Soviet Union

The Union of Soviet Socialist Republics (USSR), commonly known as the Soviet Union, was a <a href="/facts/List_of_former_transcontinental_countries/1I9RUbGm">transcontinental country</a> that spanned much of <a href="/facts/Eurasia/KlLI9GDM">Eurasia</a> from 1922 until <a href="/facts/Dissolution_of_the_Soviet_Union/Fyn5jw3n">it dissolved</a> in 1991. During its existence, it was the <a href="/facts/List_of_countries_and_dependencies_by_area/XQWaBfYo">largest country by area</a>, extending across <a href="/facts/Time_in_Russia/YACxV4gq">eleven time zones</a> and sharing <a href="/facts/Geography_of_the_Soviet_Union/5dKkepuQ">borders with twelve countries</a>, and the <a href="/facts/List_of_countries_and_dependencies_by_population/N1Fq63C2">third-most populous country</a>. An overall successor to the <a href="/facts/Russian_Empire/hg1g5SpV">Russian Empire</a>, it was nominally organized as a <a href="/facts/Federal_union/R846sufb">federal union</a> of <a href="/facts/Republics_of_the_Soviet_Union/slVCXCrh">national republics</a>, the largest and most populous of which was the <a href="/facts/Russian_SFSR/W9pC4bK6">Russian SFSR</a>. In practice, <a href="/facts/Government_of_the_Soviet_Union/TUzn71Pa">its government</a> and <a href="/facts/Economy_of_the_Soviet_Union/6yrXD06N">economy</a> were <a href="/facts/Soviet-type_economic_planning/s7rUa0YU">highly centralized</a>. As a <a href="/facts/One-party_state/bTmHoaGu">one-party state</a> governed by the <a href="/facts/Communist_Party_of_the_Soviet_Union/1PFHfjJE">Communist Party of the Soviet Union</a> (CPSU), it was the flagship <a href="/facts/Communist_state/oYaCr1Av">communist state</a>. Its capital and largest city was <a href="/facts/Moscow/AcFYpQUR">Moscow</a>.
The Soviet Union's roots lay in the <a href="/facts/October_Revolution/5q9GlMv9">October Revolution</a> of 1917. The new government, led by <a href="/facts/Vladimir_Lenin/Mrwq2Xs4">Vladimir Lenin</a>, established the Russian SFSR, the world's first constitutionally <a href="/facts/Communist_state/oYaCr1Av">communist state</a>. The revolution was not accepted by all within the <a href="/facts/Russian_Republic/u3Nd32Ir">Russian Republic</a>, resulting in the <a href="/facts/Russian_Civil_War/MLfkI67n">Russian Civil War</a>. The Russian SFSR and its subordinate republics were <a href="/facts/Treaty_on_the_Creation_of_the_Union_of_Soviet_Socialist_Republics/PjslLQtf">merged into the Soviet Union</a> in 1922. Following <a href="/facts/Lenin%2527s_death/3uQfHuTs">Lenin's death</a> in 1924, <a href="/facts/Joseph_Stalin/SHtxGyQn">Joseph Stalin</a> came to power, inaugurating <a href="/facts/Industrialization_in_the_Soviet_Union/YUdIaTEg">rapid industrialization</a> and <a href="/facts/Collectivization_in_the_Soviet_Union/h845mlpB">forced collectivization</a> that led to significant economic growth but contributed to a <a href="/facts/Soviet_famine_of_1930%25E2%2580%25931933/qB1sW2A8">famine between 1930 and 1933</a> that reportedly killed millions. The <a href="/facts/Forced_labor_in_the_Soviet_Union/TUhtaDWH">Soviet forced labour camp</a> system of the <a href="/facts/Gulag/rGzKRYt3">Gulag</a> was expanded. During the late 1930s, Stalin's government conducted the <a href="/facts/Great_Purge/KSu23l0v">Great Purge</a> to remove opponents, resulting in large scale deportations, arrests, and show trials accompanied by public fear. Having failed to build an anti-Nazi coalition in Europe, the Soviet Union signed <a href="/facts/Molotov%25E2%2580%2593Ribbentrop_Pact/QG7eP42a">a non-aggression pact</a> with <a href="/facts/Nazi_Germany/8kRbqRpo">Nazi Germany</a> in 1939. Despite this, in 1941 Germany <a href="/facts/Invaded_the_Soviet_Union/YKjYBQWn">invaded the Soviet Union</a> in the largest land invasion in history, opening the <a href="/facts/Eastern_Front_of_World_War_II/W05zyTMj">Eastern Front of World War II</a>. The Soviets played a decisive role in defeating the <a href="/facts/Axis_powers/Q3z1D8R9">Axis powers</a>, suffering an estimated <a href="/facts/World_War_II_casualties_of_the_Soviet_Union/Qsde1Qf3">27 million casualties</a>, which accounted for most <a href="/facts/Allies_of_World_War_II/YzCdtjDY">Allied</a> losses. In the <a href="/facts/Aftermath_of_World_War_II/htgyL1tJ">aftermath of the war</a>, the Soviet Union consolidated the territory occupied by the <a href="/facts/Red_Army/n15nLQTu">Red Army</a>, forming <a href="/facts/Soviet_satellite_states/09RFx27w">satellite states</a>, and undertook rapid economic development which cemented its status as a <a href="/facts/Superpower/JNNkrRLt">superpower</a>.
Geopolitical tensions with the United States led to the <a href="/facts/Cold_War/spJdJQ3q">Cold War</a>. The American-led <a href="/facts/Western_Bloc/RS9Ev5RJ">Western Bloc</a> coalesced into <a href="/facts/NATO/dCeTddMY">NATO</a> in 1949, prompting the Soviet Union to form its own military alliance, the <a href="/facts/Warsaw_Pact/SLEsUSAS">Warsaw Pact</a>, in 1955. Neither side engaged in direct military confrontation, and instead fought <a href="/facts/Cultural_imperialism/9qPKPpVk">on an ideological basis</a> and through <a href="/facts/Proxy_war/uSySFXLM">proxy wars</a>. In 1953, following <a href="/facts/Stalin%2527s_death/j6ENe4ee">Stalin's death</a>, the Soviet Union undertook a campaign of <a href="/facts/De-Stalinization/8TKutdRn">de-Stalinization</a> under <a href="/facts/Nikita_Khrushchev/SBySdWPf">Nikita Khrushchev</a>, which saw reversals and rejections of Stalinist policies. This campaign caused ideological tensions with the <a href="/facts/PRC/lTjIXY5p">PRC</a> led by <a href="/facts/Mao_Zedong/tU9LMYH3">Mao Zedong</a>, culminating in the acrimonious <a href="/facts/Sino-Soviet_split/r958VRaK">Sino-Soviet split</a>. During the 1950s, the Soviet Union expanded <a href="/facts/Soviet_space_program/Nz5vfPGg">its efforts in space exploration</a> and took a lead in the <a href="/facts/Space_Race/9fPV4LUq">Space Race</a> with the <a href="/facts/First_artificial_satellite/GQ5KLlNC">first artificial satellite</a>, the <a href="/facts/First_human_spaceflight/447q95TW">first human spaceflight</a>, the <a href="/facts/Salyut_1/pXPfv3ud">first space station</a>, and the <a href="/facts/Venera_7/3ryeSMHF">first probe to land on another planet</a>. In 1985, the last Soviet leader, <a href="/facts/Mikhail_Gorbachev/tKxQRaeP">Mikhail Gorbachev</a>, sought to reform the country through his policies of <a href="/facts/Glasnost/Pp0T5LG2">glasnost</a> and <a href="/facts/Perestroika/KvdmEalx">perestroika</a>. In 1989, various countries of the Warsaw Pact <a href="/facts/Revolutions_of_1989/gLWM6JLk">overthrew their Soviet-backed regimes</a>, leading to the fall of the Eastern Bloc. A major wave of <a href="/facts/Nationalist/IECpIhm0">nationalist</a> and <a href="/facts/Separatist/KubEMvMr">separatist</a> movements erupted across the Soviet Union, primarily in <a href="/facts/Azerbaijan/Ho5joRTJ">Azerbaijan</a>, <a href="/facts/Georgia_(country)/ccBF8bBE">Georgia</a> and the <a href="/facts/Baltic_states/s48uxWb6">Baltic states</a>. In 1991, amid efforts to <a href="/facts/1991_Soviet_Union_referendum/sAFrNkLV">preserve</a> the country as a <a href="/facts/New_Union_Treaty/bDXPcA8X">renewed federation</a>, an attempted <a href="/facts/1991_Soviet_coup_attempt/IvXGvLdu">coup against Gorbachev</a> by hardline communists prompted the largest republics—Ukraine, Russia, and Belarus—to secede. On 26 December, Gorbachev officially recognized the <a href="/facts/Dissolution_of_the_Soviet_Union/Fyn5jw3n">dissolution of the Soviet Union</a>. <a href="/facts/Boris_Yeltsin/I8Ktypjs">Boris Yeltsin</a>, the leader of the <a href="/facts/Russian_Soviet_Federative_Socialist_Republic/W9pC4bK6">Russian SFSR</a>, oversaw its reconstitution into the <a href="/facts/Russian_Federation/jfkCwyxn">Russian Federation</a>, which <a href="/facts/Succession_of_states/WSEEnrmp">became</a> the Soviet Union's successor state; all other republics emerged as fully independent <a href="/facts/Post-Soviet_states/usrFwWTU">post-Soviet states</a>. The <a href="/facts/Commonwealth_of_Independent_States/DqccXsyS">Commonwealth of Independent States</a> was formed in the aftermath of the disastrous Soviet collapse, although the Baltics would never join. 
During its existence, the Soviet Union produced <a href="/facts/Timeline_of_Soviet_innovation/we2y02ha">many significant social and technological achievements and innovations</a>. The USSR was one of the most advanced industrial states during its existence. It <a href="/facts/List_of_countries_by_past_and_projected_GDP_(nominal)/LYNWsPdg">had the world's second-largest economy</a> and largest standing military. An <a href="/facts/Treaty_on_the_Non-Proliferation_of_Nuclear_Weapons/yE0ekVtm">NPT-designated state</a>, it wielded the <a href="/facts/Russia_and_weapons_of_mass_destruction/eXCHTUhg">largest arsenal of nuclear weapons in the world</a>. As an Allied nation, it was a <a href="/facts/Member_states_of_the_United_Nations/rpx3f10b">founding member</a> of the <a href="/facts/United_Nations/fgXLnmgT">United Nations</a> as well as one of the <a href="/facts/Permanent_members_of_the_United_Nations_Security_Council/4Vkl8rI0">five permanent members</a> of the <a href="/facts/United_Nations_Security_Council/ytwaz2e4">United Nations Security Council</a>. Before its dissolution, the Soviet Union was one of the world's two superpowers through its hegemony in Eastern Europe and Asia, global diplomacy, ideological influence (particularly in the <a href="/facts/Global_South/TtdsSbKh">Global South</a>), military might, economic strengths, and <a href="/facts/Science_and_technology_in_the_Soviet_Union/M1TmaTPH">scientific</a> accomplishments.

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Soviet Union