"USSR" and "CCCP" redirect here. For other uses, see USSR (disambiguation) and CCCP (disambiguation). "Soviet Russia" redirects here. For the Russian republic within the Soviet Union, see Russian Soviet Federative Socialist Republic. "Soviet" redirects here. For the term itself, see Soviet (council). For other uses, see Soviet (disambiguation). Союз Советских Социалистических Республик Soyuz Sovietskikh Sotsialisticheskikh Respublik Union of Soviet Socialist Republics Other names ←   ←   ←   ← 1922–1991 ↓ Flag State Emblem Motto Пролетарии всех стран, соединяйтесь! (Translit.: Proletarii vsekh stran, soyedinyaytes'!) English: Workers of the world, unite! Anthem The Internationale (1922–1944) Hymn of the Soviet Union (1944–1991) The Soviet Union after World War II Capital Moscow Language(s) Russian, many others Religion None Government Union socialist republic, single-party communist state Leader  - 1922–1924 (first) Vladimir Lenin  - 1985–1991 (last) Mikhail Gorbachev History  - Established 30 December 1922  - Disestablished 26 December 1991 Area  - 1991 22,402,200 km2 (8,649,538 sq mi) Population  - 1991 est. 293,047,571       Density 13.1 /km2  (33.9 /sq mi) Currency Soviet ruble (руб) (SUR) Internet TLD .su2 Calling code +7 Preceded by Succeeded by Russian SFSR Transcaucasian SFSR Ukrainian SSR Byelorussian SSR Russia Georgia Ukraine Moldova Belarus Armenia Azerbaijan Kazakhstan Uzbekistan Turkmenistan Kyrgyzstan Tajikistan Estonia3 Latvia3 Lithuania3 1On 21 December 1991, eleven of the former socialist republics declared in Alma-Ata (with the 12th republic – Georgia – attending as an observer) that with the formation of the Commonwealth of Independent States the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics ceases to exist. 2Assigned on 19 September 1990, existing onwards. 3The governments of Estonia, Latvia, and Lithuania view themselves as continuous and unrelated to the respective Soviet republics. Russia views the Estonian, Latvian, and Lithuanian SSRs as legal constituent republics of the USSR and predecessors of the modern Baltic states. The Government of the United States and a number of other countries did not recognize the annexation of Estonia, Latvia, and Lithuania to the USSR as a legal inclusion. Soviet Union This article is part of the series: Politics and government of the Soviet Union Union government Constitution Government Council of People's Commissars Council of Ministers Cabinet of Ministers State Council Presidential Council Ministries Communist Party Communist Party Congress General Secretary Politburo Central Committee Secretariat Orgburo Leadership Leaders Premiers Cabinets President (List) Vice President Legislature Congress of Soviets Central Executive Committeee Supreme Soviet Soviet of the Union Soviet of Nationalities Presidium Congress of People's Deputies Speaker 1989 Legislative election Judiciary Law Supreme Court People's Court Procurator General History 1917-1927 1927-1953 1953-1985 1985-1991 Dissolution Ideology State Ideology Soviet democracy Marxism-Leninism Leninism Stalinism Economy Economy Agriculture Consumer goods Five-Year Plan Kosygin reform New Economic Policy Science and technology Era of Stagnation Life and repression Society Demographics Education Family Phraseology Religion Transport Repression Censorship Human rights Great purge Gulag system Propaganda Population transfer Red Terror Atlas  USSR Portal view · talk · The Union of Soviet Socialist Republics (USSR, Russian: Сою́з Сове́тских Социалисти́ческих Респу́блик, tr. Soyuz Sovietskikh Sotsialisticheskikh Respublik IPA: [sɐˈjus sɐˈvʲetskʲɪx sətsɨəlʲɪˈstʲitɕɪskʲɪx rʲɪsˈpublʲɪk]  ( listen), abbreviated СССР, SSSR), and for short known as the Soviet Union (Russian: Советский Союз, tr. Sovietsky Soyuz) or Soviet Russia, was a constitutionally socialist state that existed on the territory of most of the former Russian Empire in Eurasia between 1922 and 1991.1 A more informal and simplified version usually used among its residents was the Union (Soyuz). The Soviet Union had a single-party political system dominated by the Communist Party until 1990.2 Although the USSR was nominally a union of Soviet republics (of which there were 15 after 1956) with the capital in Moscow, it was in actuality a highly centralized state with a planned economy. The Soviet Union was founded in December 1922 when the Russian SFSR, which formed during the Russian Revolution of 1917 and emerged victorious in the ensuing Russian Civil War, unified with the Transcaucasian, Ukrainian and Belorussian SSRs. After the death of Vladimir Lenin, the first Soviet leader, power was eventually consolidated by Joseph Stalin,3 who led the country through a large-scale industrialization with command economy and political repression.34 During World War II, in June 1941, the Soviet Union was attacked by Germany, a country with whom it had signed a non-aggression pact. After four years of warfare, the Soviet Union emerged as one of the world's two superpowers, extending its influence into much of Eastern Europe and beyond. The Soviet Union and its satellites from the Eastern Bloc were one of two participating factions in the Cold War of the post-war era, a prolonged global ideological and political struggle against the United States and its Western Bloc allies; the Soviet bloc ultimately lost, however, having been hit by economic standstill and both domestic and foreign political unrest.56 In the late 1980s the last Soviet leader Mikhail Gorbachev tried to reform the state with his policies of perestroika and glasnost, but the Soviet Union collapsed and was formally dissolved in December 1991 after the abortive August coup attempt.7 Since then the Russian Federation has been exercising its rights and fulfilling its obligations.8 Contents 1 Geography, climate and environment 2 History 2.1 Revolution and the foundation of a Soviet state 2.2 Unification of the Soviet Republics 2.3 Stalin's rule 2.3.1 The 1930s 2.3.2 World War II 2.3.3 The Cold War 2.4 Post-Stalin period 2.5 Reforms of Gorbachev and collapse of the Soviet Union 3 Politics 3.1 The Communist Party 3.2 The government 3.3 Separation of power and reform 3.4 Judicial system 4 Political divisions 5 Economy 5.1 Energy 5.2 Science and technology 5.3 Transportation 6 Demographics 6.1 Education 6.2 Ethnic groups 6.3 Health 6.4 Language 6.5 Religion 7 Culture 8 See also 9 References 10 Further reading 11 External links // Geography, climate and environment Main article: Geography of the Soviet Union The Soviet Union at its maximum size in 1991, with 22,400,000 square kilometres (8,600,000 sq mi),9 was the world's largest state. Covering a sixth of the world's inhabited land, its size was comparable to that of North America. 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 populated than the European 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.9 Its five climatic 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).when? 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 from 1945 to 1991. The Soviet Union's longest river was the Irtysh. The Soviet Union's highest mountain was Communism Peak (today's Ismail Samani Peak) in Tajikistan at 7,495 metres (24,590 ft). The world's largest lake, the Caspian Sea, lay mainly in the Soviet Union. The world's largest freshwater and deepest lake, Lake Baikal, was in the Soviet Union. History Main article: History of the Soviet Union The last Russian Tsar, Nicholas II, ruled until March 1917, when the Russian Empire was overthrown and a short-lived Russian provisional government took power, to be overthrown in November 1917 by Vladimir Lenin. From 1917 to 1922, the predecessor to the Soviet Union was the Russian Soviet Federative Socialist Republic (RSFSR), which was an independent country, as were other Soviet republics at the time. The Soviet Union was officially 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. Revolution and the foundation of a Soviet state Main articles: History of Soviet Russia and the Soviet Union (1917-1927), Russian Revolution (1917), February Revolution, Russian Provisional Government, October Revolution, and Russian Civil War 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 Russian Revolution of 1905, but the Tsar resisted attempts to move from absolute to constitutional monarchy. Social unrest continued and was aggravated during World War I by military defeat and food shortages in major cities. Vladimir Lenin addressing a crowd in 1920. A spontaneous popular uprising in Saint Petersburg, in response to the wartime decay of Russia's economy and morale, culminated in the "February Revolution" and the toppling of the imperial government in March 1917. The tsarist autocracy was replaced by the Provisional Government, whose leaders intended to conduct elections to Russian Constituent Assembly and to continue participating 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 seized power from the Provisional Government. In December, the Bolsheviks signed an armistice with the Central Powers. But, by February 1918, fighting had resumed. 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 secure. The civil war between the Reds and the Whites started in 1917 and ended in 1923. It included foreign intervention, the execution of Nicholas II and his family and the famine of 1921, which killed about 5 million.10 In March 1921, during a related conflict with Poland, the Peace of Riga was signed and split disputed territories 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, a conference of plenipotentiary delegations from the Russian SFSR, the Transcaucasian SFSR, the Ukrainian SSR and the Byelorussian SSR approved the Treaty of Creation of the USSR11 and the Declaration of the Creation of the USSR, forming the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics.12 These two documents were confirmed by the 1st Congress of Soviets of the USSR and signed by heads of delegations13 – Mikhail Kalinin, Mikha Tskhakaya, Mikhail Frunze and Grigory Petrovsky, Aleksandr Chervyakov14 respectively on 30 December 1922. On 1 February 1924, the USSR was recognized by the British Empire. Also in 1924, a Soviet Constitution was approved, legitimizing 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 intensive restructuring 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 prominent breakthroughs was the GOELRO plan, that envisioned a major restructuring 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 construction of a network of 30 regional power plants, including ten large hydroelectric power plants, and numerous electric-powered large industrial enterprises.15 The Plan became the prototype for subsequent Five-Year Plans and was basically fulfilled by 1931.16 Stalin's rule Main article: History of the Soviet Union (1927–1953) From its beginning years, government in the Soviet Union was based on the one-party rule of the Communist Party (Bolsheviks).17 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. On 3 April 1922, Stalin was named the General Secretary of the Communist Party of the Soviet Union. Lenin had appointed Stalin to be the head of the Workers' and Peasants' Inspectorate, known by the acronym Rabkrin, which gave Stalin considerable power. By gradually consolidating his influence and isolating and out-maneuvering his rivals within the party, Stalin became the undisputed leader of the Soviet Union and, by the end of the 1920s, established totalitarian rule. In October 1927, Grigory Zinoviev and Leon Trotsky were expelled from the Central Committee and forced into exile. In 1928, Stalin introduced the First Five-Year Plan for building a socialist economy. While encompassing the internationalism expressed by Lenin throughout the course of the Revolution, it also aimed for building socialism 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. Famines occurred, causing millions of deaths and surviving kulaks were politically persecuted and many sent to Gulags to do forced labour.18 Social upheaval continued in the mid-1930s. Stalin's Great Purge resulted in execution or detainment of many "Old Bolsheviks" who had participated in the October Revolution with Lenin. A wide range of death tolls was suggested. According to the declassified Soviet archives, during the Great Purge in 1937 and 1938, the NKVD arrested more than one and a half million people, of whom 681,692 were shot – an average of 1,000 executions a day.19 The excess deaths during the 1930s as a whole were in the range of 10–11 million.20 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 The early 1930s saw closer cooperation between the West and the USSR. From 1932 to 1934, the Soviet Union participated in the World Disarmament Conference. In 1933, diplomatic relations between the United States and the USSR were established. In September 1934, the Soviet Union joined the League of Nations. After the Spanish Civil War broke out in 1936, the USSR actively supported the Republican forces against the Nationalists. The Nationalists were supported by Fascist Italy and Nazi Germany. In December 1936, Stalin unveiled a new Soviet Constitution. The constitution was seen as a personal triumph for Stalin, who on this occasion was described by Pravda as "genius of the new world, the wisest man of the epoch, the great leader of communism." By contrast, western historians and historians from former Soviet occupied countries have seen the constitution as a meaningless propaganda document. The late 1930s saw a shift towards the Axis powers. In 1938 and 1939, armed forces of the USSR won several decisive victories during border clashes with the armed forces of the Japanese Empire. In 1938, after the United Kingdom and France concluded the Munich Agreement with Germany, the USSR dealt with Germany as well. World War II Soviet Katyusha multiple rocket launchers fire on Berlin, April 1945. Main articles: Molotov-Ribbentrop pact and Eastern Front (WWII) The USSR dealt with Germany both militarily and economically during extensive talks and by concluding the German-Soviet Nonaggression Pact and the German–Soviet Commercial Agreement. The conclusion of the nonaggression pact made possible the Soviet occupation of Lithuania, Latvia, Estonia, Bessarabia, northern Bukovina, and eastern Poland. In late November of the same year, unable to force the Republic of Finland into agreement to move its border 25 kilometres (16 mi) back from Leningrad by diplomatic means, Joseph Stalin ordered the invasion of Finland. On April 1941, USSR signed the Soviet–Japanese Neutrality Pact with the Empire of Japan, recognizing the territorial integrity of Manchukuo, a Japanese puppet state. Although it has been debated whether the Soviet Union had the intention of invading Germany once it was strong enough,21 Germany itself broke the treaty and invaded the Soviet Union on 22 June 1941 and started what was known in the USSR as the "Great Patriotic War". The Red Army stopped the initial German offensive during the Battle of Moscow. The Battle of Stalingrad, which lasted from late 1942 to early 1943, was a major defeat for the Germans and became a major turning point of the war. After Stalingrad, Soviet forces drove through Eastern Europe to Berlin before Germany surrendered in 1945. The same year, the USSR, in fulfilment of its agreement with the Allies at the Yalta Conference, denounced the Soviet–Japanese Neutrality Pact in April 194522 and invaded Manchukuo and other Japan-controlled territories on 9 August 1945.23 This conflict ended with a decisive Soviet victory, contributing to the unconditional surrender of Japan and the end of World War II. The Soviet Union lost around 27 million people in the war.24 Although ravaged by the war, the Soviet Union emerged victorious from the conflict and became an acknowledged military superpower. Left to right: Soviet Premier Joseph Stalin, U.S. President Franklin D. Roosevelt and British Prime Minister Winston Churchill. Once denied diplomatic recognition by the Western world, the Soviet Union had official relations with practically all nations of the world by the late 1940s. The Soviet Union had progressed from being an outsider in international organizations and negotiations to being one of the arbiters of the world'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 world's two superpowers, a position maintained for four decades through its hegemony in Eastern Europe (see Eastern Bloc), military strength, economic 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. The Cold War Main article: Cold War 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 post-war reconstruction in the countries of Eastern Europe while turning them into Soviet satellite states, founded the Warsaw Pact in 1955. The Council for Mutual Economic Assistance (Comecon), 1949–1991, was an economic organization of communist states and a kind of Eastern Bloc equivalent to—but more geographically inclusive than—the European Economic Community.25 Later, the 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 enemies. Post-Stalin period Main article: History of the Soviet Union (1953–1985) The maximum territorial extent of countries in the world under Soviet influence, after the Cuban Revolution of 1959 and before the official Sino-Soviet split of 1961

Stalin died on 5 March 1953. In the absence of an acceptable successor, the highest Communist Party officials opted to rule the Soviet Union jointly. Nikita Khrushchev, who had won the power struggle by the mid-1950s, denounced Stalin's use of repression in 1956 and eased repressive controls over party and society. This was known as de-Stalinization. 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 military force was used to suppress anti-communist uprisings in Hungary and Poland in 1956. In the late 1950s, a confrontation with China regarding the USSR's rapprochement 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, Cambodia and Somalia choosing to ally with China in place of the USSR. During this period, the Soviet Union continued to realize scientific and technological pioneering exploits; to launch the first artificial satellite, Sputnik 1; a living dog, Laika; and later, the first human being, Yuri Gagarin, into Earth's orbit. Valentina Tereshkova was the first woman in space aboard Vostok 6 on 16 June 1963, and Alexey Leonov became the first person to walk in space on 18 March 1965. Khrushchev's reforms in agriculture and administration, however, were generally unproductive. 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. Khrushchev was retired from power in 1964. Following the ousting of Khrushchev, another period of rule by collective leadership ensued, consisting of Leonid Brezhnev as General Secretary, Alexei Kosygin as Premier and Nikolai Podgorny as Chairman of the Presidium, lasting until Brezhnev established himself in the early 1970s as the preeminent figure in Soviet political life. In 1968 the Soviet Union and members of its Warsaw Pact allies invaded Czechoslovakia to halt the Prague Spring reforms. Leonid Brezhnev and Jimmy Carter sign SALT II treaty, 18 June 1979, in Vienna. Brezhnev presided over a period of Détente with the West (see SALT I, SALT II, Anti-Ballistic Missile Treaty) while at the same time building up Soviet military strength. In October 1977, the third Soviet Constitution was unanimously adopted. 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 "standstill" , with an aging and ossified top political leadership. Reforms of Gorbachev and collapse of the Soviet Union Main articles: Cold War (1985–1991), History of the Soviet Union (1985–1991), 1991 Soviet coup d'état attempt, and Commonwealth of Independent States Gorbachev in one-on-one discussions with U.S. President Ronald Reagan. 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. Kenneth S. Deffeyes argued in Beyond Oil that the Reagan administration encouraged Saudi Arabia to lower the price of oil to the point where the Soviets could not make a profit from selling their oil, so that the USSR's hard currency reserves became depleted.26 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, Glasnost) and the party leadership. His policy of glasnost freed public access to information after decades of heavy government censorship. With the Soviet Union in bad economic shape and its satellite states in eastern Europe abandoning communism, Gorbachev moved to end the Cold War. 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. Soviet troops withdrawing from Afghanistan in 1988 In 1988, the Soviet Union abandoned its nine-year war with Afghanistan and began to withdraw forces from the country. In the late 1980s, Gorbachev refused to send military support to defend the Soviet Union's former satellite states, resulting in multiple communist regimes in those states being forced from power. With the tearing down of the Berlin Wall and with East Germany and West Germany pursuing unification, the Iron Curtain took the final blow. In the late 1980s, the constituent republics of the Soviet Union started legal moves towards or even declaration of sovereignty over their territories, citing Article 72 of the USSR Constitution, which stated that any constituent republic was free to secede.27 On 7 April 1990, a law was passed allowing a republic to secede if more than two-thirds of that republic's residents vote for secession on a referendum.28 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, the 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 12 June 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 17 March 1991, with the majority of the population voting for preservation of the Union in nine out of 15 republics. The referendum gave Gorbachev a minor boost, and, in the summer of 1991, the New Union Treaty was designed and agreed upon by eight republics which would have turned the Soviet Union into a much looser federation. Yeltsin stands on a tank to defy the August Coup in 1991. The signing of the treaty, however, was interrupted by the August Coup—an attempted coup d'état against Gorbachev by hardline Communist Party members of the government and the KGB, who sought to reverse Gorbachev's reforms and reassert the central government's control over the republics. After the coup collapsed, Yeltsin—who had publicly opposed it—came out as a hero while Gorbachev's power was effectively ended. The balance of power tipped significantly towards the republics. In August 1991, Latvia and Estonia immediately declared restoration of full independence (following Lithuania's 1990 example), while the other twelve republics continued discussing new, increasingly looser, models of the Union. On 8 December 1991, the presidents of Russia, Ukraine and Belarus signed the Belavezha Accords which declared the Soviet 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 21 December 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 bankruptcy and 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 Soviet 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 were absorbed by the newly independent states. Following the dissolution of the Soviet Union on 26 December 1991, Russia was internationally recognized29 to be the legal successor to the Soviet state on the international stage. To that end, Russia voluntarily accepted all Soviet foreign debt, and claimed overseas Soviet properties as its own. Since then the Russian Federation has been exercising its rights and fulfilling its obligations. Politics Main articles: Politics of the Soviet Union and State ideology of the Soviet Union There were three power hierarchies in the Soviet Union: the legislative branch represented by the Supreme Soviet of the Soviet Union, the government represented by the Council of Ministers of the USSR and the Communist Party of the Soviet Union (CPSU), the only legal party and the ultimate policymaker in the country.30 The Communist Party Main article: Communist Party of the Soviet Union The 1983 annual military parade in Moscow, commemorating the 66th anniversary of the October Revolution. The banner at the top reads: "Glory to the CPSU!" At the top of the Communist Party was the Central Committee, elected at Party Congresses and Conferences. The Central Committee in turn voted for a Politburo (called Presidium between 1952–1966), Secretariat and the General Secretary (First Secretary from 1953 to 1966), literally the highest ranking office in the USSR.31 Depending on the degree of power consolidation, it was either the Politburo as a collective body or the General Secretary, who always was one of the Politburo members, that effectively led the party and the country32 (except for the period of the highly personalized authority of Stalin, exercised directly through his position in the Council of Ministers rather than the Politburo after 1941).33 They weren't controlled by the mass of the party membership, as the key principle of the party organization was democratic centralism, demanding strict subordination to the higher bodies, and the elections went uncontested, endorsing the candidates proposed from above.34 The Communist Party maintained its dominance over the state largely through its control over the system of appointments. All senior government officials and most deputies of the Supreme Soviet were members of the CPSU, the more important they were the higher their position in the party hierarchy. Of the party heads themselves, Stalin in 1941–1953 and Khrushchev in 1958–1964 were Premiers. Upon the forced retirement of Khrushchev the party head became prohibited from this kind of double membership,35 but the later General Secretaries for at least some part of their tenure in office occupied the position of the Chairman of the Presidium of the Supreme Soviet, nominal head of state, albeit largely ceremonial. The institutions at lower levels were overseen and at times supplanted by primary party organizations.36

In practice, however, the control the party was able to exercise over the state bureaucracy, particularly after the death of Stalin, was far from total, with the state bureaucracy pursuing different interests, at times in conflict with the party.37 Neither was the party itself monolithic from top to bottom, although factions were officially banned.38 The government The Grand Kremlin Palace, seat of the Supreme Soviet of the USSR, in 1982 Main article: Government of the Soviet Union The Supreme Soviet (known before 1936 as the Central Executive Committee), nearly unanimously voted for by the population in uncontested and less than secret elections, nominally the highest state body for most of the Soviet history,39 while at first acting as a rubber stamp institution, approving and implementing all decisions imposed on it by the party, the powers and functions of the Supreme Soviet were extended in the late 1950s, 1960s and 1970s. New powers including creating new state commissions and committees, it gained additional powers when it came to the approval of the Five-Year Plans and the Soviet state budget.40 The Supreme Soviet elected a Presidium to wield its power between plenary sessions,41 ordinarily held twice a year, and appointed the Supreme Court,42 the Procurator General43 and the Council of Ministers (known before 1946 as the Council of People's Commissars), headed by the Chairman (Premier) and managing an enormous bureaucracy responsible for the administration of the economy and society.41 State and party structures of the constituent republics largely emulated the structure of the central institutions, although the Russian SFSR, unlike the other constituent republics, for most of its history had no republican branch of the CPSU, being ruled directly by the union-wide party until 1990. Local authorities were organized likewise into party committees, local Soviets and executive committees. While the state system was nominally federal, the party was unitary.44 The state security police (the KGB and its predecessor agencies) played important role in Soviet politics. It was instrumental in the Stalinist terror.45 After the death of Stalin the state security police was brought under strict party control. Under Yuri Andropov, KGB chairman in 1967–1982 and General Secretary from 1982 to 1983, the KGB, engaging in the suppression of political dissent and maintaining an extensive network of informers, reasserted itself as a political actor to some extent independent of the party-state structure,46 culminating in the anti-corruption campaign targeting high party officials in the late 1970s-early 1980s.47 Separation of power and reform Main article: Perestroika The Soviet constitutions, which were promulgated in 1918, 1924, 1936 and 1977,48 didn't limit state power. No formal separation of powers existed between the Party, Supreme Soviet and the Council of Ministers, due Vladimir Lenin and his fellow Bolsheviks believed parliamentarism and the separation of power was created by the bourgeois to fool the poor and the working class.49 the fusion of executive and legislative functions was pervasive. The system was governed less by statute than by informal conventions. No settled mechanism of leadership succession existed. Bitter and at times deadly power struggle took place in the Politburo after the deaths of Lenin50 and Joseph Stalin,51 as well as after Khrushchev's dismissal,52 itself due to a coup in both the Politburo and Central Committee.53 All Soviet party leaders before Gorbachev died in office, except Georgy Malenkov (died 1988)54 and Khrushchev (died 1971), both dismissed from the party leadership amid internal struggle in the party.53 An armored personnel carrier surrounded by anti-coup demonstrators in Moscow during the 1991 August Coup In 1988–1990, facing considerable opposition, Mikhail Gorbachev enacted reforms shifting power away from the highest bodies of the party and making the Supreme Soviet less dependent on them. The Congress of People's Deputies was established, majority of whose members were directly elected by the population in competitive elections held in March 1989. The Congress now elected the Supreme Soviet, which became a full-time parliament, much stronger than before, and, although still being largely conservative, for the first time since the 1920s refused to rubber-stamp proposals from the party and Council of Ministers.55 In 1990 Gorbachev introduced and assumed the position of the President of the Soviet Union, concentrated power in his executive office, independent of the party, and subordinated the government,56 now renamed the Cabinet of Ministers of the USSR, to himself.57 Tensions were growing between the union-wide authorities under Gorbachev, reformists, led in Russia by Boris Yeltsin and controlling the newly elected Supreme Soviet of the Russian SFSR, and Communist Party hardliners. On 19–21 August 1991, a group of hardliners staged an abortive coup attempt. Following the failed coup attempt, the State Council of the Soviet Union became the highest organ of state power "in the period of transition".58 Also Gorbachev resigned as General Secretary, only remaining President for the final months of the existence of the USSR.59 Judicial system Main articles: Law of the Soviet Union and Socialist law The judiciary was not independent from the other branches of government. The Supreme Court supervised the lower courts (People's Court) 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 utilized the inquisitorial system of Roman law, where judge, Procurator, and defense attorney work collaboratively to establish the truth.60 Political divisions Main articles: Soviet Republic (system of government) and Republics of the Soviet Union Constitutionally, the Soviet Union was a union of Soviet Socialist Republics (SSRs) and the Russian Soviet Federative Socialist Republic (RSFSR), although the rule of the highly cenralized Communist Party made the union merely nominal.30 The Treaty on the Creation of the USSR was signed in December 1922 by four founding republics, the RSFSR, Transcaucasian SFSR, Ukrainian SSR and Belorussian SSR. In 1924, during the national delimitation in Central Asia, the Uzbek and Turkmen SSRs were formed from parts of the RSFSR's Turkestan ASSR and two Soviet dependencies, the Khorezm and Bukharan SSR. In 1929 the Tajik SSR was split off from the Uzbek SSR. With the constitution of 1936 the constituents of the Transcaucasian SFSR, namely the Georgian, Armenian and Azerbaijan SSRs, were elevated to union republics, whereas the Kazakh and Kirghiz SSRs were split off from the RSFSR.61 In August 1940 the Soviet Union formed the Moldavian SSR from parts of the Ukrainian SSR and parts of Bessarabia annexed from Romania, as well as annexed the Baltic states as the Estonian, Latvian and Lithuanian SSRs. The Karelo-Finnish SSR was split off from the RSFSR in March 1940 and merged back in 1956. Between July 1956 and September 1991 there were 15 union republics (see the map below).62 In 16 November 1988, the Supreme Soviet of the Estonian SSR passed the Estonian Sovereignty Declaration that asserted Estonia's sovereignty and declared the supremacy of the Estonian laws over the laws of the Soviet Union.63 In March 1990 the newly-elected Supreme Soviet of the Lithuanian SSR declared independence, followed by the Georgian Supreme Soviet in April 1991. Although the symbolic right of the union republics to secede was nominally guaranteed by the constitution and the union treaty,30 the union authorities at first refused to recognize it. After the August coup attempt most of the other republics followed suit. The Soviet Union ultimately recognized the secession of Estonia, Latvia and Lithuania on 6 September 1991. The remaining republics were recognized as independent with the union's final dissolution in December 1991.64   Despite annexation of their territories by the Soviet Union, the governments-in-exile of the Baltic republics retained diplomatic recognition of most Western states until the restoration of their independence.65 # Republic Map of the Union Republics between 1956–1991 1 Russian SFSR 2 Ukrainian SSR 3 Belorussian SSR 4 Uzbek SSR 5 Kazakh SSR 6 Georgian SSR 7 Azerbaijan SSR 8 Lithuanian SSR 9 Moldavian SSR 10 Latvian SSR 11 Kirghiz SSR 12 Tajik SSR 13 Armenian SSR 14 Turkmen SSR 15 Estonian SSR Economy Main article: Economy of the Soviet Union The DneproGES, one of many hydroelectric power stations in the Soviet Union The Soviet Union became the first country that adopted a planned economy, whereby production and distribution of goods were to be centralized and directed by the government. The first Bolshevik experience with command economy was the policy of War Communism, involving nationalization of industry, centralized distribution of output, coercive requisition of agricultural production, and attempts to eliminate money circulation, as well as private enterprises and free trade. As it had aggravated a severe economic collapse caused by the war, in 1921 Lenin replaced War Communism with the New Economic Policy (NEP), legalizing free trade and private ownership of smaller businesses. The economy subsequently recovered fairly quickly.66 Following a lengthy debate among the members of Politburo over the course of economic development, by 1928–1929, upon gaining the upper hand in the power struggle, Joseph Stalin had abandoned the NEP and pushed for full central planning, starting forced collectivization of agriculture and enacting draconian labor legislation. The resources were mobilized for rapid industrialization, which greatly expanded Soviet capacity in heavy industry and capital goods during the 1930s.66 Preparation for war was one of the main driving forces behind industrialization, mostly due to distrust of the outside capitalistic world.67 As a result, the USSR was transformed from a largely agrarian economy into a great industrial power, and the basis was provided for its emergence as a superpower after recovering from World War II.68 During the war the Soviet economy and infrastructure suffered massive devastation and subsequently required extensive reconstruction.69 By the early 1940s, the Soviet economy had become relatively autarkic; for most of the period up until the creation of Comecon, only a very small share of domestic products were traded internationally.70 After the creation of the Eastern Bloc, external trade rose rapidly. Still the influence of the world economy on the USSR was limited by fixed domestic prices and state monopoly on the foreign trade.71 Grain and sophisticated consumer manufactures became major import articles from around 1960s.70 During the arms race of the Cold War the Soviet economy was burdened by military expenditures, heavily lobbied by the powerful bureaucracy dependent on the arms industry. At the same time the Soviet Union became the largest arms exporter to the Third World. Significant amounts of the Soviet resources during the Cold War were allocated in aid to the other socialist states.70

Since the 1930s and until its collapse in the late 1980s, the way the Soviet economy operated had remained essentially unchanged. The economy was formally directed by central planning, carried out by Gosplan and organized into five-year plans. In practice, however, the plans were highly aggregated and provisional, subject to ad hoc intervention by superiors. All key economic decisions were taken by the political leadership. Allocated resources and plan targets were normally denominated in rubles rather than in physical goods. Credits were discouraged, but widespread. Final allocation of output was achieved through relatively decentralized, unplanned contracting. Although in theory prices were legally set from above, in practice the actual prices were often negotiated, and informal horizontal links were widespread.66 Comparison between USSR and US economies (1989) according to 1990 CIA World Factbook72 USSR US GNP (PPP adjusted, 1989) US$2.6595 trillion US$5.2333 trillion Population (July 1990) 290,938,469 250,410,000 GNP per capita (PPP adjusted) US$9,211 US$21,082 Labour force (1989) 152,300,000 125,557,000 A number of basic services were state-funded, such as education and healthcare. In the manufacturing sector, heavy industry and defense were assigned higher priority than consumer goods production.73 Consumer goods, in particular outside large cities, were often in short supply, of poor quality and limited choice, as under command economy consumers' preferences wielded almost no influence over production, changing demands of the population with growing money incomes couldn't be matched by supplies at rigidly fixed prices.74 A massive unplanned second economy existed alongside the planned one at low levels, providing some of the goods and services that the planners could not. Legalization of some elements of the decentralized economy was attempted with the reform of 1965.66 Although statistics of the Soviet economy are notoriously unreliable and its economic growth is difficult to estimate precisely,7576 by most accounts the economy continued to expand until mid eighties. During 1950s and 1960s the Soviet economy performed with comparatively high growth rates and was catching up with the West.77 However, after 1970 the growth, while still positive, steadily declined, much more quickly and consistently than in other countries, despite a rapid increase in the capital stock, (the rate of increase in capital was only surpassed by Japan).66 Overall, between 1960 and 1989, the growth rate of per capita income in the Soviet Union was slightly above world average (based on 102 countries). However, given the very high level of investment in physical capital, high percentage of people with a secondary education, and the nation's low population growth the economy should have grown much faster. According to Stanley Fischer and William Easterly the Soviet growth record was among "the worst in the world". By their calculation per capita income of Soviet Union in 1989 should have been twice as high as it was, if investment, education and population had their typical effect on growth. The authors attribute this poor performance to low productivity of capital in the Soviet Union.78 In 1987 Mikhail Gorbachev pushed to reform the economy with his program of Perestroika in an attempt to revitalize it. His policies relaxed state control over enterprises, but hadn't yet allowed it to be replaced with market incentives, ultimately resulting in a sharp decline in production output. The economy, already suffering from reduced petroleum export revenues, started to collapse. Prices were still fixed, property was still largely state-owned until after the dissolution of the Soviet Union.6674 For the most of the period after World War II and up to its collapse, the Soviet economy was the second largest in the world by GDP (PPP),79 though in per capita terms the Soviet GDP was behind that of the First World countries.80 Energy A Soviet stamp depicting the 30th anniversary of the International Atomic Energy Agency Main article: Energy policy of the Soviet Union The need for fuel had declined in the Soviet Union for several years, both per rouble of gross social product and per rouble of industrial product. At the start, this decline grew very rapidly, but gradually slowed down between 1970 and 1975. From 1975 and 1980 it grew even slower, only 2.6 percent.81 David Wilson, a historian, believed that Soviet gas industry would account for 40 percent of Soviet fuel production by the end of the century. His theory did not come to fruition because of the USSR's collapse.82 The USSR, in theory, would have continued to have an economic growth rate of 2–2.5 percent during the 1990s because of Soviet energy fields.83 However, the Soviet energy sector faced many difficulties, among them the country's high military expenditure and hostile relations with the First World countries (pre-Gorbachev era).84 In 1991, the Soviet Union had a pipeline network of 82,000 kilometres (51,000 mi) for crude oil and another 206,500 kilometres (128,300 mi) for natural gas.85 Petroleum and petroleum-based products, natural gas, metals, wood, agricultural products, and a variety of manufactured goods, primarily machinery, arms and military equipment, were exported from the country.86 In the 1970s–80s, the Soviet Union heavily relied on fossil fuel exports to earn hard currency.70 At the peak level in 1988, it was the largest producer and second largest exporter of crude oil, surpassed only by Saudi Arabia.87 Science and technology Main article: Science and technology in the Soviet Union The Soviet Union placed great emphasis on science and technology within its economy,88 however the most remarkable Soviet successes in technology, such as producing the world's first space satellite, typically were responsibility of the military.73 Vladimir Lenin, and his successors, placed great emphasis on science, technology and innovations. Lenin held the belief that the USSR would never overtake the developed world if the Soviet Union remained as technological backward as it did. Since then, the Soviet authorities proved their commitment to Lenin's belief by developing massive networks, research and development organizations. By 1989, Soviet scientists were among the world's best-trained specialists in several areas, such as energy physics, selected areas of medicine, mathematics, welding and military technologies. Due to rigid state planning and bureaucracy, the Soviets were less successful in fields such as chemistry, biology, and computers and remained far behind technologically in these areas when compared to the First World. Transportation Main article: Transport in the Soviet Union The Soviet-era flag of Aeroflot Transport was a key component of the nation's economy. The economic centralisation of the late 1920s and 1930s led to the development of infrastructure in a massive scale, most notably the establishment of Aeroflot, an aviation enterprise.89 The country had a wide variety of modes of transport by land, water and air.85 However, due to bad maintenance, much of the road, water and Soviet civil aviation transport were outdated and technologically backward, when compared to the First World. Soviet rail transport was the largest and the most intensively used in the world;90 it was also better developed than most of its Western counterparts.91 By the late 1970s and early 1980s Soviet economist were calling for the construction of more roads to alleviate some of the weight from the railways and to improve the Soviet state budget.92 The road network, and automobile industry,93 of the Soviet Union remained underdeveloped,94 and dirt roads were common outside majors cities.95 Soviet maintenance projects were unable to take care of the few roads the country had. By the early to mid-1980s, the Soviet authorities tried to solve the road problem by ordering the construction of new ones.95 Another obstacle was that the automobile industry was growing at a faster rate than road construction.96 Despite improvements, several aspects of the transport sector were still riddled with problems due to outdated infrastructure, lack of investment, corruption and bad decision-making by the authorities. The demand for transport infrastructure and services was rising, the Soviet authorities proved to be unable to meet the growing demand of the people. The underdeveloped Soviet road network, in a chain reaction, led to a growing demand for public transport.97 The Soviet merchant fleet was one of the largest in the world.85 Demographics Main article: Demographics of the Soviet Union The population of the USSR (red) and the post-Soviet states (blue) from 1961 to 2009. The first fifty years of the 20th century in tsarist Russia and the Soviet Union were marked by a succession of disasters, each accompanied by large–scale population losses. Excess deaths over the course of World War I and the Russian Civil War (including the postwar famine) amounted to a combined total of 18 million,98 some 10 million in the 1930s,20 and more than 26 million in 1941–5. Since a high proportion of those killed during World War II were young men, the postwar Soviet population was 45 to 50 million smaller than post–1939 projections would have led one to expect.99 The crude birth rate of the USSR decreased from 44.0 per thousand in 1926 to 18.0 in 1974, largely due to increasing urbanization and the rising average age of marriages. The crude death rate demonstrated a gradual decrease as well – from 23.7 per thousand in 1926 to 8.7 in 1974. In general, the birth rates of the southern republics in Transcaucasia and Central Asia were considerably higher than those in the northern parts of the Soviet Union, and in some cases even increased in the post-World War II period, a phenomenon partly attributed to slower rates of urbanization and traditionally earlier marriages in the southern republics.100 The population of Soviet Europe moved towards sub-replacement fertility, while Soviet Central Asia's population continued to exhibit population growth well above replacement-level fertility.101 The late 1960s and the 1970s witnessed a reversal of the declining trajectory of the rate of mortality in the USSR, and was especially notable among men in working ages, but also prevalent in Russia and other predominantly Slavic areas of the country.102 An analysis of the official data from the late 1980s showed that after worsening in the late-1970s and the early 1980s, the situation for adult mortality began to improve again.103 The infant mortality rate in the USSR (IMR) had increased from 24.7 in 1970 to 27.9 in 1974. Some researchers regarded the rise in infant mortality as largely real, a consequence of worsening health conditions and services.104 The rise in adult and infant mortality were not explained or defended by Soviet officials, and the Soviet government simply stopped publishing all mortality statistics for ten years. Soviet demographers and health specialists remained silent about the mortality increases until the late-1980s when the publication of mortality data resumed and researchers could delve into the real causes.105 Education Main article: Education in the Soviet Union Soviet pupils on a visit to Milovice, Czechoslovakia in 1985.

Prior to 1917, education was not free, and either inaccessible or barely accessible for many children from lower-class working and peasant families. Estimates from 1917 recorded that 75–85 percent of the Russian population was illiterate. Anatoly Lunacharsky became the first People's Commissariat for Education of Soviet Russia. At the beginning, the Soviet authorities placed great emphasis on the elimination of illiteracy, therefore, people who were literate were automatically hired as teachers. For a short period of time, quality was sacrificed for quantity. In getting rid of illiteracy the Soviet authorities were successful, and by 1940 Joseph Stalin could announce that illiteracy had been eliminated. In the aftermath of the Great Patriotic War the country's educational system expanded dramatically. This expansion had a tremendous effect, in the 1960s nearly all Soviet children had access to education, the only exception being children living in remote areas. Nikita Khrushchev tried to improve education by making it more accessible and by making it clear to children that education was closely linked to the needs of society. Education also became an important feature when creating the New Soviet Man.106 Education was free for all in the Soviet Union. The accessibility for Soviet citizens to primary, secondary and technical education were about the same as the United States. The accessibility to higher education, however, differed greatly; in the Soviet Union about 20 percent of all applicants were accepted. Those who did not get accepted either started working or learned a skill at a vocational technical school or a technicum. While a Soviet citizen could not reapply after being rejected, just as in the US, US citizens can pay themselves into higher education. Statistics from 1986 clearly showed the effects of the US "pay policy", the number of students of the US and the USSR per 10,000 population was 517 and 181.107 Ethnic groups 1974 USSR geographic location of ethnicities The Soviet Union was a very ethnically diverse country, with more than 100 distinct ethnic groups within its borders. The total population was estimated at 293 million in 1991. As a 1990 estimate, the majority of the population were Russians (50.78%), followed by Ukrainians (15.45%) and Uzbeks (5.84%).108 All citizens of the USSR had their own ethnic affiliation. The ethnicity of a person was chosen at the age of sixteen.109 The ethnicity of a child were chosen by the child's parents, if the parents did not agree on what ethnicity the child was, the child automatically become the same ethnicity as his or her mother. Partly due to Soviet policies, some of the smaller minority ethnic groups were considered as part of larger ethnic groups, such as the Mingrelians of the Georgian SSR, who, linguistically related to the Georgians, were officially classified as Georgians.110 Some ethnicities voluntarily assimilated themselves into the USSR, others were brought in by force. Russians, Belarusians, and Ukrainians shared close cultural ties while other subjects of the empire did not. Due to multiple nationalities located in the same territory, national antagonisms developed over the years.111 Health Main article: Health care in the Soviet Union As with even the richest capitalist states, the Soviet Union's health care system was not able to fulfill all the health care needs of the people.112 In 1917, before the Bolshevik uprising, Russia's health conditions were centuries behind the developed countries. As Vladimir Lenin later noted, "Either the lice will defeat socialism, or socialism will defeat the lice".113 The Soviet principle of health care were conceived by the People's Commissariat for Health in 1918. Health care was to be controlled by the state, which in turn would provide health care for its citizens free of charge. Article 42 of the 1977 Soviet Constitution wrote that all citizens had the right to health protection and free access to any health institutions in the USSR. Before Leonid Brezhnev's consolidation of power, Soviet socialised medicine was held in high esteem by many foreign specialists. This changed however, from Brezhnev's consolidation of power and Mikhail Gorbachev's tenure as leader the Soviet health care system was heavily criticised for many of the system's basic fault; such as the quality of service and the unevenness in provision.114 Minister of Health Yevgeniy Chazov, during the 19th Congress of the Communist Party of the Soviet Union, while highlighting such Soviet success as having the most doctors and hospitals in the world, he recognised the system's deficiencies and felt that billions of Soviet rubles were squandered away.115 After the communist takeover of power the life expectancy for all age groups went up. The improvements in the Soviet life expectancy was used by authorities to "prove" that the socialist system was superior to the capitalist system. These improvements continued into the 1960s, when the life expectancy in the Soviet Union went beyond the life expectancy in the United States. The life expectancy in Soviet Union were fairly stable during most years, although in the 1970s went slightly down probably because of alcohol abuse. Most western sources put the blame on the growing alcohol abuse and poor health care, and this theory was also implicitly accepted by the Soviet authorities. At the same time infant mortality began to rise. After 1974 the government stopped publishing statistics on this. This trend can be partly explained by the number of pregnancies went drastically up in the Asian part of the country where infant mortality was highest, while the number of pregnancies was markedly down in the more developed European part of the Soviet Union.116 Language Main article: Languages of the Soviet Union In the country's early hay-days the Soviet government headed by Vladimir Lenin, small language groups received their own writing systems by the authorities.117 The developments of these writing system, were by contrast, very successful even if some flaws were detected. During the later lifespan of the USSR, countries with the same multilingual problem implemented similar policies. A serious problem to the Soviet authorities, when creating these writing systems, was that these languages differed dialectally greatly from each others.118 When a language had been given a writing system and appeared in a notable publication that language would attain an "official language" status. There were many minority languages who never received their own writing system, therefor these people were forced to have a second language.119 There are examples were the Soviet government retreated from this policy, most notable under Joseph Stalin's regime, were education in languages which were not widespread enough were discontinued. These languages were then assimilated to another language, which most of the times was Russian.120 During the Great Patriotic War (World War II) some minority languages were banned, these minority speakers had been accused of collaborating with the enemy.121 As the most widely-spoken of the Soviet Union's many languages, the Russian language de facto functioned as an official language as the "language of interethnic communication" (Russian: язык межнационального общения), but only assumed the de jure status of the official national language in 1990.122 Religion Main article: Religion in the Soviet Union Christianity and Islam had the greatest number of adherents among the Soviet state's religious citizens.123 Eastern Christianity predominated among Soviet Christians, with Russia's traditional Russian Orthodox Church as the Soviet Union's largest Christian denomination. About 90 percent of the Soviet Union's Muslims were adherents of Islam's Sunni branch, with Muslim Shiites concentrated in the Azerbaijani Soviet Socialist Republic.123 Smaller groups of religious believers included adherents of Roman Catholicism, Judaism, Buddhism, and a variety of Protestant sects.123 The Cathedral of Christ the Saviour in Moscow during its 1931 demolition. Religious influence had been strong in the Russian Empire, in which the Russian Orthodox Church enjoyed a privileged status as the church of the monarchy and took part in carrying out official state functions.124 The immediate period following the establishment of the Soviet state included a struggle against the Orthodox Church, which the revolutionaries considered an ally of the former ruling classes.125 In Soviet law, the "freedom to hold religious services" was constitutionally guaranteed in the Soviet Union, although the ruling Communist Party regarded religious views as incompatible with the Marxist spirit of scientific materialism.125 In practice, the Soviet system subscribed to a narrow interpretation of this right, and in fact utilized a range of official measures to discourage religion and curb the activity of religious groups.125 The 1918 Council of People's Commissars decree establishing the Russian Soviet Federative Socialist Republic (RSFSR) as a secular state also decreed that "the teaching of religion in all [places] where subjects of general instruction are taught, is forbidden. Citizens may teach and may be taught religion privately."126 Among further restrictions, those adopted in 1929, a half-decade into Stalin's rule, included express prohibitions on a range of church activities, including church meetings for organized Bible study.125 Both Christian and non-Christian establishments were closed down by the thousands in the 1920s and 1930s. By 1940, as many as 90 percent of the churches, synagogues, and mosques that had been operating in 1917 were closed.127 Convinced that religious anti-Sovietism had become a thing of the past, the Stalin regime began shifting to a more moderate religion policy in the late 1930s.128 Soviet religious establishments overwhelmingly rallied to support the war effort during the Soviet war with Nazi Germany. Amid other accommodations for religious faith, churches were reopened, Radio Moscow began broadcasting a religious hour, and a historic meeting between Stalin and Orthodox Church leader Patriarch Sergius I of Moscow was held in 1943.128 The general tendency of this period was an increase in religious activities among believers of all faiths.129 The Soviet establishment again clashed with the churches under General Secretary Nikita Khrushchev's leadership in 1958 – 1964 — a period when atheism was emphasized in the educational curriculum and numerous state publications promoted atheistic views.128 Over the Khrushchev period, the number of churches fell from 20,000 to 10,000 within the six-year period from 1959 to 1965, and the number of synagogues fell from 500 to 97.130 The number of working mosques also declined, falling from 1,500 to 500 within a decade.130

Religious institutions remained monitored by the Soviet government, but churches, synagogues, temples, and mosques were all given more leeway in the Brezhnev era.131 Official relations between the Orthodox Church and the Soviet government again warmed to the point that the Brezhnev government twice honored the Orthodox Patriarch Alexey II with Soviet decorations (including the Order of the Red Banner of Labor).128 A poll conducted by Soviet authorities in 1982 recorded 20 percent of the Soviet population as "active religious believers."132 Culture Main article: Culture of the Soviet Union The culture of the Soviet Union passed through several stages during the USSR's 70-year existence. During the first eleven years following the Revolution (1918–1929), there was relative freedom and artists experimented with several different styles in an effort to find a distinctive Soviet style of art. Lenin wanted art to be accessible to the Russian people. On the other hand, hundreds of intellectuals, writers, and artists were exiled or executed, and their work banned, for example Nikolai Gumilev (shot, conspired against the Bolshevik regime) and Yevgeny Zamyatin (banned).133 The government encouraged a variety of trends. In art and literature, numerous schools, some traditional and others radically experimental, proliferated. Communist writers Maksim Gorky and Vladimir Mayakovsky were active during this time. Film, as a means of influencing a largely illiterate society, received encouragement from the state; much of director Sergei Eisenstein's best work dates from this period. Later, during Joseph Stalin's rule, Soviet culture was characterised by the rise and domination of the government-imposed style of Socialist realism, with all other trends being severely repressed, with rare exceptions (e.g. Mikhail Bulgakov's works). Many writers were imprisoned and killed.134 Following the Khrushchev Thaw of the late 1950s and early 1960s, censorship was diminished. Greater experimentation in art forms became permissible once again, with the result that more sophisticated and subtly critical work began to be produced. The regime loosened its emphasis on socialist realism; thus, for instance, many protagonists of the novels of author Yury Trifonov concerned themselves with problems of daily life rather than with building socialism. An underground dissident literature, known as samizdat, developed during this late period. In architecture the Khrushchev era mostly focused on functional design as opposed to the highly decorated style of Stalin's epoch. In the second half of the 1980s, Gorbachev's policies of perestroika and glasnost significantly expanded freedom of expression in the media and press.135 See also Soviet Union portal Communism portal Index of Soviet Union-related articles v · d · e Soviet Union topics History Timeline · Russian Revolution · (February · October) · Russian Civil War · Russian SFSR · Treaty on the Creation of the USSR · New Economic Policy · Stalinism · Great Purge · Great Patriotic War · Cold War · Khrushchev Thaw · 1965 reform · Stagnation · Perestroika · Glasnost · Dissolution Politics Cabinets · Central Committee · Communist Party · Congress · Constitution · Elections · Foreign relations · General Secretary · Government · Law · Leaders · Politburo · Premier · President · Presidential Council · State Council · State Ideology · Supreme Court Geography Subdivisions · Ural Mountains · Siberia · European Russia · West Siberian Plain · Caucasus Mountains · Caspian Sea · North Caucasus Economy Agriculture · Central Bank · Communications · Corruption · Energy policy · Inventions · Soviet ruble · Transport Demographics Soviets · Languages · Religion · Crime · 1989 Census Culture Architecture · Literature · Ballet · Propaganda · Opera · Cinema · Music · Marxism-Leninism · Leninism · Soviet Internet  · Sports Symbols National flag · Other flags · Coat of arms · National anthem Category · Portal · WikiProject · Joseph Stalin · Era of Stagnation v · d · eRepublics of the Soviet Union Soviet Union Principal Armenian SSR · Azerbaijan SSR · Byelorussian SSR · Estonian SSR · Georgian SSR · Kazakh SSR · Kirghiz SSR · Latvian SSR · Lithuanian SSR · Moldavian SSR · Russian SFSR · Tajik SSR · Turkmen SSR · Ukrainian SSR · Uzbek SSR Short-lived Abkhazian SSR · Karelo-Finnish SSR · Transcaucasian SFSR v · d · e  Autonomous Republics of the Soviet Union Soviet Union Abkhaz ASSR (1930–1992) · Adjar ASSR (1921–1990) · Bashkir ASSR (1919–1990) · Buryat ASSR (1923–1990; Buryat–Mongol ASSR up to 1958) · Chechen-Ingush ASSR (1936–1944; 1957–1990) · Chuvash ASSR (1925–1990) · Crimean ASSR (1921–1945; 1991–1992) · Dagestan ASSR (1921–1991) · Gorno-Altai ASSR (1990–1991) · Kabardin ASSR (1944–1957) · Kabardino-Balkar ASSR (1936–1944; 1957–1991) · Kalmyk ASSR (1935–1943; 1958–1990) · Karachay-Cherkess ASSR (1990–1991) · Karakalpak ASSR (1932–1992) · Karelian ASSR (1923–1940; 1956–1991) · Kazakh ASSR (Kirghiz ASSR) (1920–1936) · Komi ASSR (1936–1990) · Mari ASSR (1936–1990) · Moldavian ASSR (1924–1940) · Mordovian ASSR (1934–1990) · Mountain ASSR (1920–1924) · Nakhchivan ASSR (1924–1990) · North Ossetian ASSR (1936–1990) · Tajik ASSR (1924–1929) · Tatar ASSR (1920–1990) · Turkestan ASSR (1918–1924) · Tuva ASSR (1961–1990) · Udmurt ASSR (1934–1991) · Volga German ASSR (1918–1941) · Yakut ASSR (1922–1990) v · d · e  Autonomous oblasts of the Soviet Union Soviet Union Adyghe AO · Chechen AO · Chehen–Ingush AO · Gorno-Altai AO · Gorno-Badakhshan AO · Jewish AO · Karachay-Cherkess AO · Khakas AO · Nagorno-Karabakh AO · South Ossetian AO · Tuvan AO v · d · eSocialism by country  History and variants History Brazil · Canada · France · India · Great Britain · Netherlands · New Zealand · United States Variants African · Arab · Chinese · Labor Zionism · Melanesian · with Chinese characteristics · in One Country  Communist states Africa Angola · Benin · Congo · Ethiopia · Mozambique · Somalia Asia Afghanistan · Azerbaijan · PR China · Kampuchea (1975–79) · Kampuchea (1979–1993) · Laos · Mongolia · North Korea · North Vietnam · South Vietnam · South Yemen (1967–1990) · South Yemen (1994) · Tuva · Vietnam Europe Albania · Bulgaria · Czechoslovakia · East Germany · Finland · Hungary · Poland · Pridnestrovian Republic · Romania · Soviet Union · Yugoslavia Latin America Cuba · Grenada v · d · eEastern Bloc Soviet Union · Communism Annexed as, or into, SSRs Eastern Finland · Estonia · Latvia · Lithuania · Memel · East Prussia · West Belarus · Western Ukraine · Moldavia Satellite states People's Republic of Hungary · People's Republic of Poland · Czechoslovak Socialist Republic · Romanian People's Republic/Socialist Republic of Romania · East Germany · People's Republic of Albania (to 1961) · People's Republic of Bulgaria · Federal People's Republic of Yugoslavia (to 1948) Annexing SSRs Russian SFSR · Ukrainian SSR · Byelorussian SSR Related organizations Cominform · COMECON · Warsaw Pact · WFTU · WFDY Revolts and opposition The Goryani Movement · Uprising in Plzeň (1953) · Uprising of 1953 in East Germany · 1956 Georgian demonstrations · Poznań 1956 protests · Hungarian Revolution of 1956 · Novocherkassk massacre · Prague Spring and Warsaw Pact invasion of Czechoslovakia · 1968 Red Square demonstration · Solidarity, Soviet reaction and Martial law · Reagan Doctrine · Jeltoqsan · April 9 tragedy · Romanian Revolution of 1989 · Black January Cold War events Marshall Plan · Berlin Blockade · Tito–Stalin split · Czechoslovak coup d'état of 1948 · Berlin Wall Crisis of 1961 Conditions Eastern Bloc emigration and defection · Eastern Bloc information dissemination · Eastern Bloc politics · Eastern Bloc economies · Telephone tapping in the Eastern Bloc · List of Eastern Bloc defectors Decline Revolutions of 1989 · Fall of the Berlin Wall  · Fall of communism in Albania · Singing Revolution · Collapse of the Soviet Union · Dissolution of Czechoslovakia · January 1991 events in Lithuania · January 1991 events in Latvia References Notes ^ Encyclopedia Britannica: Union of Soviet Socialist Republics ^ Bridget O'Laughlin (1975) Marxist Approaches in Anthropology Annual Review of Anthropology Vol. 4: pp. 341–70 (October 1975) (doi:10.1146/annurev.an.04.100175.002013). William Roseberry (1997) Marx and Anthropology Annual Review of Anthropology, Vol. 26: pp. 25–46 (October 1997) (doi:10.1146/annurev.anthro.26.1.25) ^ a b Robert Service. Stalin: A Biography. 2004. ISBN 978-0-330-41913-0 ^ Crile, George (2003). Charlie Wilson's War: The Extraordinary Story of the Largest Covert Operation in History. Atlantic Monthly Press. ISBN 0871138549.  ^ Mr. David Holloway (1996). Stalin and the Bomb. Yale University Press. p. 18. ISBN 978-0300066647. http://yalepress.yale.edu/book.asp?isbn=9780300066647.  ^ Turner 1987, p. 23 ^ Byrd, Peter (2003). "Cold War (entire chapter)". In McLean, Iain; McMillan, Alistair. The concise Oxford dictionary of politics. Oxford University Press. ISBN 0192802763. http://books.google.com/books?id=xLbEHQAACAAJ&ei=E45VSJrQO4e4jgGh_oWODA. Retrieved 2008-06-16.  ^ "Russia is now a party to any Treaties to which the former Soviet Union was a party, and enjoys the same rights and obligations as the former Soviet Union, except insofar as adjustments are necessarily required, e.g. to take account of the change in territorial extent. [...] The Russian federation continues the legal personality of the former Soviet Union and is thus not a successor State in the sense just mentioned. The other former Soviet Republics are successor States.", United Kingdom Materials on International Law 1993, BYIL 1993, pp. 579 (636). ^ a b [1] ^ "The Russian Civil War". Evan Mawdsley (2007). Pegasus Books. p.287. ISBN 1-933648-15-5 ^ Richard Sakwa The Rise and Fall of the Soviet Union, 1917–1991: 1917–1991. Routledge, 1999. ISBN 0-415-12290-2, 9780415122900. pp. 140–143. ^ Julian Towster. Political Power in the U.S.S.R., 1917–1947: The Theory and Structure of Government in the Soviet State Oxford Univ. Press, 1948. p. 106. ^ (Russian) Voted Unanimously for the Union. ^ (Russian) Creation of the USSR at Khronos.ru. ^ "70 Years of Gidroproekt and Hydroelectric Power in Russia". http://www.springerlink.com/content/h3677572g016338u/.  ^ (Russian) On GOELRO Plan — at Kuzbassenergo. ^ The consolidation into a single-party regime took place during the first three and a half 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. ^ Stéphane Courtois, Mark Kramer. Livre noir du Communisme: crimes, terreur, répression. Harvard University Press, 1999. p.206. ISBN 0-674-07608-7 ^ A Companion to Russian History. Abbott Gleason (2009). Wiley-Blackwell. p.373. ISBN 1-4051-3560-3 ^ a b Geoffrey A. Hosking (2001). "Russia and the Russians: a history". Harvard University Press. p.469. ISBN 0-674-00473-6 ^ (Russian) Mel'tiukhov, Mikhail. Upushchennyi shans Stalina: Sovietskii Soiuz i bor'ba za Evropu 1939–1941. Moscow: Veche, 2000. ISBN 5-7838-1196-3. ^ Denunciation of the neutrality pact 5 April 1945. (Avalon Project at Yale University) ^ Soviet Declaration of War on Japan, 8 August 1945. (Avalon Project at Yale University) ^ "Rulers and victims: the Russians in the Soviet Union". Geoffrey A. Hosking (2006). Harvard University Press. p.242. ISBN 0-674-02178-9 ^ "Main Intelligence Administration (GRU) Glavnoye Razvedovatel'noye Upravlenie – Russia / Soviet Intelligence Agencies". Fas.org. http://www.fas.org/irp/world/russia/gru/. Retrieved 2008-11-24.  ^ Kenneth S. Deffeyes, Beyond Oil: The View from Hubbert's Peak. ^ The red blues — Soviet politics by Brian Crozier, National Review, 25 June 1990. ^ Origins of Moral-Ethical Crisis and Ways to Overcome it by V.A.Drozhin Honoured Lawyer of Russia. ^ Country Profile: Russia Foreign & Commonwealth Office of the United Kingdom. ^ a b c Sakwa, Richard. Soviet Politics in Perspective. 2nd ed. London – N.Y.: Routledge, 1998. ^ Law, David A. (1975). Russian Civilization. Ardent Media. pp. 193–94. ISBN 0842205292. http://books.google.com/books?id=f3ky9qBavl4C&dq.  ^ Zemtsov, Ilya (1989). Chernenko: the last Bolshevik : the Soviet Union on the eve of Perestroika. Transaction Publishers. pp. 325. ISBN 0887382606. http://books.google.com/books?id=hgscfLr5dCsC&dq.  ^ Knight, Amy (1995). Beria: Stalin's First Lieutenant. Princeton University Press. pp. 5. ISBN 0691010935. http://books.google.com/books?id=PxiuUGRQhUIC&dq.  ^ Hough, Jerry F.; Fainsod, Merle (1979). How the Soviet Union is governed. Harvard University Press. pp. 486. ISBN 0674410300. http://books.google.com/books?id=38gMzMRXCpQC&dq.  ^ Service, Robert (2009). History of Modern Russia: From Tsarism to the Twenty-first Century. Penguin Books Ltd. p. 378. ISBN 0141037970. http://books.google.com/books?id=o8Z1QAAACAAJ&dq.  ^ Конститутион оф тхе Руссиян Федератион: витх комментариес анд интерпретатион. Brunswick Publishing Corp. 1994. p. 82. ISBN 1556181426. http://books.google.com/books?id=3mQjvzP8VSYC&dq.  ^ Ōgushi, Atsushi (2008). The demise of the Soviet Communist Party. Routledge. pp. 31–32. ISBN 0415434394. http://books.google.com/books?id=N7mDUC1nOZsC&dq.  ^ Taras, Ray (1989). Leadership change in Communist states. Routledge. p. 132. ISBN 0044452772. http://books.google.com/books?id=AlcVAAAAIAAJ&dq.  ^ F. Triska, Jan; Slusser, Robert M. (1962). The theory, law, and policy of Soviet treaties. Stanford University Press. pp. 63–4. ISBN 0804701229. http://books.google.com/books?id=QmWmAAAAIAAJ&dq.  ^ Deb, Kalipada (1996). Soviet Union to Commonwealth: transformation and challenges. M.D. Publications Pvt. Ltd. pp. 81. ISBN 8185880956. http://books.google.com/books?id=IvK6r-8Ogg0C&dq.  ^ a b Benson, Shirley (2001). Nikita Khrushchev and the Creation of a Superpower. Penn State University Press. pp. XIV. ISBN 0271021705. http://books.google.com/books?id=dQeahlZdM7sC&dq.  ^ The Communist World. Ardent Media. 2001. pp. 441. ISBN 0271021705. http://books.google.com/books?id=h9FFVgu-Ff0C&dq.  ^ Joseph Marie Feldbrugge, Ferdinand (1993). Russian law: the end of the Soviet system and the role of law. Martinus Nijhoff Publishers. pp. 205. ISBN 0792323580. http://books.google.com/books?id=JWt7MN3Dch8C&dq.  ^ White, Stephen; J. Gill, Graeme; Slider, Darrell (1993). The politics of transition: shaping a post-Soviet future. Cambridge University Press. pp. 108. 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ISBN 0435327194. http://books.google.com/books?id=_na0zfdhKQMC&dq.  ^ Encyclopædia Britannica (2005). Union of Soviet Socialist Republics. Encyclopædia Britannica, Inc.. p. 1014.  ^ Service, Robert (2009). History of Modern Russia: From Tsarism to the Twenty-first Century. Penguin Books Ltd. p. 379. ISBN 0141037970. http://books.google.com/books?id=o8Z1QAAACAAJ&dq.  ^ a b Khrushchev, Nikita (2007). Memoirs of Nikita Khrushchev, Volume 3: Statesman. Pennsylvania State University Press. p. 674. ISBN 9780271029351.  ^ Polley, Martin (2000). A-Z of modern Europe since 1789. Routledge. p. 88. ISBN 0415185971. http://books.google.com/books?id=_f8Avd5N5Y4C&dq.  ^ "Gorbachev's Reform Dilemma". Library of Congress Country Studies. http://countrystudies.us/russia/18.htm. Retrieved 16 October 2010.  ^ Polmar, Norman (1991). The Naval Institute guide to the Soviet. United States Naval Institute. p. 1. ISBN 0870212419. http://books.google.ca/books?id=tkGDkpkQh-sC&dq.  ^ McCauley, Martin (2007). 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ISBN 1583406069. http://books.google.com/books?id=LyqIDCc-cSsC&dq.  ^ Feldbrugge, Ferdinand Joseph Maria (1993). Russian law: the end of the Soviet system and the role of law. Martinus Nijhoff Publishers. p. 94. ISBN 0792323580. http://books.google.com/books?id=JWt7MN3Dch8C&dq.  ^ Walker, Edward (2003). Dissolution. Rowman & Littlefield. p. 63. ISBN 0742524531. http://books.google.com/books?id=Y06eqVKtfQgC&pg=PA63&dq.  ^ Hughes, James; Sasse, Gwendolyn (2002). Ethnicity and territory in the former Soviet Union: regions in conflict. Routledge. pp. 63 and 146. ISBN 0714652261. http://books.google.com/books?id=7vjb-0eZ-wcC&dq.  ^ Notes: "The Occupation of Latvia: Aspects of History and International Law". Ministry of Foreign Affairs of the Republic of Latvia. http://www.am.gov.lv/en/latvia/history/occupation-aspects. Retrieved 16 October 2010.  "U.S.-Baltic Relations: Celebrating 85 Years of Friendship". 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The Seeming Paradox of Increasing Mortality in a Highly Industrialized Nation: the Example of the Soviet Union. pp. 155–77.  ^ Comrie 1981, p. 3–4. ^ Comrie 1981, p. 4. ^ Comrie 1981, p. 25. ^ Comrie 1981, p. 26. ^ Comrie 1981, p. 27. ^ "ЗАКОН СССР ОТ 24.04.1990 О ЯЗЫКАХ НАРОДОВ СССР [Law of the USSR from 24.04.1990 On languages of the USSR]" (in Russian). Government of the Soviet Union. 24 April 1990. http://legal-ussr.narod.ru/data01/tex10935.htm. Retrieved 24 October 2010.  ^ a b c Eaton, Katherine Bliss (2004). Daily life in the Soviet Union. Greenwood Publishing Group. pp. 285 and 286. ISBN 0313316287. http://books.google.com/books?id=VVFuYN8TS5AC&dq.  ^ Simkin, Lev (2003). "Church and State in Russia". In Silvio Ferrari & W. Cole Durham (Eds.), Law and Religion in Post-Communist Europe. Peeters Publishers, 2003. pp. 261–280. ISBN 9042912626. ^ a b c d Simon 1974, pp. 64–65. ^ Simon 1974, p. 209. ^ Atwood, Craig D. (2001). Always Reforming: A History of Christianity Since 1300. Macon, Georgia: Mercer University Press. p. 311. ISBN 0865546797. http://books.google.com/books?id=72Ulz0fpr4cC.  ^ a b c d Janz 1998, pp. 38–39. ^ Ro'i, Yaacov (1995). Jews and Jewish Life in Russia and the Soviet Union. London: Frank Cass. p. 263. ISBN 0714646199. http://books.google.com/books?id=bJBH5pxzSyMC.  ^ a b Nahaylo, Bohdan & Victor Swoboda (1990). Soviet Disunion: A history of the nationalities problem in the USSR. London: Hamish Hamilton. p. 144. ISBN 0029224012. http://books.google.com/books?id=ZrG7vrPue4wC.  ^ Steinberg, Mark D. & Catherine Wanner (2008). Religion, morality, and community in post-Soviet societies. Bloomington, Indiana: Indiana University Press. p. 6. ISBN 0253220386. ^ McKay, George; Williams, Christopher (2009). Subcultures and new religious movements in Russia and East-Central Europe. Peter Lang. pp. 231–32. ISBN 3039119214. http://books.google.com/books?id=xpNBm-z7aOYC&dq.  ^ 'On the other hand...' See the index of Stalin and His Hangmen by Donald Rayfield, 2004, Random House ^ Rayfield 2004, pp. 317–320. ^ "Gorbachev, Mikhail." Encyclopædia Britannica. 2007. Encyclopædia Britannica Online. 2 October 2007 <http://www.britannica.com/eb/article-9037405>. "Under his new policy of glasnost (“openness”), a major cultural thaw took place: freedoms of expression and of information were significantly expanded; the press and broadcasting were allowed unprecedented candour in their reportage and criticism; and the country's legacy of Stalinist totalitarian rule was eventually completely repudiated by the government." Bibliography Ambler, John; Shaw, Denis J.B.; Symons, Leslie (1985). Soviet and East European transport problems. Taylor & Francis. pp. 260. ISBN 0709905572. http://books.google.no/books?id=Rpg9AAAAIAAJ&dq.  Comrie, Bernard (1981). The languages of the Soviet Union. Cambridge University Press (CUP) Archive. pp. 317. ISBN 0709905572. http://books.google.com/books?id=QTU7AAAAIAAJ&dq.  Janz, Denis (1998). World Christianity and Marxism. New York: Oxford University Press. ISBN 0195119444. http://books.google.com/books?id=EUVwrcnXwBsC.  Lane, David Stuart (1992). Soviet society under perestroika. Routledge. pp. 441. ISBN 0415076005. http://books.google.com/books?id=rcXafOqyxgQC&dq.  Rayfield, Donald (2004). Stalin and His Hangmen: An Authoritative Portrait of a Tyrant and Those Who Served Him. Viking Press. pp. 528. ISBN 0-670-91088-0.  Simon, Gerard (1974). Church, state, and opposition in the U.S.S.R.. Berkeley and Los Angeles: University of California Press. ISBN 0520026128. http://books.google.com/books?id=sTLc8H3b4vUC. </ref> Wilson, David (1983). The demand for energy in the Soviet Union. Taylor & Francis. pp. 201. ISBN 0709927045. http://books.google.no/books?id=1qgOAAAAQAAJ&dq.  World Bank and OECD (1991). A Study of the Soviet economy. 3. International Monetary Fund. pp. 408. ISBN 9264134689. http://books.google.com/books?id=fiDpE5M9jRAC&dq.  Further reading See also: List of primary and secondary sources on the Cold War Surveys A Country Study: Soviet Union (Former). Library of Congress Country Studies, 1991. 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). Grant, Ted: Russia, from Revolution to Counter-Revolution, London, Well Red Publications,1997 Howe, G. Melvyn: The Soviet Union: A Geographical Survey 2nd. edn. (Estover, UK: MacDonald and Evans, 1983). Pipes, Richard. Communism: A History (2003), by a leading conservative scholar Lenin and Leninism Clark, Ronald W. Lenin (1988). 570 pp. Debo, Richard K. Survival and Consolidation: The Foreign Policy of Soviet Russia, 1918–1921 (1992). Marples, David R. Lenin's Revolution: Russia, 1917–1921 (2000) 156pp. short survey Pipes, Richard. A Concise History of the Russian Revolution (1996) excerpt and text search, by a leading conservative Pipes, Richard. Russia under the Bolshevik Regime. (1994). 608 pp. Service, Robert. Lenin: A Biography (2002), 561pp; standard scholarly biography; a short version of his 3 vol detailed biography Volkogonov, Dmitri. Lenin: Life and Legacy (1994). 600 pp. Stalin and Stalinism Daniels, R. V., ed. The Stalin Revolution (1965) Davies, Sarah, and James Harris, eds. Stalin: A New History, (2006), 310pp, 14 specialized essays by scholars excerpt and text search De Jonge, Alex. Stalin and the Shaping of the Soviet Union (1986) Fitzpatrick, Sheila, ed. Stalinism: New Directions, (1999), 396pp excerpts from many scholars on the impact of Stalinism on the people (little on Stalin himself) online edition Hoffmann, David L. ed. Stalinism: The Essential Readings, (2002) essays by 12 scholars Laqueur, Walter. Stalin: The Glasnost Revelations (1990) Kershaw, Ian, and Moshe Lewin. Stalinism and Nazism: Dictatorships in Comparison (2004) excerpt and text search Lee, Stephen J. Stalin and the Soviet Union (1999) online edition Lewis, Jonathan. Stalin: A Time for Judgement (1990) McNeal, Robert H. Stalin: Man and Ruler (1988) Martens , Ludo. Another view of Stalin (1994), a highly favorable view from a Maoist historian Service, Robert. Stalin: A Biography (2004), along with Tucker the standard biography Trotsky, Leon. Stalin: An Appraisal of the Man and His Influence, (1967), an interpretation by Stalin's worst enemy Tucker, Robert C. Stalin as Revolutionary, 1879–1929 (1973); Stalin in Power: The Revolution from Above, 1929–1941. (1990) online edition with Service, a standard biography; online at ACLS e-books World War II Bellamy, Chris. Absolute War: Soviet Russia in the Second World War (2008), 880pp excerpt and text search Broekmeyer, Marius. Stalin, the Russians, and Their War, 1941–1945. 2004. 315 pp. Overy, Richard. Russia's War: A History of the Soviet Effort: 1941–1945 (1998) excerpt and text search Roberts, Geoffrey. Stalin's Wars: From World War to Cold War, 1939–1953 (2006). Seaton, Albert. Stalin as Military Commander, (1998) online edition Cold war Brzezinski, Zbigniew. The Grand Failure: The Birth and Death of Communism in the Twentieth Century (1989) Edmonds, Robin. Soviet Foreign Policy: The Brezhnev Years (1983) Goncharov, Sergei, John Lewis and Litai Xue, Uncertain Partners: Stalin, Mao and the Korean War (1993) excerpt and text search Gorlizki, Yoram, and Oleg Khlevniuk. Cold Peace: Stalin and the Soviet Ruling Circle, 1945–1953 (2004) online edition Holloway, David. Stalin and the Bomb: The Soviet Union and Atomic Energy, 1939–1956 (1996) excerpt and text search Mastny, Vojtech. Russia's Road to the Cold War: Diplomacy, Warfare, and the Politics of Communism, 1941–1945 (1979) Mastny, Vojtech. The Cold War and Soviet Insecurity: The Stalin Years (1998) excerpt and text search; online complete edition Nation, R. Craig. Black Earth, Red Star: A History of Soviet Security Policy, 1917–1991 (1992) Sivachev, Nikolai and Nikolai Yakolev, Russia and the United States (1979), by Soviet historians Taubman, William. Khrushchev: The Man and His Era (2004), Pulitzer Prize; excerpt and text search Ulam, Adam B. Expansion and Coexistence: Soviet Foreign Policy, 1917–1973, 2nd ed. (1974) Zubok, Vladislav M. Inside the Kremlin's Cold War (1996) 20% excerpt and online search Zubok, Vladislav M. A Failed Empire: The Soviet Union in the Cold War from Stalin to Gorbachev (2007) Collapse Beschloss, Michael, and Strobe Talbott. At the Highest Levels:The Inside Story of the End of the Cold War (1993) Bialer, Seweryn and Michael Mandelbaum, eds. Gorbachev's Russia and American Foreign Policy (1988). Garthoff, Raymond. The Great Transition: American-Soviet Relations and the End of the Cold War (1994), detailed narrative Grachev, A.S. Gorbachev's Gamble: Soviet Foreign Policy and the End of the Cold War (2008) excerpt and text search Hogan, Michael ed. The End of the Cold War. Its Meaning and Implications (1992) articles from Diplomatic History Kotkin, Stephen. Armageddon Averted: The Soviet Collapse, 1970–2000 (2008) excerpt and text search Matlock, Jack. Autopsy on an Empire: The American Ambassador's Account of the Collapse of the Soviet Union (1995) Pons, S., Romero, F., Reinterpreting the End of the Cold War: Issues, Interpretations, Periodizations, (2005) ISBN 0-7146-5695-X Remnick, David. Lenin's Tomb: The Last Days of the Soviet Empire, (1994), ISBN 0-679-75125-4 Specialty studies Armstrong, John A. The Politics of Totalitarianism: The Communist Party of the Soviet Union from 1934 to the Present. New York: Random House, 1961. 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. Dmitry Orlov, Reinventing Collapse, New Society Books, 2008, ISBN 978-0-86571-606-3 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.

 This article incorporates public domain material from websites or documents of the Library of Congress Country Studies. External links Find more about Soviet Union on Wikipedia's sister projects: Definitions from Wiktionary Images and media from Commons Learning resources from Wikiversity News stories from Wikinews Quotations from Wikiquote Source texts from Wikisource Textbooks from Wikibooks Impressions of Soviet Russia, by John Dewey. Documents and other forms of media from the Soviet Union: 1917–1991. A Country Study: Soviet Union (Former) Soviet Union Exhibit at Global Museum on Communism with essay by Richard Pipes The Soviet Union

 This article incorporates public domain material from websites or documents of the Library of Congress Country Studies. External links Find more about Soviet Union on Wikipedia's sister projects: Definitions from Wiktionary Images and media from Commons Learning resources from Wikiversity News stories from Wikinews Quotations from Wikiquote Source texts from Wikisource Textbooks from Wikibooks Impressions of Soviet Russia, by John Dewey. Documents and other forms of media from the Soviet Union: 1917–1991. A Country Study: Soviet Union (Former) Soviet Union Exhibit at Global Museum on Communism with essay by Richard Pipes The Soviet Union

 This article incorporates public domain material from websites or documents of the Library of Congress Country Studies. External links Find more about Soviet Union on Wikipedia's sister projects: Definitions from Wiktionary Images and media from Commons Learning resources from Wikiversity News stories from Wikinews Quotations from Wikiquote Source texts from Wikisource Textbooks from Wikibooks Impressions of Soviet Russia, by John Dewey. Documents and other forms of media from the Soviet Union: 1917–1991. A Country Study: Soviet Union (Former) Soviet Union Exhibit at Global Museum on Communism with essay by Richard Pipes The Soviet Union