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The Soviet Union (short for Union of Soviet Socialist Republics (USSR)) (Rus Союз Советских Социалистических Республик/Soyuz Sovetskikh Sotsialisticheskikh Respublik) was a group of countries that came together to be one larger country (a federation). The Soviet Union was created after Vladimir Lenin led the overthrow of the unpopular tsarist autocratic (all powerful) government. The communist government developed industry and over time became a major, powerful union of countries. The largest of the countries in the Union was Russia, and Kazakhstan was the next largest. The capital city of the Soviet Union was Moscow. The Soviet Union existed from 1922 to 1991. It was the first country to have an officially communist government.

The nation's government said that it was a socialist country that wanted communism. "Soviets", or workers' councils (special group that leads), were created to speak for the workers, and served as an elite group to govern the workers.

Leaders

• Vladimir Lenin
• Josef Stalin
• Nikita Khrushchev
• Leonid Brezhnev
• Yuri Andropov
• Konstantin Chernenko
• Mikhail Gorbachev

Holidays

Date	English Name	Local Name	Remarks
January 1	New Year's Day	Новый Год
March 8	International Women's Day	Международный Женский День
May 1-May 2	International Labor Day (May Day)	Первое Мая - День Международной Солидарности Трудящихся
May 9	Victory Day	День Победы	The win over Nazi Germany in World War II,in 1945
October 7	Constitution Day	День Конституции
November 7	Great October Socialist Revolution	Седьмое Ноября	October Revolution 1917; it is currently called День Согласия и Примирения

Republics of the Soviet Union

The Soviet Union was made of 15 republics. These were either Soviet Socialist Republics, or Soviet Socialist Federal Republics. Each of these republics was independent. It also had the right to leave the union. The Federal Republics were different in that they had more autonomy, and were made up of states themselves. These were often called Autonomous Soviet Socialist Republics. There were a number of them. Most of them still exist; though they are now republics, within the independent state. The Tatar ASSR turned into the Republic of Tatarstan, for example (It is located around Kazan. Tatars make up 3.8% of the population of Russia)

Soviet Republics

The Soviet Union, before it collapsed

1. Armenian SSR (Soviet Socialist Republic)
2. Azerbaijan SSR
3. Byelorussian SSR
4. Estonian SSR
5. Georgian SSR
6. Kazakh SSR
7. Kyrgyz SSR
8. Latvian SSR
9. Lithuanian SSR
10. Moldavian SSR
11. Russian SFSR (Soviet Federal Socialist Republic)
12. Tajik SSR
13. Turkmen SSR
14. Ukrainian SSR
15. Uzbek SSR

Independent Countries

1. Armenia
2. Azerbaijan
3. Belarus
4. Estonia
5. Georgia
6. Kazakhstan
7. Kyrgyzstan
8. Latvia
9. Lithuania
10. Moldova
11. Russia
12. Tajikistan
13. Turkmenistan
14. Ukraine
15. Uzbekistan

Geography, climate and environment

The Soviet Union at its largest size in 1991, with 22,400,000 square kilometres (8,600,000 sq mi), was the world's biggest country. Covering a sixth of the world's lived in land, its size was comparable to North America's. The western part (in Europe) accounted for a quarter of the country's area, and was the country's cultural and economic center. The eastern part (in Asia) extended to the Pacific Ocean to the east and Afghanistan to the south, and was much less lived in than the western part. It was over 10,000 kilometres (6,200 mi) across (11 time zones) and almost 7,200 kilometres (4,500 mi) north to south. Its five climatic (different weather, temperature, humidity and atmospheric pressure) zones were tundra, taiga, steppes, desert, and mountains.

The Soviet Union had the world's longest border, measuring over 60,000 kilometres (37,000 mi). Two thirds of the Soviet border was coastline of the Arctic Ocean. Across the Bering Strait was the United States. The Soviet Union bordered Afghanistan, China, Czechoslovakia, Finland, Hungary, Iran, Mongolia, North Korea, Norway, Poland, Romania, and Turkey at the end of WWII.

The Soviet Union's longest river was the Irtysh. The Soviet Union's highest mountain was Communism Peak (today it is called the Ismail Samani Peak) in Tajikistan measured at 7,495 metres (24,590 ft). The world's largest lake, the Caspian Sea, was mostly in the Soviet Union. The world's deepest lake, Lake Baikal, was in the Soviet Union.

History

The last Russian Tsar (translated Caesar, which means emperor), Nicholas II, ruled Russia until March 1917, when the Russian Empire was taken over and a short-lived "Russian provisional government" replaced it, only to be overthrown in November 1917 by Vladimir Lenin and other socialists.

From 1917 to 1922, the country that came before the Soviet Union was the Russian Soviet Federative Socialist Republic (RSFSR), which was its own country, as were other Soviet republics at the time. The Soviet Union was officially created in December 1922 as the union of the Russian (also known as Bolshevist Russia), Ukrainian, Belarusian, and Transcaucasian Soviet republics ruled by the communist Bolshevik parties.

Revolution and the foundation of a workers nation

Extreme government-changing activity in the Russian Empire began with the Decembrist Revolt of 1825, and although serfdom was removed in 1861, its removal was achieved on terms unfavorable to the peasants (poor agricultural workers) and served to encourage changers (revolutionaries). A parliament (legislative assembly)—the State Duma—was created in 1906 after the Russian Revolution of 1905, but the Tsar protested people trying to move from absolute to constitutional monarchy. Rebellion continued and was aggravated during World War I by failure and food shortages in popular cities.

File:Lenin-Trotsky 1920-05-20 Sverdlov Square (original).jpg

Vladimir Lenin talking to a a crowd in 1920.

A self-generated popular rebellion in Saint Petersburg, in response to the wartime decay of Russia's economy and morale, caused the "February Revolution" and the removal of the government in March 1917. The tsarist autocracy was replaced by the "Provisional Government", whose leaders intended to have elections to Russian Constituent Assembly and to continue war on the side of the Entente in World War I.

At the same time, workers' councils, known as Soviets, sprang up across the country. The Bolsheviks, led by Vladimir Lenin, pushed for socialist revolution in the Soviets and on the streets. In November 1917, during the "October Revolution", they took power from the Provisional Government. In December, the Bolsheviks signed an armistice (peace) with the Central Powers. But, by February 1918, fighting had happened again. In March, the Soviets quit the war for good and signed the Treaty of Brest-Litovsk.

Only after the long and bloody Russian Civil War was the new Soviet power taken and held onto. The civil war between the Reds and the Whites started in 1917 and ended in 1923. It included foreign interference, the killing of Nicholas II and his family and the shortage of food in 1921, which killed about 5 million. In March 1921, during a related conflict with Poland, the Peace of Riga was signed and split territories disagreed about in Belarus and Ukraine between the Republic of Poland and Soviet Russia. The Soviet Union had to resolve similar conflicts with the newly established Republic of Finland, the Republic of Estonia, the Republic of Latvia, and the Republic of Lithuania.

Unification of the Soviet Republics

On 28 December 1922, people met from the Russian SFSR, the Transcaucasian SFSR, the Ukrainian SSR and the Byelorussian SSR approved the Treaty of Creation of the USSR and the Declaration of the Creation of the USSR, creating the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics. These two documents were made true by the 1st Congress of Soviets of the USSR and signed by heads of delegations.

On 1 February 1924, the USSR was accepted as a country by the British Empire. Also in 1924, a Soviet Constitution (set of laws) was approved, making true the December 1922 union of the Russian SFSR, the Ukrainian SSR, the Belarusian SSR, and the Transcaucasian SFSR to form the "Union of Soviet Socialist Republics" (USSR).

The big changes of the economy, industry and politics of the country began in the early days of Soviet power in 1917. A large part of this was performed according to Bolshevik Initial Decrees, documents of the Soviet government, signed by Vladimir Lenin. One of the most important and notable breakthroughs was the GOELRO plan, that planned a major change of the Soviet economy based on total electrification of the country. The Plan was developed in 1920 and covered a 10- to 15-year period. It included the making of a network of 30 regional power plants, including ten large hydroelectric power plants, and numerous electric-powered large industrial organizations. The Plan became the prototype for subsequent Five-Year Plans and was basically fulfilled by 1931.

Stalin's rule

The Cathedral of Christ the Saviour in Moscow during its 1931 demolition. Organized religion was suppressed in the Soviet Union.

From its beginning years, government in the Soviet Union was based on the rule of one party by the Communist Party (Bolsheviks). After the 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).

Soviet leaders argued that one-party rule was necessary because it ensured that 'capitalist exploitation' would not return to the Soviet Union and that the principles of Democratic Centralism would represent the people's will. 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. Initially, Lenin was to be replaced by a "troika" composed of Grigory Zinoviev of Ukraine, Lev Kamenev of Moscow, and Joseph Stalin of Georgia.

Other pages

• History of the Soviet Union (1985-1991)