UNION OF SOVIET SOCIALIST REPUBLICS
Coat of arms of the Soviet Union 1
The flag of the Soviet Union The
Soviet Union , officially the
Union of Soviet Socialist Republics (
USSR ), was a
transcontinental country that spanned much of
Eurasia from its formation in 1922 until
its dissolution in 1991. It was the world's
third-most populous country , the
largest by area , and
bordered twelve other countries . A diverse
multinational state , it was organized as a
federal union of
national republics , with the largest and most populous being the
Russian Soviet Federative Socialist Republic (SFSR). The world's flagship
communist state , it was governed by the
Communist Party under
Marxism–Leninism , through
soviet councils . The
Soviet economy was also
centrally planned . Its capital and largest city was
Moscow .
The Soviet Union's roots lay in the October Revolution of 1917. The new government, led by Vladimir Lenin , established the Russian SFSR, the world's first constitutionally communist state . Following the Bolshevik victory in the Russian Civil War , the Russian SFSR and its subordinate republics were merged into the Soviet Union in 1922. Following Lenin's death in 1924, a six-year power struggle saw Joseph Stalin emerge as the country's undisputed personalist ruler. He initiated rapid industrialization and forced collectivization that led to significant growth, but contributed to a devastating famine in the 1930s that killed millions. The Soviet forced labour camp system, known as the Gulag , was expanded. During the late 1930s, Stalin's government conducted the Great Purge to eliminate opposition, resulting in deportations , executions , and the Moscow trials . Failing to build an anti-Nazi coalition in Europe, the Soviet Union signed a non-aggression pact with Nazi Germany in 1939. However, in 1941, Germany invaded the Soviet Union in the largest land invasion in history, opening the Eastern Front of World War II . The Soviets played a decisive role in defeating the Axis powers as part of the Allies , while liberating much of Central and Eastern Europe . With around 27 million casualties , it suffered the most deaths of any country in World War II . In the war's aftermath , the Soviet Union consolidated the territories occupied by the Red Army into satellite states and undertook rapid economic development , cementing its status as a superpower .
Geopolitical tensions with the United States led to the Cold War . The US-led Western Bloc coalesced into the NATO military alliance in 1949, prompting the Eastern Bloc to form the Warsaw Pact in 1955. With little direct combat , the blocs engaged in ideological and proxy wars . In 1953, following Stalin's death , Nikita Khrushchev initiated a campaign of de-Stalinization , which led to ideological tensions with communist China , under Mao Zedong , and culminated in an acrimonious split . The Soviet military suppressed uprisings in East Germany , Hungary and Czechoslovakia , while the resolution of the Cuban Missile Crisis narrowly averted a global conflict . Under Leonid Brezhnev , prosperity shifted toward stagnation , although relations with the US eased . In 1985, Mikhail Gorbachev sought reform through his policies of glasnost perestroika overthrew their Soviet-backed regimes , effectively ending the Eastern Bloc. Nationalist movements across the Soviet republics declared sovereignty , and in 1991, a successful referendum to establish a renewed federation was followed by a failed coup by hardliners . This prompted Russia, Ukraine, and Belarus to secede . On 26 December, Gorbachev officially recognized the dissolution of the Soviet Union. Boris Yeltsin , president of the Russian SFSR, oversaw its reconstitution into the Russian Federation , the Soviet Union's successor state . All fifteen republics became independent states ; all except the Baltic states joined the Commonwealth of Independent States . The post-Soviet states experienced a humanitarian disaster .
The Soviet Union was one of the world's two superpowers, with
hegemony in Eastern Europe ,
global diplomacy , ideological influence (particularly in the
Global South ), military might, economic strength, and
scientific and technological accomplishments .
Its space program made
significant achievements in the
Space Race . It
had the world's second-largest economy and the largest
standing military . As a
nuclear state , it wielded the
largest arsenal of nuclear weapons in the world . As an Allied nation, it was a
founding member of the
United Nations and one of
five permanent members of its
Security Council . (
Full article... )
Entries here consist of Good and Featured articles, which meet a core set of high editorial standards. The men's 4 × 100 metre medley relay event at the 1980 Summer Olympics was held in Moscow, Soviet Union on 24 July 1980 in the Olympiski Sports Complex . A total of 13 teams participated in the event. These were split over two heats held in the morning of that day, and the eight fastest teams qualified for the finals held in the evening of the same day.
The United States, the winner of all previous editions of this event, was boycotting the games in response to the Soviet–Afghan War . As a result, the Soviet Union , Great Britain, and Sweden were expected to win. Australia's Quietly Confident Quartet Mark Kerry , breaststroker Peter Evans , butterflyer Mark Tonelli , and freestyler Neil Brooks , surprisingly won the final in 3:45.70. They were followed by the silver medalists Soviet Union, 0.22 seconds in arrears, and the bronze medalists Great Britain, as favorites Sweden had been disqualified in the heats. Outside of the 2024 event in Paris , this is the only time the United States has not won the gold medal in the event. (Full article...
A sword over a shield, and a ribbon with Russian text on it. There is a red star with a hammer and sickle on the center of the sword.
The KGB internal security and intelligence .
... that because Leonid Brezhnev had more than 200 decorations, it was decided to break the Soviet custom of featuring only one decoration on cushions during his funeral
“
Let a man find himself, in distinction from others, on top of two wheels with a chain — at least in a poor country like Russia — and his vanity begins to swell out like his tires. In America it takes an automobile to produce this effect.
”
Vyacheslav Mikhaylovich Molotov né Skryabin O.S. 25 February] 1890 – 8 November 1986) was a Soviet politician, diplomat, and revolutionary. He was one of Joseph Stalin 's closest allies and one of the most prominent figures in the Soviet government during his rule. In addition to serving as Chairman of the Council of People's Commissars from 1930 to 1941, he held office as Minister of Foreign Affairs from 1939 to 1949 and again from 1953 to 1956. His name is the namesake of the Molotov cocktail .
An Old Bolshevik , Molotov joined the Russian Social Democratic Labour Party in 1906 and was arrested and internally exiled twice before the October Revolution of 1917. He briefly headed the party's Secretariat before supporting Stalin's rise to power in the 1920s, becoming one of his closest associates. Molotov was made a full member of the Politburo in 1926 and became premier in 1930, overseeing Stalin's agricultural collectivisation (and resulting famine ) and his Great Purge . Following his appointment as Foreign Minister in 1939, he signed the Molotov–Ribbentrop Pact which led to the Soviet Union's joint occupation of Poland alongside Nazi Germany and its ensuing annexation of the Baltic states . During World War II, he became deputy chairman of the State Defence Committee as well as Stalin's main negotiator with the Allies . Upon the war's end in 1945, he began to lose favour, losing his ministership in 1948 before being criticised by Stalin at the 19th Party Congress in 1952. (Full article...
The following are images from various Soviet Union-related articles on Wikipedia.
Image 1 The New York Times headline from 9 November 1917 (from
October Revolution )
Image 2 Meeting before the Russian wire entanglements (from
Russian Revolution )
Image 3 A poster depicting the effect of the Revolution on the life of a peasant, 1920. From the collections of
RGASPI (from
Russian Revolution )
Image 4 Country emblems of the Soviet Republics before and after the dissolution of the Soviet Union (the
Transcaucasian Socialist Federative Soviet Republic (fifth in the second row) no longer exists as a political entity of any kind and the emblem is unofficial.) (from
History of the Soviet Union )
Image 5 From left to right, the Soviet General Secretary
Joseph Stalin , US President
Franklin D. Roosevelt and British Prime Minister
Winston Churchill confer in Tehran, 1943 (from
History of the Soviet Union )
Image 6 Revolutionaries protesting in February 1917 (from
Russian Revolution )
Image 7 American, British, and Japanese Troops parade through Vladivostok in armed support to the White Army. (from
Russian Revolution )
Image 8 A scene from the July Days. The army has just opened fire on street protesters. (from
October Revolution )
Image 9 Petrograd
Milrevcom proclamation about the deposing of the
Russian Provisional Government (from
October Revolution )
Image 10 "Pogrom in the Winter Palace" by
Ivan Vladimirov (from
October Revolution )
Image 12 Residents of Leningrad leave their homes destroyed by German bombing. About 1 million civilians died during the 871-day
Siege of Leningrad , mostly from starvation. (from
History of the Soviet Union )
Image 13 Mikhail Gorbachev in one-to-one discussions with US President
Ronald Reagan (
left ), 1985 (from
History of the Soviet Union )
Image 14 Stalin and
Lavrentiy Beria with Stalin's daughter,
Svetlana , on his lap. As head of the NKVD, Beria was responsible for many
political repressions in the Soviet Union . (from
History of the Soviet Union )
Image 15 Russian Civil War in the European part of Russia (from
History of the Soviet Union )
Image 16 Red Guard unit of the Vulkan factory in Petrograd, October 1917 (from
October Revolution )
Image 17 A revolutionary meeting of Russian soldiers in March 1917 in Dalkarby of
Jomala ,
Åland (from
Russian Revolution )
Image 18 European theatre of the
Russian Civil War in 1918 (from
October Revolution )
Image 19 Soviet leader
Nikita Khrushchev (left) with US President
John F. Kennedy in Vienna, 3 June 1961 (from
History of the Soviet Union )
Image 20 The
Battle of Stalingrad , considered by many historians as a decisive turning point of World War II (from
History of the Soviet Union )
Image 21 Russian troops meeting German troops in No Man's Land (from
Russian Revolution )
Image 22 A detachment of Red Guard sailors who dissolved the Constituent Assembly (from
Russian Revolution )
Image 23 Internally displaced Azerbaijanis from
Nagorno-Karabakh , 1993 (from
History of the Soviet Union )
Image 24 Lenin ,
Trotsky , and
Kamenev celebrating the second anniversary of the
October Revolution (from
History of the Soviet Union )
Image 25 The
Pan-European Picnic took place in August 1989 on the Hungarian-Austrian border. (from
History of the Soviet Union )
Image 26 Murder of the Romanov family,
Le Petit Journal (from
Russian Revolution )
Image 28 The 2nd Moscow Women Death Battalion protecting the Winter Palace as the last guards of the stronghold (from
Russian Revolution )
Image 29 On 21 December 1991, the leaders of 11 former Soviet republics, including Russia and Ukraine, agreed to the
Alma-Ata Protocols , formally establishing the
Commonwealth of Independent States (CIS). (from
History of the Soviet Union )
Image 30 Changes in national boundaries after the end of the Cold War (from
History of the Soviet Union )
Image 31 Forward gun of
Aurora that fired the signal shot (from
October Revolution )
Image 32 Provisional Government 's volunteer soldiers secure Petrograd's
Palace Square with the
Austin Armoured Car , summer 1917. (from
Russian Revolution )
Image 33 Map showing the greatest territorial extent of the Soviet Union and the sovereign states that it dominated politically, economically and militarily in 1960, after the
Cuban Revolution of 1959 but before the official
Sino-Soviet split of 1961 (total area: c. 35,000,000 km
2 ) (from
History of the Soviet Union )
Image 36 Russian troops in trenches awaiting a German attack (from
Russian Revolution )
Image 37 The
Russian famine of 1921–22 killed an estimated 5 million people.
(from
History of the Soviet Union )
Image 38 A detachment of Red Guard sailors who dissolved the Constituent Assembly (from
October Revolution )
Image 40 Revolutionaries attacking the tsarist police in the early days of the February Revolution (from
Russian Revolution )
Image 42 Soldiers marching in
Petrograd , March 1917 (from
Russian Revolution )
Image 43 Bolshevik (1920) by
Boris Kustodiev (from
October Revolution )
Image 44 Anniversary of October Revolution in
Riga , Soviet Union in 1988 (from
October Revolution )
Image 45 The elections to the
Constituent Assembly took place in November 1917. The Bolsheviks won 24% of the vote. (from
October Revolution )
Image 46 Lenin ,
Trotsky and
Kamenev celebrating the second anniversary of the October Revolution (from
October Revolution )
Image 47 Cruiser
Aurora (from
October Revolution )
Image 48 Soviet general secretary
Leonid Brezhnev and US President
Jimmy Carter sign the
SALT II arms limitation treaty in Vienna on 18 June 1979. (from
History of the Soviet Union )
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2020-09-16 165855 Soviet submarine B-515
Alexei Leonov
Field Marshal Keitel signs German surrender terms in Berlin 8 May 1945 - Restoration
German instrument of surrender2
Instrument of surrender Japan2
Mamoru Shigemitsu signs the Instrument of Surrender, officially ending the Second World War
Maxim Gorky LOC Restored edit1
Moscow Elektrozavodskaya metro station asv2018-09
Prokofieff (i.e. Prokofiev) LCCN2014708419 Crop 2
RUS-2016-Murmansk-Icebreaker Lenin 01
Raising a flag over the Reichstag - Restoration
Russian Imperial Family 1913
USS Yorktown collision
Yalta Conference (Churchill, Roosevelt, Stalin) (B&W)
Yuri Gagarin (1961) - Restoration
Yury Pen - Portrait of Marc Chagall
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German instrument of surrender2 (2009-05-07)
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Maxim Gorky LOC Restored edit1 (2013-03-28)
Yuri Gagarin (1961) - Restoration (2020-03-09)
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Field Marshal Keitel signs German surrender terms in Berlin 8 May 1945 - Restoration (2020-05-08)
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Moscow Elektrozavodskaya metro station asv2018-09 (2022-02-26)
Russian Imperial Family 1913 (2022-07-17)
Mamoru Shigemitsu signs the Instrument of Surrender, officially ending the Second World War (2022-09-02)
2020-09-16 165855 Soviet submarine B-515 (2023-04-18)
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Raising a flag over the Reichstag - Restoration (2025-05-02)
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