Soviet Union
The
Union of Soviet Socialist Republics (
abbreviated USSR) ( ;
tr.:
Soyuz Sovetskikh Sotsialisticheskikh Respublik SSSR), more commonly known as the
Soviet Union (;
tr.:
Sovetskiy Soyuz) was a
socialist state that existed from
1922 to
1991. From
1945 until its dissolution in 1991, it was, along with the
United States, one of the world's two
superpowers.
The USSR was created and expanded as a union of
Soviet republics formed within the territory of the
Russian Empire abolished by the
Russian Revolution of 1917 followed by the
Russian Civil War of
1918-
1920. The geographic boundaries of the Soviet Union varied with time, but from
1945 until dissolution they approximately corresponded to those of late Imperial Russia, with the notable exclusions of
Poland and
Finland.
The Soviet Union became the primary model for future
Communist states during the
Cold War; the government and the political organization of the country were defined by the only permitted political party, the
Communist Party of the Soviet Union.
Established by four Soviet Socialist Republics, the USSR grew and from 1956 to 1991 politically contained 15 constituent or union republics β"
Armenian SSR,
Azerbaijan SSR,
Byelorussian SSR,
Estonian SSR,
Georgian SSR,
Kazakh SSR,
Kyrgyz SSR,
Latvian SSR,
Lithuanian SSR,
Moldavian SSR,
Russian SFSR,
Tajik SSR,
Turkmen SSR,
Ukrainian SSR, and
Uzbek SSR β" joined in a strongly centralized federal union.
[A note on terminology. While the formal names of the Soviet Socialist Republics (SSR's) are listed above, for the Central Asian republics alternative names were often used interchangeably with the formal names. For example, it was acceptable to use the names Kazakhstan, Kirgizstan or Kirgizia, Tajikistan, Turkmenistan or Turkmenia, and Uzbekistan -- in which the -stan ending is from a Persian word meaning "country" or "land," and hence, for example, Uzbekistan is Land of the Uzbeks.] After the USSR's collapse, all 15 SSRs became independent countries.
The Soviet Union was dissolved in 1991, and the successor states are a collection of 15 countries commonly dubbed "the former Soviet Union."
[For several years after 1991 these states were commonly referred to as the "New Independent States." As the immediacy of the fall of the Soviet Union faded, geographic-historical terms began to be used more often, such as "Eurasia" or the "Former Soviet Union." Within Russia, the former non-Russian republics have commonly been referred to collectively as the "near abroad," and the 15 successor countries together as "Post-Soviet space." The latter term implies a more integral character to the post-Soviet states and speaks to Russia's assertion of special foreign policy interests throughout the region. See Vladimir Socor, "Kremlin Refining Policy in 'Post-Soviet Space'," Eurasia Daily Monitor (Feb. 8, 2005) at http://www.jamestown.org/edm/article.php?article_id=2369222.] Eleven of these states are aligned through a loose
confederation known as the
Commonwealth of Independent States (CIS).
Turkmenistan, originally a full member of the CIS, is now an associate member. The three
Baltic States (
Estonia,
Latvia, and
Lithuania) did not join this Commonwealth; instead, they joined both the
European Union and the
NATO alliance in 2004.
Russia and
Belarus also belong to the
Union of Russia and Belarus.
The Soviet Union is traditionally considered to be the
successor of the
Russian Empire. The last Russian tsar,
Nicholas II, ruled until March 1917 and was eventually executed. The Soviet Union was established in December 1922 as the union of the
Russian (colloquially known as
Bolshevist Russia),
Ukrainian,
Belarusian, and
Transcaucasian Soviet republics ruled by
Bolshevik parties.
Modern revolutionary activity in the
Russian Empire began with the
Decembrist Revolt of
1825, and although
serfdom was abolished in
1861, its abolition was achieved on terms unfavorable to the peasants and served to encourage revolutionaries. A parliament, the
State Duma, was established in
1906, after the
1905 Revolution but political and social unrest continued and was aggravated during
World War I by military defeat and food shortages in major cities.
A spontaneous popular uprising in
Petrograd, in response to the wartime decay of Russia's economy and morale, culminated in the toppling of the imperial government in March 1917 (
see February Revolution). The tsarist autocracy was replaced by the
Provisional Government, whose leaders intended to establish liberal democracy in Russia and to continue participating on the side of the Allies in
World War I. At the same time, to ensure the rights of the working class, workers' councils, known as
soviets, sprang up across the country. The Bolsheviks, led by
Vladimir Ilyich Lenin, agitated for socialist revolution in the soviets and on the streets. They seized power from the Provisional Government in November 1917 (
see October Revolution). Only after the long and bloody
Russian Civil War of
1918-
1921, which included foreign intervention in several parts of Russia, was the new Communist regime secure. In
a related conflict with Poland, the "
Peace of Riga" in early 1921 split disputed territories in
Belarus and
Ukraine between Poland and Soviet powers.
From its first years, government in the Soviet Union was based on the one-party rule of the
Communist Party (Bolsheviks).
[The consolidation into a single-party regime took place during the first four years after the revolution, which included the period of War Communism and an election in which multiple parties competed. See Leonard Schapiro, The Origin of the Communist Autocracy: Political Opposition in the Soviet State, First Phase 1917-1922. Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press, 1955, 1966.] After the extraordinary economic policy of
War Communism during the Civil War the Soviet government permitted some private enterprise to coexist with nationalized industry in the
1920s and total food requisition in the countryside was replaced by a food tax (
see New Economic Policy). Debate over the future of the economy provided the background for Soviet leaders to contend for power in the years after Lenin's death in
1924. By gradually consolidating his influence and isolating his rivals within the party, notably Lenin's more obvious heir
Leon Trotsky,
Joseph Stalin became the sole leader of the Soviet Union by the end of the 1920s.
In
1928 Stalin introduced the First
Five-Year Plan for building a socialist economy, now, unlike the internationalism expressed by Lenin and Trotsky throughout the course of the Revolution, "in one country." In industry the state assumed control over all existing enterprises and undertook an intensive program of industrialization; in agriculture
collective farms were established all over the country (
see Collectivisation in the USSR). The Soviet Union became a major industrial power; but the plan's implementation produced widespread misery for segments of the population. Collectivization met widespread resistance from peasants, resulting in a bitter struggle helping the authorities in many areas, famine, and estimated millions of deaths. Social upheaval continued in the mid-
1930s. Stalin's purge of the party (
see Great Purges) eliminated many "
Old Bolsheviks", who had participated in the Revolution with Lenin. Meanwhile, countless Soviets were jailed and sent to
Gulags (Chief Administration for Corrective Labor Camps), a vast network of forced-labor camps, or executed. Yet despite the turmoil of the mid- to late 1930s, the Soviet Union developed a powerful industrial economy in the years before
World War II.
The 1930s saw closer cooperation between
Western countries and the USSR. In
1933 diplomatic relations between the
USA and the USSR were established. Four years later the USSR actively supported the
Second Spanish Republic in the
Spanish Civil War against Italian and German fascists. However, after Great Britain and France concluded the
Munich Agreement with
Nazi Germany, the USSR dealt with the latter as well, both economically and militarily, by concluding the
Nazi-Soviet Nonaggression Pact, which involved the engagement of
Red Army into
Lithuania,
Latvia,
Estonia and the
invasion of Poland in
1939. In late November 1939, unable to gain control of the strategic port of
Petsamo by diplomatic means, Stalin ordered the
invasion of Finland. Although it has been debated whether the Soviet Union had the intention of invading Germany once it was strong enough, Germany itself broke the treaty and invaded the Soviet Union in
1941. The
Red Army stopped the
Nazi offensive in the
Battle of Stalingrad, lasting from late 1942 to early 1943, being the major turning point, and drove through
Eastern Europe to
Berlin before Germany surrendered in
1945 (
see Great Patriotic War). Although ravaged by the war, the Soviet Union emerged from the conflict as an acknowledged
superpower.
During the immediate postwar period, the Soviet Union first rebuilt and then expanded its economy, while maintaining its
strictly centralized control. The Soviet Union aided postwar reconstruction in Eastern Europe while turning them into Soviet
satellite states, set up the
Warsaw Pact and
Comecon, supplied aid to the eventually victorious Communists in the
People's Republic of China, and saw its influence grow elsewhere in the world. Meanwhile, the rising tension of the
Cold War turned the Soviet Union's wartime allies, the
United Kingdom and the
United States, into foes.
Joseph Stalin died on
March 5 1953. In the absence of an acceptable successor, the highest Communist Party officials opted to rule the Soviet Union jointly, although a struggle for power took place behind the facade of collective leadership.
Nikita Khrushchev, who won the power struggle by the mid-
1950s,
denounced Stalin's use of repression in
1956 and eased repressive controls over party and society (
see de-Stalinization). At the same time, Soviet military force was used to suppress democratic uprisings in
Hungary and
Poland in
1956. During this period the Soviet Union continued to realize scientific and technological pioneering exploits, in extenso, to launch the first artificial satellite
Sputnik 1, living being
Laika, and later, the first human being
Yuri Gagarin into Earth's orbit. Khrushchev's reforms in agriculture and administration, however, were generally unproductive, and foreign policy towards China and the United States suffered reverses, including the actions that led to the
Cuban Missile Crisis in
1962. Khrushchev's colleagues in the leadership removed him from power in
1964.
Following the ousting of Khrushchev, another period of rule by collective leadership ensued, lasting until
Leonid Brezhnev established himself in the early
1970s as the preeminent figure in Soviet political life. Brezhnev presided over a period of
DΓ©tente with the West while at the same time building up Soviet military strength; the arms buildup contributed to the demise of DΓ©tente in the late 1970s. Another contributing factor was the
Soviet invasion of Afghanistan in December
1979.
After some experimentation with economic reforms in the mid-
1960s, the Soviet leadership reverted to established means of economic management. Industry showed slow but steady gains during the 1970s, while agricultural development continued to lag. Throughout the period the Soviet Union maintained parity with the United States in the areas of military technology but this expansion ultimately crippled the economy. In contrast to the revolutionary spirit that accompanied the birth of the Soviet Union, the prevailing 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 had come to be dubbed one of "stagnation" (Π·Π°ΡΡΠΎΠΉ), with an aging and ossified top political leadership.
Two developments dominated the decade that followed: the increasingly apparent crumbling of the Soviet Union's economic and political structures, and the patchwork attempts at reforms to reverse that process. After the rapid succession of
Yuri Andropov and
Konstantin Chernenko, transitional figures with deep roots in Brezhnevite tradition, beginning in 1985
Mikhail Gorbachev made significant changes in the economy (see
Perestroika) and the party leadership. His policy of
glasnost freed public access to information after decades of government regulations.
In the late
1980s constituent republics of the Soviet Union started asserting
sovereignty over their territories or even declaring independence, citing Article 72 of the USSR Constitution, which stated that any constituent republic was free to secede. Many held their first free elections in the Soviet era for their own national legislatures in 1990. Many of these legislatures proceeded to produce legislation contradicting the Union laws in what was known as "
The War of Laws." In 1989
Russian SFSR, which was then the largest constituent republic (with about half of the population) convened a newly elected Congress of People's Deputies.
Boris Yeltsin was elected the chairman of the Congress. On
June 12,
1990 the Congress declared Russia's sovereignty over its territory and proceeded to pass laws that attempted to supersede some of the USSR's laws. The period of legal uncertainty continued throughout
1991 as constituent republics slowly became de-facto independent.
A referendum for the preservation of the USSR was held on March 17,
1991, with the majority of the population voting for preservation of the Union in most republics. The referendum gave Gorbachev a minor boost, and in the summer of
1991 a new Union Treaty was designed and agreed upon by most republics which would have turned the Soviet Union into a much looser federation. The signing of the treaty, however, was interrupted by the
August Coup - an attempted
coup d'Γ©tat against Mikhail Gorbachev by conservative members of the Communist Party, referred to as "Hardliners" by the Western media. After the coup collapsed, Yeltsin came out as a hero while Gorbachev's power was effectively ended. The balance of power tipped significantly towards the republics. Latvia, Estonia and Lithuania immediately declared their independence, while the other 12 republics continued discussing new, increasingly looser, models of the Union. On
December 8 1991 Presidents of Russia,
Ukraine and
Belarus signed
Belavezha Accords which declared the Union dissolved and established the
Commonwealth of Independent States - CIS, in its place. While doubts remained over the authority of the
Belavezha Accords to dissolve the Union, on
December 21 1991 the representatives of all Soviet republics except Georgia, including those republics that had signed the Belavezha Accords, signed the Alma-Ata Protocol, which confirmed the dismemberment and consequential extinction of the USSR and restated the establishment of the CIS. The summit of Alma-Ata also agreed on several other practical measures consequential to the extinction of the Union. On
25 December 1991, Gorbachev, yielded to the inevitable and resigned as the president of the USSR, declaring the office extinct. He turned the powers that until then were vested in the presidency over to
Boris Yeltsin, president of Russia. The following day, the
Supreme Soviet, the highest governmental body of the Soviet Union, recognized the collapse of the Soviet Union and dissolved itself. This is generally recognized as the official, final dissolution of the Soviet Union as a functioning state. Many organizations such as the Red Army and Police forces continued to remain in place in the early months of
1992 but were slowly phased out and either withdrawn from or absorbed by the newly independent states.
 |
Leaders of the Bolshevik Revolution from left to right: Trotsky, Lenin, and Kamenev |
The government of the Soviet Union administered the country's economy and society. It implemented decisions made by the leading political institution in the country, the
Communist Party of the Soviet Union (CPSU).
In the late
1980s, the government appeared to have many characteristics in common with liberal democratic political systems. For instance, a constitution established all organizations of government and granted to citizens a series of political and civic rights. A legislative body, the
Congress of People's Deputies, and its standing legislature, the
Supreme Soviet, represented the principle of popular sovereignty. The Supreme Soviet, which had an elected chairman who functioned as head of state, oversaw the
Council of Ministers, which acted as the executive branch of the government. The chairman of the Council of Ministers, whose selection was approved by the legislative branch, functioned as head of government. A constitutionally based judicial branch of government included a court system, headed by the Supreme Court, that was responsible for overseeing the observance of Soviet law by government bodies. According to the
1977 Soviet Constitution, the government had a federal structure, permitting the republics some authority over policy implementation and offering the
national minorities the appearance of participation in the management of their own affairs.
In practice, however, the government differed markedly from Western systems. In the late 1980s, the CPSU performed many functions that governments of other countries usually perform. For example, the party decided on the policy alternatives that the government ultimately implemented. The government merely ratified the party's decisions to lend them an aura of legitimacy. The CPSU used a variety of mechanisms to ensure that the government adhered to its policies. The party, using its
nomenklatura authority, placed its loyalists in leadership positions throughout the government, where they were subject to the norms of
democratic centralism. Party bodies closely monitored the actions of government ministries, agencies, and legislative organs.
The content of the Soviet Constitution differed in many ways from typical Western constitutions. It generally described existing political relationships, as determined by the CPSU, rather than prescribing an ideal set of political relationships. The Constitution was long and detailed, giving technical specifications for individual organs of government. The Constitution included political statements, such as foreign policy goals, and provided a theoretical definition of the state within the ideological framework of
Marxism-Leninism. The CPSU leadership could radically change the constitution or remake it completely, as it did several times throughout its history.
The Council of Ministers acted as the executive body of the government. Its most important duties lay in the administration of the economy. The council was thoroughly under the control of the CPSU, and its chairman - the
Soviet prime minister - was always a member of the
Politburo. The council, which in 1989 included more than 100 members, was too large and unwieldy to act as a unified executive body. The council's
Presidium, made up of the leading economic administrators and led by the chairman, exercised dominant power within the Council of Ministers.
According to the Constitution, as amended in 1988, the highest legislative body in the Soviet Union was the Congress of People's Deputies, which convened for the first time in May 1989. The main tasks of the congress were the election of the standing legislature, the Supreme Soviet, and the election of the chairman of the Supreme Soviet, who acted as head of state. Theoretically, the Congress of People's Deputies and the Supreme Soviet wielded enormous legislative power. In practice, however, the Congress of People's Deputies met infrequently and only to approve decisions made by the party, the Council of Ministers, and its own Supreme Soviet. The Supreme Soviet, the Presidium of the Supreme Soviet, the chairman of the Supreme Soviet, and the Council of Ministers had substantial authority to enact laws, decrees, resolutions, and orders binding on the population. The Congress of People's Deputies had the authority to ratify these decisions.
The judiciary was not independent. The Supreme Court supervised the lower courts 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 lacked an
adversarial court procedure known to
common law jurisdictions. Rather, Soviet law utilised the
system derived from Roman law, where judge, procurator and defense attorney worked collaboratively to establish the truth.
The Soviet Union was a
federal state made up of fifteen republics joined together in a theoretically voluntary union. In turn, a series of territorial units made up the republics. The republics also contained jurisdictions intended to protect the interests of national minorities. The republics had their own constitutions, which, along with the all-union Constitution, provide the theoretical division of power in the Soviet Union. In 1989, however, the CPSU and the central government retained all significant authority, setting policies that were executed by republic, provincial, oblast, and district governments.
Leaders of the Soviet Union
The
de facto leader of the Soviet Union was the First/General Secretary of the
CPSU. The head of government was considered the Premier, and the head of state was considered the President. The Soviet leader could also have one (or both) of these positions, along with the position of General-Secretary of the party.
List of Soviet Premiers:(Chairman of the Council of People's Commissars of the USSR (1923-1946); Chairman of the Council of Ministers of the USSR (1946-1990); Prime Minister of the USSR (1991))
List of Soviet Presidents:(Chairman of the Central Executive Committee of the All-Russian Congress of Soviets (1917-1922); Chairman of the Central Executive Committee of the USSR (1922-1938); Chairman of the Presidium of the Supreme Soviet of the USSR (1938-1989); Chairman of the Supreme Soviet of the USSR (1989-1990); President of the Soviet Union (1990-1991))
Main article: Foreign relations of the Soviet Union
Once denied diplomatic recognition by the capitalist world, the Soviet Union had official relations with the majority of the nations of the world by the late 1980s. The Soviet Union also had progressed from being an outsider in international organizations and negotiations to being one of the arbiters of Europe's fate after World War II. 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 right to
veto any of its resolutions (
see Soviet Union and the United Nations).
The Soviet Union emerged from
World War II as one of the two major world powers, a position maintained for four decades through its hegemony in Eastern Europe (
see Eastern Bloc), military strength, aid to developing countries, and scientific research, especially into space technology and weaponry. The Soviet Union's growing influence abroad in the postwar years helped lead to a Communist system of states in Eastern Europe united by military and economic agreements. It overtook the
British Empire as a global superpower, both in a military sense and its ability to expand its influence beyond its borders. Established in 1949 as an economic bloc of Communist countries led by Moscow, the Soviet-dominated
Council for Mutual Economic Assistance (COMECON) served as a framework for cooperation among the planned economies of the Soviet Union, and, later, for trade and economic cooperation with the
Third World. The military counterpart to the Comecon was the
Warsaw Pact. The Soviet economy was also of major importance to Eastern Europe because of imports of vital natural resources from the USSR, such as natural gas.
Moscow considered Eastern Europe to be a buffer zone for the forward defense of its western borders and ensured its control of the region by transforming the East European countries into
satellite states. Soviet troops intervened in the
1956 Hungarian Revolution and cited the
Brezhnev Doctrine, the Soviet counterpart to the U.S.
Johnson Doctrine and later
Nixon Doctrine, and helped oust the
Czechoslovak government in 1968, sometimes referred to as the
Prague Spring.
In the late
1950s, a confrontation with China regarding the USSR's approchement with
the West and what
Mao perceived as Khrushchev's
revisionism led to the
Sino-Soviet split. This resulted in a break throughout the global
Communist movement and Communist regimes in
Albania and
Cambodia choosing to ally with China in place of the USSR. For a time, war between the former allies appeared to be a possibility; while relations would cool during the
1970s, they would not return to normalcy until the
Gorbachev era.
During the same period, a tense confrontation between the Soviet Union and the United States over the Soviet deployment of nuclear missiles in Cuba sparked the
Cuban Missile Crisis in 1962.
The
KGB (Committee for State Security), served in a fashion as the Soviet counterpart to both the
FBI and the
CIA (Central Intelligence Agency) in the U.S. It ran a massive network of informants throughout the Soviet Union, which was used to monitor violations in law. The foreign wing of the KGB was used to gather intelligence in countries around the globe. After the collapse of the Soviet Union, it was replaced in Russia by the
SVR (Foreign Intelligence Service) and the
FSB (Federal Security Service of the Russian Federation).
The KGB was not without substantial oversight. The
GRU (Main Intelligence Directorate), not publicized by Russia until the end of the Soviet era during
perestroika, was created by Lenin in 1918 and served both as a centralized handler of
military intelligence and as an institutional check-and-balance for the otherwise relatively unrestricted power of the KGB. Effectively, it served to spy on the spies, and, not surprisingly, the KGB served a similar function with the GRU. As with the KGB, the GRU operated in nations around the world, particularly in Soviet bloc and client states. The GRU continues to operate in Russia today, with resources estimated by some to exceed those of the SVR [
1] [
2].
In the 1970s, the Soviet Union achieved rough nuclear parity with the United States. It perceived its own involvement as essential to the solution of any major international problem. Meanwhile, the
Cold War gave way to
DΓ©tente and a more complicated pattern of international relations in which the world was no longer clearly split into two clearly opposed blocs. Less powerful countries had more room to assert their independence, and the two superpowers were partially able to recognize their common interest in trying to check the further spread and proliferation of nuclear weapons (
see SALT I,
SALT II,
Anti-Ballistic Missile Treaty).
By this time, the Soviet Union had concluded friendship and cooperation treaties with a number of states in the non-Communist world, especially among Third World and
Non-Aligned Movement states like
India and
Egypt. Notwithstanding some ideological obstacles, Moscow advanced state interests by gaining military footholds in strategically important areas throughout the Third World. Furthermore, the Soviet Union continued to provide military aid for revolutionary movements in the Third World. For all these reasons, Soviet foreign policy was of major importance to the non-Communist world and helped determine the tenor of international relations.
Although myriad bureaucracies were involved in the formation and execution of Soviet foreign policy, the major policy guidelines were determined by the Politburo of the Communist Party. The foremost objectives of Soviet foreign policy had been the maintenance and enhancement of national security and the maintenance of hegemony over Eastern Europe. Relations with the United States and Western Europe were also of major concern to Soviet foreign policy makers, and relations with individual Third World states were at least partly determined by the proximity of each state to the Soviet border and to Soviet estimates of its strategic significance.
After
Mikhail Gorbachev succeeded
Konstantin Chernenko as General Secretary of the CPSU in 1985, he introduced many changes in Soviet foreign policy and in the economy of the USSR. Gorbachev pursued conciliatory policies towards the West instead of maintaining the Cold War status quo. The Soviet Union ended its occupation of
Afghanistan, signed strategic arms reduction treaties with the United States, and allowed its allies in Eastern Europe to determine their own affairs. The dismantling of the
Berlin Wall beginning in November
1989 dramatically signaled the end of the Soviet Union's external empire in Central and Eastern Europe. Two years later, the internal empire also came to an end.
After the dissolution of the Soviet Union on December 25, 1991, the
Russian Federation claimed to be the legal successor to the Soviet state on the international stage. Russian foreign policy repudiated Marxism-Leninism as a guide to action, soliciting Western support for capitalist reforms in post-Soviet Russia.
Currently the economy of the
Russian federation is growing rapidly. The fulfillment of the capitalist reforms started in the USSR under Gorbachev can be seen from the fact that in 2005 the Russian Federation became the third country by number of billionaires, who were able to benefit from their former connections in the Communist Party during the post-USSR sale of state property into private hands. The poverty rate, meanwhile, has increased substantially during that time. [
3]
|
Soviet Union administrative divisions, 1989 |
The Soviet Union was a federation of
Soviet Socialist Republics (
SSR). The first Republics were established shortly after the
October Revolution of
1917. At that time, republics were technically independent from one another but their governments acted in closely coordinated confederation, as directed by the CPSU leadership. In
1922, four Republics (
Russian SFSR,
Ukrainian SSR,
Belarusian SSR, and
Transcaucasian SFSR) joined into the Soviet Union. Between
1922 and
1940, the number of Republics grew to sixteen. Some of the new Republics were formed from territories acquired, or reacquired by the Soviet Union, others by splitting existing Republics into several parts. The criteria for establishing new republics were as follows:# to be located on the periphery of the Soviet Union so as to be able to exercise their alleged right to secession;# be economically strong enough to survive on their own upon secession; and# be named after the dominant ethnic group which should consist of at least one million people.
The system remained almost unchanged after 1940. No new Republics were established. One republic,
Karelo-Finnish SSR, was disbanded in
1956, and the territory formally became the Karelian Autonomous Soviet Socialist Republic (ASSR) within the Russian SFSR. The remaining 15 republics lasted until
1991. Even though
Soviet Constitutions established the right for a republic to secede, it remained theoretical and very unlikely, given Soviet centralism, until the 1991 collapse of the Union. At that time, the republics became independent countries, with some still loosely organized under the heading
Commonwealth of Independent States. Some republics had common history and geographical regions, and were referred by group names. These were
Baltic Republics,
Transcaucasian Republics, and
Central Asian Republics. In its final state, the Soviet Union consisted of the following republics.
Prior to its collapse, the Soviet Union had the largest centrally directed economy in the world. The government established its economic priorities through
central planning, a system under which administrative decisions rather than the market determined resource allocation and prices.
Since the Bolshevik Revolution of 1917, the country grew from a largely underdeveloped peasant society with minimal industry to become the second largest industrial power in the world. According to Soviet statistics, the country's share in world industrial production grew from 5.5% to 20% between
1913 and
1980. Although some Western analysts considered these claims to be inflated, the Soviet achievement remained remarkable. Recovering from the calamitous events of World War II, the country's economy had maintained a continuous though uneven rate of growth. Living standards, although still modest for most inhabitants by Western standards, had improved.
Although these past achievements were impressive, in the mid-1980s Soviet leaders faced many problems. Production in the
consumer and agricultural sectors was often inadequate (
see Agriculture of the Soviet Union and
shortage economy). Crises in the agricultural sector reaped catastrophic consequences in the
1930s, when
collectivization met widespread resistance from the
kulaks, resulting in a bitter struggle of many peasants against the authorities, famine, particularly in
Ukraine, but also in the Volga River area and Kazakhstan. In the consumer and service sectors, a lack of investment resulted in
black markets in some areas.
|
Soviet space station Mir was the world's most advanced space station until ISS. |
In addition, since the 1970s, the growth rate had slowed substantially. Extensive economic development, based on vast inputs of materials and labor, was no longer possible; yet the productivity of Soviet assets remained low compared with other major industrialized countries. Product quality needed improvement. Soviet leaders faced a fundamental dilemma: the strong central controls of the increasingly conservative bureaucracy that had traditionally guided economic development had failed to respond to the complex demands of industry of a highly developed, modern economy.
Conceding the weaknesses of their past approaches in solving new problems, the leaders of the late 1980s were seeking to mold a program of economic reform to galvanize the economy. The leadership, headed by Mikhail Gorbachev, was experimenting with solutions to economic problems with an openness (
glasnost) never before seen in the history of the economy. One method for improving productivity appeared to be a strengthening of the role of market forces. Yet reforms in which market forces assumed a greater role would signify a lessening of authority and control by the planning hierarchy, as well as a significant diminuition of social services traditionally provided by the state, such as housing and education.
Assessing developments in the economy was difficult for Western observers. The country contained enormous economic and regional disparities. Yet analyzing statistical data broken down by region was a cumbersome process. Furthermore, Soviet statistics themselves might have been of limited use to Western analysts because they are not directly comparable with those used in Western countries. The differing statistical concepts, valuations, and procedures used by Communist and non-Communist economists made even the most basic data, such as the relative productivity of various sectors, difficult to assess.
The Soviet Union occupied the eastern portion of the
European continent and the northern portion of the
Asian continent. Most of the country was north of 50Β° north latitude and covered a total area of approximately 22,402,200
square kilometres. Due to the sheer size of the state, the
climate varied greatly from
subtropical and
continental to
subarctic and
polar. 11% of the land was
arable, 16% was
meadows and
pasture, 41% was
forest and
woodland, and 32% was declared "other" (including
tundra).
The Soviet Union measured some 10,000 kilometres from
Kaliningrad on the
Gulf of GdaΕsk in the west to Ratmanova Island (
Big Diomede Island) in the
Bering Strait, or roughly equivalent to the distance from
Edinburgh, Scotland, east to
Nome, Alaska. From the tip of the
Taymyr Peninsula on the
Arctic Ocean to the Central Asian town of
Kushka near the
Afghan border extended almost 5,000 kilometeres of mostly rugged, inhospitable terrain. The east-west expanse of the continental
United States would easily fit between the northern and southern borders of the Soviet Union at their extremities.
|
This map shows the 1974 geographic location of various ethnic groups within the Soviet Union. |
The Soviet Union was one of the world's most ethnically diverse countries, with more than 150 distinct ethnic groups within its borders. The total population was estimated at 293 million in
1991. In the last years of the Soviet Union, the majority of the population were
Russians (50.78%), followed by
Ukrainians (15.45%) and
Uzbeks (5.84%). Other ethnic groups included the
Georgians,
Estonians,
Latvians,
Lithuanians,
Azerbaijanis,
Armenians,
Tajiks,
Chechens, and others.
Nationalities
The extensive multinational empire that the Bolsheviks inherited after their revolution was created by Tsarist expansion over some four centuries. Some nationality groups came into the empire voluntarily, others were brought in by force. Generally, the
Russians and most of the non-Russian subjects of the empire shared little in common—
culturally,
religiously, or
linguistically. More often than not, two or more diverse nationalities were collocated on the same territory. Therefore, national antagonisms built up over the years not only against the Russians but often between some of the subject nations as well.
For many years, Soviet leaders maintained that the underlying causes of conflict between nationalities of the Soviet Union had been eliminated and that the Soviet Union consisted of a family of nations living harmoniously together. In the 1920s and early 1930s, the government conducted a policy of
korenizatsiya (indigenization) of local governments in an effort to recruit non-Russians into the new Soviet political institutions and to reduce the conflict between Russians and the minority nationalities. One area in which the Soviet leaders made concessions perhaps more out of necessity than out of conviction, was language policy. To increase literacy and mass education, the government encouraged the development and publication in many of the "national languages" of the minority groups. While Russian became a required
subject of study in all Soviet schools in 1938, in the mainly non-Russian areas the chief language of instruction was the local language or languages. This practice led to widespread bilingualism in the educated population, though among smaller nationalities and among elements of the population that were heavily affected by the immigration of Russians, linguistic assimilation also was common, in which the members of a given non-Russian nationality lost facility in the historic language of their group.
[Barbara A. Anderson and Brian D. Silver. 1984. "Equality, Efficiency, and Politics in Soviet Bilingual Education Policy, 1934-1980," American Political Science Review 78 (December): 1019-1039.]The concessions granted national cultures and the limited autonomy tolerated in the union republics in the 1920s led to the development of national elites and a heightened sense of national identity. Subsequent repression and
Russianization fostered resentment against domination by Moscow and promoted further growth of national consciousness. National feelings were also exacerbated in the Soviet multinational state by increased competition for resources, services, and jobs, and by the policy of the leaders in Moscow to move workers to the peripheral areas of the country, the homelands of non-Russian nationalities.
By the end of the 1980s, encouraged in part by Gorbachev's policy of
glasnost, unofficial groups formed around a great many social, cultural, and political issues. In some non-Russian regions ostensible
green movements or ecological movements were thinly disguised national movements in support of the protection of natural resources and the national patrimony generally from control by ministries in Moscow.
Religious groups
Although the Soviet Union was officially
atheist and suppressed religion, according to various Soviet and Western sources, over one-third of the people in the Soviet Union professed religious belief.
Christianity and
Islam had the most believers. The
state was separated from church by the Decree of Council of People's Comissars on
January 23,
1918. Two-thirds of the Soviet population, however, had no religious beliefs. About half the people, including members of the CPSU and high-level government officials, professed atheism. For the majority of Soviet citizens, therefore, religion seemed irrelevant. Official figures on the number of religious believers in the Soviet Union were not available in 1989.
Christians belonged to various churches:
Orthodox, which had the largest number of followers;
Catholic; and
Baptist and various other
Protestant sects.
Government persecution of Christianity continued unabated until the fall of the Communist government, with Stalin's reign the most repressive. Stalin is quoted as saying that "The Party cannot be neutral towards religion. It conducts an anti-religious struggle against any and all religious prejudices." However in
World War II the repression against the
Russian Orthodox Church temporarily ceased as it was perceived as "instrument of patriotic unity" in the war against "the western
Teutonics". Repression against Russian Orthodox restarted from ca. 1946 onwards and more forcibly under
Nikita Khruschev. In 1914 before the revolution, there were over 54,000 churches, while during the early years of Stalin's reign that number was counted in the hundreds. By 1988 the number had increased to roughly 7,000. Immediately following the fall of the Soviet government, churches were re-opening at a recorded rate of over thirty a week. Today there are nearly 20,000.
Although there were many ethnic
Jews in the Soviet Union, actual practice of
Judaism was rare in Communist times. In 1928, Stalin created the
Jewish Autonomous Oblast in the far east of what is now Russia to try to create a "Soviet Zion" for a proletarian Jewish culture to develop.
The overwhelming majority of the Islamic faithful were
Sunni. The Azerbaijanis, who were
Shiite, were one major exception. Because Islamic religious tenets and social values of Muslims are closely interrelated, religion appeared to have a greater influence on Muslims than on either Christians or other believers. The largest groups of Muslims in the Soviet Union resided in the Central Asian republics (Kyrgyzstan, Tajikistan, Turkmenistan, and Uzbekistan) and Kazakhstan, though substantial numbers also resided in Central Russia (principally in Bashkiria and Tatarstan), in the North Caucasian part of Russia (Chechnya, Dagestan, and other autonomous republics) and in Transcaucasia (principally in Azerbaijan but also certain regions of Georgia).
Other religions, which were practiced by a relatively small number of believers, included
Buddhism,
Lamaism, and
shamanism, a religion based on spiritualism. The role of religion in the daily lives of Soviet citizens thus varied greatly.
All forms of
media in the Soviet Union were controlled by the state including
television and
radio broadcasting,
newspaper,
magazine and book publishing. Official statistics about the state, economy, and society were rigorously controlled and censored by the
First Department of the Central Statistics Administration (later the State Statistics Committee). The mass media, arts, books, and journals were censored by
glavlit within the Ministry of Culture and by other agencies. Censorship extended to the
fine arts including the
theatre,
opera and
ballet. Art and Music was controlled by ownership of distribution and performance venues.
Censorship was made in cases where performances did not meet with the favour of the Soviet leadership with newspaper campaigns against offending material and sanctions applied through
party controlled professional organizations and courts. These controls did not completely prevent the existence of underground or clandestine art, books, and other publications. Especially after the death of Stalin, a
samizdat literature was copied and traded from hand-to-hand. While state control of mass media, printing presses, and other means of large-scale distribution of information was strong, this samizdat was sometimes tolerated to a degree, though prominent
dissidents were subject to state persecution and suppression.
*
Soviet art*
Soviet education*
Soviet cinema*
Philosophy in the Soviet Union*
Soviet television*
Broadcasting in the Soviet Union*
Voluntary Sport Societies of the USSR*
USSR at the Summer Olympics*
USSR at the Winter Olympics*
USSR Chess Championship*
Palace of Culture*
Research in the Soviet Union*
Soviet Ballroom dances*
Soviet Student Olympiads*
Great Soviet Encyclopedia*
Censorship in the Soviet Union*
Glavlit*
Samizdat| Date | English Name | Local Name | Remarks |
|---|
| January 1 | New Year's Day | ΠΠΎΠ²ΡΠΉ Π³ΠΎΠ΄ | Arguably the largest celebration of the year. Most of the traditions that were originally associated with Christmas in Russia (Father Frost, a decorated fir-tree) moved to New Year's Eve after the Revolution and are associated with New Year's Eve to this day. |
| - valign=top | February 23 | Red Army Day | Π"Π΅Π½Ρ Π‘ΠΎΠ²Π΅ΡΡΠΊΠΎΠΉ ΠΡΠΌΠΈΠΈ ΠΈ Π'ΠΎΠ΅Π½Π½ΠΎ-ΠΌΠΎΡΡΠΊΠΎΠ³ΠΎ ΡΠ»ΠΎΡΠ° ("Day of the Soviet Army and Navy") | Formation of the Red Army in February 1918.Is currently called Π"Π΅Π½Ρ Π·Π°ΡΠΈΡΠ½ΠΈΠΊΠ° ΠΎΡΠ΅ΡΠ΅ΡΡΠ²Π° ("Day of the Defender of the Fatherland") in Russia |
| March 8 | International Women's Day | ΠΠ΅ΠΆΠ΄ΡΠ½Π°ΡΠΎΠ΄Π½ΡΠΉ ΠΆΠ΅Π½ΡΠΊΠΈΠΉ Π΄Π΅Π½Ρ | An official holiday marking women's liberation movement, popularly celebrated as a cross between American Mother's Day and Valentine's Day. |
| April 12 | Cosmonautics Day | Π"Π΅Π½Ρ ΠΊΠΎΡΠΌΠΎΠ½Π°Π²ΡΠΈΠΊΠΈ ("Day of Cosmonautics") | The Day Yuri Gagarin became the first man in Space, in 1961. |
| May 1 | International Labor Day (May Day) | ΠΠ΅ΡΠ²ΠΎΠ΅ ΠΠ°Ρ - Π"Π΅Π½Ρ ΠΌΠ΅ΠΆΠ΄ΡΠ½Π°ΡΠΎΠ΄Π½ΠΎΠΉ ΡΠΎΠ»ΠΈΠ΄Π°ΡΠ½ΠΎΡΡΠΈ ΡΡΡΠ΄ΡΡΠΈΡ
ΡΡ ("International Day of Worker's Solidarity") | Celebrated on May 1 and May 2. Now called ΠΡΠ°Π·Π΄Π½ΠΈΠΊ Π²Π΅ΡΠ½Ρ ΠΈ ΡΡΡΠ΄Π° ("Celebration of Spring and Labor"). |
| May 9 | Victory Day | Π"Π΅Π½Ρ ΠΠΎΠ±Π΅Π΄Ρ | End of Great Patriotic War, marked by capitulation of Nazi Germany, 1945 |
| October 7 | USSR Constitution Day | Π"Π΅Π½Ρ ΠΠΎΠ½ΡΡΠΈΡΡΡΠΈΠΈ Π‘Π‘Π‘Π | 1977 Constitution of the USSR accepted - December 5 previously |
| November 7 | Great October Socialist Revolution | Π"ΠΎΠ΄ΠΎΠ²ΡΠΈΠ½Π° Π'Π΅Π»ΠΈΠΊΠΎΠΉ ΠΠΊΡΡΠ±ΡΡΡΠΊΠΎΠΉ ΡΠΎΡΠΈΠ°Π»ΠΈΡΡΠΈΡΠ΅ΡΠΊΠΎΠΉ ΡΠ΅Π²ΠΎΠ»ΡΡΠΈΠΈ or Π‘Π΅Π΄ΡΠΌΠΎΠ΅ Π½ΠΎΡΠ±ΡΡ | Celebrating October Revolution of 1917. It has now been replaced with Π"Π΅Π½Ρ ΠΏΡΠΈΠΌΠΈΡΠ΅Π½ΠΈΡ ΠΈ ΡΠΎΠ³Π»Π°ΡΠΈΡ ("Day of Reconciliation and Agreement"), celebrated on a Nov. 7 (at least officially) before amendments in Labour Codex (adopted in December 2004, new holiday, which celebrates at November 4 is the People Unity Day ("Π"Π΅Π½Ρ Π½Π°ΡΠΎΠ΄Π½ΠΎΠ³ΠΎ Π΅Π΄ΠΈΠ½ΡΡΠ²Π°)" in Russia. |
(
Text of the speech)
National Anthem of the Soviet Union*
Dates of establishment of diplomatic relations with the USSR*
Post-Soviet states*
Prometheism*
List of Soviet Leaders*
List of Soviet Republics*
List of premiers of the Soviet Union*
List of the presidents of the Soviet Union*
Sovietization*
Soviet history*
Red Army*
Kaliningrad Oblast (see also: German
East Prussia)
*Armstrong, John A.
The Politics of Totalitarianism: The Communist Party of the Soviet Union from 1934 to the Present. New York: Random House, 1961.
*Brown, Archie, et al, eds.:
The Cambridge Encyclopedia of Russia and the Soviet Union (Cambridge, UK: Cambridge University Press, 1982).
*Gilbert, Martin:
The Routledge Atlas of Russian History (London: Routledge, 2002).
*Goldman, Minton:
The Soviet Union and Eastern Europe (Connecticut: Global Studies, Dushkin Publishing Group, Inc., 1986).
*Howe, G. Melvyn:
The Soviet Union: A Geographical Survey 2nd. edn. (Estover, UK: MacDonald and Evans, 1983).
*Katz, Zev, ed.:
Handbook of Major Soviet Nationalities (New York: Free Press, 1975).
*Moore, Jr., Barrington.
Soviet politics: the dilemma of power. Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press, 1950.
*Rizzi, Bruno: "The bureaucratization of the world : the first English ed. of the underground Marxist classic that analyzed class exploitation in the USSR" , New York, NY : Free Press, 1985.
*Schapiro, Leonard B.
The Origin of the Communist Autocracy: Political Opposition in the Soviet State, First Phase 1917-1922. Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press, 1955, 1966.
*
Images of the Soviet Union - a collection of photos showing everyday life in the Soviet Union
*
Impressions of Soviet Russia, by John Dewey*
Soviet Union related video material*
Soviet Agitation Posters* -
Soviet Union
