| "Soviet" redirects here. For other uses, see Soviet (disambiguation).
Soviet Union (1922-1991) was a short name
for The Union of Soviet Socialist Republics (USSR) .(Russian: Сою́з
Сове́тских
Социалисти́ческих
Респу́блик (СССР); tr.: Soyuz Sovetskikh
Sotsialisticheskikh Respublik (SSSR)), also called the Soviet Union
(Сове́тский Сою́з; tr.: Sovetsky
Soyuz), was a state in much of the northern region of Eurasia that existed from
1922 until its dissolution in 1991. Its formation was
the culmination of the 1917 Russian Revolution, which overthrew Tsar Nicholas II. It was the world's first Communist state, with the political organization of the country defined by
the only permitted political party, the Communist Party of the Soviet Union. The territory of the Soviet Union varied, and in
its most recent times approximately corresponded to that of the late Imperial Russia, with notable exclusions of Poland and Finland.
Союз Советских
Социалистических
Республик
Soyuz Sovetskikh Sotsialisticheskikh Respublik
listenfile
|
|
State motto:
Пролетарии всех
стран, соединяйтесь!
(transliteration:
Proletarii vsekh stran, soedinyaytes'!)
(Russian: Workers of the world, unite!) |
 |
| Official language |
None; Russian de
facto |
| Capital |
Moscow |
Area
- Total
- % water |
1st before collapse
22,402,200 km²
?% |
Population
- Total
- Density |
3rd before collapse
293,047,571 (July 1991)
13.08/km2 (July 1991) |
Establishment
- Declared
- Recognised |
December 30, 1922
February 1, 1924 |
| Dissolution |
December 26, 1991 |
| Currency |
Ruble |
| Time zone |
UTC +3 to +11 |
National anthems
|
The Internationale (1922-1944)
Hymn of the Soviet Union (1944-1991) |
| Internet TLD |
.su |
| edit (http://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Template:Soviet_Union_infobox&action=edit) |
History
Main article: History of the Soviet
Union.
The Soviet Union was roughly coterminous with the Russian Empire, whose last monarch, Tsar Nicholas II, ruled until 1917. The Soviet Union was established in December 1922 as
the union of the Russian, Ukrainian, Belorussian, and Transcaucasian Soviet republics ruled by Bolshevik parties.
Revolutionary activity in Russia began with the Decembrist
Revolt, uncovered in 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 Duma, was established in 1906, but political and social unrest continued and was
aggravated during World War I by military defeat and food shortages.
A spontaneous popular uprising in Petrograd, in response to the wartime decay
of Russia's physical well-being and morale, culminated in the toppling of the imperial government in March 1917 (see
February Revolution). The autocracy was replaced by the
Provisional Government,
whose leaders intended to establish democracy in Russia and to continue participating on the side of the Allies in World War I. At the same time, to ensure the rights of the working class, workers'
councils, known as soviets, sprang up across the country. The
radical Bolsheviks, led by Vladimir Lenin, agitated for socialist
revolution in the soviets and on the streets. They seized power from the Provisional Government in November 1917 (see
October Revolution). Only after the long and bloody Russian Civil War of (1918-1921), which included combat between government forces and foreign troops in several parts of
Russia, was the new communist regime secure. In a related conflict, the "Peace of Riga" in early 1921 split disputed territory in Belorussia and Ukraine between Poland and Soviet Russia.
From its first years, government in the Soviet Union was based on the one-party rule of the communists, as the Bolsheviks
called themselves beginning in March 1918. After the extraordinary economic policy of war communism during the Civil War the Soviet government permitted some private enterprise to coexist with
nationalized industry in the 1920s and total food requisition countryside was replaced by
food tax (see New Economic Policy). Debate over the
future of the economy provided the background for Soviet leaders to contend for power in the years after Lenin's death in
1924. By gradually consolidating his influence and isolating his rivals within the party,
notably Lenin's more obvious heir Leon Trotsky, Joseph Stalin became the sole leader of the Soviet Union by the end of the
1920s.
In 1928 Stalin introduced the First Five-Year Plan for building a socialist economy. In industry the state assumed control over all existing
enterprises and undertook an intensive program of industrialization; in agriculture the state appropriated the peasants' property
to establish collective farms (see Collectivization in the USSR). The Soviet Union became a major industrial power; but the
plan's implementation produced widespread misery for some segments of the population. Collectivization met widespread resistance
from the kulaks, resulting in a bitter struggle of many peasants against the authorities,
famine, and possibly millions of casualties, particularly in the Ukraine. Social
upheaval continued in the mid-1930s, when Stalin began a purge of the party (see
Great Purges); out of this process grew a campaign of terror that led to
the execution or imprisonment of untold millions from all walks of life (see Gulag). Yet despite this turmoil, the Soviet Union developed a powerful industrial economy in the years before
World War II.
Although Stalin tried to avert war with Germany by concluding the Nazi-Soviet Nonaggression Pact in 1939, in 1941 Germany invaded the Soviet Union. The Red
Army stopped the Nazi offensive at the Battle of Stalingrad in 1943
and drove through Eastern Europe to Berlin before Germany surrendered in 1945 (see Great Patriotic War). Although ravaged by the war, the Soviet
Union emerged from the conflict as an acknowledged great power.
During the immediate postwar period, the Soviet Union first rebuilt and then expanded its economy, with control always exerted
exclusively from Moscow. The Soviet Union consolidated its hold on Eastern Europe, supplied aid to the eventually victorious
communists in the People's Republic of China,
and sought to expand its influence elsewhere in the world. This active foreign policy helped bring about the Cold War, which
turned the Soviet Union's wartime allies, the United Kingdom and the
United States, into foes (see Cold War). Within the Soviet Union, repressive measures continued in force; Stalin apparently was about to launch
a new purge when he died in 1953.
In the absence of an acceptable successor, Stalin's closest associates opted to rule the Soviet Union jointly, although a
struggle for power took place behind the facade of collective leadership. Nikita Khrushchev, who won the power struggle by the mid-1950s, denounced Stalin's use of terror and
eased repressive controls over party and society (see de-Stalinization). Khrushchev's reforms in agriculture and administration, however,
were generally unproductive, and foreign policy toward China and the United States suffered reverses. Khrushchev's colleagues in
the leadership removed him from power in 1964.
Following the ouster of Khrushchev, another period of rule by collective leadership ensued, lasting until Leonid Brezhnev established himself in the early 1970s as the preeminent
figure in Soviet political life. Brezhnev presided over a period of détente with the West while at the same time building up Soviet military strength; the arms
buildup contributed to the demise of détente in the late 1970s. Another contributing factor was the Soviet invasion of Afghanistan in December
1979.
After some experimentation with economic reforms in the mid-1960s, the Soviet
leadership reverted to established means of economic management. Industry showed slow but steady gains during the 1970s, while agricultural development continued to lag. In contrast to the revolutionary spirit
that accompanied the birth of the Soviet Union, the prevailing mood of the Soviet leadership at the time of Brezhnev's death in
1982 was one of aversion to change.
Two developments dominated the decade that followed: the increasingly apparent crumbling of the Soviet Union's economic and
political structures, and the patchwork attempts at reforms to reverse that process. After the rapid succession of Yuri Andropov and Konstantin Chernenko, transitional figures with deep roots in Brezhnevite tradition, the energetic
Mikhail Gorbachev made significant changes in the economy and the
party leadership. His policy of glasnost freed public access to information
after decades of government repression. But Gorbachev failed to address the fundamental flaws of the Soviet system; by 1991, when a plot by government insiders revealed the weakness of Gorbachev's political position,
the end of the Soviet Union was in sight.
On December 25, 1991, Gorbachev resigned as president of the USSR and
turned the powers of his office over to Boris Yeltsin. The next day, the
Soviet Union was officially dissolved and by the end of the year all official Soviet institutions had ceased operations.
Politics
Main article: Politics of the Soviet
Union
The government of the Soviet Union administered the country's economy and society. It implemented decisions made by the
leading political institution in the country, the Communist Party of the Soviet Union (CPSU).
In the late 1980s, the government appeared to have many characteristics in common with
Western, democratic political systems. For instance, a constitution established all organs of government and granted to citizens
a series of political and civic rights. A legislative body, the Congress of People's Deputies, and its standing legislature, the Supreme Soviet, represented the principle of popular sovereignty. The Supreme
Soviet, which had an elected chairman who functioned as head of state, oversaw the Council of Ministers, which acted as the
executive branch of the government. The chairman of the Council of Ministers, whose selection was approved by the legislative
branch, functioned as head of government. A constitutionally based judicial branch of government included a court system, headed
by the Supreme Court, that was responsible for overseeing the observance of Soviet law by government bodies. According to the
1977 Soviet Constitution, the government had a
federal structure, permitting the republics some authority over policy implementation and offering the national minorities the appearance of participation in the management
of their own affairs
In practice, however, the government differed markedly from Western systems. In the late 1980s, the CPSU performed many
functions that governments of other countries usually perform. For example, the party decided on the policy alternatives that the
government ultimately implemented. The government merely ratified the party's decisions to lend them an aura of legitimacy. The
CPSU used a variety of mechanisms to ensure that the government adhered to its policies. The party, using its nomenklatura authority, placed its loyalists in leadership positions throughout
the government, where they were subject to the norms of democratic centralism. Party bodies closely monitored the actions of government ministries, agencies,
and legislative organs.
The content of the Soviet Constitution differed in many ways from typical Western constitutions. It generally described
existing political relationships, as determined by the CPSU, rather than prescribing an ideal set of political relationships. The
Constitution was long and detailed, giving technical specifications for individual organs of government. The Constitution
included political statements, such as foreign policy goals, and provided a theoretical definition of the state within the
ideological framework of Marxism-Leninism. The CPSU could radically
change the constitution or remake it completely, as it has done several times in the past.
The Council of Ministers acted as the executive body of the government. Its most important duties lay in the administration of
the economy. The council was thoroughly under the control of the CPSU, and its chairman - the Soviet prime minister--was always a member of the
Politburo. The
council, which in 1989 included more than 100 members, is too large and unwieldy to act as a unified executive body. The
council's Presidium, made up of the
leading economic administrators and led by the chairman, exercised dominant power within the Council of Ministers.
According to the Constitution, as amended in 1988, the highest legislative body in the Soviet Union was the Congress of
People's Deputies, which convened for the first time in May 1989. The main tasks of the congress were the election of the
standing legislature, the Supreme Soviet, and the election of the chairman of the Supreme Soviet, who acted as head of state.
Theoretically, the Congress of People's Deputies and the Supreme Soviet wielded enormous legislative power. In practice, however,
the Congress of People's Deputies met only a few days in 1989 to approve decisions made by the party, the Council of Ministers,
and its own Supreme Soviet. The Supreme Soviet, the Presidium of the Supreme Soviet, the chairman of the Supreme Soviet, and the
Council of Ministers had substantial authority to enact laws, decrees, resolutions, and orders binding on the population. The
Congress of People's Deputies had the authority to ratify these decisions.
The judiciary was not independent. The Supreme Court supervised the lower courts and applied the law, as established by the
Constitution or as interpreted by the Supreme Soviet. The Constitutional Oversight Committee reviewed the constitutionality of
laws and acts. The Soviet Union lacked an adversary court procedure. Under Soviet law, which derived from Roman law, a procurator
worked together with a judge and a defense attorney to ensure that civil and criminal trials uncovered the truth of the case,
rather than having advocates for and against the accused.
The Soviet Union was a federal state made up of fifteen republics joined together in a theoretically voluntary union. In turn,
a series of territorial units made up the republics. The republics also contained jurisdictions intended to protect the interests
of national minorities. The republics had their own constitutions, which, along with the all-union Constitution, provide the
theoretical division of power in the Soviet Union. In 1989, however, the CPSU and the central government retained all significant
authority, setting policies that were executed by republic, provincial, oblast, and district governments.
Foreign relations
Main article: Foreign
relations of the Soviet Union
Once a pariah denied diplomatic recognition by most countries, the Soviet Union had official relations with the majority of
the nations of the world by the late 1980s. The Soviet Union also had progressed from being an outsider in international
organizations and negotiations to being one of the arbiters of Europe's fate after World War II. A member of the United Nations at its foundation in 1945, the Soviet Union became one of the
five permanent members of the UN Security Council which gave
it the right to veto any of its resolutions (see Soviet Union and the United
Nations).
The USSR emerged as one of the two major world powers, a position maintained for four decades through its hegemony in Eastern
Europe (see Warsaw Pact), military strength, aid to developing
countries, and scientific research, especially into space technology and weaponry. The Soviet Union's effort to extend its
influence or control over many states and peoples resulted in the formation of a world socialist system of states.
In the 1970s, after the Soviet Union achieved rough nuclear parity with the United States, it perceived its own involvement as
essential to the solution of any major international problem. Meanwhile, the Cold War gave way to Détente and a more complicated pattern of
international relations in which the world was no longer clearly split into two clearly opposed blocs. Less powerful countries
had more room to assert their independence, and the two superpowers were partially able to recognize their common interest in
trying to check the further spread and proliferation of nuclear weapons (see SALT
I, SALT II, Anti-Ballistic Missile Treaty).
Since the early 1970s, the Soviet Union concluded friendship and cooperation treaties with a number of states in the
noncommunist world, especially among Third World and Non-Aligned Movement states. For all these reasons, Soviet foreign
policy is of major importance to the noncommunist world and helped determine the tenor of international relations.
Although myriad bureaucracies have been involved in the formation and execution of Soviet foreign policy, the major policy
guidelines have been determined by the Politburo of the Communist Party. The foremost objectives of Soviet foreign policy have
been the maintenance and enhancement of national security and the maintenance of hegemony over Eastern Europe. Relations with the
United States and Western Europe have also been of major concern to Soviet foreign policy makers, and relations with individual
Third World states have been at least partly determined by the proximity of each state to the Soviet border and to Soviet
estimates of its strategic significance.
After the dissolution of the Soviet Union, Russia claimed to be the legal successor to the Soviet Union on the international
stage. Russian foreign policy repudiated Marxism-Leninism as a
guide to action, soliciting Western support for capitalist reforms in postcommunist Russia.
Republics
Main article: Republics of the Soviet
Union.
The Soviet Union was a federation of Soviet Socialist Republics (SSR). The first Republics were established
shortly after the October Revolution of 1917. At that time, republics were technically independent one from another but their governments acted in close
coordination, as directed by the CPSU leadership. In 1922, four Republics (Russian SFSR, Ukrainian
SSR, Belorussian SSR, and Transcaucasian SFSR) joined into the Soviet Union. Between 1922 and 1940, the number of Republics grew to sixteen. Some of the new
Republics were formed from territories conquered by the Soviet Union, others by splitting existing Republics into several parts.
The criteria for establishing new republics were as follows:
- to be located on the periphery of the Soviet Union so as to be able to exercise their alleged right to secession,
- be economically strong enough to survive on their own upon secession and
- be named after the dominant ethnic group which should consist of at least one million people.
The system remained almost unchanged after 1940. No new Republics were established. One republic, Karelo-Finnish SSR, was disbanded in 1956. The remaining 15 republics lasted until 1991. Secession remained
theoretical, and very unlikely, given Soviet centralism, until the 1991 collapse of the Union. At that time, the republics became
independent countries, with some still loosely organized under the heading Commonwealth of Independent States.
Some republics had common history and geographical regions, and were referred by group names. These were Baltic Republics, Transcaucasian Republics, and Central Asian Republics.
Economy
Main article: Economy of the Soviet
Union
Prior to its collapse, the Soviet Union had the largest centrally directed economy in the world. The regime established its
economic priorities through central planning, a system under which
administrative decisions rather than the market determined resource allocation and prices.
Since the Bolshevik Revolution of 1917, the country grew from a largely underdeveloped peasant society with minimal industry
to become the second largest industrial power in the world. According to Soviet statistics, the country's share in world
industrial production grew from 4 percent to 20 percent between 1913 and 1980. Although many Western analysts considered these claims to be inflated, the Soviet achievement
remained remarkable. Recovering from the calamitous events of World War II, the country's economy had maintained a continuous
though uneven rate of growth. Living standards, although still modest for most inhabitants by Western standards, had improved,
and Soviet citizens of the late 1980s had a measure of economic security.
Although these past achievements were impressive, in the mid-1980s Soviet leaders faced many problems. Production in the
consumer and agricultural
sectors was often inadequate (see Agriculture of the Soviet Union). Crises in the agricultural sector reaped catastrophic
consequences in the 1930s, when collectivization met widespread resistance from the
kulaks, resulting in a bitter struggle of many peasants against the authorities,
famine, and possibly millions of casualties, particularly in Ukraine. In the consumer
and service sectors, a lack of investment resulted in black markets in some
areas.
In addition, since the 1970s, the growth rate had slowed substantially. Extensive economic development, based on vast inputs
of materials and labor, was no longer possible; yet the productivity of Soviet assets remained low compared with other major
industrialized countries. Product quality needed improvement. Soviet leaders faced a fundamental dilemma: the strong central
controls that had traditionally guided economic development had failed to promote the creativity and productivity urgently needed
in a highly developed, modern economy.
Conceding the weaknesses of their past approaches in solving new problems, the leaders of the late 1980s were seeking to mold
a program of economic reform to galvanize the economy. The leadership, headed by Mikhail Gorbachev, was experimenting with
solutions to economic problems with an openness (glasnost) never before seen in the history of the economy. One method for
improving productivity appeared to be a strengthening of the role of market forces. Yet reforms in which market forces assumed a
greater role would signify a lessening of authority and control by the planning hierarchy.
Assessing developments in the economy was difficult for Western observers. The country contained enormous economic and
regional disparities. Yet analyzing statistical data broken down by region was a cumbersome process. Furthermore, Soviet
statistics themselves might have been of limited use to Western analysts because they are not directly comparable with those used
in Western countries. The differing statistical concepts, valuations, and procedures used by communist and noncommunist
economists made even the most basic data, such as the relative productivity of various sectors, difficult to assess. Most Western
analysts, and some Soviet economists, doubted the accuracy of the published statistics, recognizing that the industrial growth
figures tend to be inflated.
Geography
Main article: Geography of the Soviet
Union
The Soviet Union occupied the eastern portion of European continent and northern
portion of Asian continent. Most of country was north of 50° north latitude and covered a
total area of 22 402 200 square kilometres. Due to the sheer size
of the state the climate varied greatly from temperate to Arctic continental. 11 percent of land was arable, 16 percent were meadows and pasture, 41 percent was forest and woodland, and 32 percent other (including tundra).
Demographics and society
Main article: Demographics of the
Soviet Union
The Soviet Union was one of the world's most ethnically diverse countries, with more than 100 distinct national ethnicities
living within its borders. The total population was estimated at 293 million in 1991. Major
part of the population were Russians (about 53.4 percent, 1970 census), there were also Ukrainians (16.9 percent),
Uzbeks (3.8 percent) and many other nationalities. The Soviet Union was so large, in
fact, that even after all associated republics gained independence, Russia remains the
largest country by area, and remains quite ethnically diverse, including, e.g., minorities of Tatars, Udmurts, and many other non-Russian ethnicities.
Nationalities
The extensive multinational empire that the Bolsheviks inherited after their revolution was created by Tsarist expansion over
some four centuries. Some nationality groups came into the empire voluntarily, but most were brought in by force. Generally, the
Russians and most of the non-Russian subjects of the empire shared little in
common—culturally, religiously,
or linguistically. More often than not, two or more diverse nationalities were
collocated on the same territory. Therefore, national antagonisms built up over the years not only against the Russians but often
between some of the subject nations as well.
For close to seventy years, Soviet leaders had maintained that frictions between the many nationalities of the Soviet Union
had been eliminated and that the Soviet Union consisted of a family of nations living harmoniously together. However, the
national ferment that shook almost every corner of the Soviet Union in the late 1980s proved that seventy years of communist rule
had failed to obliterate national and ethnic differences and that traditional cultures and religions would reemerge given the
slightest opportunity. This reality facing Gorbachev and his colleagues meant that, short of relying on the traditional use of
force, they had to find alternative solutions in order to prevent the disintegration of the Soviet Union.
The concessions granted national cultures and the limited autonomy tolerated in the union republics in the 1920s led to the
development of national elites and a heightened sense of national identity. Subsequent repression and Russianization fostered
resentment against domination by Moscow and promoted further growth of national consciousness. National feelings were also
exacerbated in the Soviet multinational state by increased competition for resources, services, and jobs.
Religious groups
Main article: Religion in the Soviet
Union
The state was separated from church
by the Decree of Council of People's Comissars 1918 January 23. Official figures on the number of religious believers in the Soviet Union were not available in
1989. But according to various Soviet and Western sources, over one-third of the people in the Soviet Union, an officially
atheistic state, professed religious belief. Christianity and Islam had the most believers. Christians belonged to
various churches: Orthodox, which had the largest number of
followers; Catholic; and Baptist
and various other Protestant sects. There were many churches in the country
(7500 Russian Orthodox churches in 1974). The majority of the Islamic faithful were Sunni. Judaism also had many followers. Other religions, which were practiced by a relatively small
number of believers, included Buddhism, Lamaism, and shamanism, a religion based on primitive spiritualism.
The role of religion in the daily lives of Soviet citizens varied greatly. Because Islamic religious tenets and social values of
Muslims are closely interrelated, religion appeared to have a greater influence on Muslims than on either Christians or other
believers. Two-thirds of the Soviet population, however, had no religious beliefs. About half the people, including members of
the CPSU and high-level government officials, professed atheism. For the majority of Soviet citizens, therefore, religion seemed
irrelevant.
Culture
Holidays
Related articles
Main article: List of
Soviet Union-related topics.
Further reading
- Brown, Archie, et al, eds., The Cambridge Encyclopedia of Russia and the Soviet Union (Cambridge, UK: Cambridge
University Press, 1982).
- Gilbert, Martin, The Routledge Atlas of Russian History (London: Routledge, 2002).
- Goldman, Minton, The Soviet Union and Eastern Europe (Connecticut: Global Studies, Dushkin Publishing Group, Inc.,
1986).
- Howe, G. Melvyn, The Soviet Union: A Geographical Survey 2nd. edn. (Estover, UK: MacDonald and Evans, 1983).
- Katz, Zev, ed., Handbook of Major Soviet Nationalities (New York: Free Press, 1975).
External links
References
|
