Soviet Union - Wikipedia, The Free Encyclopedia

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Union of Soviet Socialist Republics

Other names

Soyuz Sovetskikh Sotsialisticheskikh

Respublik

19221991[1]

Flag State Emblem

Motto

, !(Translit.:Proletarii vsekh stran, soyedinyaytes'!)

English: Workers of the world, unite!

Anthem

"The Internationale"(19221944)

"State Anthem of the USSR"(19441991)

The Soviet Union after World War II

Capital Moscow

Languages Russian, many others

Religion None (state atheism)[2](see text)

Government Union,MarxistLeninist single-partystate

General

Soviet Unionrom Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

The Union of Soviet Socialist Republics (Russian: , tr.SoyuzSovetskikh Sotsialisticheskikh Respublik) abbreviated to

SSR(Russian:, tr.SSSR) or the Soviet Union

(Russian: , tr.Sovetskij Soyuz), was asocialist state on the Eurasian continent that existed between1922 and 1991, governed as a single-party state by the

Communist Party with Moscow as its capital.[3] A union ofultiple subnational Soviet republics, its government and

economy were highly centralized.

The Soviet Union had its roots in the Russian Revolution of 1917,hich deposed the imperial autocracy. The Bolsheviks, led byladimir Lenin, then overthrew the Provisional Government. Theussian Socialist Federative Soviet Republic was established and

he Russian Civil War began. The Red Army entered severalerritories of the former Russian Empire and helped local

communists seize power. In 1922, the Bolsheviks wereictorious, forming the Soviet Union with the unification of theussian, Transcaucasian, Ukrainian, and Byelorussian republics.ollowing Lenin's death in 1924, a troika collective leadership

and a brief power struggle, Joseph Stalin came to power in theid-1920s. Stalin committed the state ideology to Marxismeninism and initiated a centrally planned economy. As a result,

he country underwent a period of rapid industrialisation and

collectivisation which laid the basis for its later war effort anddominance after World War II.[4] However, Stalin repressedoth Communist Party members and elements of the populationhrough his authoritarian rule.

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Secretary

- 19221952 Joseph Stalin (first)

- 1991 Vladimir Ivashko (last)

Head of State

- 19221938 Mikhail Kalinin (first)

- 19881991 Mikhail Gorbachev (last)

Head of

Government

- 19221924 Vladimir Lenin (first)

- 1991 Ivan Silayev (last)

Legislature Supreme Soviet

- Upper house Soviet of the Union

- Lower house Soviet of Nationalities

Historical era Interwar period / World War II/ Cold War

- Treaty ofCreation

30 December 1922

- Uniondissolved

26 December 1991[1]

Area

- 1991 22,402,200 km(8,649,538 sq mi)

Population

- 1991 est. 293,047,571

Density 13.1 /km (33.9 /sq mi)

Currency Soviet ruble () (SUR)

Internet TLD .su1

Calling code +7

Predecessors

RussianSFSR

TranscaucasianSFSR

UkrainianSSR

ByelorussianSSR

Continuous with2

Russia

Successors3

Armenia

AzerbaijanBelarusGeorgia

Kazakhstan

KyrgyzstanMoldovaTajikistan

TurkmenistanUkraine

Uzbekistan

n the beginning of World War II, the Soviet Union signed a non-aggression pact with Nazi Germany, initially avoidingconfrontation, but the treaty was disregarded in 1941 when the

azis invaded, opening the largest and bloodiest theatre ofcombat in history. Soviet war casualties accounted for the highestroportion of the conflict, in the cost to acquire the upper hand

over Axis forces at intense battles such as Stalingrad, eventuallydriving through Eastern Europe and capturing Berlin in 1945,

nflicting the vast majority of German losses.[5] Soviet occupiederritory conquered from Axis forces in Central and Easternurope became satellite states of the Eastern Bloc. Ideological

and political differences with Western Bloc counterparts directedy the United States led to the forming of economic and militaryacts, culminating in the prolonged Cold War.

de-Stalinization period followed Stalin's death, reducing thearshest aspects of society. The Soviet Union then went on tonitiate significant technological achievements of the 20th century,ncluding launching the first ever satellite and world's first humanspaceflight, which led it into the Space Race. The 1962 Cuban

issile Crisis marked a period of extreme tension between thewo superpowers, considered the closest to a mutual nuclear

confrontation. In the 1970s, a relaxation of relations followed, butensions resumed with the Soviet invasion of Afghanistan in 1979.

The occupation drained economic resources and dragged on

ithout achieving meaningful political results.[6][7]

n the late 1980s the last Soviet leader, Mikhail Gorbachev,sought to reform the Union, introducing the policies ofglasnost

andperestroika in an attempt to end the period of economicstagnation and democratize the government. However, this led tohe rise of strong nationalist and separatist movements. Central

authorities initiated a referendum, boycotted by the Balticepublics and Georgia, which resulted in the majority ofarticipating citizens voting in favour of preserving the Union as aenewed federation. In August 1991, a coup d'tat was

attempted by hardliners against Gorbachev, with the intention ofeversing his policies. The coup failed, with Russian Presidentoris Yeltsin playing a high-profile role in facing down the coup,

esulting in the banning of the Communist Party. On 25 December1991, Gorbachev resigned and the remaining 12 constituentepublics emerged from the dissolution of the Soviet Union as

ndependent post-Soviet states.[8] The Russian Federation, thesuccessor state of the Russian SFSR, assumed the Soviet Union'sights and obligations and is recognised as its continued legal

ersonality.[9]

Contents

1 Geography, climate and environment2 History

2.1 Revolution and foundation2.2 Unification of republics
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Restored4

Estonia

LatviaLithuania

Unrecognized5

AbkhaziaNagorno-

KarabakhSouth

Ossetia

Transnistria

^1 Assigned on 19 Sept ember 1990, existing

onwards.

^2 Russia never seceded; this was by agreement ofthe 12 SSRs at t ime of formal dissolution. Russia

subsequently declared that it assumed the rights and

obligations of t he dissolved central Soviet authority ;

the Duma has declared Russia politically and legally

continuous with the former Russian SFSR.

^3 These states were considered newly independent

after the dissolution of the USSR.

^4 The Baltic st ates were illegally occupied in 1940

and declared their independence before the

dissolution of t he USSR.

^5 These successor states have limited recognition

from the international community .

2.3 Stalin era2.3.1 1930s2.3.2 World War II2.3.3 Cold War

2.4 Khrushchev era2.5 Brezhnev era2.6 Reforms and dissolution2.7 Post-Soviet States

3 Politics3.1 Communist Party3.2 Government3.3 Separation of power and reform3.4 Judicial system

4 Administrative divisions5 Economy

5.1 Energy5.2 Science and technology5.3 Transport

6 Demographics6.1 Education6.2 Ethnic groups6.3 Health6.4 Language6.5 Religion

7 Culture8 See also9 References10 Bibliography11 Further reading12 External links

Geography, climate and environment

Main article: Geography of the Soviet Union

ith an area of 22,402,200 square kilometres (8,649,500 sq mi), the Soviet Union was the world's largest state, a

status that is retained by the Russian Federation.[10]

Covering a sixth of the Earth's land surface, its size was comparableo that of North America.[11] 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

est 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 Soviet Union had the world's longest boundary, like Russia, measuring over 60,000 kilometres (37,000 mi), or 1 12

circumferences of the Earth. Two-thirds of it were a coastline. Across the Bering Strait was the United States. TheSoviet Union bordered Afghanistan, China, Czechoslovakia, Finland, Hungary, Iran, Mongolia, North Korea, Norway,

oland, Romania, and Turkey from 1945 to 1991.The Soviet Union's highest mountain was Communism Peak (now Ismoil Somoni Peak) in Tajikistan, at 7,495 metres(24,590 ft). The Soviet Union also included most of the world's largest lake, the Caspian Sea (shared with Iran), andalso Lake Baikal, the world's largest freshwater and deepest lake, an internal body of water in Russia.
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Vladimir Lenin addressing a crowd in

1920.

istory

Main article: History of the Soviet Union

The last Russian Tsar, Nicholas II, ruled the Russian Empire until his abdication in March 1917 in the aftermath of theebruary Revolution, due in part to the strain of fighting in World War I, which lacked public support. A short-livedussian Provisional Government took power, to be overthrown in the October Revolution (N.S. 7 November 1917) by

evolutionaries led by the Bolshevik leader Vladimir Lenin.

The Soviet Union was officially established in December 1922 with the union of the Russian, Ukrainian, Byelorussian,and Transcaucasian Soviet republics, each ruled by local Bolshevik parties. Despite the foundation of the Soviet state asa federative entity of many constituent republics, each with its own political and administrative entities, the term "Soviet

ussia" strictly applicable only to the Russian Federative Socialist Republic was often applied to the entire countryy non-Soviet writers and politicians.

evolution and foundation

Main article: History of Soviet Russia and the Soviet Union (19171927)

odern revolutionary activity in the Russian Empire began with the Decembrist Revolt of 1825. Although serfdom wasabolished in 1861, it was done on terms unfavourable to the peasants and served to encourage revolutionaries. Aarliamentthe State Dumawas established in 1906 after the Russian Revolution of 1905, but the Tsar resisted

attempts to move from absolute to constitutional monarchy. Social unrest continued and was aggravated during Worldar I by military defeat and food shortages in major Soviet cities.

A spontaneous popular uprising in Petrograd, in response to the wartimedecay of Russia's economy and morale, culminated in the February Revolutionand the toppling of the imperial government in March 1917. The tsaristautocracy was replaced by the Russian Provisional Government, which

intended to conduct elections to the Russian Constituent Assembly and tocontinue fighting on the side of the Entente in World War I.

At the same time, workers' councils, known in Russian as "Soviets", sprang upacross the country. The Bolsheviks, led by Vladimir Lenin, pushed for socialistrevolution in the Soviets and on the streets. On 7 November 1917, the RedGuards stormed the Winter Palace in Petrograd, ending the rule of theProvisional Government and leaving all political power to the Soviets. This

event would later be known as the Great October Socialist Revolution. In December, the Bolsheviks signed an armisticeith the Central Powers, though by February 1918, fighting had resumed. In March, the Soviets ended involvement in

he war for good and signed the Treaty of Brest-Litovsk.

long and bloody Civil War ensued between the Reds and the Whites, starting in 1917 and ending in 1923 with theeds' victory. It included foreign intervention, the execution of Nicholas II and his family, and the famine of 1921, which

illed about five million.[12] In March 1921, during a related conflict with Poland, the Peace of Riga was signed, splittingdisputed territories in Belarus and Ukraine between the Republic of Poland and Soviet Russia. The Soviet Union had toesolve similar conflicts with the newly established Republic of Finland, the Republic of Estonia, the Republic of Latvia,

and the Republic of Lithuania.

nification of republics

On 28 December 1922, a conference of plenipotentiary delegations from the Russian SFSR, the Transcaucasian SFSR,he Ukrainian SSR and the Byelorussian SSR approved the Treaty of Creation of the USSR[13] and the Declaration of

he Creation of the USSR, forming the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics.[14] These two documents were confirmed by
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Stalin and Nikolai Yezhov, head of the

NKVD. After Yezhov was executed,

he was edited out of the image.

he 1st Congress of Soviets of the USSR and signed by the heads of the delegations,[15] Mikhail Kalinin, Mikhail

Tskhakaya, Mikhail Frunze, Grigory Petrovsky, and Aleksandr Chervyakov,[16] on 30 December 1922.

On 1 February 1924, the USSR was recognized by the British Empire. The same year, a Soviet Constitution wasapproved, legitimizing the December 1922 union.

n intensive restructuring of the economy, industry and politics of the country began in the early days of Soviet power in1917. A large part of this was done according to the Bolshevik Initial Decrees, government documents signed by

ladimir Lenin. One of the most prominent breakthroughs was the GOELRO plan, which envisioned a majorestructuring of the Soviet economy based on total electrification of the country. The plan was developed in 1920 and

covered a 10-to 15-year period. It included construction of a network of 30 regional power plants, including ten large

ydroelectric power plants, and numerous electric-powered large industrial enterprises.[17] The plan became the

rototype for subsequent Five-Year Plans and was fulfilled by 1931.[18]

Stalin era

Main article: History of the Soviet Union (19271953)

rom its creation, the government in the Soviet Union was based on the one-arty rule of the Communist Party (Bolsheviks).[19] After the economic policy

of "War Communism" during the Russian Civil War, as a prelude to fullydeveloping socialism in the country, the Soviet government permitted somerivate enterprise to coexist alongside nationalized industry in the 1920s andotal food requisition in the countryside was replaced by a food tax (see Newconomic Policy).

The stated purpose of the one-party state was to ensure that capitalistexploitation would not return to the Soviet Union and that the principles of

emocratic Centralism would be most effective in representing the people's

ill in a practical manner. Debate over the future of the economy provided theackground for a power struggle in the years after Lenin's death in 1924.nitially, Lenin was to be replaced by a "troika" consisting of Grigory Zinoviev

of Ukraine, Lev Kamenev of Moscow, and Joseph Stalin of Georgia.
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On 3 April 1922, Stalin was named the General Secretary of the Communist Party of the Soviet Union. Lenin hadappointed Stalin the head of the Workers' and Peasants' Inspectorate, which gave Stalin considerable power. Bygradually consolidating his influence and isolating and outmaneuvering his rivals within the party, Stalin became thendisputed leader of the Soviet Union and, by the end of the 1920s, established totalitarian rule. In October 1927,

Grigory Zinoviev and Leon Trotsky were expelled from the Central Committee and forced into exile.

n 1928, Stalin introduced the First Five-Year Plan for building a socialist economy. While encompassing thenternationalism expressed by Lenin throughout the Revolution, it also aimed to build socialism in one country. In

ndustry, the state assumed control over all existing enterprises and undertook an intensive program of industrialization. Inagriculture, rather than adhering to the "lead by example" policy advocated by Lenin,[20] forced collectivisation of farms

as implemented all over the country.

amines ensued, causing millions of deaths; surviving kulaks were persecuted and many sent to Gulags to do forced

abour.[21] Social upheaval continued in the mid-1930s. Stalin's Great Purge resulted in the execution or detainment ofany "Old Bolsheviks" who had participated in the October Revolution with Lenin. According to declassified Soviet

archives, in 1937 and 1938, the NKVD arrested more than one and a half million people, of whom 681,692 were shot

an average of 1,000 executions a day.[22] The excess deaths during the 1930s as a whole were in the range of 1011

illion.[23] Yet despite the turmoil of the mid-to-late 1930s, the Soviet Union developed a powerful industrial economy

n the years before World War II.

1930s

The early 1930s saw closer cooperation between the West and the USSR. From 1932 to 1934, the Soviet Unionarticipated in the World Disarmament Conference. In 1933, diplomatic relations between the United States and theSSR were established when in November, the newly elected President of the United States, Franklin D. Roosevelt

chose to formally recognize Stalin's Communist government and negotiated a new trade agreement between the two

ations.[24] In September 1934, the Soviet Union joined the League of Nations. After the Spanish Civil War broke outn 1936, the USSR actively supported the Republican forces against the Nationalists, who were supported by Fascist

taly and Nazi Germany.n December 1936, Stalin unveiled a new Soviet Constitution. The constitution was seen as a personal triumph for Stalin,ho on this occasion was described byPravda as a "genius of the new world, the wisest man of the epoch, the great

eader of communism." By contrast, Western historians and historians from former Soviet occupied countries haveiewed the constitution as a meaningless propaganda document.

The late 1930s saw a shift towards the Axis powers. In 1939, almost a year after the United Kingdom and France hadconcluded the Munich Agreement with Germany, the USSR dealt with the Nazis as well, both militarily and economicallyduring extensive talks. The two countries concluded the GermanSoviet Nonaggression Pact and the GermanSovietCommercial Agreement in August 1939. The nonaggression pact made possible Soviet occupation of Lithuania, Latvia,

stonia, Bessarabia, northern Bukovina, and eastern Poland. In late November of the same year, unable to coerce theepublic of Finland by diplomatic means into moving its border 25 kilometres (16 mi) back from Leningrad, JosephStalin ordered the invasion of Finland.

n the east, the Soviet military won several decisive victories during border clashes with the Japanese Empire in 1938and 1939. However, in April 1941, USSR signed the SovietJapanese Neutrality Pact with the Empire of Japan,ecognizing the territorial integrity of Manchukuo, a Japanese puppet state.

orld War II

Main article: Eastern Front (World War II)

lthough it has been debated whether the Soviet Union intended to invade Germany once it was strong enough,[25]

Germany itself broke the treaty and invaded the Soviet Union on 22 June 1941, starting what was known in the USSRas 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
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Soviet soldiers in Berlin, May 1945.

Left to r ight: Soviet Premier Joseph

Stalin, U.S. President Franklin D.

Roosevelt and British Prime Minister

Winston Churchill confer in Tehran in

1943.

low to the Germans 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

0% of its military deaths in the Eastern Front.[26]

The same year, the USSR, infulfillment of its agreement with theAllies at the Yalta Conference,denounced the SovietJapanese

Neutrality Pact in April 1945[27]and invaded Manchukuo and otherJapan-controlled territories on 9

August 1945.[28] This conflictended with a decisive Sovietvictory, contributing to theunconditional surrender of Japanand the end of World War II.

The Soviet Union suffered greatly in the war, losing around 27 million

people.[29]

Despite this, it emerged as a superpower in the post-war period.Once denied diplomatic recognition by the Western world, the Soviet Unionad official relations with practically every nation by the late 1940s. A member of the United Nations at its foundation in

1945, the Soviet Union became one of the five permanent members of the UN Security Council, which gave it the righto veto any of its resolutions (see Soviet Union and the United Nations).

The Soviet Union maintained its status as one of the world's two superpowers for four decades through its hegemony inastern Europe, military strength, economic strength, aid to developing countries, and scientific research, especially in

space technology and weaponry.

Cold War

Main article: Cold War

uring the immediate postwar period, the Soviet Union rebuilt and expanded its economy, while maintaining its strictlycentralized control. It aided post-war reconstruction in the countries of Eastern Europe, while turning them into satellitestates, binding them in a military alliance (the Warsaw Pact) in 1955, and an economic organization (The Council for

utual Economic Assistance or Comecon) from 1949 to 1991, the latter a counterpart to the European Economic

Community.[30] Later, the Comecon supplied aid to the eventually victorious Chinese Communist Party, and saw itsnfluence grow elsewhere in the world. Fearing its ambitions, the Soviet Union's wartime allies, the United Kingdom andhe United States, became its enemies. In the ensuing Cold War, the two sides clashed indirectly using mostly proxies.

Khrushchev era

Main article: History of the Soviet Union (19531964)

Stalin died on 5 March 1953. Without a mutually agreeable successor, the highest Communist Party officials opted toule the Soviet Union jointly. Nikita Khrushchev, who had won the power struggle by the mid-1950s, denounced Stalin'sse of repression in 1956 and eased repressive controls over party and society. This was known as de-Stalinization.

oscow considered Eastern Europe to be a buffer zone for the forward defense of its western borders, and ensured itscontrol of the region by transforming the Eastern European countries into satellite states. Soviet military force was used

o suppress anti-Stalinist uprisings in Hungary and Poland in 1956.

n the late 1950s, a confrontation with China regarding the USSR's rapprochement with the West and what Maoedong perceived as Khrushchev's revisionism led to the SinoSoviet split. This resulted in a break throughout the

global Communist movement, with Communist regimes in Albania, Cambodia and Somalia choosing to ally with China in
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The Soviet Union and other countries

in the world under a communist

government modelled on the country,

after the Cuban Revolution of 1959

and before the official SinoSoviet

split of 1961.

Soviet cosmonaut Yuri

Gagarin, first human to travel

into space

TheLunokhod 1 rover landed on the

Moon on 17 November 1970.

Presidents Leonid Brezhnev and

Jimmy Carter sign the SALT II arms

limitation treaty in Vienna on 18 June

1979.

lace of the USSR.

uring this period, the Soviet Union continued to realize scientific and technological exploits: Launching the first artificialsatellite, Sputnik 1 in 1957; a living dog, Laika in 1957; the first human being, Yuri Gagarin in 1961; the first woman inspace, Valentina Tereshkova in 1963; Alexey Leonov, the first person to walk in space in 1965; the first soft landing on

he moon by spacecraft Luna 9 in 1966 and the first moon rovers, Lunokhod 1 and Lunokhod 2. [31]

hrushchev initiated "The Thaw" (better known as Khrushchev's Thaw), a complex shift in political, cultural and

economic life in the Soviet Union. This included some openness and contact with other nations and new social andeconomic policies with more emphasis on commodity goods, allowing living standards to rise dramatically while

aintaining high levels of economic growth. Censorship was relaxed as well.

Khrushchev's reforms in agriculture andadministration, however, were generallyunproductive. In 1962, he precipitated acrisis with the United States over the Sovietdeployment of nuclear missiles in Cuba. Anagreement was made between the SovietUnion and the United States to remove

enemy nuclear missiles from both Cuba andTurkey, concluding the crisis. This eventcaused Khrushchev much embarrassmentand loss of prestige, resulting in his removalfrom power in 1964.

Brezhnev era

Main articles: History of the

Soviet Union (19641982) and

Era of Stagnation

ollowing the ousting of Khrushchev, another period of collective leadershipensued, consisting of Leonid Brezhnev as General Secretary, Alexei Kosyginas Premier and Nikolai Podgorny as Chairman of the Presidium, lasting until

rezhnev established himself in the early 1970s as the preeminent Sovieteader. In 1968, the Soviet Union and Warsaw Pact allies invadedCzechoslovakia to halt the Prague Spring reforms.

rezhnev presided over a period ofdtente with the West (see SALT I,SALT II, Anti-Ballistic Missile Treaty) while at the same time building up

Soviet military might.

n October 1977, the third Soviet Constitution was unanimously adopted. Therevailing 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 hadcome to be dubbed one of "standstill", with an aging and ossified top politicaleadership.

eforms and dissolution

Main articles: Cold War (19851991), History of the Soviet Union(19821991), Dissolution of the Soviet Union, 1991 Soviet coup

d'tat attempt, and Commonwealth of Independent States
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Mikhail Gorbachev in one-to-one

discussions with U.S. President

Ronald Reagan.

Soviet troops withdrawing from

Afghanistan in 1988.

Two developments dominated the decade that followed: the increasingly apparent crumbling of the Soviet Union'seconomic and political structures, and the patchwork attempts at reforms toreverse that process. Kenneth S. Deffeyes argued inBeyond Oilthat theReagan administration encouraged Saudi Arabia to lower the price of oil tothe point where the Soviets could not make a profit selling their oil, so that the

USSR's hard currency reserves became depleted.[32]

Brezhnev's next two successors, transitional figures with deep roots in his

tradition, did not last long. Yuri Andropov was 68 years old and KonstantinChernenko 72 when they assumed power; both died in less than two years. Inan attempt to avoid a third short-lived leader, in 1985, the Soviets turned tothe next generation and selected Mikhail Gorbachev.

Gorbachev made significant changes in the economy and party leadership,calledperestroika. His policy ofglasnostfreed public access to information

after decades of heavy government censorship.

Gorbachev also moved to end the Cold War. In 1988, the Soviet Unionabandoned its nine-year war in Afghanistan and began to withdraw its forces.

n the late 1980s, he refused military support to the Soviet Union's formersatellite states, resulting in the toppling of multiple communist regimes. With theearing down of the Berlin Wall and with East Germany and West Germanyursuing unification, the Iron Curtain came down.

n the late 1980s, the constituent republics of the Soviet Union started legaloves towards potentially declaring sovereignty over their territories, citingrticle 72 of the USSR constitution, which stated that any constituent republic

as free to secede.[33] On 7 April 1990, a law was passed allowing aepublic to secede if more than two-thirds of its residents voted for it in a

eferendum.[34]

Many held their first free elections in the Soviet era for their own national legislatures in 1990. Many ofhese legislatures proceeded to produce legislation contradicting the Union laws in what was known as the "War ofaws".

n 1989, the Russian SFSR, which was then the largest constituent republic (with about half of the population) conveneda newly elected Congress of People's Deputies. Boris Yeltsin was elected its chairman. On 12 June 1990, the Congressdeclared Russia's sovereignty over its territory and proceeded to pass laws that attempted to supersede some of the

SSR's laws. The period of legal uncertainty continued throughout 1991 as constituent republics slowly became defacto independent.

referendum for the preservation of the USSR was held on 17 March 1991, with the majority of the population voting

for preservation of the Union in nine out of the 15 republics. The referendum gave Gorbachev a minor boost. In thesummer of 1991, the New Union Treaty, which would have turned the Soviet Union into a much looser Union, wasagreed upon by eight republics.

The signing of the treaty, however, was interrupted by the August Coupan attempted coup d'tat by hardline membersof the government and the KGB who sought to reverse Gorbachev's reforms and reassert the central government'scontrol over the republics. After the coup collapsed, Yeltsin was seen as a hero for his decisive actions, whileGorbachev's power was effectively ended. The balance of power tipped significantly towards the republics. In August1991, Latvia and Estonia immediately declared the restoration of their full independence (following Lithuania's 1990example), while the other twelve republics continued discussing new, increasingly looser, models of the Union.

On 8 December 1991, the presidents of Russia, Ukraine and Belarus signed the Belavezha Accords, which declared theSoviet Union dissolved and established the Commonwealth of Independent States (CIS) in its place. While doubtsemained 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, Gorbachevielded to the inevitable and resigned as the President of the USSR, declaring the office extinct. He turned the powers
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Boris Yeltsin stands on a tank in

Moscow to defy the August Coup

(1991).

that had been vested in the presidency over to Yeltsin, the President of Russia.

The following day, the Supreme Soviet, the highest governmental body of theSoviet Union, dissolved itself. This is generally recognized as marking theofficial, final dissolution of the Soviet Union as a functioning state. The SovietArmy remained in place in the early months of 1992, but was thereafterabsorbed into the different military forces of the newly independent states.

Following the dissolution of the Soviet Union on 26 December 1991, Russiawas internationally recognized[35] as its legal successor on the internationalstage. To that end, Russia voluntarily accepted all Soviet foreign debt andclaimed overseas Soviet properties as its own. Under the 1992 LisbonProtocol, Russia also agreed to receive all nuclear weapons remaining in the

erritory of other former Soviet republics. Since then, the Russian Federation has assumed the Soviet Union's rights andobligations.

ost-Soviet States

The analysis of the succession of states with respect to the 15 post-Soviet states is complex. The Russian Federation isseen as the continuatorstate and is for most purposes the heir to the Soviet Union, retaining ownership of all former

Soviet embassy properties and UN Security Council seat.[36] The Baltic states are not successor states to the Soviet

nion;[37] they are considered to have de jure continuity with their pre-World War Two governments through the non-

ecognition of the original Soviet incorporation in 1940.[36] The other 11 post-Soviet states are considered newly

ndependent successor states to the Soviet Union.[36]

olitics

Main articles: Politics of the Soviet Union and State ideology of the Soviet Union

There were three power hierarchies in the Soviet Union: the legislative branch represented by the Supreme Soviet of theSoviet Union, the government represented by the Council of Ministers, and the Communist Party of the Soviet Union

(CPSU), the only legal party and the ultimate policymaker in the country.[38]

Communist Party

Main article: Communist Party of the Soviet Union

t the top of the Communist Party was the Central Committee, elected at Party Congresses and Conferences. TheCentral Committee in turn voted for a Politburo (called the Presidium between 19521966), Secretariat and the General

Secretary (First Secretary from 1953 to 1966), the de facto highest office in the USSR.[39] Depending on the degree ofower consolidation, it was either the Politburo as a collective body or the General Secretary, who always was one of

he Politburo members, that effectively led the party and the country[40] (except for the period of the highly personalizedauthority of Stalin, exercised directly through his position in the Council of Ministers rather than the Politburo after

1941).[41] They were not controlled by the general party membership, as the key principle of the party organization wasdemocratic centralism, demanding strict subordination to higher bodies, and elections went uncontested, endorsing the

candidates proposed from above.[42]

The Communist Party maintained its dominance over the state largely through its control over the system ofappointments. All senior government officials and most deputies of the Supreme Soviet were members of the CPSU. Of

he party heads themselves, Stalin in 19411953 and Khrushchev in 19581964 were Premiers. Upon the forcedetirement of Khrushchev, the party leader was prohibited from this kind of double membership,[43] but the later General
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The Grand Kremlin Palace, seat of the

Supreme Soviet of the Soviet Union,

in 1982.

Secretaries for at least some part of their tenure occupied the largely ceremonial position of Chairman of the Presidiumof the Supreme Soviet, the nominal head of state. The institutions at lower levels were overseen and at times supplanted

y primary party organizations.[44]

n practice, however, the degree of control the party was able to exercise over the state bureaucracy, particularly afterhe death of Stalin, was far from total, with the bureaucracy pursuing different interests that were at times in conflict with

he party.[45] Nor was the party itself monolithic from top to bottom, although factions were officially banned. [46]

Government

Main article: Government of the Soviet Union

The Supreme Soviet (successor of the Congress of Soviets and CentralExecutive Committee) was nominally the highest state body for most of the

Soviet history,[47] at first acting as a rubber stamp institution, approving andimplementing all decisions made by the party. However, the powers andfunctions of the Supreme Soviet were extended in the late 1950s, 1960s and1970s, including the creation of new state commissions and committees. It

gained additional powers when it came to the approval of the Five-Year Plansand the Soviet state budget.[48] The Supreme Soviet elected a Presidium to

wield its power between plenary sessions,[49] ordinarily held twice a year, and

appointed the Supreme Court,[50] the Procurator General[51] and the Councilof Ministers (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.[49] State andarty 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 ruleddirectly 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.[52]

The state security police (the KGB and its predecessor agencies) played an important role in Soviet politics. It was

nstrumental in the Stalinist terror,[53] but after the death of Stalin, the state security police was brought under strict partycontrol. Under Yuri Andropov, KGB chairman in 19671982 and General Secretary from 1982 to 1983, the KGBengaged in the suppression of political dissent and maintained an extensive network of informers, reasserting itself as a

olitical actor to some extent independent of the party-state structure,[54] culminating in the anti-corruption campaign

argeting high party officials in the late 1970s and early 1980s.[55]

Separation of power and reform

Main article: Perestroika

The Soviet constitutions, which were promulgated in 1918, 1924, 1936 and 1977,[56] did not limit state power. No

formal separation of powers existed between the Party, Supreme Soviet and Council of Ministers[57] that representedexecutive and legislative branches of the government. The system was governed less by statute than by informalconventions, and no settled mechanism of leadership succession existed. Bitter and at times deadly power struggles took

lace in the Politburo after the deaths of Lenin[58] and Joseph Stalin,[59] as well as after Khrushchev's dismissal,[60] itself

due to a decision by both the Politburo and the Central Committee. [61] All Soviet party leaders before Gorbachev died

n office, except Georgy Malenkov[62] and Khrushchev, both dismissed from the party leadership amid internal struggle

ithin the party.[61]

etween 1988 and 1990, facing considerable opposition, Mikhail Gorbachev enacted reforms shifting power away fromhe highest bodies of the party and making the Supreme Soviet less dependent on them. The Congress of People'seputies was established, the majority of whose members were directly elected in competitive elections held in March
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1989. The Congress now elected the Supreme Soviet, which became a full-time parliament, much stronger than before.

or the first time since the 1920s, it refused to rubber stamp proposals from the party and Council of Ministers.[63] In1990, Gorbachev introduced and assumed the position of the President of the Soviet Union, concentrated power in his

executive office, independent of the party, and subordinated the government,[64] now renamed the Cabinet of Ministers

of the USSR, to himself.[65]

Tensions grew between the union-wide authorities under Gorbachev, reformists led in Russia by Boris Yeltsin andcontrolling the newly elected Supreme Soviet of the Russian SFSR, and Communist Party hardliners. On 1921 August

1991, a group of hardliners staged an abortive coup attempt. Following the failed coup, the State Council of the Sovietnion became the highest organ of state power "in the period of transition".[66] Gorbachev resigned as General

Secretary, only remaining President for the final months of the existence of the USSR. [67]

udicial system

Main articles: Law of the Soviet Union and Socialist law

The judiciary was not independent of the other branches of government. The Supreme Court supervised the lowercourts (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 thenquisitorial system of Roman law, where the judge, procurator, and defense attorney collaborate to establish the

ruth.[68]

dministrative divisions

Main articles: Soviet Republic (system of government) and Republics of the Soviet Union

Constitutionally, the Soviet Union was a union of Soviet Socialist Republics (SSRs) and the Russian Soviet FederativeSocialist Republic (RSFSR), although the rule of the highly centralized Communist Party made the union merely

ominal.[38] The Treaty on the Creation of the USSR was signed in December 1922 by four founding republics, theSFSR, Transcaucasian SFSR, Ukrainian SSR and Belorussian SSR. In 1924, during the national delimitation in

Central Asia, the Uzbek and Turkmen SSRs were formed from parts of the RSFSR's Turkestan ASSR and two Sovietdependencies, the Khorezm and Bukharan SSR. In 1929, the Tajik SSR was split off from the Uzbek SSR. With theconstitution of 1936, the constituents of the Transcaucasian SFSR, namely the Georgian, Armenian and Azerbaijan

SSRs, were elevated to union republics, while the Kazakh and Kirghiz SSRs were split off from the RSFSR. [69] Inugust 1940, the Soviet Union formed the Moldavian SSR from parts of the Ukrainian SSR and Soviet occupation ofessarabia and Northern Bukovina. It also annexed the Baltic states as the Estonian, Latvian and Lithuanian SSRs. Thearelo-Finnish SSR was split off from the RSFSR in March 1940 and merged back in 1956. Between July 1956 and

September 1991, there were 15 union republics (see map below).[70]

On 16 November 1988, the Supreme Soviet of the Estonian SSR passed the Estonian Sovereignty Declaration that

asserted Estonia's sovereignty and declared the supremacy of Estonian laws over those of the Soviet Union.[71] Inarch 1990, the newly elected Supreme Soviet of the Lithuanian SSR declared independence, followed by the

Georgian Supreme Soviet in April 1991. Although the symbolic right of the republics to secede was nominally

guaranteed by the constitution and the union treaty,[38] Soviet authorities at first refused to recognize it. After the Augustcoup attempt, most of the other republics followed suit. The Soviet Union ultimately recognized the secession of Estonia,

atvia and Lithuania on 6 September 1991. The remaining republics were recognized as independent with the Soviet

nion's final dissolution in December 1991.[72]
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# Republic Map of the Union Republics between 19561991

1 RussianSFSR

2 UkrainianSSR

3 BelorussianSSR

4Uzbek

SSR

5 KazakhSSR

6 GeorgianSSR

7 AzerbaijanSSR

8 LithuanianSSR

9 MoldavianSSR

10Latvian

SSR

11Kirghiz

SSR

12Tajik

SSR

13 ArmenianSSR

14 TurkmenSSR

15 EstonianSSR
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The DneproGES, one of many

hydroelectric power stations in the

Soviet Union.

conomy

Main article: Economy of the Soviet Union

The Soviet Union became the first country to adopt a planned economy,whereby production and distribution of goods were centralized and directed

by the government. The first Bolshevik experience with a command economywas the policy of War Communism, which involved nationalization of industry,centralized distribution of output, coercive requisition of agricultural

production, and attempts to eliminate the circulation of money, as well asprivate enterprises and free trade. As it had suffered a severe economiccollapse caused by the war, in 1921, Lenin replaced War Communism withthe New Economic Policy (NEP), legalizing free trade and private ownership

of smaller businesses. The economy quickly recovered.[73]

Following a lengthy debate among the members of Politburo over the courseof economic development, by 19281929, upon gaining control of the country, Joseph Stalin abandoned the NEP andushed for full central planning, starting forced collectivization of agriculture and enacting draconian labor legislation.

esources were mobilized for rapid industrialization, which greatly expanded Soviet capacity in heavy industry andcapital goods during the 1930s.[73] Preparation for war was one of the main driving forces behind industrialization,

ostly due to distrust of the outside capitalistic world.[74] As a result, the USSR was transformed from a largely agrarian

economy into a great industrial power, leading the way for its emergence as a superpower after World War II. [75]

uring the war, the Soviet economy and infrastructure suffered massive devastation and required extensive

econstruction.[76]

y the early 1940s, the Soviet economy had become relatively self-sufficient; for most of the period until the creation of

Comecon, only a very small share of domestic products was traded internationally.[77] After the creation of the Easternloc, external trade rose rapidly. Still the influence of the world economy on the USSR was limited by fixed domestic

rices and a state monopoly on foreign trade.[78]

Grain and sophisticated consumer manufactures became major importarticles from around the 1960s.[77] During the arms race of the Cold War, the Soviet economy was burdened by militaryexpenditures, heavily lobbied for by a powerful bureaucracy dependent on the arms industry. At the same time, theSoviet Union became the 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. [77]

rom the 1930s until its collapse in the late 1980s, the way the Soviet economy operated remained essentiallynchanged. The economy was formally directed by central planning, carried out by Gosplan and organized in five-yearlans. In practice, however, the plans were highly aggregated and provisional, subject to ad hoc intervention by

superiors. All key economic decisions were taken by the political leadership. Allocated resources and plan targets wereormally denominated in rubles rather than in physical goods. Credit was discouraged, but widespread. Final allocation

of output was achieved through relatively decentralized, unplanned contracting. Although in theory prices were legally setfrom above, in practice the actual prices were often negotiated, and informal horizontal links (between producer factories

etc.) were widespread.[73]

number of basic services were state-funded, such as education and healthcare. In the manufacturing sector, heavy

ndustry and defense were assigned higher priority than the production of consumer goods.[79] Consumer goods,articularly outside large cities, were often scarce, of poor quality and limited choice. Under command economy,

consumers had almost no influence over production, so the changing demands of a population with growing incomes

could not be satisfied by supplies at rigidly fixed prices.[80] A massive unplanned second economy grew up alongside thelanned one at low levels, providing some of the goods and services that the planners could not. Legalization of some

elements of the decentralized economy was attempted with the reform of 1965.[73]

lthough statistics of the Soviet economy are notoriously unreliable and its economic growth difficult to estimate

recisely,[81][82] by most accounts, the economy continued to expand until the mid-1980s. During the 1950s and 1960s,

he Soviet economy experienced comparatively high growth and was catching up to the West.[83] However, after 1970,
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Soviet stamp depicting the 30th

anniversary of the International

Atomic Energy Agency.

he growth, while still positive, steadily declined much more quickly and consistently than in other countries despite a

apid increase in the capital stock (the rate of increase in capital was only surpassed by Japan).[73]

Overall, between 1960 and 1989, the growth rate of per capita income in the Soviet Union was slightly above the world

average (based on 102 countries).[citation needed] According to Stanley Fischer and William Easterly, growth couldave been faster. By their calculation, per capita income of Soviet Union in 1989 should have been twice as high as itas considering the amount of investment, education and population. The authors attribute this poor performance to low

roductivity of capital in the Soviet Union.[84] Steven Rosenfielde states that the standard of living actually declined as a

esult of Stalin's despotism, and while there was a brief improvement following his death, lapsed into stagnation. [85]

n 1987, Mikhail Gorbachev tried to reform and revitalize the economy with his program ofperestroika. His policieselaxed state control over enterprises, but did not yet allow it to be replaced by market incentives, ultimately resulting in

a sharp decline in production output. The economy, already suffering from reduced petroleum export revenues, startedo collapse. Prices were still fixed, and property was still largely state-owned until after the dissolution of the Soviet

nion.[73][80] For most of the period after World War II up to its collapse, the Soviet economy was the second largest

n the world by GDP (PPP), and was 3rd in the world during the middle of the 1980s to 1989.[86] though in per capita

erms the Soviet GDP was behind that of the First World countries.[87]

Energy

Main article: Energy policy of the Soviet Union

The need for fuel declined in the Soviet Union from the 1970s to the

1980s,[88] both per ruble of gross social product and per ruble of industrialroduct. 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 percent.[89] David Wilson, a historian, believed that the gas industryould account for 40 percent of Soviet fuel production by the end of the

century. His theory did not come to fruition because of the USSR'scollapse.[90] The USSR, in theory, would have continued to have an economicgrowth rate of 22.5 percent during the 1990s because of Soviet energy

fields.[91] However, the energy sector faced many difficulties, among them thecountry's high military expenditure and hostile relations with the First World

(pre-Gorbachev era).[92]

n 1991, the Soviet Union had a pipeline network of 82,000 kilometres (51,000 mi) for crude oil and another 206,500

ilometres (128,300 mi) for natural gas.[93] 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.

[94]

In the 1970s and 1980s, the Soviet Union heavily relied on fossil fuel exports to earn hard currency.

[77]

Atts peak in 1988, it was the largest producer and second largest exporter of crude oil, surpassed only by Saudi

rabia.[95]

Science and technology

Main article: Science and technology in the Soviet Union

The Soviet Union placed great emphasis on science and technology within its economy,[96] however, the mostemarkable Soviet successes in technology, such as producing the world's first space satellite, typically were the

esponsibility of the military.[79] Lenin believed that the USSR would never overtake the developed world if it remainedas technologically backward as it was. Soviet authorities proved their commitment to Lenin's belief by developing

assive networks, research and development organizations. By 1989, Soviet scientists were among the world's best-rained specialists in several areas, such as energy physics, selected areas of medicine, mathematics, welding and militaryechnologies. Due to rigid state planning and bureaucracy, the Soviets remained far behind technologically in chemistry,
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Soviet stamp showing

the orbit of Sputnik.

Aeroflot's flag during the Soviet era.

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