Portal:Soviet Union

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UNION OF SOVIET SOCIALIST REPUBLICS

Introduction

Coat of arms of the Soviet Union 1
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 1922 to 1991. It was a successor state to the Russian Empire that was nominally organized as a federal union of fifteen national republics, the largest and most populous of which was the Russian SFSR; in practice both its government and economy were highly centralized until its final years. As a one-party state governed by the Communist Party of the Soviet Union, it was a flagship communist state.

The Soviet Union's roots lay in the

satellite states, and undertook rapid economic development which cemented its status as a superpower
.

Following World War II, ideological tensions with the United States eventually led to the Cold War. The American-led Western Bloc coalesced into NATO in 1949, prompting the Soviet Union to form its own military alliance, commonly known as the Warsaw Pact, in 1955. Neither side ever engaged in direct military confrontation, and instead fought on an ideological basis and through proxy wars. In 1953, following Stalin's death, the Soviet Union undertook a campaign of de-Stalinization under the leadership of Nikita Khrushchev, which saw reversals and rejections of Stalinist policies. This campaign caused tensions with Communist China. During the 1950s, the Soviet Union rapidly expanded its efforts in space exploration and took an early lead in the Space Race with the first artificial satellite, the first human spaceflight, the first space station, and the first probe to land on another planet (Venus). The Cuban Missile Crisis of October 1962 was the closest the Cold War came to escalating into full-scale nuclear war.

The 1970s saw a brief détente in the Soviet Union's relationship with the United States, but tensions emerged again following the Soviet invasion of Afghanistan in 1979. In the mid-1980s, the last Soviet leader, Mikhail Gorbachev, sought to reform the country through his policies of glasnost and perestroika. In 1989, various countries of the Warsaw Pact overthrew their Soviet-backed regimes, and nationalist and separatist movements erupted across the entire Soviet Union. In 1991, amid efforts to reform and preserve the country as a renewed federation, an attempted coup d'état against Gorbachev by hardline communists prompted the three most populous and economically developed republics—Ukraine, Russia, and Belarus—to secede from the Union. On December 26, Gorbachev officially recognized the dissolution of the Soviet Union. Boris Yeltsin, the leader of the RSFSR, oversaw its reconstitution into the Russian Federation, which became the Soviet Union's successor state; all other republics emerged as fully independent post-Soviet states.

During its existence, the Soviet Union produced many significant
social and technological achievements and innovations. It had the world's second-largest economy and largest standing military. An NPT-designated state, it housed the largest arsenal of nuclear weapons in the world. As an Allied nation, it was a founding member of the United Nations as well as one of the five permanent members of the United Nations Security Council. Before its dissolution, the USSR was one of the world's two superpowers through its hegemony in Eastern Europe, global diplomatic and ideological influence (particularly in the Global South), military and economic strengths, and scientific accomplishments. (Full article...
)

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The full understanding of the history of the late

his death in 1982, whose eighteen-year tenure has been recognized for developing the most powerful military, and for social and economic stagnation
in the late Soviet Union.

While his rule provided stablity to his country and increased the standard of living, there was also a heritage of political and personal values. When Brezhnev died he left behind a
Soviet leader, drew support from communists and the Soviet population by criticising Brezhnev's rule, and referred to his rule as the "Era of Stagnation". Nevertheless, Brezhnev has received consistently high approval ratings in the public polls. (Full article...
)

Selected picture

Two men sign papers at opposite sides of a table in a small office.
Two men sign papers at opposite sides of a table in a small office.
Credit: WSOY kuva-arkisto

Ivan Maisky signs the Soviet–Finnish Non-Aggression Pact on 21 January 1932.

Did you know... - show different entries

  • ... that
    Kabardino-Balkar Autonomous Soviet Socialist Republic on suspicions that they collaborated with Nazi Germany
    ?
  • ... that the February 9, 1918
    Bolshevik
    forces from Ukraine?
  • ... that the
    Donets Basin
    ?

Selected quote

Yakov Smirnoff
Yakov Smirnoff, commenting on his life under Soviet rule

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Selected biography - show another

Lissitzky in a 1924 self-portrait

Lazar Markovich Lissitzky (Russian: Ла́зарь Ма́ркович Лиси́цкий, listen; 23 November [

typographer, polemicist and architect. He was an important figure of the Russian avant-garde, helping develop suprematism with his mentor, Kazimir Malevich, and designing numerous exhibition displays and propaganda works for the Soviet Union. His work greatly influenced the Bauhaus and constructivist movements, and he experimented with production techniques and stylistic devices that would go on to dominate 20th-century graphic design
.

Lissitzky's entire career was laced with the belief that the artist could be an agent for change, later summarized with his edict, "das zielbewußte Schaffen" (goal-oriented creation). Lissitzky, of
Soviet propaganda poster rallying the people to construct more tanks for the fight against Nazi Germany. In 2014, the heirs of the artist, in collaboration with Van Abbemuseum and leading worldwide scholars on the subject, established the Lissitzky Foundation in order to preserve the artist's legacy and to prepare a catalogue raisonné of the artist's oeuvre. (Full article...
)

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The following are images from various Soviet Union-related articles on Wikipedia.

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    German instrument of surrender2 (2009-05-07)
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    Instrument of surrender Japan2 (2009-09-02)
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    Yalta Conference (Churchill, Roosevelt, Stalin) (B&W) (2010-05-08)
  • USS Yorktown collision (2011-02-12)
    USS Yorktown collision (2011-02-12)
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    Maxim Gorky LOC Restored edit1 (2013-03-28)
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    Yuri Gagarin (1961) - Restoration (2020-03-09)
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    Alexei Leonov (2020-03-18)
  • Field Marshall Keitel signs German surrender terms in Berlin 8 May 1945 - Restoration (2020-05-08)
    Field Marshall Keitel signs German surrender terms in Berlin 8 May 1945 - Restoration (2020-05-08)
  • RUS-2016-Murmansk-Icebreaker Lenin 01 (2020-06-08)
    RUS-2016-Murmansk-Icebreaker Lenin 01 (2020-06-08)
  • Moscow Elektrozavodskaya metro station asv2018-09 (2022-02-26)
    Moscow Elektrozavodskaya metro station asv2018-09 (2022-02-26)
  • Russian Imperial Family 1913 (2022-07-17)
    Russian Imperial Family 1913 (2022-07-17)
  • Mamoru Shigemitsu signs the Instrument of Surrender, officially ending the Second World War (2022-09-02)
    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)
    2020-09-16 165855 Soviet submarine B-515 (2023-04-18)
  • Prokofieff (i.e. Prokofiev) LCCN2014708419 Crop 2 (2023-07-25)
    Prokofieff (i.e. Prokofiev) LCCN2014708419 Crop 2 (2023-07-25)


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