he Soviet Union (Russian: Сове́тский Сою́з, tr. Sovétsky Soyúz, IPA: [sɐˈvʲɛt͡skʲɪj sɐˈjus] (About this sound listen)), officially the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics (Russian: Сою́з Сове́тских Социалисти́ческих Респу́блик, tr. Soyúz Sovétskikh Sotsialistícheskikh Respúblik, IPA: [sɐˈjus sɐˈvʲɛtskʲɪx sətsɨəlʲɪsˈtʲitɕɪskʲɪx rʲɪˈspublʲɪk] (About this sound listen)), abbreviated as the USSR (Russian: СССР, tr. SSSR), was a socialist state in Eurasia that existed from 1922 to 1991. Nominally a union of multiple national Soviet republics,[a] its government and economy were highly centralized. The country was a one-party state, governed by the Communist Party with Moscow as its capital in its largest republic, the Russian Soviet Federative Socialist Republic. Other major urban centres were Leningrad, Kiev, Minsk, Tashkent and Novosibirsk. The Soviet Union was one of the five recognized nuclear weapons states and possessed the largest stockpile of weapons of mass destruction.[7] It was a founding permanent member of the United Nations Security Council, as well as a member of the Organization for Security and Co-operation in Europe (OSCE) and the leading member of the Council for Mutual Economic Assistance (CMEA) and the Warsaw Pact.
The Soviet Union had its roots in the October Revolution of 1917, when the Bolsheviks, led by Vladimir Lenin, overthrew the Russian Provisional Government which had replaced Tsar Nicholas II during World War I. In 1922, after a civil war, the Soviet Union was formed with the unification of the Russian, Transcaucasian, Ukrainian and Byelorussian republics. Following Lenin's death in 1924 and a brief power struggle, Joseph Stalin came to power in the mid-1920s. Under Stalin's leadership, the Soviet Union transitioned from a market economy into a centrally planned economy which led to a period of rapid industrialization and collectivization. As industrial production skyrocketed, the Soviet Union achieved full employment, implemented a universal healthcare system, sharply reduced illiteracy, and provided guarantees of paid vacations, rest homes, and recreational clubs. This period of industrialization was a time of enormous improvements in the standard of living for millions of people in the country, starkly contrasting with the situations of other countries during the Great Depression, but was also a time characterized by major institutional shortcomings and failures. In the 1930s, with the rise of fascism in Europe, the Communist Party pursued aggressive campaigns to suppress potential counter-revolution, fermenting political paranoia which culminated in the Great Purge in which extrajudicial arrests and executions of suspected counter-revolutionaries led to an estimated 600,000 deaths. As a result of these mass arrests, penal labor through the Gulag system was used to construct infrastructure projects, though this consistently proved to be an inefficient system throughout its existence.[8] Increased demand for agricultural products to pay for industrialization combined with a relatively low harvest yield led to the famine of 1932–33 in which an estimated 2.4 to 4 million people died in the country's agricultural centers of Ukraine, southern Russia, and Kazakhstan.[9][10]
After the rise of Adolf Hitler in Germany, Stalin tried repeatedly to form an anti-fascist alliance with other European countries. However, finding no support, shortly before World War II, the Soviet Union became the last major country to sign a treaty with Germany with the Molotov–Ribbentrop Pact, after which the two countries invaded Poland in September 1939. In June 1941, the pact collapsed as Germany invaded the Soviet Union, opening the largest and bloodiest theatre of war in history. Soviet war casualties accounted for the highest proportion of the conflict in the effort of acquiring the upper hand over Axis forces at intense battles such as Stalingrad and Kursk. The territories overtaken by the Red Army became satellite states of the Soviet Union; the postwar division of Europe into capitalist and communist halves would lead to increased tensions with the West, led by the United States.
The Cold War emerged by 1947, as the Eastern Bloc, united under the Warsaw Pact in 1955, confronted the Western Bloc, united under NATO in 1949. On 5 March 1953, Stalin died and was quickly succeeded by Nikita Khrushchev, who in 1956 denounced Stalin and began the De-Stalinization of Soviet society through the Khrushchev Thaw. The Soviet Union took an early lead in the Space Race, with the first artificial satellite and the first human spaceflight. Khrushchev was removed from power by his colleagues in 1964 and was succeeded as head of state by Leonid Brezhnev. In the 1970s, there was a brief détente of relations with the United States, but tensions resumed with the Soviet–Afghan War in 1979. In the mid-1980s, the last Soviet leader, Mikhail Gorbachev, sought to reform and liberalize the economy through his policies of glasnost (government transparency) and perestroika (openness, restructuring). Under Gorbachev, the role of the Communist Party in governing the state was removed from the constitution, causing a surge of severe political instability to set in. The Cold War ended during his tenure, and in 1989, Soviet satellite states in Eastern Europe overthrew their respective communist governments.
With the rise of strong nationalist and separatist movements inside the union republics, Gorbachev tried to avert a dissolution of the Soviet Union in the post-Cold War era. A March 1991 referendum, boycotted by some republics, resulted in a majority of participating citizens voting in favor of preserving the union as a renewed federation. Gorbachev's power was greatly diminished after Russian President Boris Yeltsin played a high-profile role in facing down an abortive August 1991 coup d'état attempted by Communist Party hardliners. On 25 December 1991, Gorbachev resigned and the remaining twelve constituent republics emerged as independent post-Soviet states. The Russian Federation—formerly the Russian SFSR—assumed the Soviet Union's rights and obligations and is recognized as the successor state of the Soviet Union.[11][12][13] 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.
Soviet Union topics
History
Index of Soviet Union-related articles Russian Revolution February October Russian Civil War Russian SFSR USSR creation treaty New Economic Policy Stalinism Great Purge Great Patriotic War (World War II) Cold War Khrushchev Thaw 1965 reform Stagnation Perestroika Glasnost Revolutions of 1989 Dissolution Nostalgia Post-Soviet states
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Geography
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Regions
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Politics
General
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Offices
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Ideological repression
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Economy
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Science
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Society
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Culture
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Opposition
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Template Templates
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Administrative division of the Soviet Union
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Republics of the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics (1922–1991)
Principal
Armenia Azerbaijan Byelorussia Estonia1 Georgia Kazakhstan Kirghizia Latvia1 Lithuania1 Moldavia Russian SFSR Tajikistan Turkmenia Ukraine Uzbekistan
State Emblem of the Soviet Union
Short-lived
Karelo-Finnish SSR (1940–1956) Transcaucasian SFSR (1922–1936)
Non-union republics
SSR Abkhazia (1921–1931) Bukharan SSR (1920–1925) Khorezm SSR (1920–1925) Nakhichevan ASSR (1920–1923) Pridnestrovian Moldavian SSR (1990–1991) South Ossetian SR (1990–1991)
1The annexation of the Baltic republics in 1940 was considered as an illegal occupation and was not recognized by the majority of the international community such as the United States, United Kingdom and the European Community. The Soviet Union officially recognized their independence on September 6, 1991, prior to its final dissolution three months later.
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Flag of the Soviet Union.svg Autonomous Soviet Socialist Republics of the Soviet Union
Soviet Union
By name
Abkhaz Adjar Bashkir Buryat1 Chechen-Ingush Chuvash Crimean Dagestan Gorno-Altai Kabardin Kabardino-Balkar Kalmyk Karakalpak Karelian Kazak2 Kirghiz2 Kirghiz Komi Mari Moldavian Mordovian Mountain Nakhchivan North Ossetian Tajik Tatar Turkestan Tuva Udmurt Volga German Yakut
Coat of arms of the Soviet Union
By year
established
1918–1924 Turkestan
1918–1941 Volga German
1919–1990 Bashkir
1920–1925 Kirghiz2
1920–1990 Tatar
1921–1990 Adjar
1921–1945 Crimean
1921–1991 Dagestan
1921–1924 Mountain
1921–1990 Nakhchivan
1922–1991 Yakut
1923–1990 Buryat1
1923–1940 Karelian
1924–1940 Moldavian
1924–1929 Tajik
1925–1992 Chuvash
1925–1936 Kazak2
1926–1936 Kirghiz
1931–1991 Abkhaz
1932–1992 Karakalpak
1934–1990 Mordovian
1934–1990 Udmurt
1935–1943 Kalmyk
1936–1944 Chechen-Ingush
1936–1944 Kabardino-Balkar
1936–1990 Komi
1936–1990 Mari
1936–1990 North Ossetian
1944–1957 Kabardin
1956–1991 Karelian
1957–1990 Chechen-Ingush
1957–1991 Kabardino-Balkar
1958–1990 Kalmyk
1961–1992 Tuva
1990–1991 Gorno-Altai
1991–1992 Crimean
1 Buryat–Mongol until 1958.
2 Kazak ASSR was called Kirghiz ASSR until 1925.
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Flag of the Soviet Union.svg Autonomous oblasts of the Soviet Union
Soviet Union
Adyghe Chechen–Ingush Chechen Ingush Chuvash Gorno-Altai Gorno-Badakhshan Jewish Kabardino-Balkar Kalmyk Kara-Kirghiz Karachay-Cherkess Cherkess Karachay Kara-Kalpak Komi-Zyryan Khakas Mari Moldavian Nagorno-Karabakh North Ossetian South Ossetian Tuvan Udmurt
Coat of arms of the Soviet Union
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Socialism by country
By country
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History
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Regional variants
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Communist
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Africa
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Americas
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Asia
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Short-lived
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Europe
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Short-lived
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History of socialism
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Eastern Bloc
Soviet Union Communism
Formation
Secret Molotov–Ribbentrop Pact protocol Soviet invasion of Poland Soviet occupations Bessarabia and Northern Bukovina Baltic states Hungary Romania Yalta Conference
Annexed as, or
into, SSRs
Eastern Finland Estonia Latvia Lithuania Memel East Prussia West Belarus Western Ukraine Moldavia
Satellite states
Hungarian People's Republic Polish People's Republic Czechoslovak Socialist Republic Socialist Republic of Romania German Democratic Republic People's Republic of Albania (to 1961) People's Republic of Bulgaria Federal People's Republic of Yugoslavia (to 1948)
Annexing SSRs
Russian SFSR Ukrainian SSR Byelorussian SSR
Organizations
Cominform COMECON Warsaw Pact World Federation of Trade Unions (WFTU) World Federation of Democratic Youth (WFDY)
Revolts and
opposition
Welles Declaration Goryani Movement Forest Brothers Ukrainian Insurgent Army Operation Jungle Baltic state continuity Baltic Legations (1940–1991) Cursed soldiers Rebellion of Cazin 1950 1953 uprising in Plzeň 1953 East German uprising 1956 Georgian demonstrations 1956 Poznań protests 1956 Hungarian Revolution Novocherkassk massacre 1965 Yerevan demonstrations Prague Spring / Warsaw Pact invasion of Czechoslovakia Brezhnev Doctrine 1968 Red Square demonstration 1968 student demonstrations in Belgrade 1968 protests in Kosovo 1970 Polish protests Croatian Spring 1972 unrest in Lithuania SSR June 1976 protests Solidarity / Soviet reaction / Martial law 1981 protests in Kosovo Reagan Doctrine Jeltoqsan Karabakh movement April 9 tragedy Romanian Revolution Black January
Cold War events
Marshall Plan Berlin Blockade Tito–Stalin split 1948 Czechoslovak coup d'état 1961 Berlin Wall crisis
Conditions
Emigration and defection (list of defectors) Sovietization of the Baltic states Information dissemination Politics Economies Telephone tapping
Decline
Revolutions of 1989 Fall of the Berlin Wall Romanian Revolution Fall of communism in Albania Singing Revolution Collapse of the Soviet Union Dissolution of Czechoslovakia January 1991 events in Lithuania January 1991 events in Latvia
Post-Cold War topics
Baltic Assembly Collective Security Treaty Organization Commonwealth of Independent States Craiova Group European Union European migrant crisis Eurasian Economic Union NATO Post-Soviet states Shanghai Cooperation Organisation Visegrad Group
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Disinformation
Types
Alternative facts Big lie Bullshit Cherry picking Circular reporting Deception Doublespeak Echo chamber Euphemistic misspeaking Euromyth Factoid Fake news by country online Fallacy False accusation False flag Filter bubble Gaslighting Half-truth Hoax Ideological framing Internet manipulation Media manipulation Potemkin village Post-truth Propaganda Quote mining Scientific fabrication Smearing Social bot Spin View from nowhere Yellow journalism
Books
Disinformation by Ion Mihai Pacepa Dezinformatsia: Active Measures in Soviet Strategy The KGB and Soviet Disinformation The Case for Latvia Who's Who in the CIA
Disinformation
operations
1995 CIA disinformation controversy CIA Kennedy assassination conspiracy theory Funkspiel Habbush letter Information Operations Roadmap Jihadunspun.com Jonestown conspiracy theories K-1000 battleship Mafkarat al Islam Media censorship and disinformation during the Gezi Park protests Mohamed Atta's alleged Prague connection Niger uranium forgeries Operation INFEKTION Operation Neptune Operation Shocker Operation Toucan Pope Pius XII and Russia Russian interference in the 2016 United States elections Seat 12 Strategy of tension Trolls from Olgino U.S. Army Field Manual 30-31B Web brigades Yellow rain
Countering
disinformation
Active Measures Working Group Counter Misinformation Team Countering Foreign Propaganda and Disinformation Act East StratCom Team FactCheck.org PolitiFact Snopes.com United States Information Agency
Related series: Fraud • Media manipulation • Propaganda.