UNION OF SOVIET SOCIALIST REPUBLICS
Coat of arms of the Soviet Union 1
The flag of the Soviet Union The
Union of Soviet Socialist Republics (
USSR ), also known as the
Soviet Union , was a
transcontinental country that spanned much of
Eurasia from 1922 until
its dissolution in 1991. It was the world's
third-most populous country ,
largest by area , and
bordered twelve countries . A diverse
multinational state , it was organized as a
federal union of
national republics , the largest and most populous being the
Russian Soviet Federative Socialist Republic . In practice,
its government and
economy were
highly centralized . As a
one-party state governed by
its Communist Party , it was the flagship
communist state . 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, Joseph Stalin came to power, inaugurating rapid industrialization and forced collectivization that led to significant growth but contributed to a 1930s famine killing millions. Soviet forced labour expanded via the Gulag system. Stalin's government conducted the late 1930s Great Purge via deportations , executions , and show trials . Failing to build an anti-Nazi coalition in Europe , the Soviet Union signed a 1939 non-aggression pact with Nazi Germany . Nonetheless, in 1941 Germany invaded the Soviet Union in the largest land invasion in history, opening the Eastern Front of World War II . The Red Army played a decisive role in the Allies defeating the Axis powers , while liberating much of Central and Eastern Europe . At around 27 million casualties , the country suffered the most deaths in World War II . In the war's aftermath , the Soviet Union consolidated territories it occupied 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 scant direct combat , the blocs fought via ideological and proxy wars . In 1953, following Stalin's death , Nikita Khrushchev led a campaign of de-Stalinization . Resulting ideological tensions with communist China , led by Mao Zedong , culminated in an acrimonious split . In the following fifteen years the Soviet military suppressed uprisings in East Germany , Hungary and Czechoslovakia , while resolution of the Cuban Missile Crisis narrowly averted a global conflict . Under the 18-year rule of Leonid Brezhnev , prosperity turned toward stagnation and corruption , while US relations eased . In 1985, Mikhail Gorbachev sought reform through his policies glasnost perestroika overthrew their Soviet-backed regimes , ending the Eastern Bloc. Nationalist movements across the Soviet republics declared sovereignty . In 1991, after a successful referendum to establish a renewed federation , a failed coup by hardliners prompted Russia, Ukraine, and Belarus to secede . On 26 December, Gorbachev officially recognized the dissolution of the Soviet Union . Boris Yeltsin , leader of the Russian SFSR , oversaw its reconstitution into the Russian Federation , the Soviet Union's successor state ; the fourteen other republics emerged as fully independent states . All except the Baltics joined the Commonwealth of Independent States . The post-Soviet states experienced a humanitarian disaster , and dozens of wars and conflicts .
The Soviet Union was one of the world's two superpowers, with the largest
standing military ,
the second-largest economy ,
a hegemony in Eastern Europe and Asia,
global diplomacy ,
ideological influence (particularly in the
Global South ), and
scientific accomplishments . It wielded the world's largest arsenals
of nuclear ,
chemical ,
and biological weapons .
Its space program made
extensive achievements in the
Space Race including the
first artificial satellite , and
first human spaceflight .
Soviet culture was influenced by the official
socialist realism style and later underground
samizdat publications. As a major Allied nation, it became one of the
five permanent members of the
United Nations Security Council . (
Full article... )
Entries here consist of Good and Featured articles, which meet a core set of high editorial standards. Late 1920s battle flag of the type issued to the division with unit designation to the left of the globe
The 68th Mountain Rifle Division Russian : 68-я горнострелковая дивизия ) was a mountain infantry division of the Red Army before and during World War II .
Formed in late 1919 during the Russian Civil War as the 3rd Turkestan Rifle Division , it served with the Turkestan Front in the defeat of White Cossack forces for the next several months. The division began participating in the suppression of the Basmachi movement in late 1920, and was briefly renumbered as the 2nd Turkestan Rifle Division between 1921 and 1922. The division was stationed in the Dushanbe area from 1923 and eliminated the last remnants of the Basmachi in that area within a year. It was awarded the Honorary Revolutionary Red Banner in 1928 and converted to a mountain division a year later before being redesignated as the 3rd Turkestan Mountain Rifle Division . (Full article...
“
Greece is a sort of American vassal; the Netherlands is the country of American bases that grow like tulip bulbs; Cuba is the main sugar plantation of the American monopolies; Turkey is prepared to kowtow before any United States proconsul and Canada is the boring second fiddle in the American symphony.
”
Andrei Pavlovich Kirilenko Ukrainian : Андрій Павлович Кириленко ; Russian : Андре́й Па́влович Кириле́нко , IPA: [ɐnˈdrʲej ˈpavləvʲɪtɕ kʲɪrʲɪˈlʲɛnkə] O.S. 26 August] 1906 – 12 May 1990) was a Soviet politician, and a member of the Secretariat of the Communist Party of the Soviet Union . He was one of the most loyal politicians to Leonid Brezhnev .
His role in the CPSU was to ensure Brezhnev's power base and, if possible, to strengthen Brezhnev's position within the party. In order to accomplish this task, he emerged as one of the leading figures in the Secretariat under Brezhnev's rule. (Full article...
The following are images from various Soviet Union-related articles on Wikipedia.
Image 1 Lenin ,
Trotsky and
Kamenev celebrating the second anniversary of the October Revolution (from
October Revolution )
Image 2 The elections to the
Constituent Assembly took place in November 1917. The Bolsheviks won 24% of the vote. (from
October Revolution )
Image 3 The New York Times headline from 9 November 1917 (from
October Revolution )
Image 4 Red Guard unit of the Vulkan factory in Petrograd, October 1917 (from
October Revolution )
Image 5 Murder of the Romanov family,
Le Petit Journal (from
Russian Revolution )
Image 6 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 )
Image 7 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 10 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 12 The
Battle of Stalingrad , considered by many historians as a decisive turning point of World War II (from
History of the Soviet Union )
Image 13 A revolutionary meeting of Russian soldiers in March 1917 in Dalkarby of
Jomala ,
Åland (from
Russian Revolution )
Image 14 Russian Civil War in the European part of Russia (from
History of the Soviet Union )
Image 15 Internally displaced Azerbaijanis from
Nagorno-Karabakh , 1993 (from
History of the Soviet Union )
Image 16 Changes in national boundaries after the end of the Cold War (from
History of the Soviet Union )
Image 17 Cruiser
Aurora (from
October Revolution )
Image 19 The 2nd Moscow Women Death Battalion protecting the Winter Palace as the last guards of the stronghold (from
Russian Revolution )
Image 20 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 21 Russian troops in trenches awaiting a German attack (from
Russian Revolution )
Image 22 A scene from the July Days. The army has just opened fire on street protesters. (from
October Revolution )
Image 24 Provisional Government 's volunteer soldiers secure Petrograd's
Palace Square with the
Austin Armoured Car , summer 1917. (from
Russian Revolution )
Image 25 Mikhail Gorbachev in one-to-one discussions with US President
Ronald Reagan (
left ), 1985 (from
History of the Soviet Union )
Image 26 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 27 European theatre of the
Russian Civil War in 1918 (from
October Revolution )
Image 28 The dissolution of the
Constituent Assembly on 6 January 1918. The
Tauride Palace is locked and guarded by
Trotsky ,
Sverdlov ,
Zinoviev and
Lashevich . (from
Russian Revolution )
Image 29 American, British, and Japanese Troops parade through Vladivostok in armed support to the White Army. (from
Russian Revolution )
Image 30 Anniversary of October Revolution in
Riga , Soviet Union in 1988 (from
October Revolution )
Image 31 The
Pan-European Picnic took place in August 1989 on the Hungarian-Austrian border. (from
History of the Soviet Union )
Image 32 Russian troops meeting German troops in No Man's Land (from
Russian Revolution )
Image 33 Revolutionaries attacking the tsarist police in the early days of the February Revolution (from
Russian Revolution )
Image 34 Bolshevik (1920) by
Boris Kustodiev (from
October Revolution )
Image 35 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 The
Russian famine of 1921–22 killed an estimated 5 million people.
(from
History of the Soviet Union )
Image 37 Soldiers marching in
Petrograd , March 1917 (from
Russian Revolution )
Image 38 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 39 Petrograd
Milrevcom proclamation about the deposing of the
Russian Provisional Government (from
October Revolution )
Image 41 "Pogrom in the Winter Palace" by
Ivan Vladimirov (from
October Revolution )
Image 42 Soviet leader
Nikita Khrushchev (left) with US President
John F. Kennedy in Vienna, 3 June 1961 (from
History of the Soviet Union )
Image 43 The dissolution of the Constituent Assembly on 6 January 1918. The
Tauride Palace is locked and guarded by
Trotsky ,
Sverdlov ,
Zinoviev , and
Lashevich . (from
October Revolution )
Image 44 Forward gun of
Aurora that fired the signal shot (from
October Revolution )
Image 45 Revolutionaries protesting in February 1917 (from
Russian Revolution )
Image 46 Lenin ,
Trotsky , and
Kamenev celebrating the second anniversary of the
October Revolution (from
History of the Soviet Union )
Image 47 Meeting before the Russian wire entanglements (from
Russian Revolution )
Soviet Army Day Red Army in February 1918. Unlike others, it was not an official holiday.
This is a list of recognized content, updated weekly by JL-Bot (talk · contribs ) (typically on Saturdays). There is no need to edit the list yourself. If an article is missing from the list, make sure it is tagged (e.g. {{ WikiProject Soviet Union }} ) or categorized correctly and wait for the next update. See WP:RECOG for configuration options.
2020-09-16 165855 Soviet submarine B-515
Alexei Leonov
Field Marshall 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
Did you know? articles
Main page featured articles
Main page featured lists
German instrument of surrender2 (2009-05-07)
Instrument of surrender Japan2 (2009-09-02)
Yalta Conference (Churchill, Roosevelt, Stalin) (B&W) (2010-05-08)
USS Yorktown collision (2011-02-12)
Maxim Gorky LOC Restored edit1 (2013-03-28)
Yuri Gagarin (1961) - Restoration (2020-03-09)
Alexei Leonov (2020-03-18)
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)
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)
Prokofieff (i.e. Prokofiev) LCCN2014708419 Crop 2 (2023-07-25)
Raising a flag over the Reichstag - Restoration (2025-05-02)
Main topics
Category puzzle Select [►] to view subcategories
Привет Wikipedia is the encyclopedia that anyone can edit. If you are interested in the Soviet Union and have some information that can be added to an existing article, please help. Here are some things you can do:
The following Wikimedia Foundation sister projects provide more on this subject:
General: Portals: Tools: Task forces Task forces Related projects: Project-specific guidelines:
Purge server cache
.svg)
_LCCN2014708419_Crop_2.jpg)
_(B%26W).jpg)
_-_Restoration.jpg)
