar for Education of
Soviet Russia. In the beginning, the Soviet authorities placed great emphasis on
the elimination of illiteracy. All left-handed children were forced to write with
their right hand in the Soviet school system.[191][192][193][194] Literate people
were automatically hired as teachers. For a short period, quality was sacrificed
for quantity. By 1940, Stalin could announce that illiteracy had been eliminated.
Throughout the 1930s, social mobility rose sharply, which has been attributed to
reforms in education.[195] In the aftermath of World War II, the country's
educational system expanded dramatically, which had a tremendous effect. In the
Young Pioneers at a Young
1960s, nearly all children had access to education, the only exception being Pioneer camp in Kazakh SSR
those living in remote areas. Nikita Khrushchev tried to make education more
accessible, making it clear to children that education was closely linked to the
needs of society. Education also became important in giving rise to the New Man.[196] Citizens directly entering the
workforce had the constitutional right to a job and to free vocational training.

The education system was highly centralized and universally accessible to all citizens, with affirmative action for
applicants from nations associated with cultural backwardness. However, as part of the general antisemitic policy, an
unofficial Jewish quota was applied in the leading institutions of higher education by subjecting Jewish applicants to
harsher entrance examinations.[197][198][199][200] The Brezhnev era also introduced a rule that required all university
applicants to present a reference from the local Komsomol party secretary.[201] According to statistics from 1986, the
number of higher education students per the population of 10,000 was 181 for the USSR, compared to 517 for the
US.[202]

Nationalities and ethnic groups

The Soviet Union was an ethnically diverse country, with more than 100 distinct
ethnic groups. The total population was estimated at 293 million in 1991.
According to a 1990 estimate, the majority were Russians (50.78%), followed by
Ukrainians (15.45%) and Uzbeks (5.84%).[203]

All citizens of the USSR had their own ethnic affiliation. The ethnicity of a
person was chosen at the age of sixteen[204] by the child's parents. If the parents
did not agree, the child was automatically assigned the ethnicity of the father. People in Samarkand, Uzbek
Partly due to Soviet policies, some of the smaller minority ethnic groups were SSR, 1981
considered part of larger ones, such as the Mingrelians of Georgia, who were
classified with the linguistically related Georgians.[205] Some ethnic groups
voluntarily assimilated, while others were brought in by force. Russians,
Belarusians, and Ukrainians shared close cultural ties, while other groups did
not. With multiple nationalities living in the same territory, ethnic antagonisms
developed over the years.[206]

Members of various ethnicities participated in legislative bodies. Organs of

power like the Politburo, the Secretariat of the Central Committee etc., were
formally ethnically neutral, but in reality, ethnic Russians were overrepresented,
although there were also non-Russian leaders in the Soviet leadership, such as
Joseph Stalin, Grigory Zinoviev, Nikolai Podgorny or Andrei Gromyko. During
the Soviet era, a significant number of ethnic Russians and Ukrainians migrated
to other Soviet republics, and many of them settled there. According to the last Svaneti man in Mestia, Georgian
SSR, 1929
census in 1989, the Russian "diaspora" in the Soviet republics had reached
25 million.[207]
 Ethnographic map of Number and share Number and share
the Soviet Union, of Ukrainians in the of Ukrainians in the
1941 population of the population of the
regions of the regions of the
RSFSR (1926 RSFSR (1979
census) census)

Health

In 1917, before the revolution, health conditions were significantly behind

those of developed countries. As Lenin later noted, "Either the lice will defeat
socialism, or socialism will defeat the lice".[208] The Soviet principle of
health care was conceived by the People's Commissariat for Health in 1918.
Health care was to be controlled by the state and would be provided to its
citizens free of charge, a revolutionary concept at the time. Article 42 of the
1977 Soviet Constitution gave all citizens the right to health protection and
free access to any health institutions in the USSR. Before Leonid Brezhnev
became General Secretary, the Soviet healthcare system was held in high
esteem by many foreign specialists. This changed, however, from Brezhnev's An early Soviet-era poster
accession and Mikhail Gorbachev's tenure as leader, during which the health discouraging unsafe abortion
care system was heavily criticized for many basic faults, such as the quality of practices
service and the unevenness in its provision. [209] Minister of Health Yevgeniy
Chazov, during the 19th Congress of the Communist Party of the Soviet
Union, while highlighting such successes as having the most doctors and hospitals in the world, recognized the
system's areas for improvement and felt that billions of Soviet rubles were squandered.[210]

After the revolution, life expectancy for all age groups went up. This statistic in itself was seen by some that the
socialist system was superior to the capitalist system. These improvements continued into the 1960s when statistics
indicated that the life expectancy briefly surpassed that of the United States. Life expectancy started to decline in the
1970s, possibly because of alcohol abuse. At the same time, infant mortality began to rise. After 1974, the government
stopped publishing statistics on the matter. This trend can be partly explained by the number of pregnancies rising
drastically in the Asian part of the country where infant mortality was the highest while declining markedly in the
more developed European part of the Soviet Union.[211]

Language

Under Lenin, the government gave small language groups their own writing systems.[212] The development of these
writing systems was highly successful, even though some flaws were detected. During the later days of the USSR,
countries with the same multilingual situation implemented similar policies. A serious problem when creating these
writing systems was that the languages differed dialectally greatly from each other.[213] When a language had been
given a writing system and appeared in a notable publication, it would attain "official language" status. There were
many minority languages which never received their own writing system; therefore, their speakers were forced to have
a second language.[214] There are examples where the government retreated from this policy, most notably under
Stalin where education was discontinued in languages that were not widespread. These languages were then
assimilated into another language, mostly Russian.[215] During World War II, some minority languages were banned,
and their speakers accused of collaborating with the enemy.[216]

As the most widely spoken of the Soviet Union's many languages, Russian de facto functioned as an official
language, as the "language of interethnic communication" (Russian: язык межнационального общения), but only
assumed the de jure status as the official national language in 1990.[217]

Religion

Christianity and Islam had the highest number of adherents among the
religious citizens.[218] Eastern Christianity predominated among Christians,
with Russia's traditional Russian Orthodox Church being the largest Christian
denomination. About 90% of the Soviet Union's Muslims were Sunnis, with
Shias being concentrated in the Azerbaijan SSR.[218] Smaller groups
included Roman Catholics, Jews, Buddhists, and a variety of Protestant
denominations (especially Baptists and Lutherans).[218]

Religious influence had been strong in the Russian Empire. The Russian
Orthodox Church enjoyed a privileged status as the church of the monarchy The Cathedral of Christ the Saviour
in Moscow during its demolition in
and took part in carrying out official state functions.[219] The immediate
1931
period following the establishment of the Soviet state included a struggle
against the Orthodox Church, which the revolutionaries considered an ally of
the former ruling classes.[220]

In Soviet law, the "freedom to hold religious services" was constitutionally

guaranteed, although the ruling Communist Party regarded religion as
incompatible with the Marxist spirit of scientific materialism.[220] In practice,
the Soviet system subscribed to a narrow interpretation of this right, and in
fact utilized a range of official measures to discourage religion and curb the
activities of religious groups.[220]

The 1918 Council of People's Commissars decree establishing the Russian

SFSR as a secular state also decreed that "the teaching of religion in all A paranja burning ceremony in the
[places] where subjects of general instruction are taught, is forbidden. Uzbek SSR as part of Soviet Hujum
Citizens may teach and may be taught religion privately."[221] Among further policies
restrictions, those adopted in 1929 included express prohibitions on a range of
church activities, including meetings for organized Bible study.[220] Both
Christian and non-Christian establishments were shut down by the thousands in the 1920s and 1930s. By 1940, as
many as 90% of the churches, synagogues, and mosques that had been operating in 1917 were closed.[222]

Under the doctrine of state atheism, there was a "government-sponsored program of forced conversion to atheism"
conducted by the Communists.[223][224][225] The regime targeted religions based on state interests, and while most
organized religions were never outlawed, religious property was confiscated, believers were harassed, and religion
was ridiculed while atheism was propagated in schools.[226] In 1925, the government founded the League of Militant
Atheists to intensify the propaganda campaign.[227] Accordingly, although personal expressions of religious faith were
not explicitly banned, a strong sense of social stigma was imposed on them by the formal structures and mass media,
and it was generally considered unacceptable for members of certain professions (teachers, state bureaucrats, soldiers)
to be openly religious. As for the Russian Orthodox Church, Soviet authorities sought to control it and, in times of
national crisis, to exploit it for the regime's own purposes; but their ultimate goal was to eliminate it. During the first
five years of Soviet power, the Bolsheviks executed 28 Russian Orthodox bishops and over 1,200 Russian Orthodox
priests. Many others were imprisoned or exiled. Believers were harassed and persecuted. Most seminaries were
closed, and the publication of most religious material was prohibited. By 1941, only 500 churches remained open out
of about 54,000 in existence before World War I.
Convinced that religious anti-Sovietism had become a thing of the past, and with the
looming threat of war, the Stalin regime began shifting to a more moderate religion
policy in the late 1930s.[228] Soviet religious establishments overwhelmingly rallied
to support the war effort during World War II. Amid other accommodations to
religious faith after the German invasion, churches were reopened. Radio Moscow
began broadcasting a religious hour, and a historic meeting between Stalin and
Orthodox Church leader Patriarch Sergius of Moscow was held in 1943. Stalin had
the support of the majority of the religious people in the USSR even through the late
1980s.[228] The general tendency of this period was an increase in religious activity
among believers of all faiths.[229]

Under Nikita Khrushchev, the state leadership clashed with the churches in 1958–
1964, a period when atheism was emphasized in the educational curriculum, and
numerous state publications promoted atheistic views.[228] During this period, the Soviet stamp showing Saint
number of churches fell from 20,000 to 10,000 from 1959 to 1965, and the number of Sophia's Cathedral, Kiev
synagogues dropped from 500 to 97.[230] The number of working mosques also and statue of Bohdan
declined, falling from 1,500 to 500 within a decade.[230] Khmelnytsky, 1989

Religious institutions remained monitored by the Soviet government, but churches,

synagogues, temples, and mosques were all given more leeway in the Brezhnev era.[231] Official relations between
the Orthodox Church and the government again warmed to the point that the Brezhnev government twice honored
Orthodox Patriarch Alexy I with the Order of the Red Banner of Labour.[232] A poll conducted by Soviet authorities
in 1982 recorded 20% of the Soviet population as "active religious believers."[233]

Legacy
The legacy of the USSR remains a controversial topic. The socio-economic nature of communist states such as the
USSR, especially under Stalin, has also been much debated, varyingly being labelled a form of bureaucratic
collectivism, state capitalism, state socialism, or a totally unique mode of production.[234]

The USSR implemented a broad range of policies over a long period of time, with a large amount of conflicting
policies being implemented by different leaders. Some have a positive view of it whilst others are critical towards the
country, calling it a repressive oligarchy.[235] The opinions on the USSR are complex and have changed over time,
with different generations having different views on the matter as well as on Soviet policies corresponding to separate
time periods during its history.[236] Leftists have largely varying views on the USSR. Whilst some leftists such as
anarchists and other libertarian socialists, agree it did not give the workers control over the means of production and
was a centralized oligarchy, others have more positive opinions as to the Bolshevik policies and Vladimir Lenin.
Many anti-Stalinist leftists such as anarchists are extremely critical of Soviet authoritarianism and repression. Much of
the criticism it receives is centered around massacres in the Soviet Union, the centralized hierarchy present in the
USSR and mass political repression as well as violence towards government critics and political dissidents such as
other leftists. Critics also point towards its failure to implement any substantial worker cooperatives or implementing
worker liberation as well as corruption and the Soviet authoritarian nature.[237]

Many Russians have nostalgia for the USSR, pointing towards most infrastructure in Russia being built during Soviet
times, increased job security, increased literacy rate, increased caloric intake and supposed ethnic pluralism enacted in
the Soviet Union as well as political stability. The Russian Revolution is also seen in a positive light as well as the
leadership of Lenin, Nikita Khrushchev and the later USSR, although many view Joseph Stalin's rule as positive for
the country.[238] Much of the admiration of the USSR comes from the failings of the modern Russian government
such as the control of Russia by oligarchs, corruption and outdated Soviet-era infrastructure as well as the rise of the
mafia after the collapse of the USSR all directly leading into nostalgia for it.[239]

In the former Soviet Republics

In the post Soviet republics, there is a more negative view of the USSR, although there is no unanimity on the matter.
In large part due to the Holodomor, ethnic Ukrainians have a negative view of it.[240] Russian Ukrainians have a more
positive view of the USSR. In some countries with internal conflict, there is also nostalgia for the USSR, especially
for refugees of the post-Soviet conflicts who have been forced to flee their homes and have been displaced. This
nostalgia is less an admiration for the country or its policies than it is a longing to return to their homes and not to live
in poverty. The many Russian enclaves in the former USSR republics such as Transnistria have in a general a positive
remembrance of it.[241]

By the left

The left's view of the USSR is complex. While some leftists regard the USSR as an example of state capitalism or that
it was an oligarchical state, other leftists admire Vladimir Lenin and the Russian Revolution.[242]

Council communists generally view the USSR as failing to create class consciousness, turning into a corrupt state in
which the elite controlled society. Anarchists are critical of the country, labeling the Soviet system as red fascism.
Soviets actively destroyed anarchist organizations and anarchist communities, labeling anarchists as "enemies of the
people". The Soviet invasion of the anarchist Free Territory and suppression of the anarchist Kronstadt rebellion and
the Norilsk uprising, in which prisoners created a radical system of government based on cooperatives and direct
democracy in the Gulag, led to animosity and hatred towards the USSR. Anarchist organizations and unions were also
banned during the Spanish Civil War under the Republican government by orders from the Soviet government. Due to
this, anarchists generally hold a large animosity towards the USSR.[243]

Culture
The culture of the Soviet Union passed through several stages during the
USSR's existence. During the first decade following the revolution, there was 0:00
relative freedom and artists experimented with several different styles to find a
distinctive Soviet style of art. Lenin wanted art to be accessible to the Russian The "Enthusiast's March", a 1930s
people. On the other hand, hundreds of intellectuals, writers, and artists were song famous in the Soviet Union
exiled or executed, and their work banned, such as Nikolay Gumilyov who
was shot for alleged conspiring against the Bolshevik regime, and Yevgeny
Zamyatin.[244]

The government encouraged a variety of trends. In art and literature, numerous

schools, some traditional and others radically experimental, proliferated. Communist
writers Maxim Gorky and Vladimir Mayakovsky were active during this time. As a
means of influencing a largely illiterate society, films received encouragement from
the state, and much of director Sergei Eisenstein's best work dates from this period.

During Stalin's rule, the Soviet culture was characterized by the rise and domination
of the government-imposed style of socialist realism, with all other trends being
severely repressed, with rare exceptions, such as Mikhail Bulgakov's works. Many
writers were imprisoned and killed.[245]

Following the Khrushchev Thaw, censorship was diminished. During this time, a
distinctive period of Soviet culture developed, characterized by conformist public life Soviet singer-songwriter,
and an intense focus on personal life. Greater experimentation in art forms was again poet and actor Vladimir
permissible, resulting in the production of more sophisticated and subtly critical work. Vysotsky in 1979
The regime loosened its emphasis on socialist realism; thus, for instance, many
protagonists of the novels of author Yury Trifonov concerned themselves with
problems of daily life rather than with building socialism. Underground dissident literature, known as samizdat,
developed during this late period. In architecture, the Khrushchev era mostly focused on functional design as opposed
to the highly decorated style of Stalin's epoch. In music, in response to the increasing popularity of forms of popular
music like jazz in the West, many jazz orchestras were permitted throughout the USSR, notably the Melodiya
Ensemble, named after the principle record label in the USSR.
In the second half of the 1980s, Gorbachev's policies of perestroika and glasnost significantly expanded freedom of
expression throughout the country in the media and the press.[246]

Sport
Founded on 20 July 1924 in Moscow, Sovetsky Sport was the first sports
newspaper of the Soviet Union.

The Soviet Olympic Committee formed on 21 April 1951, and the IOC
recognized the new body in its 45th session. In the same year, when the
Soviet representative Konstantin Andrianov became an IOC member, the
USSR officially joined the Olympic Movement. The 1952 Summer Olympics
in Helsinki thus became first Olympic Games for Soviet athletes.

The Soviet Union national ice hockey team won nearly every world
championship and Olympic tournament between 1954 and 1991 and never
failed to medal in any International Ice Hockey Federation (IIHF) tournament
in which they competed. Valeri Kharlamov represented the
Soviet Union at 11 Ice Hockey World
The advent of the state-sponsored "full-time amateur athlete" of the Eastern Championships, winning eight gold
Bloc countries further eroded the ideology of the pure amateur, as it put the medals, two silvers and one bronze
self-financed amateurs of the Western countries at a disadvantage. The Soviet
Union entered teams of athletes who were all nominally students, soldiers, or
working in a profession – in reality, the state paid many of these competitors to train on a full-time basis.[247]
Nevertheless, the IOC held to the traditional rules regarding amateurism.[248]

A 1989 report by a committee of the Australian Senate claimed that "there is hardly a medal winner at the Moscow
Games, certainly not a gold medal winner...who is not on one sort of drug or another: usually several kinds. The
Moscow Games might well have been called the Chemists' Games".[249]

A member of the IOC Medical Commission, Manfred Donike, privately ran additional tests with a new technique for
identifying abnormal levels of testosterone by measuring its ratio to epitestosterone in urine. Twenty percent of the
specimens he tested, including those from sixteen gold medalists, would have resulted in disciplinary proceedings had
the tests been official. The results of Donike's unofficial tests later convinced the IOC to add his new technique to their
testing protocols.[250] The first documented case of "blood doping" occurred at the 1980 Summer Olympics when a
runner was transfused with two pints of blood before winning medals in the 5000 m and 10,000 m.[251]

Documentation obtained in 2016 revealed the Soviet Union's plans for a statewide doping system in track and field in
preparation for the 1984 Summer Olympics in Los Angeles. Dated before the decision to boycott the 1984 Games, the
document detailed the existing steroids operations of the program, along with suggestions for further enhancements.
Dr. Sergei Portugalov of the Institute for Physical Culture prepared the communication, directed to the Soviet Union's
head of track and field. Portugalov later became one of the leading figures involved in the implementation of Russian
doping before the 2016 Summer Olympics.[252]

Environment
Official Soviet environmental policy has always attached great importance to actions in which human beings actively
improve nature. Lenin's quote "Communism is Soviet power and electrification of the country!" in many respects
summarizes the focus on modernization and industrial development. During the first five-year plan in 1928, Stalin
proceeded to industrialize the country at all costs. Values such as environmental and nature protection have been
completely ignored in the struggle to create a modern industrial society. After Stalin's death, they focused more on
environmental issues, but the basic perception of the value of environmental protection remained the same.[253]
 The Soviet media has always
focused on the vast expanse of land
and the virtually indestructible
natural resources. This made it feel
that contamination and uncontrolled
exploitation of nature were not a
problem. The Soviet state also firmly
believed that scientific and
technological progress would solve
all the problems. Official ideology Landscape near Karabash,
said that under socialism Chelyabinsk Oblast, an area that
One of the many impacts of the
environmental problems could easily was previously covered with forests
approach to the environment in the
be overcome, unlike capitalist until acid rainfall from a nearby
USSR is the Aral Sea (see status in
1989 and 2014)
countries, where they seemingly copper smelter killed all vegetation
could not be solved. The Soviet
authorities had an almost unwavering
belief that man could transcend nature. However, when the authorities had to admit that there were environmental
problems in the USSR in the 1980s, they explained the problems in such a way that socialism had not yet been fully
developed; pollution in a socialist society was only a temporary anomaly that would have been resolved if socialism
had developed.

The Chernobyl disaster in 1986 was the first major accident at a civilian nuclear power plant. Unparalleled in the
world, it resulted in a large number of radioactive isotopes being released into the atmosphere. Radioactive doses have
scattered relatively far. 4,000 new cases of thyroid cancer were reported after the incident, but this led to a relatively
low number of deaths (WHO data, 2005). However, the long-term effects of the accident are unknown. Another
major accident is the Kyshtym disaster.[254]

After the fall of the USSR, it was discovered that the environmental problems were greater than what the Soviet
authorities admitted. The Kola Peninsula was one of the places with clear problems. Around the industrial cities of
Monchegorsk and Norilsk, where nickel, for example, is mined, all forests have been destroyed by contamination,
while the northern and other parts of Russia have been affected by emissions. During the 1990s, people in the West
were also interested in the radioactive hazards of nuclear facilities, decommissioned nuclear submarines, and the
processing of nuclear waste or spent nuclear fuel. It was also known in the early 1990s that the USSR had transported
radioactive material to the Barents Sea and Kara Sea, which was later confirmed by the Russian parliament. The crash
of the K-141 Kursk submarine in 2000 in the west further raised concerns.[255] In the past, there were accidents
involving submarines K-19, K-8, and K-129.

See also
Baltic states under Soviet rule (1944–91) Islam in the Soviet Union
Collective Security Treaty Organization Korenizatsiya
Communism Neo-Sovietism
Eurasian Economic Union Orphans in the Soviet Union
France–Russia relations#USSR: 1918-1991 Sino-Soviet border clashes
Ideocracy Soviet Empire
Index of Soviet Union-related articles Ukrainian nationalism

Notes
a. De facto before 1990.
b. De facto.
c. March–September.
d. Unicameral
e. Russian: Советский Союз, tr. Sovetsky Soyuz, IPA: [sɐˈvʲɛt͡skʲɪj sɐˈjus] ( listen).
f. Russian: Союз Советских Социалистических Республик, tr. Soyuz Sovetskikh Sotsialisticheskikh
Respublik, IPA: [sɐˈjus sɐˈvʲɛtskʲɪx sətsɨəlʲɪsˈtʲitɕɪskʲɪx rʲɪˈspublʲɪk] ( listen).
g. Russian: СССР, tr. SSSR.
h. As outlined in Part III of the 1977 Soviet Constitution, "The National-State Structure of the USSR".
i. Later renamed the Russian Socialist Federative Soviet Republic (1918) and the Russian Soviet
Federative Socialist Republic (1936).
j. American historian J. Arch Getty concludes: "Many who lauded Stalin's Soviet Union as the most
democratic country on earth lived to regret their words. After all, the Soviet Constitution of 1936 was
adopted on the eve of the Great Terror of the late 1930s; the "thoroughly democratic" elections to the
first Supreme Soviet permitted only uncontested candidates and took place at the height of the savage
violence in 1937. The civil rights, personal freedoms, and democratic forms promised in the Stalin
constitution were trampled almost immediately and remained dead letters until long after Stalin's
death."[34]
k. According to British historian Geoffrey Hosking, "excess deaths during the 1930s as a whole were in
the range of 10–11 million."[37] American historian Timothy D. Snyder claims that archival evidence
suggests maximum excess mortality of nine million during the entire Stalin era.[38] Australian historian
and archival researcher Stephen G. Wheatcroft asserts that around a million "purposive killings" can
be attributed to the Stalinist regime, along with the premature deaths of roughly two million more
amongst the repressed populations (i.e. in camps, prisons, exils, etc.) through criminal negligence.[39]
l. "In War II Russia occupies a dominant position and is the decisive factor looking toward the defeat of
the Axis in Europe. While in Sicily the forces of Great Britain and the United States are being opposed
by 2 German divisions, the Russian front is receiving attention of approximately 200 German
divisions. Whenever the Allies open a second front on the Continent, it will be decidedly a secondary
front to that of Russia; theirs will continue to be the main effort. Without Russia in the war, the Axis
cannot be defeated in Europe, and the position of the United Nations becomes precarious. Similarly,
Russia's post-war position in Europe will be a dominant one. With Germany crushed, there is no
power in Europe to oppose her tremendous military forces."[41]
m. 34,374,483 km2.
n. Historian Mark Kramer concludes: "The net outflow of resources from eastern Europe to the Soviet
Union was approximately $15 billion to $20 billion in the first decade after World War II, an amount
roughly equal to the total aid provided by the United States to western Europe under the Marshall
Plan."[50]

1. Ukrainian: рада (rada); Polish: rada; Belarusian: савет/рада; Uzbek: совет; Kazakh: совет/кеңес;
Georgian: საბჭოთა; Azerbaijani: совет; Lithuanian: taryba; Moldovan: совиет; Latvian: padome;
Kyrgyz: совет; Tajik: шӯравӣ/совет; Armenian: խորհուրդ/սովետ; Turkmen: совет; Estonian:
nõukogu.

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(https://doi.org/10.1080%2F10370196.2001.11733360). S2CID 42809979 (https://api.semanticschola
r.org/CorpusID:42809979) – via CiteSeer.
43. Berkman, Alexander (2006) [1942]. ABC of Anarchism (http://assets.zinedistro.org/zines/pdfs/116.pdf)
(PDF). Freedom Press. ISBN 0-900384-03-4 – via Zine Distro.
44. 'On the other hand...' See the index of Stalin and His Hangmen by Donald Rayfield, 2004, Random
House
45. Rayfield 2004, pp. 317–320
46. "Gorbachev, Mikhail" (http://www.britannica.com/eb/article-9037405&gt). Encyclopædia Britannica. 2
October 2007. Retrieved 1 December 2017. "Under his new policy of glasnost ("openness"), a major
cultural thaw took place: freedoms of expression and of information were significantly expanded; the
press and broadcasting were allowed unprecedented candor in their reportage and criticism; and the
country's legacy of Stalinist totalitarian rule was eventually completely repudiated by the government."
47. Benjamin, Daniel (27 July 1992). "Traditions Pro Vs. Amateur" (http://www.time.com/time/magazine/art
icle/0,9171,976117-1,00.html). Time. Archived (https://web.archive.org/web/20090902183140/http://w
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Retrieved 18 March 2009.
48. Schantz, Otto (2007). "The Olympic Ideal and the Winter Games Attitudes Towards the Olympic Winter
Games in Olympic Discourses—from Coubertin to Samaranch" (https://web.archive.org/web/2013050
5052232/http://www.coubertin.ch/pdf/schantz.pdf) (PDF). Comité International Pierre De Coubertin.
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13 September 2008.
49. "Doping violations at the Olympics" (https://www.economist.com/blogs/graphicdetail/2016/07/daily-ch
art-15). The Economist. 25 July 2016. Archived (https://web.archive.org/web/20170809041739/https://
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50. Wilson, Wayne (PhD); Derse, Ed (2001). Doping in Élite Sport: The Politics of Drugs in the Olympic
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ISBN 978-0-7360-0329-2. Archived (https://web.archive.org/web/20140627082301/http://books.googl
e.com/books?id=wi2d4YyLh3wC&pg=PA77) from the original on 27 June 2014. Retrieved 19 July
2012.
51. Sytkowski, Arthur J. (May 2006). Erythropoietin: Blood, Brain and Beyond (https://books.google.com/b
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52. Ruiz, Rebecca R. (13 August 2016). "The Soviet Doping Plan: Document Reveals Illicit Approach to
'84 Olympics" (https://www.nytimes.com/2016/08/14/sports/olympics/soviet-doping-plan-russia-rio-ga
mes.html?_r=0). nytimes.com. Archived (https://web.archive.org/web/20171201055317/https://www.ny
times.com/2016/08/14/sports/olympics/soviet-doping-plan-russia-rio-games.html?_r=0) from the
original on 1 December 2017. Retrieved 15 January 2018. "The document – obtained by The New
York Times from a former chief medical doctor for Soviet track and field – was signed by Dr. Sergei
Portugalov, a Soviet sports doctor who went on to capitalize on a growing interest in new methods of
doping. [...] Now, more than 30 years later, Dr. Portugalov is a central figure in Russia's current doping
scandal. Last fall, the World Anti-Doping Agency named him as a key broker of performance-
enhancing drugs in Russia, someone who in recent years injected athletes personally and made a
business of covering up drug violations in exchange for money. [...] Dr. Portugalov came to global
prominence in 2014 when two Russian whistle-blowers identified him as a linchpin distributor in
Russia's state-run doping scheme."
53. Ziegler, Charles E. (July 1985). "Soviet Images of the Environment". British Journal of Political
Science. 15 (3): 365–380. doi:10.1017/S0007123400004233 (https://doi.org/10.1017%2FS00071234
00004233). JSTOR 193698 (https://www.jstor.org/stable/193698).
54. Baverstock, Keith; Williams, Dillwyn (2006). "The Chernobyl Accident 20 Years on: An Assessment of
the Health Consequences and the International Response" (https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/article
s/PMC1570049). Environmental Health Perspectives. 114 (9): 1312–1317. doi:10.1289/ehp.9113 (http
s://doi.org/10.1289%2Fehp.9113). PMC 1570049 (https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC157
0049). PMID 16966081 (https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/16966081).
55. Hønneland, Geir og Jørgensen, Anne-Kristin (December 2002). "Implementing Russia's International
Environmental Commitments: Federal Prerogative or Regional Concern?". Europe-Asia Studies. 54
(8): 1223–1240. doi:10.1080/0966813022000025862 (https://doi.org/10.1080%2F0966813022000025
862). JSTOR 826384 (https://www.jstor.org/stable/826384). S2CID 156340249 (https://api.semanticsc
holar.org/CorpusID:156340249).

Bibliography
Ambler, John; Shaw, Denis J.B.; Symons, Leslie (1985). Soviet and East European Transport
Problems (https://books.google.com/books?id=Rpg9AAAAIAAJ). Taylor & Francis. ISBN 978-0-7099-
0557-8.
Comrie, Bernard (1981). The Languages of the Soviet Union (https://archive.org/details/languagesofs
ovie0000comr). Cambridge University Press (CUP) Archive. ISBN 978-0-521-29877-3.
 Davies, Robert; Wheatcroft, Stephen (2004). The Industrialisation of Soviet Russia Volume 5: The
Years of Hunger: Soviet Agriculture 1931–1933 (http://www.palgrave.com/us/book/9780333311073).
Palgrave Macmillan. ISBN 978-0-230-23855-8.
Fischer, Louis (1964). The Life of Lenin. London: Weidenfeld and Nicolson.
Janz, Denis (1998). World Christianity and Marxism (https://books.google.com/books?id=EUVwrcnXw
BsC). New York: Oxford University Press. ISBN 978-0-19-511944-2.
Lane, David Stuart (1992). Soviet Society under Perestroika (https://books.google.com/books?id=rcXa
fOqyxgQC). Routledge. ISBN 978-0-415-07600-5.
Leggett, George (1981). The Cheka: Lenin's Political Police (https://archive.org/details/chekaleninspol
it0000legg). Oxford: Oxford University Press. ISBN 978-0-19-822552-2.
Lewin, Moshe (1969). Lenin's Last Struggle. Translated by Sheridan Smith, A. M. London: Faber and
Faber.
Rayfield, Donald (2004). Stalin and His Hangmen: An Authoritative Portrait of a Tyrant and Those
Who Served Him. Viking Press. ISBN 978-0-375-75771-6.
Service, Robert (2000). Lenin: A Biography. London: Macmillan. ISBN 978-0-333-72625-9.
Simon, Gerard (1974). Church, State, and Opposition in the U.S.S.R (https://books.google.com/book
s?id=sTLc8H3b4vUC). Berkeley and Los Angeles: University of California Press. ISBN 978-0-520-
02612-4.
Volkogonov, Dmitri (1994). Lenin: Life and Legacy. Translated by Shukman, Harold. London:
HarperCollins. ISBN 978-0-00-255123-6.
White, James D. (2001). Lenin: The Practice and Theory of Revolution. European History in
Perspective. Basingstoke, England: Palgrave. ISBN 978-0-333-72157-5.
Wilson, David (1983). The Demand for Energy in the Soviet Union (https://books.google.com/books?i
d=1qgOAAAAQAAJ). Taylor & Francis. ISBN 978-0-7099-2704-4.
World Bank and OECD (1991). A Study of the Soviet economy (https://books.google.com/books?id=fi
DpE5M9jRAC). 3. International Monetary Fund. ISBN 978-92-64-13468-3.
Palat, Madhavan K. (2001). Social Identities in Revolutionary Russia (https://books.google.com/book
s?id=T-d_QgAACAAJ). UK: Palgrave. ISBN 978-0-333-92947-6. Retrieved 26 May 2012.
Warshofsky Lapidus, Gail (1978). Women in Soviet Society: Equality, Development, and Social
Change. Berkeley, CA: University of California Press. ISBN 978-0-520-03938-4.
Wheatcroft, Stephen (1996). "The Scale and Nature of German and Soviet Repression and Mass
Killings, 1930–45" (http://sovietinfo.tripod.com/WCR-German_Soviet.pdf) (PDF). Europe-Asia Studies.
48 (8): 1319–1353. doi:10.1080/09668139608412415 (https://doi.org/10.1080%2F096681396084124
15). JSTOR 152781 (https://www.jstor.org/stable/152781).

Further reading

Surveys
A Country Study: Soviet Union (Former) (http://rs6.loc.gov/frd/cs/sutoc.html). Library of Congress
Country Studies, 1991.
Brown, Archie, et al., eds.: The Cambridge Encyclopedia of Russia and the Soviet Union (Cambridge
University Press, 1982).
Fitzpatrick, Sheila (2007). "Revisionism in Soviet History". History and Theory. 46 (4): 77–91.
doi:10.1111/j.1468-2303.2007.00429.x (https://doi.org/10.1111%2Fj.1468-2303.2007.00429.x).
JSTOR 4502285 (https://www.jstor.org/stable/4502285). historiographical essay that covers the
scholarship of the three major schools, totalitarianism, revisionism, and post-revisionism.
Gilbert, Martin. Routledge Atlas of Russian History (4th ed. 2007) excerpt and text search (https://www.
amazon.com/Routledge-Russian-History-Historical-Atlases/dp/0415394848/).
Gorodetsky, Gabriel, ed. Soviet Foreign Policy, 1917–1991: A Retrospective (2014).
Grant, Ted. Russia, from Revolution to Counter-Revolution, London, Well Red Publications, 1997.
 Hosking, Geoffrey. The First Socialist Society: A History of the Soviet Union from Within (2nd ed.
Harvard UP 1992) 570 pp.
Howe, G. Melvyn: The Soviet Union: A Geographical Survey 2nd. edn. (Estover, UK: MacDonald and
Evans, 1983).
Kort, Michael. The Soviet Colossus: History and Aftermath (7th ed. 2010) 502 pp.
McCauley, Martin. The Rise and Fall of the Soviet Union (2007), 522 pages.
Moss, Walter G. A History of Russia. Vol. 2: Since 1855. 2d ed. Anthem Press, 2005.
Nove, Alec. An Economic History of the USSR, 1917–1991. (3rd ed. 1993) online free to borrow (http
s://archive.org/details/economichistoryo00nove).
Pipes, Richard. Communism: A History (2003).
Service, Robert. A History of Twentieth-Century Russia (2nd ed. 1999).

Lenin and Leninism

Clark, Ronald W. Lenin (1988). 570 pp.
Debo, Richard K. Survival and Consolidation: The Foreign Policy of Soviet Russia, 1918–1921
(1992).
Marples, David R. Lenin's Revolution: Russia, 1917–1921 (2000) 156pp. short survey.
Pipes, Richard. A Concise History of the Russian Revolution (1996) excerpt and text search (https://w
ww.amazon.com/dp/0679745440), by a leading conservative.
Pipes, Richard. Russia under the Bolshevik Regime. (1994). 608 pp.
Service, Robert. Lenin: A Biography (2002), 561pp; standard scholarly biography; a short version of
his 3 vol detailed biography.
Volkogonov, Dmitri. Lenin: Life and Legacy (1994). 600 pp.

Stalin and Stalinism

Daniels, R. V., ed. The Stalin Revolution (1965).
Davies, Sarah, and James Harris, eds. Stalin: A New History, (2006), 310pp, 14 specialized essays by
scholars excerpt and text search (https://www.amazon.com/dp/0521616530).
De Jonge, Alex. Stalin and the Shaping of the Soviet Union (1986).
Fitzpatrick, Sheila, ed. Stalinism: New Directions, (1999), 396pp excerpts from many scholars on the
impact of Stalinism on the people (little on Stalin himself) online edition (https://www.questia.com/PM.
qst?a=o&d=109468478).
Fitzpatrick, Sheila. "Impact of the Opening of Soviet Archives on Western Scholarship on Soviet
Social History." Russian Review 74#3 (2015): 377–400; historiography.
Hoffmann, David L. ed. Stalinism: The Essential Readings, (2002) essays by 12 scholars.
Laqueur, Walter. Stalin: The Glasnost Revelations (1990).
Kershaw, Ian, and Moshe Lewin. Stalinism and Nazism: Dictatorships in Comparison (2004) excerpt
and text search (https://www.amazon.com/dp/0521565219).
Kotkin, Stephen (2014). Stalin: Paradoxes of Power, 1878–1928. London: Allen Lane. ISBN 978-0-
7139-9944-0. 976 pp.
Kotkin, Stephen (2017). Stalin: Waiting for Hitler, 1929–1941. New York: Penguin. ISBN 978-1-
59420-380-0.; 1184 pp.; most detailed scholarly biography.
Lee, Stephen J. Stalin and the Soviet Union (1999) online edition (https://www.questia.com/read/1082
15209?title=Stalin%20and%20the%20Soviet%20Union).
Lewis, Jonathan. Stalin: A Time for Judgement (1990).
McNeal, Robert H. Stalin: Man and Ruler (1988).
Martens, Ludo. Another view of Stalin (1994), a highly favorable view from a Maoist historian.
Service, Robert. Stalin: A Biography (2004), along with Tucker the standard biography.
Trotsky, Leon. Stalin: An Appraisal of the Man and His Influence, (1967), an interpretation by Stalin's
worst enemy.
 Tucker, Robert C. Stalin as Revolutionary, 1879–1929 (1973); Stalin in Power: The Revolution from
Above, 1929–1941 (1990) online edition (https://www.questia.com/PM.qst?a=o&d=103246514) with
Service, a standard biography; at ACLS e-books (http://www.humanitiesebook.org/).

World War II
Barber, John, and Mark Harrison. The Soviet Home Front: A Social and Economic History of the
USSR in World War II, Longman, 1991.
Bellamy, Chris. Absolute War: Soviet Russia in the Second World War (2008), 880pp excerpt and text
search (https://www.amazon.com/dp/0375724710/).
Berkhoff, Karel C. Harvest of Despair: Life and Death in Ukraine Under Nazi Rule. Harvard U. Press,
2004. 448 pp.
Berkhoff, Karel C. Motherland in Danger: Soviet Propaganda during World War II (2012) excerpt and
text search (https://www.amazon.com/Motherland-Danger-Soviet-Propaganda-during/dp/067404924
1/) covers both propaganda and reality of homefront conditions.
Braithwaite, Rodric. Moscow 1941: A City and Its People at War (2006).
Broekmeyer, Marius. Stalin, the Russians, and Their War, 1941–1945. 2004. 315 pp.
Dallin, Alexander. Odessa, 1941–1944: A Case Study of Soviet Territory under Foreign Rule.
Portland: Int. Specialized Book Service, 1998. 296 pp.
Kucherenko, Olga. Little Soldiers: How Soviet Children Went to War, 1941–1945 (2011) excerpt and
text search (https://www.amazon.com/Little-Soldiers-Soviet-Children-1941-1945/dp/0199585555/).
Overy, Richard. The road to war (4th ed. 1999), covers 1930s; pp 245–300.
Overy, Richard. Russia's War: A History of the Soviet Effort: 1941–1945 (1998) excerpt and text
search (https://www.amazon.com/dp/0140271694/).
Roberts, Geoffrey. Stalin's Wars: From World War to Cold War, 1939–1953 (2006).
Schofield, Carey, ed. Russian at War, 1941–1945. (Vendome Press, 1987). 256 pp., a photo-history,
with connecting texts. ISBN 978-0-86565-077-0.
Seaton, Albert. Stalin as Military Commander, (1998) online edition (https://web.archive.org/web/2012
0525095312/http://www.questia.com/PM.qst?a=o&d=100872346).
Thurston, Robert W., and Bernd Bonwetsch, eds. The People's War: Responses to World War II in the
Soviet Union (2000).
Uldricks, Teddy J. "War, Politics and Memory: Russian Historians Reevaluate the Origins of World War
II," History and Memory 21#2 (2009), pp. 60–82 online (https://www.jstor.org/stable/10.2979/his.2009.2
1.2.60), historiography.
Vallin, Jacques; Meslé, France; Adamets, Serguei; Pyrozhkov, Serhii (2002). "A New Estimate of
Ukrainian Population Losses during the Crises of the 1930s and 1940s" (https://semanticscholar.org/p
aper/92668ee6ee5b6f87a9f7a5ee59b1153691be63f3). Population Studies. 56 (3): 249–264.
doi:10.1080/00324720215934 (https://doi.org/10.1080%2F00324720215934). JSTOR 3092980 (http
s://www.jstor.org/stable/3092980). PMID 12553326 (https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/12553326).
S2CID 21128795 (https://api.semanticscholar.org/CorpusID:21128795). Reports life expectancy at
birth fell to a level as low as ten years for females and seven for males in 1933 and plateaued around
25 for females and 15 for males in the period 1941–1944.

Cold War
Brzezinski, Zbigniew. The Grand Failure: The Birth and Death of Communism in the Twentieth
Century (1989).
Edmonds, Robin. Soviet Foreign Policy: The Brezhnev Years (1983).
Goncharov, Sergei, John Lewis and Litai Xue, Uncertain Partners: Stalin, Mao and the Korean War
(1993) excerpt and text search (https://www.amazon.com/dp/0804725217).
Gorlizki, Yoram, and Oleg Khlevniuk. Cold Peace: Stalin and the Soviet Ruling Circle, 1945–1953
(2004) online edition (https://www.questia.com/read/105899376).
Holloway, David. Stalin and the Bomb: The Soviet Union and Atomic Energy, 1939–1956 (1996)
excerpt and text search (https://www.amazon.com/dp/0300066643).
 Mastny, Vojtech. Russia's Road to the Cold War: Diplomacy, Warfare, and the Politics of Communism,
1941–1945 (1979).
Mastny, Vojtech. The Cold War and Soviet Insecurity: The Stalin Years (1998) excerpt and text search
(https://www.amazon.com/dp/0195126599); online complete edition (https://www.questia.com/read/98
422373).
Matlock, Jack. Reagan and Gorbachev: How the Cold War Ended (2005).
Nation, R. Craig. Black Earth, Red Star: A History of Soviet Security Policy, 1917–1991 (1992).
Sivachev, Nikolai and Nikolai Yakolev, Russia and the United States (1979), by Soviet historians.
Taubman, William. Khrushchev: The Man and His Era (2004), Pulitzer Prize; excerpt and text search
(https://www.amazon.com/dp/0393324842).
Taubman, William. Stalin's American Policy: From Entente to Detente to Cold War (1983).
Taubman, William. Gorbachev: His Life and Times (2017).
Tint, Herbert. French Foreign Policy since the Second World War (1972) online free to borrow (https://
archive.org/details/frenchforeignpol00herb/page/n0) 1945–1971.
Ulam, Adam B. Expansion and Coexistence: Soviet Foreign Policy, 1917–1973, 2nd ed. (1974).
Wilson, James Graham. The Triumph of Improvisation: Gorbachev's Adaptability, Reagan's
Engagement, and the End of the Cold War (2014).
Zubok, Vladislav M. Inside the Kremlin's Cold War (1996) 20% excerpt and online search (http://searc
h.live.com/results.aspx?q=&scope=books#q=zubok&filter=all&start=1).
Zubok, Vladislav M. A Failed Empire: The Soviet Union in the Cold War from Stalin to Gorbachev
(2007).

Collapse
Beschloss, Michael, and Strobe Talbott. At the Highest Levels:The Inside Story of the End of the Cold
War (1993).
Bialer, Seweryn and Michael Mandelbaum, eds. Gorbachev's Russia and American Foreign Policy
(1988).
Carrère d'Encausse, Hélène. Decline of an Empire: the Soviet Socialist Republics in Revolt. First
English language ed. New York: Newsweek Books (1979). 304 p. N.B.: Trans. of the author's L'Empire
éclaté. ISBN 0-88225-280-1.
Garthoff, Raymond. The Great Transition: American–Soviet Relations and the End of the Cold War
(1994), detailed narrative.
Grachev, A. S. Gorbachev's Gamble: Soviet Foreign Policy and the End of the Cold War (2008)
excerpt and text search (https://www.amazon.com/dp/0745643450/).
Hogan, Michael ed. The End of the Cold War. Its Meaning and Implications (1992) articles from
Diplomatic History.
Roger Keeran and Thomas Keeny. Socialism Betrayed: Behind the Collapse of the Soviet Union,
International Publishers Co Inc., US 2004.
Kotkin, Stephen. Armageddon Averted: The Soviet Collapse, 1970–2000 (2008) excerpt and text
search (https://www.amazon.com/dp/0195368630/).
Matlock, Jack. Autopsy on an Empire: The American Ambassador's Account of the Collapse of the
Soviet Union (1995).
Ostrovsky Alexander. Кто поставил Горбачёва? (https://www.e-reading.club/book.php?book=102529
7) (2010). («Who brought Gorbachev to power?») — М.: „Алгоритм-Эксмо". ISBN 978-5-699-40627-2
(«Проект «Распад СССР: Тайные пружины власти» — М. «Алгоритм», 2016. Переиздание книги
«Кто поставил Горбачёва?») ("Project" Collapse of the USSR: Secret Springs of Power ". Reissue of
the book «Who brought Gorbachev to power?» — М.: «Алгоритм», 2016).
Ostrovsky Alexander. Глупость или измена? Расследование гибели СССР. (https://web.archive.org/
web/20190817125705/https://itexts.net/avtor-aleksandr-vladimirovich-ostrovskiy/164701-glupost-ili-iz
mena-rassledovanie-gibeli-sssr-aleksandr-ostrovskiy/read/page-1.html) (2011). («Foolishness or
treason? Investigation into the death of the USSR») М.: „Крымский мост". ISBN 978-5-89747-068-6.
 Pons, S., Romero, F., Reinterpreting the End of the Cold War: Issues, Interpretations, Periodizations,
(2005) ISBN 0-7146-5695-X.
Remnick, David. Lenin's Tomb: The Last Days of the Soviet Empire, (1994), ISBN 0-679-75125-4.
Solzhenitsyn, Aleksandr. Rebuilding Russia: Reflections and Tentative Proposals, trans. and
annotated by Alexis Klimoff. First ed. New York: Farrar, Straus and Giroux, 1991. N.B.: Also discusses
the other national constituents of the USSR. ISBN 0-374-17342-7.

Social and economic history

Bailes, Kendall E. Technology and society under Lenin and Stalin: origins of the Soviet technical
intelligentsia, 1917–1941 (1978).
Bailes, Kendall E. "The American Connection: Ideology and the Transfer of American Technology to
the Soviet Union, 1917–1941." Comparative Studies in Society and History 23.3 (1981): 421–448.
Brooks, Jeffrey. "Public and private values in the Soviet press, 1921–1928." Slavic Review 48.1
(1989): 16–35.
Caroli, Dorena. "'And all our classes turned into a flower garden again'–science education in Soviet
schools in the 1920s and 1930s: the case of biology from Darwinism to Lysenkoism." History of
Education 48.1 (2019): 77–98.
Dobson, Miriam. "The Social History of Post-War Soviet Life" Historical Journal 55.2 (2012): 563–569.
Online (https://www.jstor.org/stable/23263351)
Dowlah, Alex F., et al. The life and times of soviet socialism (Greenwood, 1997), Emphasis on
economic policies. Online (https://www.questia.com/library/2043770/the-life-and-times-of-soviet-social
ism).
Engel, Barbara, et al. A Revolution of Their Own: Voices of Women in Soviet History (1998), Primary
sources; Online (https://www.questia.com/library/3151938/a-revolution-of-their-own-voices-of-women-i
n-soviet).
Fitzpatrick, Sheila. Everyday Stalinism: ordinary life in extraordinary times: Soviet Russia in the 1930s
(Oxford UP, 2000). Online (https://www.questia.com/library/4554298/everyday-stalinism-ordinary-life-i
n-extraordinary).
Graham, Loren R. Science in Russia and the Soviet Union: A short history (Cambridge UP, 1993).
Hanson, Philip. The Rise and Fall of the Soviet Economy: An Economic History of the USSR 1945–
1991 (2014).
Heinzen, James W. Inventing a Soviet Countryside: State Power and the Transformation of Rural
Russia, 1917–1929 (2004).
Lapidus, Gail Warshofsky. Women, Work, and Family in the Soviet Union (1982) Online (https://www.q
uestia.com/library/106056630/women-work-and-family-in-the-soviet-union).
Lutz, Wolfgang et al. Demographic Trends and Patterns in the Soviet Union before 1991 (1994) online
(https://www.questia.com/library/103849421/demographic-trends-and-patterns-in-the-soviet-union).
Mironov, Boris N. "The Development of Literacy in Russia and the USSR from the Tenth to the
Twentieth Centuries". History of Education Quarterly 31#2 (1991), pp. 229–252.
[www.jstor.org/stable/368437 Online].
Nove, Alec. Soviet economic system (1986).
Weiner, Douglas R. "Struggle over the Soviet future: Science education versus vocationalism during
the 1920s." Russian Review 65.1 (2006): 72–97.

Nationalities
Katz, Zev, ed.: Handbook of Major Soviet Nationalities (New York: Free Press, 1975).
Nahaylo, Bohdan and Victor Swoboda. Soviet Disunion: A History of the nationalities Nationalities
problem in the USSR (1990) excerpt (https://www.amazon.com/Soviet-Disunion-Bohdan-Nahaylo/dp/
0029224012/).
Rashid, Ahmed. The Resurgence of Central Asia: Islam or Nationalism? (2017).
Smith, Graham, ed. The Nationalities Question in the Soviet Union (2nd ed. 1995).
Specialty studies
Armstrong, John A. The Politics of Totalitarianism: The Communist Party of the Soviet Union from
1934 to the Present. New York: Random House, 1961.
Moore, Jr., Barrington. Soviet politics: the dilemma of power. Cambridge, MA: Harvard University
Press, 1950.
Rizzi, Bruno: The Bureaucratization of the World: The First English edition of the Underground Marxist
Classic That Analyzed Class Exploitation in the USSR, New York, NY: Free Press, 1985.
Schapiro, Leonard B. The Origin of the Communist Autocracy: Political Opposition in the Soviet State,
First Phase 1917–1922. Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press, 1955, 1966.
Smolkin, Victoria/ A Sacred Space is Never Empty: A History of Soviet Atheism (Princeton UP, 2018)
online reviews (https://hdiplo.org/to/RT21-56)

External links
Wikimedia Atlas of the Soviet Union
Impressions of Soviet Russia (http://ariwatch.com/VS/JD/ImpressionsOfSovietRussia.htm) by John
Dewey
A Country Study: Soviet Union (Former) (https://www.loc.gov/item/97007563/)

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This page was last edited on 7 December 2020, at 07:07 (UTC).

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