Soviet Union/Temp

The Union of Soviet Socialist Republics (USSR or Soviet Union; Soyuz Sovetskikh Sotsialisticheskikh Respublik, SSSR written in the Cyrillic alphabet as CCCP) was a communist country with a totalitarian regime that existed from 1922 until 1991. It stretched from the Baltic and Black Seas to the Pacific Ocean. In its final years it consisted of 15 Soviet Socialist Republics (SSRs). Russia was by far the largest republic in the Soviet Union in terms of both land area and population, and also dominated it politically and economically.

History

Unhappiness with the Russian involvement in World War I led to the Russian Revolution and a civil war, ending in the establishing of the Soviet Union, the first communist state, on December 30, 1922.

The country became a major world power after World War II and became the adversary of the United States and the other Western nations in the Cold War conflict.

In 1991, the Soviet Union fell apart after a failed coup attempt by military leaders.

Politics

After the revolution, the Communist Party of the Soviet Union (CPSU) outlawed every other political party. The governing of the country was, in theory, to be done by local and regional democratically elected soviets. In practice, however, each level of government was controlled by its corresponding party group (see democratic centralism). The highest legislative body was the Supreme Soviet. The highest executive body was the Politburo. (More about the political organization of the USSR can be found on Organization of the Communist Party of the USSR.)

See also: List of leaders of the Soviet Union

Republics

• Armenian SSR[?]
• Azerbaijan SSR[?]
• Byelorussian SSR[?]
• Estonian SSR
• Georgian SSR[?]
• Kazakh SSR
• Kirghiz SSR
• Latvian SSR[?]
• Lithuanian SSR[?]
• Moldavian SSR[?]
• Russian SFSR[?]
• Tadzhik SSR[?]
• Turkmen SSR
• Ukrainian SSR[?]
• Uzbek SSR[?]

Geography

Economy

Demographics

The Soviet Union was one of the world's most ethnically diverse countries, with more than 100 distinct national ethnicities living within its borders. The total population was estimated at 293 million in 1991. The Soviet Union was so large, in fact, that even after all associated republics gained independence Russia, remains the largest country by area (with Canada second), and remained quite ethnically diverse, including, e.g., minorities of Tatars, Udmurts[?], and many other non-Russian ethnicities.

Culture

Miscellaneous topics

External link

• Soviet Union Factbook (http://www.skalman.nu/soviet/)