View source for Soviet Union

{{Short description|Country in Eurasia from 1922 to 1991}}
{{Redirect-several|USSR|CCCP|Soviet|Soviet Union}}
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{{Pp-move}}
{{Use dmy dates|date=December 2024}}
{{Use Oxford spelling|date = November 2025}}
{{Infobox former country
| conventional_long_name = Union of Soviet Socialist Republics
| common_name            = Soviet Union
| native_name            = {{native name|ru|Союз Советских Социалистических Республик|paren=omit}}
| life_span              = 1922–1991
| religion               = {{ubli|[[Secular state]] (''de jure'')|[[State atheism]] (''de facto'')}}
| government_type        = Federal [[communist state]]
| era                    = {{hlist|[[Interwar period]]|[[World War II]]|[[Cold War]]}}
| event_pre              = [[October Revolution]]
| date_pre               = 7 November 1917
| date_start             = 30 December 1922
| event_start            = [[Treaty on the Creation of the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics|Treaty of Creation]]
| event1                 = [[Great Patriotic War]]
| date_event1            = 1941–1945
| event2                 = [[De-Stalinization]]
| date_event2            = 1953–1956
| event3                 = [[Parade of sovereignties]]
| date_event3            = 1988–1991
| date_end               = 26 December 1991{{efn|{{ill|Declaration No. 142-Н|ru|Декларация Совета Республик ВС СССР от 26.12.1991 № 142-Н}} of the [[Soviet of Nationalities|Soviet of the Republics of the Supreme Soviet of the Soviet Union]], formally establishing the dissolution of the Soviet Union as a state and subject of international law {{in lang|ru}}}}
| area_water_km2         = 2767198
| event_end              = [[Dissolution of the Soviet Union|Formal dissolution]]
| image_flag             = Flag of the Soviet Union.svg
| flag_type_article      = [[Flag of the Soviet Union]]
| flag_type              = [[Flag of the Soviet Union|Flag]]<br />(1955–1991)
| flag                   = Flag of the Soviet Union
| image_coat             = State Emblem of the Soviet Union.svg
| symbol_type            = [[State Emblem of the Soviet Union|Emblem]]<br />(1956–1991)
| image_map              = Union of Soviet Socialist Republics (orthographic projection).svg
| map_caption            = The Soviet Union during the [[Cold War]]
| image_map_size         = 250
| image_map_caption      = The Soviet Union in 1955
| capital                = [[Moscow]]
| coordinates            = {{coord|55|45|N|37|37|E|type:city}}
| largest_city           = capital
| national_motto         = {{lang|ru|Пролетарии всех стран, соединяйтесь!}}<br />"[[Workers of the world, unite!]]"
| national_anthem        = {{Plainlist|
*{{lang|ru|Интернационал}}<br />"[[The Internationale#Russian version used in the Soviet Union|The Internationale]]"<br />(1922–1944){{parabr}}[[File:The Internationale (1977 instrumental).ogg]]
*{{lang|ru|Государственный гимн Союза Советских Социалистических Республик}}<br />"[[State Anthem of the Soviet Union|State Anthem of the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics]]"<br />(1944–1991){{parabr}} [[File:Soviet Union national anthem (instrumental), 1977.oga]]}}
| official_languages     = [[Russian language|Russian]]{{efn|''De facto'', legally since 1990. [[Republics of the Soviet Union|Constituent republics]] had the right to declare their own regional languages.}}<ref>{{cite web |url=http://ccat.sas.upenn.edu/~haroldfs/540/handouts/ussr/soviet2.html |title=Language Policy in the former Soviet Union |first=H. |last=Schiffman |publisher=[[University of Pennsylvania]] |date=19 November 2002 |url-status=live |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20240221051317/https://ccat.sas.upenn.edu/~haroldfs/540/handouts/ussr/soviet2.html |archive-date=21 February 2024}}</ref>
| regional_languages     = {{hlist|[[Ukrainian language|Ukrainian]]|[[Belarusian language|Belarusian]]|[[Uzbek language|Uzbek]]|[[Kazakh language|Kazakh]]|[[Georgian language|Georgian]]|[[Azerbaijani language|Azerbaijani]]|[[Lithuanian language|Lithuanian]]|''[[Moldovan language|Moldavian]]''{{efn|The name given to the [[Romanian language]]}}|[[Latvian language|Latvian]]|[[Kyrgyz language|Kyrgyz]]|[[Tajik language|Tajik]]|[[Armenian language|Armenian]]|[[Turkmen language|Turkmen]]|[[Estonian language|Estonian]]}}
| ethnic_groups          = {{ubl|70% [[East Slavs]] | 17% [[Turkic peoples|Turkic]] | 13% other}}
| ethnic_groups_year     = 1989
| demonym                = [[Soviet people|Soviet]]
| title_leader           = [[List of leaders of the Soviet Union|Leader]]
| leader1                = [[Vladimir Lenin]]{{Efn|As chairman of the [[Council of People's Commissars]]}}
| year_leader1           = 1922–1924 (first)
| leader2                = [[Mikhail Gorbachev]]{{Efn|As General Secretary of the Communist Party and [[President of the Soviet Union]]}}
| year_leader2           = 1985–1991 (last)
| representative1        = [[Mikhail Kalinin]]{{Efn|As Chairman of the [[Central Executive Committee of the Soviet Union|Central Executive Committee]], then as [[Chairman of the Presidium of the Supreme Soviet]]}}
| year_representative1   = 1922–1946 (first)
| representative2        = Mikhail Gorbachev{{Efn|As General Secretary of the Communist Party and [[President of the Soviet Union]]}}
| year_representative2   = 1988–1991 (last)
| title_representative   = [[List of heads of state of the Soviet Union|Head of State]]
| deputy1                = Vladimir Lenin{{Efn|As Chairman of the Council of People's Commissars of the Soviet Union and Russian SFSR}}
| deputy2                = [[Ivan Silayev]]{{Efn|As Chairman of the Committee on the Operational Management of the Soviet Economy}}
| year_deputy1           = 1922–1924 (first)
| year_deputy2           = 1991 (last)
| title_deputy           = [[Premier of the Soviet Union|Premier]]
| legislature            = {{ubli|[[Congress of Soviets of the Soviet Union|Congress of Soviets]]<br />(1922–1936){{efn|Unicameral}}|[[Supreme Soviet of the Soviet Union|Supreme Soviet]]<br />(1936–1991)}}
| house1                 = [[Soviet of Nationalities]]<br />(1936–1991){{efn|From 5 September 1991 the [[Soviet of the Republics]]}}
| house2                 = [[Soviet of the Union]]<br />(1936–1991)
| area_km2               = 22,402,200
| population_census      = {{increaseNeutral}} 286,730,819<ref>''Almanaque Mundial 1996'', Editorial América/Televisa, Mexico, 1995, pp. 548–552 (''Demografía/Biometría'' table).</ref>
| population_census_year = [[Soviet Census (1989)|1989]]
| population_census_rank = 3rd
| population_density_km2 = 12.7
| GDP_nominal            = $2.7&nbsp;trillion{{efn|Statistics surrounding Soviet GDP are only estimates as the Soviet Union did not use gross domestic product or gross national product to measure its economy until 1990, before which it utilised a system known as the [[Material Product System]].}}<ref name="GDP"/>
| GDP_nominal_year       = 1990
| GDP_nominal_rank       = 2nd
| GDP_nominal_per_capita = $9,000
| GDP_nominal_per_capita_rank = 28th
| Gini                   = 0.275
| Gini_year              = 1989
| Gini_rank              = 
| Gini_change            = low
| cctld                  = [[.su]]{{efn|Assigned on 19 September 1990, existing onwards}}
| area_rank              = 1st
| percent_water          = 12.3
| HDI                    = 0.920
| HDI_year               = 1990 formula
| HDI_ref                = <ref>{{cite web |url=http://hdr.undp.org/sites/default/files/reports/219/hdr_1990_en_complete_nostats.pdf |title=Human Development Report 1990 |date=January 1990 |publisher=[[Human Development Report|HDRO (Human Development Report Office)]] [[United Nations Development Programme]] |page=111 |access-date=1 September 2020 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20190207194131/http://hdr.undp.org/sites/default/files/reports/219/hdr_1990_en_complete_nostats.pdf |archive-date=7 February 2019 |url-status=live}}</ref>
| currency               = [[Soviet ruble]] (руб)
| currency_code          = SUR
| calling_code           = +7
| time_zone              = ([[UTC]]+2 to +12)
| iso3166code            = SU
| p1                     = Russian Soviet Federative Socialist Republic{{!}}Russian SFSR
| p2                     = Ukrainian Soviet Socialist Republic{{!}}Ukrainian SSR
| p3                     = Byelorussian Soviet Socialist Republic{{!}}Byelorussian SSR
| p4                     = Transcaucasian Socialist Federative Soviet Republic{{!}}Transcaucasian SFSR
| s1                     = Post-Soviet states
| s2                     = Commonwealth of Independent States
| footnotes              = While parts of the USSR's authority, such as its United Nations seat, were transferred to the Russian Federation, the CIS – an intergovernmental organization – is the successor to the union itself.
}}
	
The '''Soviet Union''',{{efn|{{lang-rus|Советский Союз|Sovetskiy Soyuz|sɐˈvʲetskʲɪj sɐˈjus|a=Ru-Советский Союз.ogg}}}} officially the '''Union of Soviet Socialist Republics'''{{efn|For names of the Soviet Union in other official languages, see [[Official names of the Soviet Union]].}}{{efn|{{langx|ru|Союз Советских Социалистических Республик (СССР)|Soyuz Sovetskikh Sotsialisticheskikh Respublik (SSSR)}}, {{IPA|ru|sɐˈjus sɐˈvʲetskʲɪx sətsɨəlʲɪˈsʲtʲitɕɪskʲɪx rʲɪˈspublʲɪk|IPA|Ru-Союз Советских Социалистических Республик 3.oga}}.}} ('''USSR'''),{{efn|{{langx|ru|СССР|SSSR|link=no}}.}} was a [[List of former transcontinental countries#Since 1700|transcontinental country]] that spanned much of [[Eurasia]] from 1922 until [[Dissolution of the Soviet Union|its dissolution]] in 1991. It was the world's [[List of countries and dependencies by population|third-most populous country]], the [[list of countries and dependencies by area|largest by area]], and [[Geography of the Soviet Union#Borders and neighbors|bordered twelve countries]].{{efn|As of 1989, the countries that bordered the Soviet Union were: [[Norway]] and [[Finland]] to the northwest; [[Polish People's Republic|Poland]], [[Czechoslovak Socialist Republic|Czechoslovakia]], [[Hungarian People's Republic|Hungary]] and [[Socialist Republic of Romania|Romania]] to the west; [[Turkey]] and [[Iran]] to the southwest; [[Democratic Republic of Afghanistan|Afghanistan]] and [[Mongolian People's Republic|Mongolia]] to the south; [[China]] and [[North Korea]] to the southeast. The Soviet Union also shared [[maritime boundaries]] with Japan (which was bordered to the south until 1945) and the United States. The country historically bordered other territories such as [[Tannu Tuva]] and [[Subdivisions of Polish territories during World War II#German zone (1939–1945)|areas of Poland annexed by Nazi Germany]].}} A diverse [[multinational state]], it was organized as a [[federal union]] of [[Republics of the Soviet Union|national republics]], with the largest and most populous being the [[Russian SFSR]].{{efn|As outlined in Part III of the [[1977 Soviet Constitution]], "The National-State Structure of the Soviet Union"}} In practice, [[Government of the Soviet Union|its government]] and [[Economy of the Soviet Union|economy]] were [[Soviet-type economic planning|highly centralized]]. As a [[one-party state]] governed by the [[Communist Party of the Soviet Union|Communist Party]], it was the flagship [[communist state]]. Its capital and largest city was [[Moscow]].

The Soviet Union's roots lay in the [[October Revolution]] of 1917. The new government, led by [[Vladimir Lenin]], established the Russian SFSR, the world's first constitutionally communist state. Following the [[Bolsheviks|Bolshevik]] victory in the [[Russian Civil War]], the Russian SFSR and its subordinate republics were [[Treaty on the Creation of the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics|merged into the Soviet Union]] in 1922. Following [[Lenin's death]] in 1924, [[Joseph Stalin]] came to power, initiating [[Industrialization in the Soviet Union|rapid industrialization]] and [[Collectivization in the Soviet Union|forced collectivization]] that led to significant growth but contributed to [[Soviet famine of 1930–1933|a devastating famine]] in the 1930s that killed millions. The [[Forced labor in the Soviet Union|Soviet forced labour camp]] system, known as the [[Gulag]], was expanded. During the late 1930s, Stalin's government conducted the [[Great Purge]] to eliminate opposition, resulting in [[Population transfer in the Soviet Union|deportations]], [[Great Purge#Number of people executed|executions]], and the [[Moscow trials]]. Failing to build an [[Popular front#Comintern policy: 1934–1939|anti-Nazi coalition]] in Europe, the Soviet Union signed [[Molotov–Ribbentrop Pact|a non-aggression pact]] with [[Nazi Germany]] in 1939. However, in 1941, Germany [[invaded the Soviet Union]] in the largest land invasion in history, opening the [[Eastern Front of World War II]]. The Soviets played a decisive role in defeating the [[Axis powers]] as part of the [[Allies of World War II|Allies]], while liberating much of [[Central and Eastern Europe]]. With around [[World War II casualties of the Soviet Union|27 million casualties]], it suffered the [[World War II casualties|most deaths of any country in World War II]]. In the [[aftermath of World War II|war's aftermath]], the Soviet Union consolidated the [[Military occupations by the Soviet Union#After the Soviet Union entered the war on the Allied side|territories occupied]] by the [[Red Army]] into [[Soviet satellite states|satellite states]] and undertook [[Post–World War II economic expansion#Soviet Union|rapid economic development]], cementing its status as a [[superpower]].

Geopolitical tensions [[Soviet Union–United States relations|with the United States]] led to the [[Cold War]]. The US-led [[Western Bloc]] coalesced into the [[NATO]] military alliance in 1949, prompting the [[Eastern Bloc]] to form the [[Warsaw Pact]] in 1955. With [[Air-to-air combat losses between the Soviet Union and the United States|little direct combat]], the blocs engaged in [[Cultural imperialism|ideological]] and [[proxy war]]s. In 1953, following [[Stalin's death]], [[Nikita Khrushchev]] initiated a campaign of [[de-Stalinization]], which led to [[Sino-Soviet split#Onset of the disputes|ideological tensions]] with [[History of the People's Republic of China|communist China]], under [[Mao Zedong]], and culminated in [[Sino-Soviet split|an acrimonious split]]. The [[Soviet Armed Forces|Soviet military]] suppressed [[East German uprising of 1953|uprisings in East Germany]], [[Hungarian Revolution of 1956|Hungary]] and [[Warsaw Pact invasion of Czechoslovakia|Czechoslovakia]], while the resolution of the [[Cuban Missile Crisis]] narrowly averted [[World War III|a global conflict]]. Under [[Leonid Brezhnev]], prosperity [[Era of Stagnation|shifted toward stagnation]], although [[Détente|relations with the US eased]]. In 1985, [[Mikhail Gorbachev]] sought reform through his policies of ''[[glasnost]]'' and ''[[perestroika]]''. In 1989, most Warsaw Pact countries [[Revolutions of 1989|overthrew their Soviet-backed regimes]], effectively ending the Eastern Bloc. [[Nationalist]] movements across the Soviet republics [[Parade of sovereignties|declared sovereignty]], and in 1991, a [[1991 Soviet Union referendum|successful referendum]] to establish a [[New Union Treaty|renewed federation]] was followed by a [[1991 Soviet coup attempt|failed coup]] by [[State Committee on the State of Emergency|hardliners]]. This prompted Russia, Ukraine, and Belarus [[Belovezha Accords|to secede]]. On 26 December, Gorbachev officially recognized the dissolution of the Soviet Union. [[Boris Yeltsin]], president of the Russian SFSR, oversaw its reconstitution into the [[Russian Federation]], the [[Succession, continuity and legacy of the USSR|Soviet Union's successor state]]. All fifteen republics [[post-Soviet states|became independent states]]; all except the Baltic states joined the [[Commonwealth of Independent States]]. The post-Soviet states [[Dissolution of the Soviet Union#Economic decline, hunger, and excess mortality|experienced a humanitarian disaster]].

The Soviet Union was one of the world's two superpowers, with [[Soviet empire|hegemony in Eastern Europe]], [[Foreign relations of the Soviet Union|global diplomacy]], ideological influence (particularly in the [[Global South]]), military might, economic strength, and [[Science and technology in the Soviet Union|scientific and technological accomplishments]]. [[Soviet space program|Its space program]] made [[List of spaceflight records|significant achievements]] in the [[Space Race]]. It [[List of countries by past and projected GDP (nominal)|had the world's second-largest economy]] and the largest [[Standing army|standing military]]. As a [[nuclear state]], it wielded the [[Russia and weapons of mass destruction|largest arsenal of nuclear weapons in the world]]. As an Allied nation, it was a [[Member states of the United Nations|founding member]] of the [[United Nations]] and one of [[Permanent members of the United Nations Security Council|five permanent members]] of its [[United Nations Security Council|Security Council]].

== Etymology ==
{{Main|Official names of the Soviet Union}}

{{See also|Names of Russia}}
The word "''[[soviet (council)|soviet]]''" is derived from the [[Russian language|Russian]] word {{translit|ru|sovet}} ({{langx|ru|link=no|совет}}), meaning 'council', 'assembly', 'advice',{{Efn|{{langx|uk|рада}} ({{translit|uk|[[rada]]}}); {{langx|be|савет/рада}}; {{langx|uz-Cyrl|совет}}; {{langx|kk|совет / кеңес}} ({{translit|kk|sovet / kenges}}); {{langx|ka|საბჭოთა}} ({{translit|ka|sabch′ota}}); {{langx|az|совет|italic=no}}; {{langx|lt|taryba}}; {{langx|ro|soviet}} ([[Moldovan Cyrillic]]: {{lang|ro-Cyrl|совиет}}); {{langx|lv|padome}}; {{langx|ky|совет}}; {{langx|tg|шӯравӣ / совет}} ({{translit|tg|šūravī / sovet}}); {{langx|hy|խորհուրդ / սովետ}} ({{translit|hy|xorhurd / sovet}}); {{langx|tk|совет|italic=no}}; {{langx|et|nõukogu}}.}} ultimately deriving from the [[proto-Slavic]] verbal stem of {{lang|sla-x-proto|vět-iti}} ('to inform'), related to Slavic {{lang|sla|věst}} ('news') and English ''wise''. The word ''sovietnik'' means 'councillor'.<ref name="Klein-1920">{{Cite Americana |wstitle=Soviet |year=1920 |first=Henri F. |last=Klein}}</ref> Some organizations in Russian history were called ''council'' ({{langx|ru|link=no|совет}}). In the [[Russian Empire]], the [[State Council (Russian Empire)|State Council]], which functioned from 1810 to 1917, was referred to as a Council of Ministers.<ref name="Klein-1920" />

The soviets as [[workers' council]]s first appeared during the [[1905 Russian Revolution]].{{sfn|Pons|Service|2010|p=763}}{{sfn|Mccauley|2014|p=487}} Although they were quickly suppressed by the Imperial army, after the [[February Revolution of 1917]], workers' and soldiers' soviets emerged throughout the country and shared power with the [[Russian Provisional Government]].{{sfn|Pons|Service|2010|p=763}}<ref name="Dewdney"/> The [[Bolsheviks]], led by [[Vladimir Lenin]], demanded that all power be transferred to the soviets, and gained support from the workers and soldiers.<ref>{{cite encyclopedia |url=https://www.britannica.com/event/April-Theses |title=April Thesis |encyclopedia=Encyclopædia Britannica |access-date=27 December 2022}}</ref> After the [[October Revolution]], in which they seized power from the Provisional Government in the name of the soviets,<ref name="Dewdney">{{cite encyclopedia |url=https://www.britannica.com/place/Soviet-Union |title=Soviet Union |encyclopedia=Encyclopædia Britannica |last1=Dewdney |first1=John C. |last2=Conquest |first2=Robert |last3=Pipes |first3=Richard E. |last4=McCauley |first4=Martin |access-date=27 December 2022}}</ref><ref>{{Cite news |title=The causes of the October Revolution |publisher=[[BBC News]] |url=https://www.bbc.co.uk/bitesize/higher/history/russia/october/revision/4 |url-status=dead |access-date=31 December 2022 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20140805155250/http://www.bbc.co.uk/bitesize/higher/history/russia/october/revision/4 |archive-date=5 August 2014}}</ref> Lenin proclaimed the formation of the [[Russian Socialist Federal Soviet Republic]] (RSFSR).{{sfn|Service|2005|p=84}}

During the [[Georgian Affair]] of 1922, Lenin called for the Russian SFSR and other national soviet republics to form a greater union which he initially named as the Union of Soviet Republics of Europe and Asia ({{langx|ru|Союз Советских Республик Европы и Азии|Soyuz Sovyetskikh Respublik Evropy i Azii|links=no}}).{{sfnm|1a1=Fischer|1y=1964|1p=608|2a1=Lewin|2y=1969|2p=50|3a1=Leggett|3y=1981|3p=354|4a1=Volkogonov|4y=1994|4p=421|5a1=Service|5y=2000|5pp=452–455|6a1=White|6y=2001|6p=175}} [[Joseph Stalin]] initially resisted Lenin's proposal but ultimately accepted it, and with Lenin's agreement he changed the name to the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics (USSR), although all republics began as ''socialist soviet'' and did not change to the other order until [[1936 Soviet Constitution|1936]]. In addition, in the regional languages of several republics, the word ''council'' or ''conciliar'' in the respective language was only quite late changed to an adaptation of the Russian ''soviet'' and never in others, e.g. [[Ukrainian SSR]].

{{lang|ru|СССР}} (in the Latin alphabet: ''SSSR'') is the abbreviation of the Russian-language cognate of USSR, as written in [[Cyrillic letters]]. The soviets used this abbreviation so frequently that audiences worldwide became familiar with its meaning. After this, the most common Russian initialization is {{lang|ru|Союз ССР}} (transliteration: {{translit|ru|Soyuz SSR}}) which essentially translates to ''Union of SSRs'' in English. In addition, the Russian short form name {{lang|ru|Советский Союз}} (transliteration: {{translit|ru|Sovyetsky Soyuz}}, which literally means ''Soviet Union'') is also commonly used, but only in its unabbreviated form. Since the start of the [[Great Patriotic War]] at the latest, abbreviating the Russian name of the Soviet Union as {{lang|ru|СС}} has been taboo, the reason being that {{lang|ru|СС}} as a Russian Cyrillic abbreviation is associated with the infamous {{lang|de|[[Schutzstaffel]]}} of [[Nazi Germany]], as ''SS'' is in English. One apparent exception was the Russian abbreviation of the [[Communist Party of the Soviet Union]], {{lang|ru|КПСС}} (transliteration: {{translit|ru|KPSS}}).

In English-language media, the state was referred to as the Soviet Union or the USSR. The Russian SFSR dominated the Soviet Union to such an extent that, for most of the Soviet Union's existence, it was colloquially, but incorrectly, referred to as '''Russia'''.

== History ==
{{Main|History of the Soviet Union}}

{{see also|History of Russia}}
{{More citations needed section|date=August 2025}}
{{History of the Soviet Union}}
The history of the Soviet Union began with the ideals of the [[Bolshevik Revolution]] and ended in dissolution amid economic collapse and political disintegration. Established in 1922 following the [[Russian Civil War]], the Soviet Union became a one-party state under the [[Communist Party of the Soviet Union|Communist Party]]. Its early years under [[Lenin]] were marked by the implementation of socialist policies and the [[New Economic Policy]] (NEP), which allowed for market-oriented reforms.

The rise of [[Joseph Stalin]] in the late 1920s ushered in an era of intense centralization and totalitarianism. Stalin's rule was characterized by the forced [[Collectivization in the Soviet Union|collectivization of agriculture]], rapid [[Industrialization in the Soviet Union|industrialization]], and the [[Great Purge]], which eliminated perceived enemies of the state. The Soviet Union, one of the [[Big Four (World War II)|Big Four Allied powers]]<ref name = Justus>{{cite book|last1=Doenecke|first1=Justus D.|last2=Stoler|first2=Mark A.|title=Debating Franklin D. Roosevelt's foreign policies, 1933–1945|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=xdMF9rX6mX8C&pg=PA62|year=2005|publisher=Rowman & Littlefield|isbn=0-8476-9416-X}}</ref> alongside the United States, the United Kingdom, and China, played a crucial role in the [[Allies of World War II|Allied victory]] in [[World War II]]. It paid a tremendous human cost with millions of Soviet citizens dying in the conflict.

The Soviet Union emerged as one of the world's two superpowers, leading the [[Eastern Bloc]] in opposition to the [[Western Bloc]] during the [[Cold War]]. This period saw the USSR engage in an arms race, the [[Space Race]], and [[proxy wars]] around the globe. The post-Stalin leadership, particularly under [[Nikita Khrushchev]], initiated a [[de-Stalinization]] process, leading to a period of liberalization and relative openness known as the [[Khrushchev Thaw]]. However, the subsequent era under [[Leonid Brezhnev]], sometimes referred to as the [[Era of Stagnation]], was marked by economic decline, political corruption, and a rigid [[gerontocracy]]. Despite efforts to maintain the Soviet Union's superpower status, the economy struggled due to its centralized nature, technological backwardness, and inefficiencies. The vast military expenditures and burdens of maintaining the Eastern Bloc further strained the Soviet economy.

In the 1980s, [[Mikhail Gorbachev]]'s policies of ''[[glasnost]]'' (openness) and ''[[perestroika]]'' (restructuring) aimed to revitalize the Soviet system but instead accelerated its unraveling. Nationalist movements gained momentum across the [[Soviet republics]] and the control of the Communist Party weakened. The failed [[1991 Soviet coup attempt|coup attempt]] in August 1991 against Gorbachev by hardline communists hastened the [[end of the Soviet Union]], which formally dissolved on 26 December 1991, ending nearly seven decades of Soviet rule.

== Geography ==
{{main|Geography of the Soviet Union}}

{{see also|Geography of Russia}}
With an area of {{convert|22402200|km2}}, the Soviet Union was the world's largest country,<ref>Television documentary from CC&C Ideacom Production, "Apocalypse Never-Ending War 1918–1926", part 2, aired at Danish DR K on 22 October 2018.</ref> a status that is retained by the [[Russian Federation]].<ref>[http://www.britannica.com/EBchecked/topic/513251/Russia "Russia" – Encyclopædia Britannica]. {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20080426065826/http://www.britannica.com/EBchecked/topic/513251/Russia |date=26 April 2008 }}. Retrieved on 29 July 2013.</ref> Covering a sixth of Earth's land surface, its size was comparable to that of [[North America]].<ref>{{cite web |url=http://pages.towson.edu/thompson/courses/regional/reference/sovietphysical.pdf |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20120915090942/http://pages.towson.edu/thompson/Courses/Regional/Reference/SovietPhysical.pdf |url-status=dead |archive-date=15 September 2012 |title=The Former Soviet Union: Physical Geography |first=Virginia |last=Thompson |publisher=Towson University: Department of Geography & Environmental Planning |access-date=24 March 2016}}</ref> Two other successor states are also very large — [[Kazakhstan]] ranks among the top 10 countries by land area, and [[Ukraine]] is the largest country entirely in Europe. The [[Europe]]an portion accounted for a quarter of the country's area and was the cultural and economic center. The eastern part in [[Asia]] extended to the [[Pacific Ocean]] to the east and [[Democratic Republic of Afghanistan|Afghanistan]] to the south, and, except some areas in [[Central Asia]], was much less populous. It spanned over {{Convert|10000|km}} east to west across 11 [[time zone]]s, and over {{convert|7200|km}} north to south. It had five climate zones: [[tundra]], [[taiga]], [[steppe]]s, [[desert]] and [[mountain]]s.

The USSR, like [[Russia]], had the world's longest [[border]], measuring over {{convert|60000|km}}, or {{frac|1|1|2}} circumferences of Earth. Two-thirds of it was a [[coast]]line. The country bordered [[Democratic Republic of Afghanistan|Afghanistan]], the [[History of the People's Republic of China (1976–1989)|People's Republic of China]], [[Czechoslovak Socialist Republic|Czechoslovakia]], [[Finland]], [[Hungarian People's Republic|Hungary]], [[Pahlavi Iran|Iran]], [[Mongolian People's Republic|Mongolia]], [[North Korea]], [[Norway]], [[Polish People's Republic|Poland]], [[Socialist Republic of Romania|Romania]], and [[Turkey]] from 1945 to 1991. The [[Bering Strait]] separated the USSR from the United States, while the [[La Pérouse Strait]] separated it from Japan.

The country's highest mountain was Communism Peak (now [[Ismoil Somoni Peak]]) in [[Tajik Soviet Socialist Republic|Tajikistan]], at {{Convert|7495|m}}. The USSR also included most of the world's largest lakes; the [[Caspian Sea]] (shared with [[Iran]]), and [[Lake Baikal]], the world's largest (by volume) and deepest freshwater lake that is also an internal body of water in Russia.

=== Environment ===
{{Multiple image|
| image1 = Karabash mountain.jpg
| width1 = 230
| caption1 = Landscape near [[Karabash, Chelyabinsk Oblast]], an area that was previously covered with forests until acid rainfall from a nearby copper smelter killed all vegetation
| image2 = AralSea1989 2014.jpg
| caption2 = One of the many impacts of the approach to the environment in the USSR and post-Soviet states is the [[Aral Sea]]. (See status in 1989 and 2014)<ref>{{Cite AV media |first1=Denys |last1=Brunsden |title=How Soviet pollution destroyed the Aral Sea |language=en-GB |work=Witness|date=21 October 2015|publisher=[[BBC News]] |url=https://www.bbc.com/news/av/magazine-34586135 |access-date=19 November 2023}}</ref>
}}
Neighbouring countries were aware of the high levels of pollution in the Soviet Union<ref>{{Cite news |last= |first= |date=6 December 1982 |title=Study Says Pollution in Arctic Could Originate From Soviet |language=en-US |work=[[The New York Times]] |url=https://www.nytimes.com/1982/12/06/world/study-says-pollution-in-arctic-could-originate-from-soviet.html |access-date=19 November 2023 |issn=0362-4331 |url-status=live |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20231119114918/https://www.nytimes.com/1982/12/06/world/study-says-pollution-in-arctic-could-originate-from-soviet.html |archive-date=19 November 2023}}</ref><ref>{{Cite news |last=Mathews |first=Jessica |date=22 March 1991 |title=The Union of Soviet Socialist Pollution |language=en-US |newspaper=[[The Washington Post]] |url=https://www.washingtonpost.com/archive/opinions/1991/03/22/the-union-of-soviet-socialist-pollution/b6af0952-f32b-4fba-89f1-776c54b069fb/ |access-date=19 November 2023 |issn=0190-8286 |url-status=live |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20240115195207/https://www.washingtonpost.com/archive/opinions/1991/03/22/the-union-of-soviet-socialist-pollution/b6af0952-f32b-4fba-89f1-776c54b069fb/ |archive-date=15 January 2024}}</ref> but after the [[dissolution of the Soviet Union]] it was discovered that its environmental problems were greater than what the Soviet authorities admitted.<ref>{{Cite news |date=19 February 2016 |title=The Grim Pollution Picture in the Former Soviet Union |url=https://www.huffpost.com/entry/the-grim-pollution-pictur_b_9266764 |first1=Armine |last1=Sahakyan |access-date=19 November 2023 |work=[[HuffPost]] |language=en |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20240811123024/https://www.huffpost.com/entry/the-grim-pollution-pictur_b_9266764 |archive-date=11 August 2024}}</ref> The Soviet Union was the world's second largest producer of harmful emissions. In 1988, total emissions in the Soviet Union were about 79% of those in the United States. But since the Soviet [[GNP]] was only 54% of that of the United States, this means that the Soviet Union generated 1.5 times more pollution than the United States per unit of GNP.<ref>{{cite journal |last1=Shahgedanova |first1=Maria |last2=Burt |first2=Timothy P |title=New data on air pollution in the former Soviet Union |journal=Global Environmental Change |date=September 1994 |volume=4 |issue=3 |pages=201–227 |doi=10.1016/0959-3780(94)90003-5 |bibcode=1994GEC.....4..201S }}</ref>

The [[Chernobyl disaster]] in the Ukrainian SSR in 1986 was the first major accident at a civilian [[nuclear power plant]].<ref>{{Cite web |date=17 May 2019 |title=Chernobyl disaster facts and information |url=https://www.nationalgeographic.com/culture/article/chernobyl-disaster |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20210220033148/https://www.nationalgeographic.com/culture/article/chernobyl-disaster |url-status=dead |archive-date=20 February 2021 |access-date=19 November 2023 |website=Culture |language=en}}</ref><ref>{{Cite web |title=Chernobyl {{!}} Chernobyl Accident {{!}} Chernobyl Disaster - World Nuclear Association |url=https://world-nuclear.org/information-library/safety-and-security/safety-of-plants/chernobyl-accident.aspx |access-date=19 November 2023 |website=world-nuclear.org}}</ref><ref>{{Cite news |date=26 April 2021 |title=Unsealed Soviet archives reveal cover-ups at Chernobyl plant before disaster |language=en |work=[[Reuters]] |url=https://www.reuters.com/world/unsealed-soviet-archives-reveal-cover-ups-chernobyl-plant-before-disaster-2021-04-26/ |access-date=19 November 2023}}</ref> Unparalleled in the world, it resulted in a large number of radioactive isotopes being released into the atmosphere. Radioactive doses were scattered relatively far.<ref>{{Cite news |last=Simmons |first=Michael |date=3 May 2021 |title=Radiation high over Europe after Chernobyl disaster – archive, 1986 |language=en-GB |work=[[The Guardian]] |url=https://www.theguardian.com/environment/2021/may/03/radiation-high-over-europe-after-chernobyl-disaster-1986 |access-date=19 November 2023 |issn=0261-3077}}</ref> Although long-term effects of the accident were unknown, 4,000 new cases of thyroid cancer which resulted from the accident's contamination were reported at the time of the accident, but this led to a relatively low number of deaths (WHO data, 2005).<ref>{{cite web |title=Chernobyl: the true scale of the accident |url=https://www.who.int/news/item/05-09-2005-chernobyl-the-true-scale-of-the-accident |website=World Health Organization |date=5 September 2005 |access-date=7 October 2021 |language=en |archive-date=25 February 2018 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20180225095828/http://www.who.int/mediacentre/news/releases/2005/pr38/en/ |url-status=live}}</ref> The disaster contributed to the socio-economic crises that resulted in the collapse of the Soviet Union.<ref name="zubok">{{cite book | last=Zubok | first=V. M. | title=Collapse: the fall of the Soviet Union | publisher=Yale University Press | publication-place=New Haven | date=2021 | isbn=978-0-300-25730-4 | chapter=Section 1: Perestroika}}</ref><ref name="gorbachevFilm">{{cite AV media |url=https://www.andanafilms.com/catalogueFiche.php?idFiche=255&rub=Toutes%20les%20fiches%20films |title=The battle of Chernobyl |date=2006 |publisher=Play Film / Discovery Channel |people=Johnson, Thomas (author/director)}} (see 1996 interview with Mikhail Gorbachev).</ref><ref name="gorbachevChernobyl">{{Cite web |last=Gorbachev |first=Mikhail |date=21 April 2006 |title=Turning point at Chernobyl |url=https://www.japantimes.co.jp/opinion/2006/04/21/commentary/world-commentary/turning-point-at-chernobyl/ |access-date=24 May 2024 |website=The Japan Times |language=en}}</ref>Another major radioactive accident was the [[Kyshtym disaster]].<ref>{{cite journal |last1=Baverstock |first1=Keith |last2=Williams |first2=Dillwyn |title=The Chernobyl Accident 20 Years on: An Assessment of the Health Consequences and the International Response |doi-access=free |journal=[[Environmental Health Perspectives]] |date=2006 |volume=114 |issue=9 |pages=1312–1317 |doi=10.1289/ehp.9113 |doi-broken-date=8 May 2026 |pmid=16966081 |pmc=1570049 |bibcode=2006EnvHP.114.1312B}}</ref>{{Failed verification|date=December 2025|reason=Source does not discuss the Kyshtym disaster.}}

The [[Kola Peninsula]] was one of the places with major problems.<ref>{{Cite web |translator-last=Digges |translator-first=Charles |first1=Anna |last1=Kireeva |date=4 January 2021 |title=One of the Murmansk Region's most polluting facilities shuts down after more than seven decades |url=https://bellona.org/news/industrial-pollution/2021-01-one-of-the-murmansk-regions-most-polluting-facilities-shuts-down-after-more-than-seven-decades |access-date=19 November 2023 |website=Bellona.org |language=en-US}}</ref> Around the industrial cities of [[Monchegorsk]] and [[Norilsk]], where [[nickel]], for example, is mined, all forests have been destroyed by contamination, while the northern and other parts of Russia have been affected by emissions.<ref>{{Cite news |date=10 December 2021 |title=How Norilsk, in the Russian Arctic, became one of the most polluted places on Earth |url=https://www.nbcnews.com/news/world/norilsk-russian-arctic-became-one-polluted-places-earth-rcna6481 |first1=Marianne |last1=Lavelle |access-date=19 November 2023 |work=[[NBC News]] |language=en |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20240612134836/https://www.nbcnews.com/news/world/norilsk-russian-arctic-became-one-polluted-places-earth-rcna6481 |archive-date=12 June 2024}}</ref> During the 1990s, people in the West were also interested in the radioactive hazards of nuclear facilities, decommissioned [[nuclear submarine]]s, and the processing of [[nuclear waste]] or [[spent nuclear fuel]].<ref>{{Cite news |last=Broad |first=William J. |date=27 April 1993 |title=Russians describe extensive dumping of nuclear waste |language=en-US |work=[[The New York Times]] |url=https://www.nytimes.com/1993/04/27/science/russians-describe-extensive-dumping-of-nuclear-waste.html |access-date=19 November 2023 |issn=0362-4331 |url-status=live |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20231119114918/https://www.nytimes.com/1993/04/27/science/russians-describe-extensive-dumping-of-nuclear-waste.html |archive-date=19 November 2023}}</ref><ref>{{Cite news |last=Raymer |first=Steve |date=15 March 1992 |title=Nuclear Pollution Plagues Former Soviet Union : Environment: A map marking non-military explosions shows scope of 'national disaster.' |url=https://www.latimes.com/archives/la-xpm-1992-03-15-mn-6700-story.html |access-date=19 November 2023 |work=[[Los Angeles Times]] |language=en-US |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20231119115140/https://www.latimes.com/archives/la-xpm-1992-03-15-mn-6700-story.html |archive-date=19 November 2023}}</ref> It was also known in the early 1990s that the USSR had transported radioactive material to the [[Barents Sea]] and [[Kara Sea]], which was later confirmed by the Russian parliament. The crash of the [[K-141 Kursk]] submarine in 2000 in the west further raised concerns.<ref>{{Cite journal |last1=Hønneland |first1=Geir |last2=Jørgensen |first2=Anne-Kristin |title=Implementing Russia's International Environmental Commitments: Federal Prerogative or Regional Concern? |journal=[[Europe-Asia Studies]] |date=December 2002 |volume=54 |issue=8 |pages=1223–1240 |doi=10.1080/0966813022000025862 |jstor=826384 }}</ref> In the past, there were accidents involving submarines [[Soviet submarine K-19|K-19]], [[Soviet submarine K-8|K-8]], a [[K-129]], [[Soviet submarine K-27|K-27]], [[Soviet submarine K-219|K-219]] and [[K-278 Komsomolets]].<ref>{{Cite web |last=Luhn |first=Alec |title=Russia's 'slow-motion Chernobyl' at sea |url=https://www.bbc.com/future/article/20200901-the-radioactive-risk-of-sunken-nuclear-soviet-submarines |date=1 September 2020 |access-date=19 November 2023 |website=[[BBC]] |language=en}}</ref><ref>{{Cite web |last=Tiwari |first=Sakshi |date=10 October 2023 |title=Armed With Nuke Payload, How Dangerous Is Russia's Nuclear-Armed Submarine Resting In Arctic Ocean? |url=https://www.eurasiantimes.com/resting-with-nuke-payload-russias-sunken-nuclear-armed-submarine/ |access-date=19 November 2023 |website=EurAsian Times |language=en-US |url-status=live |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20231119114918/https://www.eurasiantimes.com/resting-with-nuke-payload-russias-sunken-nuclear-armed-submarine/ |archive-date=19 November 2023}}</ref><ref>{{Cite news |title=Wastes of War: Rotting Nuclear Subs Pose Threat |first1=David |last1=Hoffman |date=16 November 1998 |url=https://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-srv/inatl/longterm/coldwar/russia111698.htm |access-date=19 November 2023 |newspaper=[[The Washington Post]]}}</ref><ref>{{Cite web |date=17 January 2021 |title=The Terrifying History of Russia's Nuclear Submarine Graveyard |first1=Cory |last1=Graff |url=https://www.popularmechanics.com/military/navy-ships/a34976195/russias-nuclear-submarine-graveyard/ |access-date=19 November 2023 |website=[[Popular Mechanics]] |language=en-US}}</ref>

== Government and politics ==
{{Main|Politics of the Soviet Union|Ideology of the Communist Party of the Soviet Union}}

The Soviet [[communist state]] system was based on [[unified state power]] and [[democratic centralism]]. The [[highest organ of state authority]], the [[Supreme Soviet of the Soviet Union]], stood above all other state organs and worked under the leadership of the [[Communist Party of the Soviet Union]]. The executive organ of the state (synonymous with government), the [[Council of Ministers of the Soviet Union|Council of Ministers]], was an internal organ of the All-Union Supreme Soviet.<ref name="Sakwa">Sakwa, Richard. ''Soviet Politics in Perspective''. 2nd ed. London – N.Y.: Routledge, 1998.</ref>

=== Communist Party ===
{{Main|Communist Party of the Soviet Union}}

[[File:MoskauRoterPlatzSeptember1990.jpg|left|thumb|Military parade on the [[Red Square]] in Moscow, 7 November 1964]]
At the top of the Communist Party was the [[Central Committee of the Communist Party of the Soviet Union|Central Committee]], elected at [[Congress of the Communist Party of the Soviet Union|Party Congresses]] and Conferences. In turn, the Central Committee voted for a [[Politburo of the Communist Party of the Soviet Union|Politburo]] (called the Presidium between 1952 and 1966), [[Secretariat of the Communist Party of the Soviet Union|Secretariat]] and the [[General Secretary of the Communist Party of the Soviet Union|general secretary]] (First Secretary from 1953 to 1966), the ''de facto'' highest office in the Soviet Union.<ref>{{cite book |author=Law, David A. |title=Russian Civilization |publisher=Ardent Media |year=1975 |pages=193–194 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=f3ky9qBavl4C |isbn=978-0-8422-0529-0 |access-date=20 June 2015 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20150512055909/http://books.google.com/books?id=f3ky9qBavl4C&dq |archive-date=12 May 2015 |url-status=live}}</ref> 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 country<ref>{{cite book |author=Zemtsov, Ilya |title=Chernenko: The Last Bolshevik: The Soviet Union on the Eve of Perestroika |publisher=[[Transaction Publishers]] |year=1989 |page=325 |url=https://archive.org/details/chernenkolastbol00zemt |url-access=registration |isbn=978-0-88738-260-4 |access-date=20 June 2015}}</ref> (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).<ref>{{cite book |author=Knight, Amy |title=Beria: Stalin's First Lieutenant |publisher=Princeton University Press |year=1995 |page=5 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=PxiuUGRQhUIC |isbn=978-0-691-01093-9 |access-date=20 June 2015 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20150512055028/http://books.google.com/books?id=PxiuUGRQhUIC&dq |archive-date=12 May 2015 |url-status=live}}</ref> They were not controlled by the general party membership, as the key principle of the party organization was [[democratic centralism]], demanding strict subordination to higher bodies, and elections went uncontested, endorsing the candidates proposed from above.<ref>{{cite book |author1=Hough, Jerry F. |author2=Fainsod, Merle |title=How the Soviet Union is Governed |publisher=Harvard University Press |year=1979 |page=486 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=38gMzMRXCpQC |isbn=978-0-674-41030-5 |access-date=20 June 2015 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20150512054528/http://books.google.com/books?id=38gMzMRXCpQC&dq |archive-date=12 May 2015 |url-status=live}}</ref>

The Communist Party maintained its dominance over the state mainly through its control over the [[Nomenklatura|system of appointments]]. All senior government officials and most deputies of the Supreme Soviet were members of the CPSU. Of the party heads themselves, Stalin (1941–1953) and Khrushchev (1958–1964) were Premiers. Upon the forced retirement of Khrushchev, the party leader was prohibited from this kind of double membership,<ref>{{cite book |author=Service, Robert |title=History of Modern Russia: From Tsarism to the Twenty-first Century |publisher=[[Penguin Books Ltd]] |year=2009 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=o8Z1QAAACAAJ |isbn=978-0-14-103797-4 |page=378 |author-link=Robert Service (historian) |access-date=20 June 2015 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20110511090135/http://books.google.com/books?id=o8Z1QAAACAAJ&dq |archive-date=11 May 2011 |url-status=live}}</ref> but the later General Secretaries for at least some part of their tenure occupied the mostly ceremonial position of [[Chairman of the Presidium of the Supreme Soviet]], the nominal [[List of heads of state of the Soviet Union|head of state]]. The institutions at lower levels were overseen and at times supplanted by [[Kraikom|primary party organizations]].<ref>{{Cite book |title=Конститутион оф тхе Руссиян Федератион: витх комментариес анд интерпретатион |publisher=Brunswick Publishing Corp |year=1994 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=3mQjvzP8VSYC |isbn=978-1-55618-142-9 |page=82 |access-date=20 June 2015 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20150512045452/http://books.google.com/books?id=3mQjvzP8VSYC&dq |archive-date=12 May 2015 |url-status=live}}</ref>

However, in practice the degree of control the party was able to exercise over the [[Soviet bureaucracy|state bureaucracy]], particularly after the death of Stalin, was far from total, with the bureaucracy pursuing different interests that were at times in conflict with the party,<ref>{{cite book |author=Ōgushi, Atsushi |title=The Demise of the Soviet Communist Party |publisher=Routledge |year=2008 |pages=31–32 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=N7mDUC1nOZsC |isbn=978-0-415-43439-3 |access-date=20 June 2015 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20150512042443/http://books.google.com/books?id=N7mDUC1nOZsC&dq |archive-date=12 May 2015 |url-status=live}}</ref> nor was the party itself monolithic from top to bottom, although [[Ban on factions in the Communist Party of the Soviet Union|factions were officially banned]].<ref>{{Cite book |author=Taras, Ray |author-link=Raymond Taras |title=Leadership change in Communist states |publisher=Routledge |year=1989 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=AlcVAAAAIAAJ |isbn=978-0-04-445277-5 |page=132 |access-date=20 June 2015 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20150512053745/http://books.google.com/books?id=AlcVAAAAIAAJ&dq |archive-date=12 May 2015 |url-status=live}}</ref>

===Highest organ of state authority===
[[File:Supreme Soviet 1982.jpg|thumb|left|The [[Grand Kremlin Palace]], the seat of the [[Supreme Soviet of the Soviet Union]], 1982]]
The Supreme Soviet (successor of the [[Congress of Soviets of the Soviet Union|Congress of Soviets]]) was nominally the [[highest organ of state authority]] for most of the Soviet history,<ref>{{cite book |author1=F. Triska, Jan |author2=Slusser, Robert M. |title=The Theory, Law, and Policy of Soviet Treaties |publisher=[[Stanford University Press]] |year=1962 |pages=[https://archive.org/details/theorylawpoli00tris/page/63 63]–64 |url=https://archive.org/details/theorylawpoli00tris |url-access=registration |isbn=978-0-8047-0122-8 |access-date=20 June 2015}}</ref> at first acting as a rubber stamp institution, approving and implementing all decisions made by the party. However, its powers and functions were extended in the late 1950s, 1960s, and 1970s, including the creation of new state commissions and committees. It gained additional powers relating to the approval of the [[Five-year plans for the national economy of the Soviet Union|Five-Year Plans]] and the [[government budget]].<ref>{{cite book |author=Deb, Kalipada |title=Soviet Union to Commonwealth: Transformation and Challenges |publisher=M.D. Publications Pvt. Ltd |year=1996 |page=81 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=IvK6r-8Ogg0C |isbn=978-81-85880-95-2 |access-date=20 June 2015 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20150512053347/http://books.google.com/books?id=IvK6r-8Ogg0C&dq |archive-date=12 May 2015 |url-status=live}}</ref> The Supreme Soviet elected a [[Presidium of the Supreme Soviet|Presidium]] (successor of the [[Central Executive Committee of the Soviet Union|Central Executive Committee]]) to wield its power between plenary sessions,<ref name="Benson, Shirley-2001" /> ordinarily held twice a year, and appointed the [[Supreme Court of the Soviet Union|Supreme Court]],<ref>{{cite book |title=The Communist World |publisher=Ardent Media |year=2001 |page=441 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=h9FFVgu-Ff0C |isbn=978-0-271-02170-6 |access-date=20 June 2015 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20150512051205/http://books.google.com/books?id=h9FFVgu-Ff0C&dq |archive-date=12 May 2015 |url-status=live}}</ref> the [[Procurator General of the Soviet Union|Procurator General]]<ref>{{cite book |author=Joseph Marie Feldbrugge, Ferdinand |title=Russian Law: The End of the Soviet System and the Role of Law |publisher=[[Martinus Nijhoff Publishers]] |year=1993 |page=205 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=JWt7MN3Dch8C |isbn=978-0-7923-2358-7 |access-date=20 June 2015 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20150512041218/http://books.google.com/books?id=JWt7MN3Dch8C&dq |archive-date=12 May 2015 |url-status=live}}</ref> and the [[Council of Ministers of the Soviet Union|Council of Ministers]] (known before 1946 as the [[Council of People's Commissars of the Soviet Union|Council of People's Commissars]]), headed by the [[Premier of the Soviet Union|Chairman]] (Premier) and managing an enormous bureaucracy responsible for the administration of the economy and society.<ref name="Benson, Shirley-2001">{{cite book |author=Benson, Shirley |title=Nikita Khrushchev and the Creation of a Superpower |publisher=[[Penn State University Press]] |year=2001 |pages=XIV |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=dQeahlZdM7sC |isbn=978-0-271-02170-6 |access-date=20 June 2015 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20150910233718/https://books.google.com/books?id=dQeahlZdM7sC&dq |archive-date=10 September 2015 |url-status=live}}</ref> State and party structures of the [[Republics of the Soviet Union|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 [[Raikom|party committees]], [[Soviet (council)|local Soviets]] and [[executive committee]]s. While the state was a ''de jure'' [[federation]] with a nominally [[Federalism|federal constitution]], the party was ''de facto'' [[Centralisation|centralised]] and [[Unitary state|unitary]].<ref>{{cite book |author1=White, Stephen |author2=J. Gill, Graeme |author3=Slider, Darrell |title=The Politics of Transition: Shaping a post-Soviet Future |publisher=Cambridge University Press |year=1993 |page=[https://archive.org/details/politicsoftransi0000whit/page/108 108] |url=https://archive.org/details/politicsoftransi0000whit |url-access=registration |isbn=978-0-521-44634-1 |access-date=20 June 2015}}</ref><ref>{{Cite web |last=Anderson |first=George |date=2007-11-22 |title=Federalism: An Introduction |url=https://forumfedorg.b-cdn.net/wp-content/uploads/2016/02/Federalism-pdf-to-press.pdf |url-status=live |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20260202171449/https://forumfedorg.b-cdn.net/wp-content/uploads/2016/02/Federalism-pdf-to-press.pdf |archive-date=2026-02-02 |access-date=2026-05-13 |website=forumfed.org |quote=The next significant wave came with new federations emerging from the collapse of communism. The communist Soviet Union, Czechoslovakia, and Yugoslavia all had nominally federal constitutions, but were in reality centrally controlled one-party regimes. However, as they democratized, their federal structures took on real political significance. With little experience of democracy and the tremendous stresses of transition, all these federations failed. However, Russia, which itself had been a federation within the old structures of the Soviet Union, did emerge as a post-communist federation. And Bosnia-Herzegovina emerged out of Yugoslavia with a federal structure, though it remains under a strong measure of international tutelage.}}</ref>

The state security police (the [[KGB]] and [[:Template:Chronology of Soviet secret police agencies|its predecessor agencies]]) played an important role in Soviet politics. It was instrumental in the [[Red Terror]] and [[Great Purge]],<ref>{{cite book |author1=P. Hoffmann, Erik |author2=Laird, Robin Frederick |title=The Soviet Polity in the Modern Era |publisher=[[Transaction Publishers]] |year=1984 |pages=313–315 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=63_obglArrMC |isbn=978-0-202-24165-4 |access-date=20 June 2015 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20150512045329/http://books.google.com/books?id=63_obglArrMC&dq |archive-date=12 May 2015 |url-status=live}}</ref> but was brought under strict party control after Stalin's death. Under [[Yuri Andropov]], the KGB engaged in the suppression of political dissent and maintained an extensive network of informers, reasserting itself as a political actor to some extent independent of the party-state structure,<ref>{{cite book |author1=P. Hoffmann, Erik |author2=Laird, Robin Frederick |title=The Soviet Polity in the Modern Era |publisher=[[Transaction Publishers]] |year=1984 |pages=315–319 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=63_obglArrMC |isbn=978-0-202-24165-4 |access-date=20 June 2015 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20150512045329/http://books.google.com/books?id=63_obglArrMC&dq |archive-date=12 May 2015 |url-status=live}}</ref> culminating in the anti-corruption campaign targeting high-ranking party officials in the late 1970s and early 1980s.<ref>{{cite journal |title=The Soviet Polity in the Modern Era |journal=[[Great Russian Encyclopedia]] |year=2005 |volume=1 |page=742}}</ref>


=== Unified power and reform ===
{{Main|Perestroika}}

[[File:RIAN archive 699872 Dushanbe riots, February 1990.jpg|thumb|Nationalist anti-government [[1990 Dushanbe riots|riots in Dushanbe]], [[Tajik Soviet Socialist Republic|Tajikistan]], 1990]]
The [[Constitution of the Soviet Union|constitution]], which was promulgated in [[1924 Soviet Constitution|1924]], [[1936 Soviet Constitution|1936]] and [[1977 Soviet Constitution|1977]], did not limit state power.<ref>{{cite book |author=Sakwa, Richard |author-link=Richard Sakwa |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=vX1U5G_xnqcC |title=Soviet Politics in Perspective |publisher=Routledge |year=1998 |isbn=978-0-415-07153-6 |page=106 |access-date=20 June 2015 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20150512042437/http://books.google.com/books?id=vX1U5G_xnqcC&dq |archive-date=12 May 2015 |url-status=live}}</ref> No [[separation of powers]] existed in the Soviet Union, as the state system was based on the [[unified power|unified state power]] of the [[Supreme state organ of power|highest organ of state authority]], that is, the [[Supreme Soviet of the Soviet Union|All-Union Supreme Soviet]] which worked under the party's leadership.<ref>{{cite book |author=Kucherov, Samuel |title=The Organs of Soviet Administration of Justice: Their History and Operation |publisher=[[Brill Publishers|Brill Archive Publishers]] |year=1970 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=ssMUAAAAIAAJ |page=31 |access-date=20 June 2015 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20150512060346/http://books.google.com/books?id=ssMUAAAAIAAJ&dq |archive-date=12 May 2015 |url-status=live}}</ref> The system was governed less by statute than by informal conventions, and no settled mechanism of leadership succession existed. Bitter and at times deadly power struggles took place in the Politburo after the deaths of Lenin<ref>{{cite book |author=Phillips, Steve |title=Lenin and the Russian Revolution |publisher=[[Heinemann (book publisher)|Heinemann]] |year=2000 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=_na0zfdhKQMC |isbn=978-0-435-32719-4 |page=71 |access-date=20 June 2015 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20150512055812/http://books.google.com/books?id=_na0zfdhKQMC&dq |archive-date=12 May 2015 |url-status=live}}</ref> and Stalin,<ref>{{cite encyclopedia |encyclopedia=[[Encyclopædia Britannica]] |year=2005 |title=Union of Soviet Socialist Republics |publisher=[[Encyclopædia Britannica, Inc.]] |page=1014}}</ref> as well as after Khrushchev's dismissal,<ref>{{cite book |author=Service, Robert |title=History of Modern Russia: From Tsarism to the Twenty-first Century |publisher=[[Penguin Books Ltd]] |year=2009 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=o8Z1QAAACAAJ |page=379 |isbn=978-0-14-103797-4 |author-link=Robert Service (historian) |access-date=20 June 2015 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20110511090135/http://books.google.com/books?id=o8Z1QAAACAAJ&dq |archive-date=11 May 2011 |url-status=live}}</ref> itself due to a decision by both the Politburo and the Central Committee.<ref name="Khrushchev, Nikita-2007" /> All leaders of the Communist Party before Gorbachev died in office, except [[Georgy Malenkov]]<ref>{{cite book |author=Polley, Martin |title=A–Z of modern Europe since 1789 |publisher=Routledge |year=2000 |url=https://archive.org/details/azofmoderneurope0000poll |url-access=registration |isbn=978-0-415-18597-4 |page=[https://archive.org/details/azofmoderneurope0000poll/page/88 88] |access-date=20 June 2015}}</ref> and Khrushchev, who were both dismissed from the party leadership amid internal struggle within the party.<ref name="Khrushchev, Nikita-2007">{{cite book |author=Khrushchev, Nikita |year=2007 |title=Memoirs of Nikita Khrushchev, Volume 3: Statesman |publisher=[[Pennsylvania State University Press]] |isbn=978-0-271-02935-1 |page=674 |author-link=Nikita Khrushchev}}</ref>

Between 1988 and 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 of the Soviet Union|Congress of People's Deputies]] was established, the majority of whose members were directly elected in competitive elections held in March 1989, the first in Soviet history. The Congress now elected the Supreme Soviet, which became a full-time parliament, and much stronger than before. For the first time since the 1920s, it refused to rubber stamp proposals from the party and Council of Ministers.<ref>{{cite web |publisher=[[Library of Congress Country Studies]] |title=Gorbachev's Reform Dilemma |url=http://countrystudies.us/russia/18.htm |access-date=16 October 2010 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20110623125043/http://countrystudies.us/russia/18.htm |archive-date=23 June 2011 |url-status=live}}</ref> 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,<ref>{{cite book |author=Polmar, Norman |title=The Naval Institute Guide to the Soviet |publisher=[[United States Naval Institute]] |year=1991 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=tkGDkpkQh-sC |isbn=978-0-87021-241-3 |page=1 |access-date=20 June 2015 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20150904015129/https://books.google.com/books?id=tkGDkpkQh-sC&dq |archive-date=4 September 2015 |url-status=live}}</ref> now renamed the [[Cabinet of Ministers of the USSR]], to himself.<ref>{{cite book |author=McCauley, Martin |title=The Rise and Fall of the Soviet Union |publisher=[[Pearson Education]] |year=2007 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=ycCZqmhhceMC |isbn=978-0-582-78465-9 |page=490 |access-date=20 June 2015 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20150904015129/https://books.google.com/books?id=ycCZqmhhceMC&dq |archive-date=4 September 2015 |url-status=live}}</ref>

Tensions grew 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 hardliners. On 19–21 August 1991, a group of hardliners staged a [[1991 Soviet coup attempt|coup attempt]]. The coup failed, and the [[State Council of the Soviet Union]] became the highest organ of state power 'in the period of transition'.<ref>{{cite web |author=[[Government of the USSR]]: [[Gorbachev, Mikhail]] |script-title=ru:УКАЗ: ПОЛОЖЕНИЕ О МИНИСТЕРСТВЕ ЮСТИЦИИ СССР |trans-title=Law: About state governing bodies of USSR in a transition period on the bodies of state authority and administration of the USSR in Transition |url=http://www.sssr.su/zopp.html |date=21 March 1972 |publisher=sssr.su |language=ru |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20130425162517/http://www.sssr.su/zopp.html |archive-date=25 April 2013 |url-status=live}}</ref> Gorbachev resigned as General Secretary, only remaining President for the final months of the existence of the USSR.<ref>{{cite book |author=Vincent Daniels, Robert |title=A Documentary History of Communism in Russia: From Lenin to Gorbachev |publisher=[[University Press of New England]] (UPNE) |year=1993 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=gTIZ2dvDKF0C |isbn=978-0-87451-616-6 |page=388 |access-date=20 June 2015 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20150512041324/http://books.google.com/books?id=gTIZ2dvDKF0C&dq |archive-date=12 May 2015 |url-status=live}}</ref>

=== Judicial system ===
{{Main|Law of the Soviet Union}}

{{See also|Socialist law}}
The judiciary was not independent of the [[supreme state organ of power]], and the Supreme Court as the [[supreme judicial organ]] supervised the lower courts ([[People's Court (Soviet Union)|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 used the [[inquisitorial system]] of [[Roman law]], where the judge, [[Procurator General of the Soviet Union|procurator]], and defence attorney collaborate to "establish the truth".<ref>{{cite web |author=Encyclopædia Britannica |url=https://www.britannica.com/EBchecked/topic/288956/inquisitorial-procedure |title=Inquisitorial procedure (law) – Britannica Online Encyclopedia |publisher=[[Encyclopædia Britannica, Inc.]] |access-date=30 October 2010 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20101222225224/https://www.britannica.com/EBchecked/topic/288956/inquisitorial-procedure |archive-date=22 December 2010 |url-status=live |author-link=Encyclopædia Britannica}}</ref>

===Human rights===
{{main|Human rights in the Soviet Union}}

[[Human rights]] in the Soviet Union were severely limited. The Soviet Union was a [[totalitarian state]] from [[History of the Soviet Union (1927–53)|1927 until 1953]]<ref>{{Cite web |title=totalitarianism {{!}} Definition, Examples, & Facts |url=https://www.britannica.com/topic/totalitarianism |access-date=3 January 2021 |website=Encyclopedia Britannica |language=en}}</ref><ref>{{Cite book |title=Rutland, Peter (1993). The Politics of Economic Stagnation in the Soviet Union: The Role of Local Party Organs in Economic Management |year=1993 |publisher=[[Cambridge University Press]] |page=9 |isbn=978-0-521-39241-9 |quote=after 1953 ...This was still an oppressive regime, but not a totalitarian one."}}</ref><ref>{{cite book |last1=Krupnik |first1=Igor |chapter=Soviet Cultural and Ethnic Policies Towards Jews: A Legacy Reassessed |pages=67–86 |editor-first1=Yaacov |editor-last1=Ro'i |title=Jews and Jewish Life in Russia and the Soviet Union |date=2016 |doi=10.4324/9781315036205 |isbn=978-1-135-20510-2 |quote-page=70 |quote=The era of 'social engineering' in the Soviet Union ended with the death of Stalin in 1953 or soon after; and that was the close of the totalitarian regime itself. }}</ref><ref>{{Cite book |title=von Beyme, Klaus (2014). On Political Culture, Cultural Policy, Art and Politics |date=19 November 2013 |publisher=Springer |page=65 |isbn=978-3-319-01559-0 |quote=The Soviet Union after the death of Stalin moved from totalitarianism to authoritarian rule.}}</ref> and a [[one-party]] state until 1990.<ref>{{Cite web |date=10 October 2017 |script-title=ru:Закон СССР от 14 марта 1990 г. N 1360-I "Об учреждении поста Президента СССР и внесении изменений и дополнений в Конституцию (Основной Закон) СССР" |language=ru |title=Zakon SSSR ot 14 marta 1990 g. N 1360-I "Ob uchrezhdenii posta Prezidenta SSSR i vnesenii izmeneniy i dopolneniy v Konstitutsiyu (Osnovnoy Zakon) SSSR" |trans-title=Law of the USSR of March 14, 1990 N 1360-I "On the establishment of the post of President of the USSR and amendments and additions to the Constitution (Basic Law) of the USSR" |url=http://constitution.garant.ru/history/ussr-rsfsr/1977/zakony/185465/ |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20171010070843/http://constitution.garant.ru/history/ussr-rsfsr/1977/zakony/185465/ |url-status=dead |archive-date=10 October 2017 |access-date=4 January 2021}}</ref> [[Freedom of speech]] was suppressed and dissent was punished. Independent political activities were not tolerated, whether these involved participation in free [[labour union]]s, private [[corporation]]s, independent churches or opposition [[political parties]]. The [[freedom of movement]] within and especially outside the country was limited. The state restricted rights of citizens to [[private property]].

{{Excerpt|Human rights in the Soviet Union|Soviet concept of human rights and legal system|this=The remainder of this section is}}

=== Foreign relations ===
{{Main|Foreign relations of the Soviet Union}}

[[File:President Ford informally concludes the Vladivostok Summit - NARA - 7062568.jpg|thumb|[[Gerald Ford]], [[Andrei Gromyko]], [[Leonid Brezhnev]] and [[Henry Kissinger]] speaking informally at the [[Vladivostok Summit]] in 1974]]
[[File:RIAN archive 330109 Soviet President Mikhail Gorbachev and U.S. President George Bush.jpg|thumb|Mikhail Gorbachev and [[George H. W. Bush]] signing bilateral documents during Gorbachev's official visit to the United States in 1990]]
During his rule, Stalin always made the final policy decisions. Otherwise, Soviet foreign policy was set by the commission on the Foreign Policy of the Central Committee of the [[Communist Party of the Soviet Union]], or by the party's highest body the [[Politburo of the Communist Party of the Soviet Union|Politburo]]. Operations were handled by the separate [[Ministry of Foreign Affairs (Soviet Union)|Ministry of Foreign Affairs]]. It was known as the People's Commissariat for Foreign Affairs (or Narkomindel), until 1946. The most influential spokesmen were [[Georgy Chicherin]], [[Maxim Litvinov]], [[Vyacheslav Molotov]], [[Andrey Vyshinsky]], and [[Andrei Gromyko]]. Intellectuals were based in the [[Moscow State Institute of International Relations]].<ref>{{cite book |last=Ulam |first=Adam B. |author-link=Adam Ulam |title=Expansion and coexistence: the history of Soviet foreign policy, 1917–73 |date=1974}}</ref>
* Comintern (1919–1943), or [[Communist International]], was an international communist organization based in the Kremlin that advocated [[world communism]]. The Comintern intended to 'struggle by all available means, including armed force, for the overthrow of the international bourgeoisie and the creation of an international Soviet republic as a transition stage to the complete abolition of the state'.<ref>{{cite book |first=Harold Henry |last=Fisher |title=The Communist Revolution: An Outline of Strategy and Tactics |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=b2umAAAAIAAJ&pg=PA13 |year=1955 |publisher=[[Stanford University Press]] |page=13}}</ref> It was abolished as a conciliatory measure toward Britain and the United States.<ref>Duncan Hallas, ''The Comintern: The History of the Third International'' (1985).</ref>
* [[Comecon]], the Council for Mutual Economic Assistance ({{langx|ru|Совет Экономической Взаимопомощи}}, {{translit|ru|Sovet Ekonomicheskoy Vzaimopomoshchi}}, {{lang|ru|СЭВ}}, {{translit|ru|SEV}}) was an economic organization from 1949 to 1991 under Soviet control that comprised the countries of the Eastern Bloc along with several communist states elsewhere in the world. Moscow was concerned about the [[Marshall Plan]], and Comecon was meant to prevent countries in the Soviets' sphere of influence from moving towards that of the Americans and Southeast Asia. Comecon was the Eastern Bloc's reply to the formation in Western Europe of the Organization for European Economic Co-Operation (OEEC),<ref>"Germany (East)", Library of Congress Country Study, [http://memory.loc.gov/frd/cs/germany_east/gx_appnb.html Appendix B: The Council for Mutual Economic Assistance] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20090501075842/http://memory.loc.gov/frd/cs/germany_east/gx_appnb.html |date=1 May 2009 }}</ref><ref>{{cite book |first=Michael C. |last=Kaser |title=Comecon: Integration problems of the planned economies |publisher=[[Oxford University Press]] |date=1967 |page=}}</ref>
* The [[Warsaw Pact]] was a [[collective defence]] alliance formed in 1955 among the USSR and its [[satellite state]]s in Eastern Europe during the Cold War.<ref name="Reinalda-2009">{{cite book |first=Bob |last=Reinalda |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=Ln19AgAAQBAJ&pg=PA369 |title=Routledge History of International Organizations: From 1815 to the Present Day |year=2009 |publisher=[[Routledge]] |isbn=978-1-134-02405-6 |page=369 |access-date=1 January 2016 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20160101212444/https://books.google.com/books?id=Ln19AgAAQBAJ&pg=PA369 |archive-date=1 January 2016 |url-status=live}}</ref><ref>{{cite book |first=Amos |last=Yoder |url=https://archive.org/details/communismintrans00yode |title=Communism in Transition: The End of the Soviet Empires |publisher=[[Taylor & Francis]] |year=1993 |isbn=978-0-8448-1738-5 |page=[https://archive.org/details/communismintrans00yode/page/58 58] |access-date=1 January 2016 |url-access=registration}}</ref> The Warsaw Pact was the military complement to the Comecon, the regional economic organization for the [[Socialist state (communism)|socialist state]]s of Central and Eastern Europe. The Warsaw Pact was created in reaction to the integration of [[West Germany]] into [[NATO]].{{sfn|Crump|2015|p=}}<ref name="Reinalda-2009" /> Although nominally a "defensive" alliance, the Pact's primary function was to safeguard the [[Soviet Empire|Soviet Union's hegemony]] over its [[Soviet Bloc|Eastern European]] satellites, with the Pact's only direct military actions having been the invasions of its own member states to keep them from breaking away.<ref>{{Cite web |url=https://www.history.com/this-day-in-history/warsaw-pact-ends |title=Warsaw Pact ends |website=HISTORY|date=13 November 2009 }}</ref><ref name="Reinalda-2009" />{{sfn|Crump|2015|pp=1, 17}}
* The [[Cominform]] (1947–1956), informally the Communist Information Bureau and officially the Information Bureau of the Communist and Workers' Parties, was the first official agency of the international Marxist-Leninist movement since the dissolution of the Comintern in 1943. Its role was to coordinate actions between Marxist-Leninist parties under Soviet direction. Stalin used it to order Western European communist parties to abandon their exclusively parliamentarian line and instead concentrate on politically impeding the operations of the [[Marshall Plan]], the U.S. program of rebuilding Europe after the war and developing its economy.<ref>Michał Jerzy Zacharias, "The Beginnings of the Cominform: The Policy of the Soviet Union towards European Communist Parties in Connection with the Political Initiatives of the United States of America in 1947." ''Acta Poloniae Historica'' 78 (1998): 161–200. {{ISSN|0001-6829}}</ref> It also coordinated international aid to Marxist-Leninist insurgents during the Greek Civil War in 1947–1949.<ref>{{cite journal |first=Nikos |last=Marantzidis |title=The Greek Civil War (1944–1949) and the International Communist System |journal=[[Journal of Cold War Studies]] |volume=15 |number=4 |date=2013 |pages=25–54 |doi=10.1162/JCWS_a_00394}}</ref> It expelled Yugoslavia in 1948 after [[Josip Broz Tito]] insisted on an independent program. Its newspaper, ''For a Lasting Peace, for a People's Democracy!'', promoted Stalin's positions. The Cominform's concentration on Europe meant a deemphasis on world revolution in Soviet foreign policy. By enunciating a uniform ideology, it allowed the constituent parties to focus on personalities rather than issues.<ref>{{cite journal |first=Heinz |last=Timmermann |title=The cominform effects on Soviet foreign policy |journal=[[Studies in Comparative Communism]] |volume=18 |number=1 |date=1985 |pages=3–23 |doi=10.1016/0039-3592(85)90053-5}}</ref>

==== Early policies (1919–1939) ====
{{further|International relations (1919–1939)#Soviet Union}}
[[File:Soviet propaganda social-fascism.jpg|thumb|210px|Soviet propaganda poster denouncing "[[social fascism]]," 1932.]]
[[File:Bundesarchiv Bild 183-H27337, Moskau, Stalin und Ribbentrop im Kreml.jpg|thumb|220px|[[Joseph Stalin]] and [[Joachim von Ribbentrop]] exchanging a handshake after the signing of the [[Molotov–Ribbentrop Pact]] in August 1939.]]
The Marxist-Leninist leadership of the Soviet Union intensely debated foreign policy issues and changed directions several times. Even after Stalin assumed dictatorial control in the late 1920s, there were debates, and he frequently changed positions.<ref>Ulam, ''Expansion and Coexistence'' (1974) pp. 111–179.</ref>

During the country's early period, it was assumed that Communist revolutions would break out soon in every major industrial country, and it was the Russian responsibility to assist them. The [[Comintern]] was the weapon of choice. A few revolutions did break out, but they were quickly suppressed (the longest lasting one was in Hungary)—the [[Hungarian Soviet Republic]]—lasted only from 21 March 1919 to 1 August 1919. The Russian Bolsheviks were in no position to give any help.

By 1921, Lenin, Trotsky, and Stalin realized that capitalism had stabilized itself in Europe and there would not be any widespread revolutions anytime soon. It became the duty of the Russian Bolsheviks to protect what they had in Russia, and avoid military confrontations that might destroy their bridgehead. Russia was now a pariah state, along with Germany. The two came to terms in 1922 with the [[Treaty of Rapallo, 1922|Treaty of Rapallo]] that settled long-standing grievances. At the same time, the two countries secretly set up training programs for the illegal German army and air force operations at hidden camps in the USSR.<ref>{{cite journal |last1=Mueller |first1=Gordon H. |title=Rapallo Reexamined: A New Look at Germany's Secret Military Collaboration with Russia in 1922 |journal=Military Affairs |date=1976 |volume=40 |issue=3 |pages=109–117 |doi=10.2307/1986524 |jstor=1986524 }}</ref>

Moscow eventually stopped threatening other states, and instead worked to open peaceful relationships in terms of trade, and diplomatic recognition. The United Kingdom dismissed the warnings of [[Winston Churchill]] and a few others about a continuing Marxist-Leninist threat, and opened trade relations and ''de facto'' diplomatic recognition in 1922. There was hope for a settlement of the pre-war Tsarist debts, but it was repeatedly postponed. Formal recognition came when the new [[Labour Party (UK)|Labour Party]] came to power in 1924.<ref>Christine A. White, ''British and American Commercial Relations with Soviet Russia, 1918–1924'' (UNC Press Books, 2017).{{isbn?}}{{pn|date=May 2026}}</ref> All the other countries followed suit in opening trade relations. [[Henry Ford]] opened large-scale business relations with the Soviets in the late 1920s, hoping that it would lead to long-term peace. Finally, in 1933, the United States officially recognized the USSR, a decision backed by the public opinion and especially by US business interests that expected an opening of a new profitable market.<ref>{{Cite journal |jstor=42860014 |title=American Business and the Recognition of the Soviet Union |journal=[[Social Science Quarterly]] |volume=52 |issue=2 |pages=349–368 |last1=Wilson |first1=J. H. |year=1971}}</ref>

In the late 1920s and early 1930s, Stalin ordered Marxist-Leninist parties across the world to strongly oppose non-Marxist political parties, labour unions or other organizations on the left, which they labelled [[social fascists]]. In the usage of the Soviet Union, and of the Comintern and its affiliated parties in this period, the epithet ''[[Fascist (insult)|fascist]]'' was used to describe capitalist society in general and virtually any [[anti-Soviet]] or anti-Stalinist activity or opinion.<ref>{{cite book |last=Richter |first=Michael |year=2006 |chapter=Die doppelte Diktatur: Erfahrungen mit Diktatur in der DDR und Auswirkungen auf das Verhältnis zur Diktatur heute |language=de |trans-chapter=The double dictatorship: Experiences with dictatorship in the GDR and effects on the relationship to dictatorship today |title=Lasten diktatorischer Vergangenheit – Herausforderungen demokratischer Gegenwart |trans-title=Burdens of a dictatorial past – challenges of a democratic present |editor1-last=Besier |editor1-first=Gerhard |editor2-last=Stoklosa |editor2-first=Katarzyna |publisher=LIT Verlag |pages=195–208 |isbn=978-3-8258-8789-6}}</ref> Stalin reversed himself in 1934 with the [[Popular Front]] program that called on all Marxist parties to join with all [[anti-Fascist]] political, labour, and organizational forces that were opposed to [[fascism]], especially of the [[Nazi]] variety.<ref>Chris Ward, ''Stalin's Russia'' (2nd ed. 1999) pp. 148–188.</ref><ref>Barbara Jelavich, ''St.Petersburg and Moscow: Czarist and Soviet Foreign Policy, 1814–1974'' (1974) pp. 342–346.</ref>

The rapid growth of power in Nazi Germany encouraged both Paris and Moscow to form a military alliance, and the [[Franco-Soviet Treaty of Mutual Assistance]] was signed in May 1935. A firm believer in collective security, Stalin's foreign minister [[Maxim Litvinov]] worked very hard to form a closer relationship with France and Britain.<ref>Haslam, Jonathan (1984). ''The Soviet Union and the Struggle for Collective Security in Europe, 1933–1939''. New York: St. Martin's Press. pp. 52–53. {{ISBN|978-0-333-30050-3}}</ref>

In 1939, half a year after the [[Munich Agreement]], the USSR attempted to form an anti-Nazi alliance with France and Britain.<ref>{{cite book |first=Louise Grace |last=Shaw |title=The British Political Elite and the Soviet Union, 1937–1939 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=iAmDj-U-1fAC&pg=PA103 |year=2003 |page=103 |publisher=[[Psychology Press]] |isbn=978-0-7146-5398-3 |access-date=17 September 2019 |archive-date=17 June 2020 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20200617200516/https://books.google.com/books?id=iAmDj-U-1fAC&pg=PA103 |url-status=live}}</ref> [[Adolf Hitler]] proposed a better deal, which would give the USSR control over much of Eastern Europe through the [[Molotov–Ribbentrop Pact]]. In September, Germany invaded Poland, and the USSR also invaded later that month, resulting in the partition of Poland. In response, Britain and France declared war on Germany, marking the beginning of [[World War II]].<ref>D.C. Watt, ''How War Came: the Immediate Origins of the Second World War 1938–1939'' (1989).</ref>

==== World War II (1939–1945) ====
{{Main|Causes of World War II|Diplomatic history of World War II#Soviet Union}}

Up until his death in 1953, [[Joseph Stalin]] controlled all foreign relations of the Soviet Union during the [[interwar period]]. Despite the increasing build-up of [[Nazi Germany|Germany]]'s war machine and the outbreak of the [[Second Sino-Japanese War]], the Soviet Union did not cooperate with any other nation, choosing to follow its own path.<ref>{{Cite book |last=Beloff |first=Max |title=The Foreign Policy Of Soviet Russia (1929–1941), Volume Two |publisher=[[Oxford University Press]] |year=1949 |page=2}}</ref> However, after [[Operation Barbarossa]], the Soviet Union's priorities changed. Despite previous conflict with the [[United Kingdom]], [[Vyacheslav Molotov]] dropped his post war border demands.<ref>{{cite web |url=https://www.e-ir.info/2011/11/23/the-evolution-of-stalins-foreign-policy-during-word-war-two/ |website=E-International Relations |title=The Evolution of Stalin's Foreign Policy during World War Two |last=Strachan |first=Frederick |date=23 November 2011 |access-date=12 February 2022 |archive-date=13 February 2022 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20220213005104/https://www.e-ir.info/2011/11/23/the-evolution-of-stalins-foreign-policy-during-word-war-two/ |url-status=live}}</ref>

==== Cold War (1945–1991) ====
{{Main|Origins of the Cold War|Cold War}}

The [[Cold War]] was a period of [[geopolitical]] tension between the [[United States]] and the Soviet Union and their respective allies, the [[Western Bloc]] and the [[Eastern Bloc]], which began following [[World War II]] in 1945. The term ''[[Cold war (general term)|cold war]]'' is used because there was no large-scale fighting directly between the two [[superpowers]], but they each supported major regional conflicts known as [[proxy war]]s. The conflict was based around the ideological and geopolitical struggle for global influence by these two superpowers, following their temporary [[Allies of World War II|alliance]] and [[Allied-occupied Germany|victory]] against [[Nazi Germany]] in 1945. Aside from the [[Nuclear arms race|nuclear arsenal development]] and conventional military deployment, the struggle for dominance was expressed via indirect means such as [[psychological warfare]], propaganda campaigns, [[Cold War espionage|espionage]], far-reaching [[Economic sanctions|embargoes]], rivalry at [[Politics and sports|sports events]] and technological competitions such as the [[Space Race]].

=== Administrative divisions ===
[[File:Структура СССР.jpg|thumb|Structure of the Union of the Soviet Socialist Republics (1925)]]
{{Main|Subdivisions of the Soviet Union|Soviet republic (system of government)|Republics of the Soviet Union}}

Constitutionally, the USSR was a federation of constituent Union Republics, which were either unitary states, such as [[Ukrainian Soviet Socialist Republic|Ukraine]] or [[Byelorussian Soviet Socialist Republic|Byelorussia]] (SSRs), or federations, such as [[Russian Soviet Federative Socialist Republic|Russia]] or [[Transcaucasian Socialist Federative Soviet Republic|Transcaucasia]] (SFSRs),<ref name="Sakwa" /> all four being the founding republics who signed the [[Treaty on the Creation of the USSR]] in December 1922. In 1924, during the [[National delimitation in the Soviet Union|national delimitation]] in Central Asia, [[Uzbek Soviet Socialist Republic|Uzbekistan]] and [[Turkmen Soviet Socialist Republic|Turkmenistan]] were formed from parts of Russia's [[Turkestan ASSR]] and two Soviet dependencies, the [[Khorezm People's Soviet Republic|Khorezm]] and [[Bukharan People's Soviet Republic|Bukharan PSPs]]. In 1929, [[Tajik Soviet Socialist Republic|Tajikistan]] was split off from the Uzbekistan SSR. With the constitution of 1936, the Transcaucasian SFSR was dissolved, resulting in its constituent republics of [[Armenian Soviet Socialist Republic|Armenia]], [[Georgian Soviet Socialist Republic|Georgia]] and [[Azerbaijan Soviet Socialist Republic|Azerbaijan]] being elevated to Union Republics, while [[Kazakh Soviet Socialist Republic|Kazakhstan]] and [[Kirghiz Soviet Socialist Republic|Kirghizia]] were split off from the Russian SFSR, resulting in the same status.<ref>{{cite book |last=Adams |first=Simon |title=Russian Republics |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=LyqIDCc-cSsC |year=2005 |page=21 |publisher=Black Rabbit Books |isbn=978-1-58340-606-9 |access-date=20 June 2015 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20150512041101/http://books.google.com/books?id=LyqIDCc-cSsC&dq |archive-date=12 May 2015 |url-status=live}}</ref> In August 1940, [[Moldavian Soviet Socialist Republic|Moldavia]] was formed from parts of Ukraine and [[Soviet occupation of Bessarabia and northern Bukovina|Soviet-occupied Bessarabia]], and Ukrainian SSR. [[Estonian Soviet Socialist Republic|Estonia]], [[Latvian Soviet Socialist Republic|Latvia]] and [[Lithuanian Soviet Socialist Republic|Lithuania]] were also [[Soviet occupation of the Baltic states (1940)|annexed by the Soviet Union]] and turned into SSRs, which was [[State continuity of the Baltic states|not recognized by most of the international community]] and was considered an [[Occupation of the Baltic states|illegal occupation]]. After the [[Soviet invasion of Finland]], the [[Karelo-Finnish SSR]] was formed on annexed territory as a Union Republic in March 1940 and then incorporated into Russia as the [[Karelian ASSR]] in 1956. Between July 1956 and September 1991, there were 15 union republics (see map below).<ref>{{cite book |last=Feldbrugge |first=Ferdinand Joseph Maria |title=Russian Law: The Rnd of the Soviet system and the Role of Law |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=JWt7MN3Dch8C |year=1993 |page=94 |publisher=[[Martinus Nijhoff Publishers]] |isbn=978-0-7923-2358-7 |access-date=20 June 2015 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20150512041218/http://books.google.com/books?id=JWt7MN3Dch8C&dq |archive-date=12 May 2015 |url-status=live}}</ref>

{{USSR Map}}

== Military ==
{{Main|Soviet Armed Forces}}

{{See also|Red Army|Soviet Ground Forces|Soviet Navy|Soviet Air Forces|Lists of Heroes of the Soviet Union|Military history of the Soviet Union}}
[[File:RSD-10 2009 G1.jpg|thumb|A medium-range [[RSD-10|SS-20]] non-[[ICBM]] ballistic missile, the deployment of which by the Soviet Union in the late 1970s launched a new [[arms race]] in Europe when NATO responded by deploying [[Pershing II]] missiles in [[West Germany]], among other things]]
Under the Military Law of September 1925, the [[Soviet Armed Forces]] consisted of the [[Red Army|Land Forces]], the [[Red Army Air Force]], the [[Soviet Navy|Navy]], [[Joint State Political Directorate]] (OGPU) and the [[Internal Troops]].<ref>Scott and Scott, The Armed Forces of the Soviet Union, Westview Press, 1979, p. 13</ref> The OGPU later became independent and in 1934 joined the [[NKVD]] secret police, and so its internal troops were under the joint leadership of the defense and internal commissariats. After World War II, [[Strategic Missile Forces]] (1959), [[Soviet Air Defence Forces|Air Defense Forces]] (1948) and National Civil Defense Forces (1970) were formed, which ranked first, third, and sixth in the official Soviet system of importance (ground forces were second, Air Force fourth, and Navy fifth).

The army had the greatest political influence. In 1989, there served two million soldiers divided between 150 motorized and 52 tank divisions. Until the early 1960s, the Soviet navy was a rather small military branch, but after the [[Cuban Missile Crisis]], under the leadership of [[Sergei Gorshkov]], it expanded significantly. It became known for its submarine fleet. In 1989, there served 500,000 men. The [[Soviet Air Force]] focused on a fleet of [[strategic bomber]]s and during war situation was to eradicate enemy infrastructure and nuclear capacity. The air force also had a number of [[Fighter aircraft|fighters]] and tactical bombers to support the army in the war. Strategic missile forces had more than 1,400 [[intercontinental ballistic missile]]s (ICBMs), deployed between 28 bases and 300 command centers.

After 1945, the Soviet Ground Forces suppressed several uprisings in East Europe and was involved in many other operations abroad.<ref name="GDP" /><ref>Scott and Scott (1979) p. 305</ref><ref>{{cite web |title=October 30, 1961 – The Tsar Bomba: CTBTO Preparatory Commission |url=https://www.ctbto.org/specials/testing-times/30-october-1961-the-tsar-bomba |url-status=live |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20160319201753/http://ctbto.org/specials/testing-times/30-october-1961-the-tsar-bomba/ |archive-date=19 March 2016 |access-date=29 August 2018}}</ref> These included the suppression of the [[East German uprising of 1953|uprising in East Germany]] (1953), [[Hungarian Revolution of 1956|Hungarian revolution]] (1956) and the [[invasion of Czechoslovakia]] (1968). The Soviet Union also began the [[Soviet–Afghan War|war in Afghanistan between 1979 and 1989]].

In the Soviet Union, general [[conscription]] applied, meaning all able-bodied males aged 18 and older were drafted in the armed forces.<ref>{{cite web |url=https://www.prlib.ru/history/619624 |title=Принят закон "О всеобщей воинской обязанности" |translator-last=A law on the mandatory military draft |publisher=prlib.ru |date=12 October 1967}}</ref>

=== Weapons of mass destruction ===
{{Main|Soviet Union and weapons of mass destruction}}
By the end of the Cold War, the Soviet Armed Forces maintained the world's largest arsenals of [[Weapon of mass destruction|nuclear, chemical, and biological weapons]]. As dissolution seemed imminent, the United States initiated the [[Nunn–Lugar Cooperative Threat Reduction]] program to dismantle much of this Soviet infrastructure and secure its personnel and materials.<ref>{{Cite web |last=Humphries |first=Rowan |date=2022-03-29 |title=Fact Sheet: The Nunn-Lugar Cooperative Threat Reduction Program |url=https://armscontrolcenter.org/fact-sheet-the-nunn-lugar-cooperative-threat-reduction-program-2/ |access-date=2026-05-04 |website=Center for Arms Control and Non-Proliferation |language=en-US}}</ref>

The Soviet Union had the largest [[Nuclear weapon|nuclear weapons]] arsenal ever, peaking at over 40,000 warheads in 1986.<ref>{{Cite web |title=Nuclear Notebook |url=https://thebulletin.org/nuclear-notebook/ |access-date=2026-05-04 |website=Bulletin of the Atomic Scientists |language=en-US}}</ref> The country was the second to develop nuclear weapons, conducting its first test [[RDS-1]] in 1949, four years after the US [[Trinity (nuclear test)|Trinity]] test.<ref>{{Cite web |title=Joe 1 {{!}} Soviet Union Nuclear Tests {{!}} Nuclear Testing {{!}} Photographs {{!}} Media Gallery |url=https://www.atomicarchive.com/media/photographs/testing/soviet/joe-1-3.html |access-date=2026-05-04 |website=www.atomicarchive.com}}</ref> Its primary nuclear testing sites were [[Semipalatinsk Test Site|Semipalatinsk]], [[Novaya Zemlya#Nuclear testing|Novaya Zemlya]], and [[Kapustin Yar]].<ref>{{cite journal |last1=Wendel |first1=Cato Christian |last2=Fifield |first2=L. Keith |last3=Oughton |first3=Deborah H. |last4=Lind |first4=Ole Christian |last5=Skipperud |first5=Lindis |last6=Bartnicki |first6=Jerzy |last7=Tims |first7=Stephen G. |last8=Høibråten |first8=Steinar |last9=Salbu |first9=Brit |title=Long-range tropospheric transport of uranium and plutonium weapons fallout from Semipalatinsk nuclear test site to Norway |journal=Environment International |date=September 2013 |volume=59 |pages=92–102 |doi=10.1016/j.envint.2013.05.017 |pmid=23792418 |bibcode=2013EnInt..59...92W |doi-access=free }}</ref> By 1991, it deployed over 10,000 [[strategic nuclear weapons]] in its [[nuclear triad]]: [[Strategic Rocket Forces]]' silo-based and road-mobile [[Intercontinental ballistic missile|intercontinental ballistic missiles]], the [[Soviet Navy]]'s [[Submarine-launched ballistic missile|submarine-launched ballistic missiles]], and [[Soviet Long Range Aviation|Long Range Aviation]]'s [[Tu-95MS]] and [[Tupolev Tu-160|Tu-160]] bombers. Another 11,000 [[tactical nuclear weapons]] were assigned to land and naval tactical aircraft, missiles, [[nuclear artillery]], and [[Anti-submarine weapon|anti-submarine weapons]].<ref name=":2">{{Cite web |title=SIPRI Yearbook 1991 {{!}} SIPRI|url=https://www.sipri.org/yearbook/1991|access-date=2025-12-20|website=www.sipri.org|language=en}}</ref>

The [[Soviet chemical weapons program]] became the largest in world history.<ref>{{Cite web |date=2016-09-19|title=Moscow 'Destroys 95 Percent' Of Its Chemical Weapons|url=https://www.voanews.com/a/russia-chemical-weapons-/6741443.html|access-date=2025-12-10|website=Voice of America|language=en}}</ref> Russia in 1993 declared 39,967 tons of [[chemical weapons]].<ref name="armscontrol.org">{{Cite web|title=Chemical and Biological Weapons Status at a Glance {{!}} Arms Control Association|url=https://www.armscontrol.org/factsheets/chemical-and-biological-weapons-status-glance|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20250905063553/https://www.armscontrol.org/factsheets/chemical-and-biological-weapons-status-glance|archive-date=5 September 2025|access-date=2025-12-10|website=www.armscontrol.org|language=en|url-status=live}}</ref> The program produced [[Novichok]], [[VR (nerve agent)|VR]], [[sarin]], and [[soman]] [[Nerve agent|nerve agents]], as well as [[lewisite]], [[Mustard gas|mustard]], and [[phosgene]], and others.<ref>{{Cite book |last=Langford|first=Roland E.|title=Introduction to weapons of mass destruction: radiological, chemical, and biological|date=2004|publisher=Wiley-Interscience|isbn=978-0-471-46560-7|location=Hoboken, N.J|pages=221}}</ref><ref>{{Cite web|title=Russia Destroys Last Chemical Weapons {{!}} Arms Control Association|url=https://www.armscontrol.org/act/2017-11/news/russia-destroys-last-chemical-weapons|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20250926212937/https://www.armscontrol.org/act/2017-11/news/russia-destroys-last-chemical-weapons|archive-date=26 September 2025|access-date=2025-12-07|website=www.armscontrol.org|language=en|url-status=live}}</ref> By comparison, 27,770 metric tons were declared for the [[United States chemical weapons program]] in 1997.<ref name="armscontrol.org2">{{Cite web|title=Chemical and Biological Weapons Status at a Glance {{!}} Arms Control Association|url=https://www.armscontrol.org/factsheets/chemical-and-biological-weapons-status-glance|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20250905063553/https://www.armscontrol.org/factsheets/chemical-and-biological-weapons-status-glance|archive-date=5 September 2025|access-date=2025-12-10|website=www.armscontrol.org|language=en|url-status=live}}</ref> By the time of the Soviet Union's dissolution in 1991, its research institute, [[GosNIIOKhT]], employed around 6,000 people across Russia and Uzbekistan.<ref name="ntichem2">{{cite news |date=19 June 2015|title=Russia Chemical Overview|url=https://www.nti.org/analysis/articles/russia-chemical/|access-date=2023-12-11|publisher=Nuclear Threat Initiative}}</ref><ref name="fedorov942">{{cite news |last1=Fedorov|first1=Lev Aleksandrovich|date=27 July 1994|title=Chemical Weapons in Russia: History, Ecology, Politics|url=https://nuke.fas.org/guide/russia/cbw/jptac008_l94001.htm|access-date=2023-12-11|publisher=Center of Ecological Policy of Russia}}</ref> Novichok agents were designed to be undetectable and unprotectable by [[NATO]] equipment, safer to handle, and circumvent the forthcoming [[Chemical Weapons Convention]] list of controlled [[Precursor (chemistry)|precursors]].<ref name=":0">{{cite book |last1=Greaves|first1=Ian|title=Responding to Terrorism. A Medical Handbook|last2=Hunt|first2=Paul|publisher=Elsevier|year=2010|isbn=978-0-08-045043-8|pages=233–344|chapter=Ch. 5 Chemical Agents|doi=10.1016/B978-0-08-045043-8.00005-2|quote=The Novichok class of agents were reportedly developed in an attempt to circumvent the Chemical Weapons Treaty (chemical weapons are banned on the basis of chemical structure and therefore a new chemical agent is not subject to past treaties). They have reportedly been engineered to be undetectable by standard detection equipment and to defeat standard chemical protective gear...Novichok agents may consist of two separate 'non-toxic' components that, when mixed, become the active nerve agent...The binary concept—mixing or storing two less toxic chemicals and creating the nerve agent within the weapon—was safer during storage.}}</ref><ref>{{Harvnb|Salem|Katz|2014|pp=498–499}}</ref><ref>{{Harvnb|Kendall|Presley|Austin|Smith|2008|p=136}}</ref>

The [[Soviet biological weapons program]] was the world's largest, longest, and most sophisticated [[biological warfare]] project.<ref name=":02">{{cite book |last1=Leitenberg |first1=Milton |last2=Zilinskas |first2=Raymond A. |last3=Kuhn |first3=Jens H. |chapter=Conclusion |pages=698–712 |doi=10.2307/j.ctt2jbscf.30 |jstor=j.ctt2jbscf.30 |title=The Soviet Biological Weapons Program: A History |date=2012 |publisher=Harvard University Press |isbn=978-0-674-04770-9 }}</ref> It weaponized and stockpiled the [[Biological agent|biological agents]] that cause [[anthrax]], [[Plague (disease)|plague]], [[tularemia]], [[smallpox]], [[botulism]] and others.<ref name=":3">{{cite journal |last1=Smithson |first1=Amy E. |title=Factors in illicit bioweapons programs: case studies of the Soviet Union/Russia and Iraq |journal=Frontiers in Political Science |date=12 November 2025 |volume=7 |article-number=1654084 |doi=10.3389/fpos.2025.1654084 |doi-access=free }}</ref> [[Genetic engineering]] improved agent stability and [[antibiotic resistance]].<ref>{{Cite web |title=Mysteries of the Soviet Biological Weapons Program |url=https://blog.nuclearsecrecy.com/2012/07/23/mysteries-of-the-soviet-biological-weapons-program/ |access-date=2026-05-04 |website=Restricted Data: A Nuclear History Blog |language=en-US}}</ref> A civilian cover organization named ''[[Biopreparat]]'' operated 40 to 50 military-purposed biological research facilities. An [[Biological warfare#Anti-agriculture|anti-agriculture]] program, ''[[Ministry of Agriculture and Food (Soviet Union)#Role in offensive Soviet biological warfare programme|Ekologiya]]'', targeted crops and livestock.<ref>{{cite book |last1=Rimmington |first1=Anthony |title=The Soviet Union's Agricultural Biowarfare Programme |date=2021 |doi=10.1007/978-3-030-73843-3 |isbn=978-3-030-73842-6 }}{{pn|date=May 2026}}</ref> The program employed a peak of 65,000 people and annually produced, for example, 100 tons of smallpox. The [[Sverdlovsk anthrax leak]], which led to at least 68 deaths, began to reveal the extent of the program,<ref>{{cite journal |last1=Meselson |first1=Matthew |last2=Guillemin |first2=Jeanne |last3=Hugh-Jones |first3=Martin |last4=Langmuir |first4=Alexander |last5=Popova |first5=Ilona |last6=Shelokov |first6=Alexis |last7=Yampolskaya |first7=Olga |title=The Sverdlovsk Anthrax Outbreak of 1979 |journal=Science |date=18 November 1994 |volume=266 |issue=5188 |pages=1202–1208 |doi=10.1126/science.7973702 |pmid=7973702 |bibcode=1994Sci...266.1202M }}</ref> continued by defectors including [[Ken Alibek]] and [[Vladimir Pasechnik]].<ref name="wsobit">{{cite news |id={{ProQuest|431908447}} |last1=Saxon |first1=Wolfgang |title=V. Pasechnik, 64, Is Dead; Germ Expert Who Defected |url=https://www.nytimes.com/2001/11/23/world/v-pasechnik-64-is-dead-germ-expert-who-defected.html |work=The New York Times |date=23 November 2001 |url-access=subscription }}</ref>

== Economy ==
{{Main|Economy of the Soviet Union}}

[[File:Gdp per capita 1965.png|thumb|upright=1.15|The Soviet Union in comparison to other countries by GDP (nominal) per capita in 1965 based on a West-German school book (1971){{citation needed|date=May 2025}}
{|width=100%
|-
|valign=top|
{{legend|#400082|&gt; 5,000 [[Deutsche Mark|DM]]}}
{{legend|#00BFFF|2,500–5,000 [[Deutsche Mark|DM]]}}
{{legend|#3CB371|1,000–2,500 [[Deutsche Mark|DM]]}}
|valign=top |
{{legend|#9ACD32|500–1,000 [[Deutsche Mark|DM]]}}
{{legend|#FFFF00|250–500 [[Deutsche Mark|DM]]}}
{{legend|#FFFACD|&lt; 250 [[Deutsche Mark|DM]]}}
|}]]
The Soviet Union adopted a [[command economy]], whereby production and distribution of goods were centralized and directed by the government. For the overwhelming majority of its existence, the USSR did not use GDP or GNP to measure its economy, instead relying on the [[Material Product System]]. The first Bolshevik experience with a command economy was the policy of [[war communism]], which involved the nationalization of industry, centralized distribution of output, coercive or forced requisition of agricultural production, and attempts to eliminate money circulation, private enterprises and [[free trade]]. The [[barrier troops]] were also used to enforce Bolshevik control over food supplies in areas controlled by the Red Army, a role which soon earned them the hatred of the Russian civilian population.<ref>Lih, Lars T., ''Bread and Authority in Russia, 1914–1921'', University of California Press (1990), p. 131</ref> After the severe economic collapse, Lenin replaced war [[communism]] by the [[New Economic Policy]] (NEP) in 1921, legalizing free trade and private ownership of small businesses. The economy steadily recovered as a result.<ref name="Gregory-2004">{{cite book |last=Gregory |first=Paul R. |title=The Political Economy of Stalinism: Evidence from the Soviet Secret Archives |pages=218–220 |publisher=[[Cambridge University Press]] |year=2004 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=hFHU5kaXhu8C |isbn=978-0-521-53367-6 |access-date=20 June 2015 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20150512042222/http://books.google.com/books?id=hFHU5kaXhu8C&dq |archive-date=12 May 2015 |url-status=live}}</ref>

After a long debate among the members of the Politburo about the course of economic development, by 1928–1929, upon gaining control of the country, Stalin abandoned the NEP and pushed for full central planning, starting [[Collectivization in the Soviet Union|forced collectivization of agriculture]] and enacting draconian labour legislation. Resources were mobilized for [[History of the Soviet Union (1927–53)#Industrialization in practice|rapid industrialization]], which significantly expanded Soviet capacity in heavy industry and capital goods during the 1930s.<ref name="Gregory-2004" /> The primary motivation for industrialization was preparation for war, mostly due to distrust of the outside capitalist world.<ref>{{cite book |last=Mawdsley |first=Evan |page=30 |title=The Stalin Years: The Soviet Union, 1929–1953 |publisher=[[Manchester University Press]] |year=1998 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=m-voAAAAIAAJ |isbn=978-0-7190-4600-1 |access-date=25 May 2020 |archive-date=21 March 2021 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20210321215327/https://books.google.com/books?id=m-voAAAAIAAJ |url-status=live}}</ref> As a result, the USSR was transformed from a largely agrarian economy into a great industrial power, leading the way for its emergence as a superpower after [[World War II]].<ref>{{cite book |last1=Wheatcroft |first1=S. G. |author1-link=Stephen G. Wheatcroft |last2=Davies |first2=R. W. |author2-link=R. W. Davies |last3=Cooper |first3=J. M. |pages=30–32 |title=Soviet Industrialization Reconsidered: Some Preliminary Conclusions about Economic Development between 1926 and 1941 |publisher=[[Economic History Review]] |year=1986 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=m-voAAAAIAAJ |isbn=978-0-7190-4600-1 |volume=39 |access-date=25 May 2020 |archive-date=21 March 2021 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20210321215327/https://books.google.com/books?id=m-voAAAAIAAJ |url-status=live}}</ref> The war caused extensive devastation of the Soviet economy and infrastructure, which required massive reconstruction.<ref>{{cite web |title=Reconstruction and Cold War |publisher=[[Library of Congress]] |url=http://countrystudies.us/russia/12.htm |access-date=23 October 2010 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20060927170555/http://countrystudies.us/russia/12.htm |archive-date=27 September 2006 |url-status=live}}</ref>

[[File:DneproGES 1947.JPG|thumb|left|The [[Dnieper Hydroelectric Station|DneproGES]], one of many [[hydroelectric]] power stations in the Soviet Union and a symbol of Soviet economic progress]]
By the early 1940s, the Soviet economy had become relatively [[Autarky|self-sufficient]]; for most of the period until the creation of [[Comecon]], only a tiny share of domestic products was traded internationally.<ref name="Library of Congress Country Studies-2">{{cite web |title=Reconstruction and Cold War |publisher=[[Library of Congress Country Studies]] |url=http://rs6.loc.gov/cgi-bin/query/r?frd/cstdy:@field%28DOCID+su0391%29 |access-date=23 October 2010 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20170309155830/http://rs6.loc.gov/cgi-bin/query/r?frd%2Fcstdy%3A%40field%28DOCID+su0391%29 |archive-date=9 March 2017 |url-status=live}}</ref> After the creation of the Eastern Bloc, external trade rose rapidly. However, the influence of the [[world economy]] on the USSR was limited by fixed domestic prices and a state monopoly on [[Foreign trade of the Soviet Union|foreign trade]].<ref>{{cite book |author1=IMF |author2=OECD |name-list-style=amp |title=A Study of the Soviet Economy |volume=1 |publisher=[[International Monetary Fund]] and [[Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development]] |year=1991 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=_AQFk8R18f0C |page=9 |isbn=978-0-14-103797-4}}</ref> Grain and sophisticated consumer manufactures became major import articles from around the 1960s.<ref name="Library of Congress Country Studies-2" /> During the [[arms race]] of the Cold War, the Soviet economy was burdened by military expenditures, heavily lobbied for by a powerful bureaucracy dependent on the arms industry. At the same time, the USSR became the largest arms exporter to the [[Third World]]. A portion of Soviet resources during the Cold War were [[International relations within the Comecon|allocated in aid]] to the Soviet-aligned states.<ref name="Library of Congress Country Studies-2" /> The Soviet Union's [[military budget]] in the 1970s was gigantic, forming 40–60% of the entire federal budget and accounting to 15% of the USSR's GDP (13% in the 1980s).<ref>{{cite web |url=https://su90.ru/defence.html |script-title=ru:Расходы на оборону и численность вооруженных сил СССР |title=Raskhody na oboronu i chislennost' vooruzhennykh sil SSSR |language=ru |trans-title=Defense spending and size of the Armed Forces of the USSR}}</ref>

From the 1930s until its dissolution in late 1991, the way the Soviet economy operated remained essentially unchanged. The economy was formally directed by [[economic planning|central planning]], carried out by [[Gosplan]] and organized in [[Five-year plans for the national economy of the Soviet Union|five-year plans]]. However, in practice, the plans were highly aggregated and provisional, subject to ''ad hoc'' intervention by superiors. All critical economic decisions were taken by the political leadership. Allocated resources and plan targets were usually denominated in [[Soviet ruble|rubles]] rather than in physical goods. [[Credit]] was discouraged, but widespread. The final allocation of output was achieved through relatively decentralized, unplanned contracting. Although in theory prices were legally set from above, in practice they were often negotiated, and informal horizontal links (e.g. between producer factories) were widespread.<ref name="Gregory-2004" />

A number of basic [[Service (economics)|services]] were state-funded, such as [[education in the Soviet Union|education]] and health care. In the manufacturing sector, heavy industry and defence were prioritized over [[Consumer goods in the Soviet Union|consumer goods]].<ref name="Library of Congress Country Studies" /> Consumer goods, particularly outside large cities, were often scarce, of poor quality and limited variety. Under the command economy, consumers had almost no influence on production, and the changing demands of a population with growing incomes could not be satisfied by supplies at rigidly fixed prices.<ref name="Hanson">Hanson, Philip. ''The Rise and Fall of the Soviet Economy: An Economic History of the USSR from 1945''. London: Longman, 2003.</ref> A massive unplanned second economy grew up at low levels alongside the planned one, providing some of the goods and services that the planners could not. The legalization of some elements of the decentralized economy was attempted with the [[1965 Soviet economic reform|reform of 1965]].<ref name="Gregory-2004" />

[[File:RIAN archive 633872 Workers of Soligorsk potash plant.jpg|thumb|Workers of the [[Salihorsk]] potash plant, [[Byelorussian Soviet Socialist Republic|Belarus]], 1968]]
Although statistics of the Soviet economy are notoriously unreliable and its economic growth difficult to estimate precisely,<ref>{{cite journal |last1=Bergson |first1=Abram |title=How Big Was the Soviet GDP? |journal=Comparative Economic Studies |date=April 1997 |volume=39 |issue=1 |pages=1–14 |doi=10.1057/ces.1997.1 }}</ref><ref>{{cite journal |last1=Harrison |first1=Mark |title=Soviet economic growth since 1928: The alternative statistics of G. I. Khanin |journal=Europe-Asia Studies |date=January 1993 |volume=45 |issue=1 |pages=141–167 |doi=10.1080/09668139308412080 }}</ref> by most accounts, the economy continued to expand until the mid-1980s. During the 1950s and 1960s, it had comparatively high growth and was catching up to the West.<ref>{{cite book |author=Gvosdev, Nikolas |title=The Strange Death of Soviet communism: A Postscript |publisher=[[Transaction Publishers]] |year=2008 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=Q_xTyZUEqkYC |isbn=978-1-4128-0698-5 |author-link=Nikolas Gvosdev |access-date=25 May 2020 |archive-date=19 August 2020 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20200819204015/https://books.google.com/books?id=Q_xTyZUEqkYC |url-status=live}}</ref> However, after 1970, the growth, while still positive, [[Era of Stagnation|steadily declined]] much more quickly and consistently than in other countries, despite a rapid increase in the capital [[stock]] (the rate of capital increase was only surpassed by Japan).<ref name="Gregory-2004" />

Professor of Economic History [[Bob Allen (economic historian)|Bob Allen]] contends that in the era in which the Soviet economy was publicly owned and planned (1928–1989), the Soviet Union's [[GDP per capita]] growth outpaced nearly all other world economies, trailing only Japan, South Korea, and Taiwan. Data shows that Soviet per capita growth expanded by a factor of 5.2, exceeding the growth rates of Western Europe at 4.0, and the US, Canada, Australia, and New Zealand at 3.3. Ultimately, the Soviet model of public ownership proved more effective at raising average incomes during this period than the world's primary industrialized capitalist systems.<ref>{{Cite book |last=Allen |first=Robert C. |title=Farm to factory: a reinterpretation of the Soviet industrial revolution |date=2009 |publisher=Princeton Univ. Press |isbn=978-0-691-14431-3 |edition=Nachdr. |series=The Princeton economic history of the Western world |location=Princeton, NJ |pages=6–7}}</ref> According to Stephen Gowans, this growth trajectory was eventually undermined by the "accumulated toll on the Soviet economy of the West’s efforts to bring it down, the Reagan administration’s intensification of the Cold War, and the Soviet leadership’s inability to find a way out of the predicament these developments occasioned."<ref>{{Cite web |last=Gowans |first=Stephen |date=2012-12-21 |title=Do Publicly Owned, Planned Economies Work? |url=https://gowans.blog/2012/12/21/do-publicly-owned-planned-economies-work/ |access-date=2026-02-20 |website=What's Left |language=en}}</ref> Scholar [[Christopher Davidson]] argued that, during the 1980s, the Reagan administration attempted to weaponize the global energy market against the USSR. At the request of CIA Director [[William J. Casey]], Saudi Arabia flooded the market with oil, dropping the price from $28 to $10 per barrel, and draining Soviet foreign currency reserves. This was later described by a former CIA chief of staff as a "body blow to the Soviets. It was the equivalent of stepping on their oxygen tube."<ref>{{Cite book |last=Davidson |first=Christopher M. |title=Shadow wars: the secret struggle for the Middle East |date=2017 |publisher=Oneworld |isbn=978-1-78607-192-7 |location=London |pages=163}}</ref>

Overall, the growth rate of per capita income in the Soviet Union between 1960 and 1989 was slightly above the world average (based on 102 countries).{{sfn|Fischer|Easterly|1994|p=4}} According to [[Stanley Fischer]] and [[William Easterly]], growth could have been faster. By their calculation, per capita income in 1989 should have been twice higher than it was, considering the amount of investment, education and population. The authors attribute this poor performance to the low productivity of capital.{{sfn|Fischer|Easterly|1994|p=5}} Steven Rosefielde states that the [[standard of living]] declined due to Stalin's despotism. While there was a brief improvement after his death, it lapsed into stagnation.<ref>{{cite journal |last=Rosefielde |first=Steven |year=1996 |title=Stalinism in Post-Communist Perspective: New Evidence on Killings, Forced Labour and Economic Growth in the 1930s |pages=956–987 |journal=Europe-Asia Studies |volume=48 |issue=6 |jstor=152635 |quote=The new evidence shows that administrative command planning and Stalin's forced industrialization strategies failed in the 1930s and beyond. The economic miracle chronicled in official hagiographies and until recently faithfully recounted in Western textbooks has no basis in fact. It is the statistical artefact not of index number relativity (the Gerschenkron effect) but of misapplying to the calculation of growth cost prices that do not accurately measure competitive value. The standard of living declined during the 1930s in response to Stalin's despotism, and after a brief improvement following his death, lapsed into stagnation. Glasnost and post-communist revelations interpreted as a whole thus provide no basis for Getty, Rittersporn & Zemskov's relatively favorable characterization of the methods, economic achievements and human costs of Stalinism. The evidence demonstrates that the suppression of markets and the oppression of vast segments of the population were economically counterproductive and humanly calamitous, just as anyone conversant with classical economic theory should have expected. |doi=10.1080/09668139608412393}}</ref>

In 1987, [[Mikhail Gorbachev]] attempted to reform and revitalize the economy with his program of ''[[perestroika]]''. His policies relaxed state control over enterprises but did not replace it by market incentives, resulting in a sharp decline in output. The economy, already suffering from [[1980s oil glut|reduced petroleum export revenues]], started to collapse. Prices were still fixed, and the property was still largely state-owned until after the country's dissolution.<ref name="Gregory-2004" /><ref name="Hanson" /> For most of the period after World War II until its collapse, Soviet GDP ([[Purchasing power parity|PPP]]) was [[List of regions by past GDP (PPP)|the second-largest in the world]], and third during the second half of the 1980s,<ref name="GDP">{{cite web |author=Central Intelligence Agency |title=GDP – Million 1990 |website=[[The World Factbook]] |year=1991 |url=http://www.theodora.com/wfb/1990/rankings/gdp_million_1.html |access-date=12 June 2010 |author-link=Central Intelligence Agency |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20151109124727/http://www.theodora.com/wfb/1990/rankings/gdp_million_1.html |archive-date=9 November 2015 |url-status=live}}</ref> although on a [[List of countries by GDP (nominal) per capita|per-capita]] basis, it was behind that of [[First World]] countries.<ref>{{cite web |author=Central Intelligence Agency |title=GDP Per Capita – 1991 |website=[[The World Factbook]] |year=1992 |url=http://www.theodora.com/wfb/1991/rankings/gdp_per_capita_0.html |access-date=12 June 2010 |author-link=Central Intelligence Agency |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20100819051611/http://www.theodora.com/wfb/1991/rankings/gdp_per_capita_0.html |archive-date=19 August 2010 |url-status=live}}</ref> Compared to countries with similar per-capita GDP in 1928, the Soviet Union experienced significant growth.<ref>{{cite book |last=Allen |first=Robert |author-link=Robert C. Allen |date=26 July 2009 |title=Farm to Factory: A Reinterpretation of the Soviet Industrial Revolution |publisher=Princeton University Press |pages=6–10 |isbn=978-0691144313}}</ref>

In 1990, the country had a [[Human Development Index]] of 0.920, placing it in the 'high' category of human development. It was the third-highest in the Eastern Bloc, behind [[Czechoslovak Socialist Republic|Czechoslovakia]] and [[East Germany]], and the 25th in the world of 130 countries.<ref>{{Cite journal |url=http://hdr.undp.org/en/reports/global/hdr1990 |title=Human Development Report 1990 {{!}} Human Development Reports |website=hdr.undp.org |year=1990 |access-date=18 October 2016 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20161019062220/http://hdr.undp.org/en/reports/global/hdr1990 |archive-date=19 October 2016 |url-status=live}}</ref>

=== Energy ===
{{Main|Energy policy of the Soviet Union}}

[[File:1987 CPA 5858.jpg|thumb|A Soviet stamp depicting the 30th anniversary of the [[International Atomic Energy Agency]], published in 1987, a year following the [[Chernobyl nuclear disaster|Chernobyl  disaster]]]]
The need for fuel declined in the Soviet Union from the 1970s to the 1980s,{{sfn|Wilson|1983|pp=105–108}} both per ruble of {{ill|gross social product|ru|Совокупный общественный продукт}} and per ruble of industrial product. The decline was very rapid between 1965 and 1970, then slowed between 1970 and 1975. From 1975 to 1980, the decline continued at an even slower rate, with fuel requirements per ruble of gross social product decreasing by only 2.6%.{{sfn|Wilson|1983|p=295}} David Wilson, a historian, believed that the gas industry would account for 40% of Soviet fuel production by the end of the century. His theory did not come to fruition because of the USSR's collapse.{{sfn|Wilson|1983|p=297}} According to Wilson, the Soviet Union was, in theory, well-positioned to avoid an energy crisis and could have sustained economic growth rates of 2–2.5% during the 1990s, supported by its energy resources.{{sfn|Wilson|1983|pp=297–299}} However, the energy sector faced many difficulties, among them the country's high military expenditure and hostile relations with the [[First World]].{{sfn|Wilson|1983|p=299}}

In 1991, the Soviet Union had a [[pipeline]] network of {{convert|82000|km|mi}} for [[crude oil]] and another {{convert|206500|km|mi}} for natural gas.<ref name="Central Intelligence Agency-1991" /> 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.<ref>{{cite web |title=Soviet Union – Economy |author=Central Intelligence Agency |year=1992 |website=[[The World Factbook]] |url=http://www.theodora.com/wfb1991/soviet_union/soviet_union_economy.html |access-date=23 October 2010 |author-link=Central Intelligence Agency |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20101005005804/http://www.theodora.com/wfb1991/soviet_union/soviet_union_economy.html |archive-date=5 October 2010 |url-status=dead}}</ref> In the 1970s and 1980s, the USSR heavily relied on fossil fuel exports to earn [[hard currency]].<ref name="Library of Congress Country Studies-2" /> At its peak in 1988, it was the largest producer and second-largest exporter of crude oil, surpassed only by [[Saudi Arabia]].<ref>{{cite book |last1=Hardt |first1=John Pearce |title=Russia's Uncertain Economic Future: With a Comprehensive Subject Index |page=233 |publisher=[[M.E. Sharpe]] |year=2003 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=IvKF3PKGYAcC |isbn=978-0-7656-1208-3 |access-date=20 June 2015 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20150512044209/http://books.google.com/books?id=IvKF3PKGYAcC&dq |archive-date=12 May 2015 |url-status=live}}</ref>

=== Science and technology ===
{{Main|Science and technology in the Soviet Union}}

{{See also|Cybernetics in the Soviet Union}}
[[File:Sputnik-stamp-ussr.jpg|thumb|upright|Soviet stamp showing the orbit of [[Sputnik 1]]]]
The Soviet Union placed great emphasis on [[Science and technology in the Soviet Union|science and technology]].<!--delete this sentence if you can park the citations elsewhere---><ref>{{cite web |title=Science and Technology |publisher=[[Library of Congress Country Studies]] |url=http://rs6.loc.gov/cgi-bin/query/r?frd/cstdy:@field%28DOCID+su0413%29 |access-date=23 October 2010 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20150904015129/http://rs6.loc.gov/cgi-bin/query/r?frd%2Fcstdy%3A%40field%28DOCID+su0413%29 |archive-date=4 September 2015 |url-status=dead}}</ref><ref>{{cite web |date=15 June 1992 |title=The Soviet Union and the United States – Revelations from the Russian Archives {{!}} Exhibitions – Library of Congress |url=https://www.loc.gov/exhibits/archives/sovi.html |url-status=live |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20170915012329/http://www.loc.gov/exhibits/archives/sovi.html |archive-date=15 September 2017 |access-date=12 November 2017 |website=www.loc.gov}}</ref> Lenin believed the USSR would never overtake the developed world if it remained as technologically backward as it was upon its founding. Soviet authorities proved their commitment to Lenin's belief by developing massive networks and research and development organizations. In the early 1960s, 40% of chemistry PhDs in the Soviet Union were attained by women, compared with only 5% in the United States.<ref>[[Rose Eveleth]] (12 December 2013). [http://www.smithsonianmag.com/smart-news/soviet-russia-had-a-better-record-of-training-women-in-stem-than-america-does-today-180948141/?no-ist Soviet Russia Had a Better Record of Training Women in STEM Than America Does Today] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20141006112126/http://www.smithsonianmag.com/smart-news/soviet-russia-had-a-better-record-of-training-women-in-stem-than-america-does-today-180948141/?no-ist |date=6 October 2014 }}. ''[[Smithsonian Institution|Smithsonian.com]].'' Retrieved 26 June 2014.</ref> 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, space technology, and military technologies. However, due to rigid state planning and [[Nomenklatura|bureaucracy]], the Soviets remained far behind the [[First World]] in chemistry, biology, and computer science. Under Stalin, the Soviet government persecuted [[geneticists]] in favour of [[Lysenkoism]], a [[pseudoscience]] rejected by the scientific community in the Soviet Union and abroad but supported by Stalin's inner circles.<!--after Stalin?---> Implemented in the USSR and China, it resulted in reduced crop yields and is widely believed to have contributed to the [[Great Chinese Famine]].<ref>{{cite journal |last1=Offord |first1=Catherine |title=Stamping Out Science, 1948 |journal=[[The Scientist (magazine)|The Scientist]] |url=https://www.the-scientist.com/foundations/stamping-out-science-1948-68665 |access-date=20 September 2021 |archive-date=28 May 2021 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20210528184521/https://www.the-scientist.com/foundations/stamping-out-science-1948-68665 |url-status=live}}</ref> In the 1980s, the Soviet Union had more [[scientists]] and [[engineers]] relative to the world's population than any other major country, owing to strong levels of state support.<ref>{{cite journal |last1=Chan |first1=Chi Ling |title=Fallen Behind: Science, Technology and Soviet Statism |journal=Intersect: The Stanford Journal of Science, Technology, and Society |date=11 June 2015 |volume=8 |issue=3 |url=https://ojs.stanford.edu/ojs/index.php/intersect/article/view/691#:~:text=This%20essay%20argues%20that%20the,demands%20of%2021st%20century%20informationalization. |language=en}}</ref> Some of its most remarkable technological achievements, such as launching the [[Sputnik 1|world's first space satellite]], were achieved through military research.<ref name="Library of Congress Country Studies">{{cite web |title=Economy |publisher=[[Library of Congress Country Studies]] |url=http://rs6.loc.gov/cgi-bin/query/r?frd/cstdy:@field%28DOCID+su0009%29 |access-date=23 October 2010 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20150904015129/http://rs6.loc.gov/cgi-bin/query/r?frd%2Fcstdy%3A%40field%28DOCID+su0009%29 |archive-date=4 September 2015 |url-status=dead}}</ref>

Under the [[Reagan administration]], [[Project Socrates]] determined that the Soviet Union addressed the acquisition of science and technology in a manner radically different to the United States. The US prioritized indigenous [[research and development]] in both the public and private sectors. In contrast, the USSR placed greater emphasis on acquiring foreign technology, which it did through both [[Industrial espionage|covert]] and overt means. However, centralized state planning kept Soviet technological development greatly inflexible. This was exploited by the US to undermine the strength of the Soviet Union and thus foster its reform.<ref>{{cite journal |title=Global Tech Strategies Brought to U.S |journal=Washington Technology |date=3 May 1990 |first=Margo |last=MacFarland}}</ref><ref>{{cite news |first=R. A. |last=Deckert |title=The science of uncovering industrial information |date=10 October 1990 |work=Business Journal of the Treasure Coast}}</ref><ref>{{cite news |title=U.S. Firms Must Trade Short-Term Gains for Long-Term Technology Planning |date=7 March 1991 |work=Inside the Pentagon}}</ref>

=== Space program ===
{{Main|Soviet space program}}

{{See also|Nedelin catastrophe}}

[[File:RIAN archive 159271 Nikita Khrushchev, Valentina Tereshkova, Pavel Popovich and Yury Gagarin at Lenin Mausoleum.jpg|thumb|left|From left to right: [[Yuri Gagarin]], [[Pavel Popovich]], [[Valentina Tereshkova]] and [[Nikita Khrushchev]] at [[Lenin's Mausoleum]] in 1963]]
[[File:Soyuz rocket ASTP.jpg|thumb|upright|[[Soyuz (rocket family)|Soyuz]] rocket at the [[Baikonur Cosmodrome]]]]
At the end of the 1950s, the USSR constructed the first [[satellite]]—[[Sputnik 1]], which marked the beginning of the [[Space Race]]—a competition to achieve superior spaceflight capability with the United States.<ref>{{cite web |date=27 November 2021 |title=Sputnik |url=https://www.encyclopedia.com/science-and-technology/astronomy-and-space-exploration/space-exploration/sputnik |url-status=live |website=Encyclopedia |access-date=27 November 2021 |archive-date=27 November 2021 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20211127121715/https://www.encyclopedia.com/science-and-technology/astronomy-and-space-exploration/space-exploration/sputnik}}</ref> This was followed by other successful satellites, most notably [[Sputnik 5]], where test dogs were sent to space. On 12 April 1961, the USSR launched [[Vostok 1]], which carried [[Yuri Gagarin]], making him the first human to ever be launched into space and complete a space journey.<ref>{{cite web |date=27 November 2021 |title=Soviet cosmonaut Yuri Gagarin becomes the first man in space |url=https://www.history.com/this-day-in-history/first-man-in-space |url-status=live |website=History.com |access-date=27 November 2021 |archive-date=23 November 2021 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20211123163507/https://www.history.com/this-day-in-history/first-man-in-space}}</ref> The first plans for [[spaceplane|space shuttle]]s and orbital stations were drawn up in Soviet design offices, but personal disputes between designers and management prevented their development.

In terms of the [[Luna program]], the USSR only had automated spacecraft launches with no crewed spacecraft. The [[N1 (rocket)|N1]]—a [[Super heavy-lift launch vehicle]] intended to match the American [[Saturn V]] for a Soviet crewed moon landing—failed all four of its test launches, and the 'Moon' part of [[Space Race]] was [[Apollo 11|won by the Americans]]. The Soviet public's reaction to the American moon-landing was mixed. The Soviet government limited the release of information about it, which affected the reaction. A portion of the populace did not give it attention, and another portion was angered.<ref>{{cite magazine |url=https://www.scientificamerican.com/article/apollo-moon-khrushchev/ |title=The Moon Landing through Soviet Eyes: A Q&A with Sergei Khrushchev, son of former premier Nikita Khrushchev |magazine=Scientific American |date=16 July 2009 |access-date=7 January 2019 |last1=Das |first1=Saswato R. |archive-date=25 February 2021 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20210225085952/http://www.scientificamerican.com/article/apollo-moon-khrushchev/ |url-status=live}}</ref><ref>{{cite web |date=27 November 2021 |title=The Soviet Manned Lunar Program |url=https://spp.fas.org/eprint/lindroos_moon1.htm |url-status=live |website=e-Prints |access-date=27 November 2021 |archive-date=23 December 2021 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20211223163134/https://spp.fas.org/eprint/lindroos_moon1.htm}}</ref>

In the 1970s, specific proposals for the design of a space shuttle emerged, but shortcomings, especially in the electronics industry (rapid overheating of electronics), postponed it till the end of the 1980s. The first shuttle, the [[Buran (spacecraft)|Buran]], flew in 1988, but without a human crew. Another, ''[[Ptichka]]'', endured prolonged construction and was canceled in 1991. For their launch into space, there is today an unused superpower rocket, [[Energia (rocket)|Energia]], which is the most powerful in the world.<ref>{{cite web |date=27 November 2021 |title=Energia, Soviet Launch Vehicle |url=https://www.britannica.com/technology/Energia-Soviet-launch-vehicle |url-status=live |website=Britannica |access-date=27 November 2021 |archive-date=27 November 2021 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20211127121714/https://www.britannica.com/technology/Energia-Soviet-launch-vehicle}}</ref>

In the late 1980s, the Soviet Union built the ''[[Mir]]'' orbital station. It was built on the construction of [[Salyut programme|''Salyut'' stations]] and its only role was civilian-grade research tasks.<ref name="Harland-2020" /><ref>{{cite wikisource |title=NASA FACTS/Russian Space Stations |publisher=NASA |date=January 1997 |id=IS-1997-06-004JSC}}</ref> Mir was the only orbital station in operation from 1986 to 1998. Gradually, other modules were added to it, including American modules. However, the station deteriorated rapidly after a fire on board and was deorbited in 2001, burning up in the Earth's atmosphere.<ref name="Harland-2020">{{Cite encyclopedia |title=Mir |last=Harland |first=David M. |encyclopedia=Encyclopedia Britannica |date=28 January 2020 |access-date=22 January 2021 |url=https://www.britannica.com/topic/Mir-Soviet-Russian-space-station |archive-date=1 February 2021 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20210201090705/https://www.britannica.com/topic/Mir-Soviet-Russian-space-station |url-status=live}}</ref>

=== Transport ===
{{Main|Transport in the Soviet Union}}

[[File:Flag of the Aeroflot.svg|thumb|[[Aeroflot]]'s flag during the Soviet era]]
[[File:RUS-2016-Murmansk-Icebreaker Lenin 01.jpg|thumb|Nuclear Icebreaker ''[[Lenin (1957 icebreaker)|Lenin]]'']]
Transport was a vital component of the country's economy. The [[First five-year plan (Soviet Union)|economic centralization]] of the late 1920s and 1930s led to the development of infrastructure on a massive scale, most notably the establishment of [[Aeroflot]], an aviation enterprise.<ref>{{cite book |author1=Highman, Robert D.S. |author2=Greenwood, John T. |author3=Hardesty, Von |title=Russian Aviation and Air Power in the Twentieth Century |publisher=Routledge |year=1998 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=cpynoFM-Jf4C |isbn=978-0-7146-4784-5 |page=134 |access-date=14 September 2017 |archive-date=16 November 2020 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20201116193139/https://books.google.com/books?id=cpynoFM-Jf4C |url-status=live}}</ref> The country had a wide variety of modes of transport by land, water and air.<ref name="Central Intelligence Agency-1991" /> However, due to inadequate maintenance, much of the road, water and Soviet civil aviation transport were outdated and technologically backward compared to the First World.{{sfn|Wilson|1983|p=205}}

Soviet rail transport was the largest and most intensively used in the world;{{sfn|Wilson|1983|p=205}} it was also better developed than most of its Western counterparts.{{sfn|Wilson|1983|p=201}} By the late 1970s and early 1980s, Soviet economists were calling for the construction of more roads to alleviate some of the burdens from the railways and to improve the Soviet [[government budget]].{{sfn|Ambler|Shaw|Symons|1985|pp=166–167}} The [[street network]] and [[Automotive industry in the Soviet Union|automotive industry]]{{sfn|Ambler|Shaw|Symons|1985|p=168}} remained underdeveloped,{{sfn|Ambler|Shaw|Symons|1985|p=165}} and [[dirt road]]s were common outside major cities.{{sfn|Ambler|Shaw|Symons|1985|p=167}} Soviet maintenance projects proved unable to take care of even 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.{{sfn|Ambler|Shaw|Symons|1985|p=167}} Meanwhile, the automobile industry was growing at a faster rate than road construction.{{sfn|Ambler|Shaw|Symons|1985|p=169}} The underdeveloped road network led to a growing demand for public transport.<ref>{{cite book |author1=IMF |author2=OECD |name-list-style=amp |title=A Study of the Soviet Economy |volume=3 |publisher=[[International Monetary Fund]] and [[Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development]] |year=1991 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=_AQFk8R18f0C |page=56 |isbn=978-92-64-13468-3}}</ref>

Despite improvements, several aspects of the transport sector were still{{when|date=February 2016}} riddled with problems due to outdated infrastructure, lack of investment, corruption and bad decision-making. Soviet authorities were unable to meet the growing demand for transport infrastructure and services.<ref>{{citation |title=ДОРОГИ И ДВИЖЕНИЕ В СССР И ЦАРСКОЙ РОССИИ: ЧТО БЫ ПЕРЕНЯТЬ? |translator-last=Roads and transportation in the USSR and Tsarist Russia |date=1 August 2016}}</ref>

The Soviet [[merchant navy]] was one of the largest in the world.<ref name="Central Intelligence Agency-1991">{{cite web |url=http://www.theodora.com/wfb1991/soviet_union/soviet_union_communications.html |title=Soviet Union – Communications |author=Central Intelligence Agency |website=[[The World Factbook]] |year=1991 |access-date=20 October 2010 |author-link=Central Intelligence Agency |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20101005005759/http://www.theodora.com/wfb1991/soviet_union/soviet_union_communications.html |archive-date=5 October 2010 |url-status=dead}}</ref>

== Demographics ==
{{Main|Demographics of the Soviet Union}}

[[File:Population of former USSR.PNG|thumb|upright=1.15|Population of the Soviet Union (red) and the [[post-Soviet states]] (blue) from 1961 to 2009 as well as projection (dotted blue) from 2010 to 2100]]
Excess deaths throughout [[World War I]] and the [[Russian Civil War]] (including the [[Russian famine of 1921–1922|famine of 1921–1922]] that was triggered by Lenin's [[war communism]] policies)<ref>{{cite encyclopedia |url=https://www.britannica.com/event/War-Communism |title=War Communism |encyclopedia=[[Encyclopaedia Britannica]] |author=((The Editors of Encyclopaedia Britannica)) |date=8 June 2023}}</ref> amounted to a combined total of 18&nbsp;million,<ref>{{cite book |author=Mark Harrison |title=Accounting for War: Soviet Production, Employment, and the Defence Burden, 1940–1945 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=yJcD7_Q_rQ8C&pg=PA167 |year=1996 |publisher=Cambridge University Press |isbn=978-0-521-89424-1 |page=167 |access-date=25 May 2020 |archive-date=17 June 2020 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20200617211223/https://books.google.com/books?id=yJcD7_Q_rQ8C&pg=PA167 |url-status=live}}</ref> some 10&nbsp;million in the 1930s,<ref>{{Cite book |first=Geoffrey A. |last=Hosking |url=https://archive.org/details/russiarussianshi00hosk |title=Russia and the Russians: a history |publisher=Harvard University Press |year=2001 |isbn=978-0-674-00473-3 |page=[https://archive.org/details/russiarussianshi00hosk/page/469 469] |url-access=registration}}</ref> and more than 20&nbsp;million in 1941–1945. The postwar [[Population of the Soviet Union|Soviet population]] was 45 to 50&nbsp;million smaller than it would have been if pre-war demographic growth had continued.<ref>{{cite book |author=Geoffrey A. Hosking |title=Rulers and victims: the Russians in the Soviet Union |url=https://archive.org/details/rulersvictimsrus00hosk |url-access=registration |year=2006 |publisher=Harvard University Press |isbn=978-0-674-02178-5 |page=[https://archive.org/details/rulersvictimsrus00hosk/page/242 242]}}</ref> According to [[Catherine Merridale]], "[...]{{nbsp}}a reasonable estimate would place the total number of excess deaths for the whole period somewhere around 60 million."<ref>{{cite book |first1=Jay |last1=Winter |first2=Emmanuel |last2=Sivan |title=War and Remembrance in the Twentieth Century |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=ZK2A5x7E8IkC&pg=PA64 |date=2000 |publisher=Cambridge University Press |isbn=978-0-521-79436-7 |page=64 |access-date=20 June 2015 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20150904015129/https://books.google.com/books?id=ZK2A5x7E8IkC&pg=PA64 |archive-date=4 September 2015 |url-status=live}}</ref>

The [[birth rate]] of the USSR decreased from 44.0 per thousand in 1926 to 18.0 in 1974, mainly due to increasing urbanization and the rising average age of marriages. The [[mortality 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.<ref>{{cite book |author=Government of the USSR |script-title=ru:Большая советская энциклопедия |trans-title=[[Great Soviet Encyclopaedia]] |volume=24 |page=15 |year=1977 |location=Moscow |publisher=[[State Committee for Publishing]] |language=ru |author-link=Government of the USSR}}</ref> Soviet Europe moved towards [[sub-replacement fertility]], while [[Soviet Central Asia]] continued to exhibit population growth well above replacement-level fertility.<ref>{{cite book |author=Anderson, Barbara A. |title=Growth and Diversity of the Population of the Soviet Union |volume=510 |pages=155–77 |year=1990 |publisher=Annals of the American Academy of Political and Social Sciences}}</ref>

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 of working age, but was also prevalent in Russia and other predominantly Slavic areas of the country.<ref>{{cite book |author1=Vallin, J. |author2=Chesnais, J.C. |title=Recent Developments of Mortality in Europe, English-Speaking Countries and the Soviet Union, 1960–1970 |volume=29 |pages=861–898 |year=1970 |publisher=Population Studies}}</ref> An analysis of the official data from the late 1980s showed that after worsening in the late 1970s and the early 1980s, adult mortality began to improve again.<ref>{{cite journal |last=Ryan |first=Michael |title=Life Expectancy and Mortality Data from the Soviet Union |volume=296 |pages=1, 513–1515 |date=28 May 1988 |journal=[[British Medical Journal]] |issue=6635 |doi=10.1136/bmj.296.6635.1513 |pmid=3134093 |pmc=2546027}}</ref> The infant mortality rate increased from 24.7 in 1970 to 27.9 in 1974. Some researchers regarded the rise as mostly real, a consequence of worsening health conditions and services.<ref>{{cite book |author1=Davis, Christopher |author2-link=Murray Feshbach |author2=Feshbach, Murray |title=Rising Infant Mortality in the USSR in the 1970s |page=95 |location=Washington, D.C. |publisher=United States Census Bureau}}</ref> The rises in both adult and infant mortality were not explained or defended by Soviet officials, and the [[Soviet government]] 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.<ref>{{cite book |author=Krimins, Juris |title=The Changing Mortality Patterns in Latvia, Lithuania and Estonia: Experience of the Past Three Decades |date=3–7 December 1990}} Paper presented at the International Conference on Healthy, Morbidity and Mortality by Cause of Death in Europe.</ref>

{{Largest cities
| country      = the Soviet Union
| stat_ref     = Sources: [http://unstats.un.org/unsd/Demographic/Products/dyb/DYBHist/HistTab02.pdf 1989 Soviet census]
| class = info
| div_name     = City
| div_link     = Republics of the Soviet Union{{!}}Republic

| city_1 = Moscow | div_1 = Russian SFSR | pop_1 = 8,967,332
| city_2 = Saint Petersburg{{!}}Leningrad | div_2 = Russian SFSR | pop_2 = 4,990,749
| city_3 = Kyiv{{!}}Kiev | div_3 = Ukrainian SSR | pop_3 = 2,571,000
| city_4 = Tashkent | div_4 = Uzbek SSR | pop_4 = 2,072,459
| city_5 = Baku | div_5 = Azerbaijan SSR | pop_5 = 1,727,000
| city_6 = Kharkiv{{!}}Kharkov | div_6 = Ukrainian SSR | pop_6 = 1,593,970
| city_7 = Minsk | div_7 = Byelorussian SSR | pop_7 = 1,607,077
| city_8 = Nizhny Novgorod{{!}}Gorki | div_8 = Russian SFSR | pop_8 = 1,438,133
| city_9 = Novosibirsk | div_9 = Russian SFSR | pop_9 = 1,436,516
| city_10 = Yekaterinburg{{!}}Sverdlovsk | div_10 = Russian SFSR | pop_10 = 1,364,621
| city_11 = Tbilisi | div_11 = Georgian SSR | pop_11 = 1,246,936
| city_12 = Samara{{!}}Kuybyshev | div_12 = Russian SFSR | pop_12 = 1,254,460
| city_13 = Yerevan | div_13 = Armenian SSR | pop_13 = 1,201,539
| city_14 = Dnipro{{!}}Dnepropetrovsk | div_14 = Ukrainian SSR | pop_14 = 1,178,000
| city_15 = Omsk | div_15 = Russian SFSR | pop_15 = 1,148,418
| city_16 = Chelyabinsk | div_16 = Russian SFSR | pop_16 = 1,141,777
| city_17 = Odesa{{!}}Odessa | div_17 = Ukrainian SSR | pop_17 = 1,115,371
| city_18 = Donetsk | div_18 = Ukrainian SSR | pop_18 = 1,109,900
| city_19 = Kazan | div_19 = Russian SFSR | pop_19 = 1,094,378
| city_20 = Almaty{{!}}Alma-Ata | div_20 = Kazakh SSR | pop_20 = 1,071,900
}}

=== Urbanism ===
[[File:Largest cities USSR 1989.svg|thumb|right|Largest cities of the USSR according to the 1989 census]]
The Soviet Union imposed heavy controls on city growth, preventing some cities from reaching their full potential while promoting others.<ref>{{cite journal |last1=Clayton |first1=Elizabeth |last2=Richardson |first2=Thomas |title=Soviet Control of City Size |journal=Economic Development and Cultural Change |date=1989 |volume=38 |issue=1 |pages=155–165 |doi=10.1086/451781 |jstor=1154166 }}</ref><ref name="Stronski-2010">{{cite book |last=Stronski |first=Paul |date=2010 |title=Tashkent: Forging a Soviet City, 1930–1966 |publisher=University of Pittsburgh Press |url=https://mytashkent.uz/wp-content/uploads/2020/02/tashkent.-forging-a-soviet-city-1930%E2%80%931966.pdf |isbn=978-0-8229-4394-5}}</ref>

For the entirety of the Soviet Union's existence, the most populous cities were [[Moscow]] and [[Leningrad]] (both in [[Russian SFSR]]), with the third far place taken by [[Kiev]] ([[Ukrainian SSR]]). At the USSR's inception, the fourth and fifth most populous cities were [[Kharkov]] (Ukrainian SSR) and [[Baku]] ([[Azerbaijan SSR]]), but, by the end of the century, [[Tashkent]] ([[Uzbek SSR]]), which had assumed the position of capital of Soviet Central Asia, had risen to fourth place. [[Minsk]] ([[Byelorussian SSR]]) saw rapid growth during the 20th century, rising from the 32nd most populous in the union to the 7th.<ref name="Stronski-2010" /><ref>{{cite journal |last=Harris |first=Chauncy D. |title=The Cities of the Soviet Union |journal=[[Geographical Review]] |volume=35 |issue=1 |date=1945 |doi=10.2307/210935 |page=119 |jstor=210935 |bibcode=1945GeoRv..35..107H}}</ref><ref>{{cite web |title=Statistics For Everyone |website=istmat.info |date=19 February 2018 |url=http://istmat.info/files/uploads/17594/naselenie_sssr._po_dannym_vsesoyuznoy_perepisi_naseleniya_1989g.pdf |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20180620003708/http://istmat.info/files/uploads/17594/naselenie_sssr._po_dannym_vsesoyuznoy_perepisi_naseleniya_1989g.pdf |archive-date=20 June 2018 |url-status=dead |access-date=23 February 2024}}</ref>

=== Women and fertility ===
[[File:RIAN archive 16735 Cosmonaut Valentina Tereshkova.jpg|thumb|upright|[[Valentina Tereshkova]], the first woman in space, visiting the [[Lvov]] confectionery, Ukrainian SSR, 1967]]
Under Lenin, the state made explicit commitments to promote the [[Gender equality|equality of men and women]]. Many early Russian feminists and ordinary Russian working women actively participated in the Revolution, and many more were affected by the events of that period and the new policies. Beginning in October 1918, Lenin's government liberalized divorce and abortion laws, decriminalized homosexuality (re-criminalized in 1932), permitted cohabitation, and ushered in a host of reforms.<ref>Wendy Z. Goldman, ''Women, the State and Revolution: Soviet Family Policy and Social Life, 1917–1936''. Cambridge: [[Cambridge University Press]], 1993</ref> However, without [[birth control]], the new system produced many broken marriages, as well as countless out-of-wedlock children.<ref>Richard Stites, ''The Women's Liberation Movement in Russia: Feminism, Nihilism, and Bolshevism, 1860–1930'' (1978)</ref> The epidemic of divorces and extramarital affairs created social hardships when Soviet leaders wanted people to concentrate their efforts on growing the economy. Giving women control over their fertility also led to a precipitous decline in the birth rate, perceived as a threat to their country's military power. By 1936, Stalin reversed most of the liberal laws, ushering in a [[Natalism|pronatalist]] era that lasted for decades.<ref>Rebecca Balmas Neary, "Mothering Socialist Society: The Wife-Activists' Movement and the Soviet Culture of Daily Life, 1934–1941", ''[[Russian Review]]'' (58) 3, July 1999: 396–412</ref>

By 1917, Russia became the first [[great power]] to grant women the right to vote.<ref>{{cite web |last=Figes |first=Orlando |title=From Tsar to U.S.S.R.: Russia's Chaotic Year of Revolution. |url=https://www.nationalgeographic.com/archaeology-and-history/magazine/2017/09-10/russian-revolution-history-lenin/ |website=National Geographic |publisher=[[National Geographic Society]] |access-date=28 March 2019 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20190322092654/https://www.nationalgeographic.com/archaeology-and-history/magazine/2017/09-10/russian-revolution-history-lenin/ |archive-date=22 March 2019 |url-status=dead |date=25 October 2017}}</ref> After heavy casualties in World Wars I and II, women outnumbered men in Russia by a 4:3 ratio;<ref>{{cite web |last=Gao |first=George |title=Why the Former USSR Has Far Fewer Men than Women |url=https://www.pewresearch.org/fact-tank/2015/08/14/why-the-former-ussr-has-far-fewer-men-than-women/ |website=[[Pew Research Center]] |date=14 August 2015 |access-date=28 March 2019 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20190328231028/https://www.pewresearch.org/fact-tank/2015/08/14/why-the-former-ussr-has-far-fewer-men-than-women/ |archive-date=28 March 2019 |url-status=live}}</ref> this contributed to the larger role women played in Russian society compared to other great powers at the time.

=== LGBTQ rights ===
{{Main|LGBTQ history in the Soviet Union}}

The Soviet Union repressed [[homosexuality]]. Even during the period when homosexuality was officially legal after the abolition of the Tsarist penal code criminalising it, Soviet courts attempted to repress non-traditional forms of sexuality, which were widely viewed by Russian revolutionaries as a form of capitalist decadence despite more liberal views on homosexuality from Soviet academic sexologists. After Stalin's consolidation of power, homosexuality became officially recriminalised in 1934.<ref name="LauraEngelstein1995" /> The increased homophobia during this time interval was driven by the economic demands of the First Five-Year Plan, as well as the NKVD's view of homosexuals as "socially harmful elements", although even during this heightened period of repression, a clandestine homosexual subculture was able to persist.<ref>{{cite journal |last1=Healey |first1=Dan |date=2002 |title=Homosexual Existence and Existing Socialism: New Light on the Repression of Male Homosexuality in Stalin's Russia |url=https://muse.jhu.edu/article/12210 |journal=[[GLQ: A Journal of Lesbian and Gay Studies]] |volume=8 |issue=3 |pages=349–378 |doi=10.1215/10642684-8-3-349 |access-date=10 August 2025 |via=Project MUSE}}</ref> Homosexuality remained a criminal offence throughout the remainder of the Soviet Union's existence.<ref name="LauraEngelstein1995">{{cite journal |last1=Engelstein |first1=Laura |title=Soviet Policy Toward Male Homosexuality:: Its Origins and Historical Roots |journal=Journal of Homosexuality |date=27 November 1995 |volume=29 |issue=2–3 |pages=155–178 |doi=10.1300/J082v29n02_06 |pmid=8666753 }}</ref>

=== Education ===
{{Main|Education in the Soviet Union}}

[[File:Young Pioneers in Kazakh SSR.jpg|thumb|[[Young Pioneer organization of the Soviet Union|Young Pioneers]] at a Young Pioneer camp in the Kazakh SSR]]
[[Anatoly Lunacharsky]] became the first [[People's Commissar]] for Education of Soviet Russia. In the beginning, the Soviet authorities placed great emphasis on the [[Likbez|elimination of illiteracy]]. All left-handed children were forced to write with their right hand in the Soviet school system.<ref>А.&nbsp;П.&nbsp;Чуприков, В.&nbsp;Д.&nbsp;Мишиев. // Латеральность населения СССР в конце 70-х и начале 80-х годов. К истории латеральной нейропсихологии и нейропсихиатрии. Хрестоматия. Донецк, 2010, 192 с.</ref><ref>А.&nbsp;П.&nbsp;Чуприков, Е.&nbsp;А.&nbsp;Волков. // Мир леворуких. Киев. 2008.</ref><ref>{{cite web |url=https://www.baltimoresun.com/news/bs-xpm-1998-03-27-1998086130-story.html |title=In Russia, left isn't quite right Handedness: The official Moscow line is that lefties are OK, but suspicion of those who are different persists from the old Soviet days. |last=Englund |first=Will |website=baltimoresun.com |access-date=24 June 2019 |archive-date=24 June 2019 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20190624220243/https://www.baltimoresun.com/news/bs-xpm-1998-03-27-1998086130-story.html |url-status=dead}}</ref><ref>{{Cite report |url=https://eera-ecer.de/ecer-programmes/conference/21/contribution/38628/ |title=Wrong Hand/Wrong Children: Education of Left Handed Children in the Soviet Union |first1=Linda |last1=Daniela |first2=Zanda |last2=Rubene |first3=Dace |last3=Medne |date=23 August 2016 |website=European Educational Research Association |access-date=24 June 2019 |archive-date=13 October 2017 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20171013124517/https://eera-ecer.de/ecer-programmes/conference/21/contribution/38628/ |url-status=live}}</ref> Literate people were automatically hired as teachers.{{citation needed|date=May 2017}} For a short period, quality was sacrificed for quantity. By 1940, Stalin could announce that illiteracy had been eliminated. Throughout the 1930s, [[social mobility]] rose sharply, which has been attributed to reforms in education.<ref>[[Sheila Fitzpatrick]], ''[http://www.cambridge.org/us/academic/subjects/history/twentieth-century-european-history/education-and-social-mobility-soviet-union-19211934 Education and Social Mobility in the Soviet Union 1921–1934] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20141118133419/http://www.cambridge.org/us/academic/subjects/history/twentieth-century-european-history/education-and-social-mobility-soviet-union-19211934 |date=18 November 2014 }}'', [[Cambridge University Press]] (2002), {{ISBN|978-0-521-89423-4}}</ref> In the aftermath of World War II, the country's educational system expanded dramatically, which had a tremendous effect. In the 1960s, nearly all children had access to education, the only exception being those living in remote areas. [[Nikita Khrushchev]] tried to make education more accessible, making it clear to children that education was closely linked to the needs of society. Education also became important in giving rise to the [[New Soviet man|New Man]].<ref>{{cite book |last=Law |first=David A. |title=Russian Civilization |publisher=Ardent Media |year=1975 |pages=300–301 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=f3ky9qBavl4C |isbn=978-0-8422-0529-0 |access-date=20 June 2015 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20150512055909/http://books.google.com/books?id=f3ky9qBavl4C&dq |archive-date=12 May 2015 |url-status=live}}</ref> Citizens directly entering the workforce had the constitutional right to a job and to free [[Vocational-technical school|vocational training]].

The [[Education in the Soviet Union|education system]] was highly centralized and universally accessible to all citizens, with [[affirmative action]] for applicants from nations associated with [[cultural backwardness]]. However, as part of a general [[Antisemitism in the Soviet Union|antisemitic policy]], an unofficial [[Jewish quota]] was applied{{when|date=July 2019}} in the leading institutions of higher education by subjecting Jewish applicants to harsher entrance examinations.<ref>{{cite book |editor=[[Mikhail Shifman]] |title=You Failed Your Math Test, Comrade Einstein: Adventures and Misadventures of Young Mathematicians Or Test Your Skills in Almost Recreational Mathematics |publisher=World Scientific |date=2005 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=ho6fMF8ehogC |isbn=978-981-270-116-9}}</ref><ref>{{cite journal |author=Edward Frenkel |title=The Fifth problem: math & anti-Semitism in the Soviet Union |date=October 2012 |journal=The New Criterion |url=http://www.newcriterion.com/articles.cfm/The-Fifth-problem--math---anti-Semitism-in-the-Soviet-Union-7446 |access-date=12 December 2015 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20151207161404/http://www.newcriterion.com/articles.cfm/The-Fifth-problem--math---anti-Semitism-in-the-Soviet-Union-7446 |archive-date=7 December 2015 |url-status=live |author-link=Edward Frenkel}}</ref><ref>{{cite news |url=https://www.independent.co.uk/opinion/commentators/dominic-lawson/dominic-lawson-more-migrants-please-especially-the-clever-ones-2368622.html |location=London |work=[[The Independent]] |date=11 October 2011 |title=More migrants please, especially the clever ones |author=Dominic Lawson |access-date=14 September 2017 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20120204140558/http://www.independent.co.uk/opinion/commentators/dominic-lawson/dominic-lawson-more-migrants-please-especially-the-clever-ones-2368622.html |archive-date=4 February 2012 |url-status=live |author-link=Dominic Lawson}}</ref><ref>{{cite web |author=Andre Geim |title=Biographical |publisher=Nobelprize.org |date=2010 |url=https://www.nobelprize.org/nobel_prizes/physics/laureates/2010/geim-bio.html |access-date=14 June 2017 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20170616114451/http://www.nobelprize.org/nobel_prizes/physics/laureates/2010/geim-bio.html |archive-date=16 June 2017 |url-status=live |author-link=Andre Geim}}</ref> The Brezhnev era also introduced a rule that required all university applicants to present a reference from the local [[Komsomol]] party secretary.<ref>{{cite book |last=Shlapentokh |first=Vladimir |title=Soviet Intellectuals and Political Power: The Post-Stalin Era |page=26 |publisher=[[I.B. Tauris]] |year=1990 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=7VFqqE5995UC |isbn=978-1-85043-284-5 |access-date=20 June 2015 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20150512041316/http://books.google.com/books?id=7VFqqE5995UC&dq |archive-date=12 May 2015 |url-status=live}}</ref> According to statistics from 1986, the number of higher education students per the population of 10,000 was 181 for the USSR, compared to 517 for the US.<ref>{{cite book |last=Pejovich |first=Svetozar |title=The Economics of Property Rights: Towards a Theory of Comparative Systems |page=130 |year=1990 |publisher=[[Springer Science+Business Media]] |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=ocQKHRReKdcC |isbn=978-0-7923-0878-2 |access-date=25 May 2020 |archive-date=17 June 2020 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20200617225600/https://books.google.com/books?id=ocQKHRReKdcC |url-status=live}}</ref>

=== Nationalities and ethnic groups ===
{{Main|Islam in the Soviet Union|National delimitation in the Soviet Union|Korenizatsiia|Soviet Central Asia}}

The Soviet Union was an ethnically diverse country, with more than 100 distinct ethnic groups. The total population of the country was estimated at 293&nbsp;million in 1991. According to a 1990 estimate, the majority of the population were [[Russians]] (50.78%), followed by [[Ukrainians]] (15.45%) and [[Uzbeks]] (5.84%).<ref>{{cite web |url=http://www.theodora.com/wfb1991/soviet_union/soviet_union_people.html |title=Soviet Union – People |author=Central Intelligence Agency |website=[[The World Factbook]] |year=1991 |access-date=25 October 2010 |author-link=Central Intelligence Agency |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20101004135453/http://www.theodora.com/wfb1991/soviet_union/soviet_union_people.html |archive-date=4 October 2010 |url-status=live}}</ref> Overall, in 1989 the ethnic demography of the country showed that 69.8% was [[East Slavs|East Slavic]], 17.5% was [[Turkic peoples|Turkic]], 1.6% were [[Armenians]], 1.6% were [[Balts]], 1.5% were [[Uralic peoples|Uralic]], 1.5% were [[Tajiks|Tajik]], 1.4% were [[Georgians|Georgian]], 1.2% were [[Moldovans|Moldovan]] and 4.1% were of other various ethnic groups.<ref>{{Cite web |url=http://www.demoscope.ru/weekly/ssp/sng_nac_89.php |title=Демоскоп Weekly – Приложение. Справочник статистических показателей. |website=www.demoscope.ru}}</ref>

All citizens of the USSR had their own ethnic affiliation. The ethnicity of a person was chosen at the age of sixteen by the child's parents.{{sfn|Comrie|1981|p=2}} If the parents did not agree, the child was automatically assigned the ethnicity of the father. Partly due to Soviet policies, some of the smaller minority ethnic groups were considered part of larger ones, such as the [[Mingrelians]] of [[Georgian Soviet Socialist Republic|Georgia]], who were classified with the linguistically related [[Georgians]].<ref>{{harvnb|Comrie|1981|p=3}}</ref> Some ethnic groups voluntarily assimilated, while others were brought in by force. Those who refused to assimilate would be mistreated and ostracized. Some ethnic groups suffered more than others, however some groups would be afforded better treatment than others. A person’s quality of life was heavily influenced by their ethnicity. When the Bolsheviks first took power, they wanted to make it seem as if the ethnicities were equal. However, in most cases, Russians were generally preferred over other ethnicities.<ref>{{Cite book |last=O'Keefe |first=Brigid |title=The multiethnic Soviet Union and its demise |date=2022 |publisher=Bloomsbury academic |isbn=978-1-350-13677-9 |series=Russian shorts |location=London |pages=17}}</ref> Russians, [[Belarusians]], and Ukrainians, who were all East Slavic and Orthodox, shared close cultural, ethnic, and religious ties, while other groups did not. With multiple nationalities living in the same territory, [[Ethnic conflicts in the Soviet Union|ethnic antagonisms]] developed over the years.<ref>{{cite web |url=http://www.historytoday.com/geoffrey-hosking/rulers-and-victims-russians-soviet-union |title=Rulers and Victims: The Russians in the Soviet Union |author=Hosking, Geoffrey |date=13 March 2006 |website=[[History Today]] |access-date=25 October 2010 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20110501085443/http://www.historytoday.com/geoffrey-hosking/rulers-and-victims-russians-soviet-union |archive-date=1 May 2011 |url-status=live}} (pay-fee)</ref>{{POV statement|date=February 2013}}

Members of various ethnicities participated in legislative bodies. Organs of power like the Politburo, the Secretariat of the Central Committee etc., were formally ethnically neutral, but in reality, ethnic Russians were overrepresented, although there were also non-Russian leaders in the [[List of leaders of the Soviet Union|Soviet leadership]], such as [[Joseph Stalin]], [[Grigory Zinoviev]], [[Nikolai Podgorny]] or [[Andrei Gromyko]]. During the Soviet era, a significant number of ethnic Russians and Ukrainians migrated to other Soviet republics, and many of them settled there. According to the last census in 1989, the Russian 'diaspora' in the Soviet republics had reached 25&nbsp;million.<ref>Pål Kolstø, "Political construction sites: Nation-building in Russia and the post-Soviet States". Boulder, Colorado: Westview press 2000, pp. 81–104
uncorrected version, [https://folk.uio.no/palk/ch02.htm Chapter 2, par. "Nations and Nation-Building in Eastern Europe"] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20171219130957/http://folk.uio.no/palk/ch02.htm|date=19 December 2017}} and [https://folk.uio.no/palk/PCSch05russian%20diasporas.htm Chapter 5] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20050102081015/http://folk.uio.no/palk/PCSch05russian%20diasporas.htm|date=2 January 2005}}</ref>

<gallery widths="300" heights="210">
File:Ethnic map USSR 1930.jpg|Ethnographic map of the USSR, 1930
File:European Union of Soviet Socialist Republics (USSR) Ethnic Groups (Before 1939) - DPLA - 9820cc06b72e7b131366b861f5ee351a.jpg|European Union of Soviet Socialist Republics (USSR) Ethnic Groups, before 1939
File:Ethnic map USSR 1941.jpg|Ethnographic map of the Soviet Union, 1941
File:U.S. S.R. - Ethnic Compositions - DPLA - 754227d4ec980a6b169104b656de499a.jpg|Ethnic composition of the Soviet Union in 1949
File:Map of the ethnic groups of the Soviet Union.png|Ethnographic map of the Soviet Union, 1970
File:French map of the ethnic groups living in USSR.png|Map of the ethnic groups living in USSR, 1970
File:Ethnic Groups in the Soviet Union - DPLA - d7a6475bd436c74e2b67e621a6b2afad.jpg|Ethnic Groups in the Soviet Union, 1979
File:Comparative Soviet Nationalities by Republic, 1989 - DPLA - 23930ee870e66bd2efa5417463128b28.jpg|Comparative Soviet Nationalities by Republic, 1989
</gallery>

=== Health ===
{{Main|Healthcare in Russia#Healthcare in the Soviet Union|l1 = Health care in the Soviet Union}}

[[File:RussianAbortionPoster.jpg|thumb|An early Soviet-era poster discouraging unsafe abortion practices]]
In 1917, before the revolution, health conditions were significantly behind those of developed countries. As Lenin later noted, "Either the lice will defeat socialism, or socialism will defeat the lice".<ref>{{harvnb|Lane|1992|p=353}}</ref> The Soviet health care system was conceived by the [[People's Commissariat for Health]] in 1918. Under the [[Semashko model]], health care was to be controlled by the state and would be provided to its citizens free of charge, a revolutionary concept at the time. Article 42 of the [[1977 Soviet Constitution]] gave all citizens the [[right to health]] protection and free access to any health institutions in the USSR. Before [[Leonid Brezhnev]] became general secretary, the Soviet healthcare system was held in high esteem by many foreign specialists. This changed, however, from Brezhnev's accession and [[Mikhail Gorbachev]]'s tenure as leader, during which the health care system was heavily criticized for many basic faults, such as the quality of service and the unevenness in its provision.<ref>{{harvnb|Lane|1992|p=352}}</ref> [[Ministry of Health (Soviet Union)|Minister of Health]] [[Yevgeniy Chazov]], during the [[19th Congress of the Communist Party of the Soviet Union]], while highlighting such successes as having the most doctors and hospitals in the world, recognized the system's areas for improvement and felt that billions of [[Soviet ruble|ruble]]s were squandered.<ref>{{harvnb|Lane|1992|pp=352–353}}</ref> <!-- Billions in the previous line was prior milliard, but was changed according to [[WP:MOSNUM]]. Don't be fooled by the surrounding British English. I checked the rest of the article: All other named numbers were either "million" (same on both scales) or "trillion USD", where a value of $10^18 is completely implausible. -->

After the revolution, life expectancy for all age groups went up. These improvements continued into the 1960s when statistics indicated that the life expectancy briefly surpassed that of the United States;<ref>{{cite journal |last1=Eberstadt |first1=Nick |title=The Health Crisis in the USSR |journal=International Journal of Epidemiology |date=December 2006 |volume=35 |issue=6 |pages=1384–1394 |doi=10.1093/IJE/DYL238 |pmid=17148466 }}</ref> life expectancy started to decline in the 1970s, possibly because of [[Alcohol consumption in Russia|alcohol abuse]].<ref>{{cite journal |last1=Field |first1=Mark G. |title=The health crisis in the former Soviet Union: A report from the 'post-war' zone |journal=Social Science & Medicine |date=December 1995 |volume=41 |issue=11 |pages=1469–1478 |doi=10.1016/0277-9536(95)00060-K |pmid=8607037 }}</ref> At the same time, infant mortality began to rise. After 1974, the government stopped publishing statistics on the matter. This trend can be partly explained by the number of pregnancies rising drastically in the Asian part of the country where infant mortality was the highest while declining markedly in the more developed European part of the Soviet Union.<ref>{{cite journal |author=Dinkel, R.H. |title=The Seeming Paradox of Increasing Mortality in a Highly Industrialized Nation: the Example of the Soviet Union |journal=Population Studies |pages=155–177 |year=1990 |volume=39 |issue=1 |doi=10.1080/0032472031000141296 |pmid=11611752}}</ref>

==== Dentistry ====
Soviet dental technology and dental health were considered extremely bad;<ref>{{cite news|last=Niedowski |first=Erika|title=Russians discover the next big thing: teeth|newspaper=[[The Baltimore Sun]]|place=Baltimore|date=2007-03-01}}<br>{{cite news |last=Niedowski |first=Erika|date=2007-03-04 |title=Dentistry in Russia is finally leaving the Dark Ages behind |url=https://www.chicagotribune.com/news/ct-xpm-2007-03-04-0703040477-story.html |url-status=live |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20210405013455/https://www.chicagotribune.com/news/ct-xpm-2007-03-04-0703040477-story.html |archive-date=5 April 2021 |access-date=30 April 2021 |page=[https://www.newspapers.com/clip/196769191/ 11]|newspaper=[[Chicago Tribune]]|agency=[[The Baltimore Sun]]}} - [https://www.newspapers.com/clip/196769191/ Clipping] from [[Newspapers.com]]. [https://www.latimes.com:443/archives/la-xpm-2007-mar-25-adfg-teeth25-story.html See version at] ''[[Los Angeles Times]]'' (March 25, 2007). [https://www.heraldnet.com/2007/03/10/goodbye-soviet-dentistry-russians-take-tooth-care-seriously/ See version at] ''[[The Everett Herald]]''.</ref> in 1991, the average 35-year-old had 12 to 14 cavities, fillings or missing teeth. Toothpaste was often not available, and toothbrushes did not conform to standards of modern dentistry.<ref>{{cite journal |last1=Ferber |first1=Irwin |last2=Bedrick |first2=Anthony E. |title=Dental survey of 620 Soviet immigrants |journal=The Journal of the American Dental Association |date=March 1979 |volume=98 |issue=3 |pages=379–383 |doi=10.14219/jada.archive.1979.0062 |pmid=283158 }}</ref>

=== Language ===
{{Main|Languages of the Soviet Union|Reforms of Russian orthography}}

Under Lenin, the government gave small language groups their own writing systems.{{sfn|Comrie|1981|pp=3–4}} The development of these writing systems was highly successful, even though some flaws were detected. During the later days of the USSR, countries with the same [[multilingual]] situation implemented similar policies. A serious problem when creating these writing systems was that the languages differed [[dialect]]ally greatly from each other.{{sfn|Comrie|1981|p=4}} When a language had been given a writing system and appeared in a notable publication, it would attain 'official language' status. There were many minority languages which never received their own writing system; therefore, their speakers were forced to have a [[second language]].{{sfn|Comrie|1981|p=25}} There are examples where the government retreated from this policy, most notably under Stalin where education was discontinued in languages that were not widespread. In 1938, Stalin mandated all schools to teach Soviet schoolchildren the Russian language. It did not stop children from getting an education in their native language (the language they grew up speaking), but they would also be required to learn how to speak the Russian language. Stalin saw this as necessary from a military perspective, because it would be easier for everyone to communicate. Despite only being mandated in 1938, children of different ethnicities were already being enrolled in schools teaching Russian beforehand because knowing the Russian language would open up a lot of opportunities for a person. Whether it expanded the person's ability to socialize or gave the person a chance to contribute to the multiethnic goals of the Soviet Union, many people saw the benefit of learning Russian.<ref>{{Cite book |last=O'Keefe|first=Brigid|title=The Multiethnic Soviet Union.|publisher=Bloomsbury Academic.|year=2022|isbn=9781350136816|location=London|pages=43}}</ref> While other languages were spoken, Russian became the lingua franca of the USSR. During World War II, some minority languages were banned, and their speakers accused of collaborating with the enemy.{{sfn|Comrie|1981|p=27}}

As the most widely spoken of the Soviet Union's many languages, Russian ''de facto'' functioned as an official language, as the 'language of interethnic communication' ({{langx|ru|link=no|язык межнационального общения}}), but only assumed the ''[[de jure]]'' status as the official national language in 1990.<ref>{{cite web |script-title=ru:ЗАКОН СССР ОТ 24 April 1990 О ЯЗЫКАХ НАРОДОВ СССР |publisher=[[Government of the Soviet Union]] |date=24 April 1990 |url=http://legal-ussr.narod.ru/data01/tex10935.htm |trans-title=Law of the USSR from 24 April 1990 on languages of the USSR |access-date=24 October 2010 |language=ru |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20160508201331/http://legal-ussr.narod.ru/data01/tex10935.htm |archive-date=8 May 2016 |url-status=dead}}</ref>

=== Religion ===
{{Main|Religion in the Soviet Union}}

[[File:Christ saviour explosion.jpg|thumb|The [[Cathedral of Christ the Saviour]] in Moscow during its demolition in 1931]]
[[File:Sennaia-1900.jpg|thumb|The [[Saviour Church on Sennaya Square]] in Leningrad was one of many notable church buildings destroyed during the [[Khrushchev Thaw]].]]
[[File:Hujum.png|thumb|A [[paranja]] burning ceremony in the [[Uzbek SSR]] as part of Soviet [[Hujum]] policies]]
[[File:U.S.S.R.-Major religious groups. 4-61. LOC 75694086.jpg|thumb|Major religious groups in the Soviet Union as published by the [[CIA]]]]
[[Christianity]] and [[Islam]] had the highest number of adherents among the religious citizens.<ref name="Eaton, Katherine Bliss-2004">{{cite book |author=Eaton, Katherine Bliss |title=Daily life in the Soviet Union |publisher=[[Greenwood Publishing Group]] |year=2004 |url=https://archive.org/details/dailylifeinsovie00eato |url-access=registration |isbn=978-0-313-31628-9 |pages=[https://archive.org/details/dailylifeinsovie00eato/page/285 285] and 286 |access-date=20 June 2015}}</ref> [[Eastern Christianity]] predominated among Christians, with Russia's traditional [[Russian Orthodox Church]] being the largest [[Christian denomination]]. About 90% of the Soviet Union's Muslims were [[Sunni]]s, with [[Shias]] being concentrated in the [[Azerbaijan SSR]].<ref name="Eaton, Katherine Bliss-2004" /> Smaller groups included [[Roman Catholics]], Jews, [[Buddhists]], and a variety of [[Protestant]] denominations (especially [[Baptists]] and [[Lutherans]]).<ref name="Eaton, Katherine Bliss-2004" />

Religious influence had been strong in the Russian Empire. The Russian Orthodox Church enjoyed a privileged status as the church of the monarchy and took part in carrying out official state functions.<ref>{{cite book |author=Silvio Ferrari |author2=W. Cole Durham |author3=Elizabeth A. Sewell |title=Law and religion in post-communist Europe |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=QEucgny-0k4C |year=2003 |publisher=Peeters Pub & Booksellers |isbn=978-90-429-1262-5 |page=261 |access-date=25 May 2020 |archive-date=22 June 2020 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20200622083150/https://books.google.com/books?id=QEucgny-0k4C |url-status=live}}</ref> 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 class]]es.<ref name="Simon 1974">{{harvnb|Simon|1974|pp=64–65}}</ref>

In Soviet law, the 'freedom to hold religious services' was constitutionally guaranteed, although the ruling Communist Party regarded religion as incompatible with the [[Marxist]] spirit of [[scientific materialism]].<ref name="Simon 1974" /> In practice, the Soviet system subscribed to a narrow interpretation of this right, and in fact used a range of official measures to discourage religion and curb the activities of religious groups.<ref name="Simon 1974" />

The 1918 [[Council of People's Commissars]] decree establishing the Russian SFSR 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.'<ref>{{harvnb|Simon|1974|p=209}}</ref> Among further restrictions, those adopted in 1929 included express prohibitions on a range of church activities, including meetings for organized [[Bible study (Christian)|Bible study]].<ref name="Simon 1974" /> Both Christian and non-Christian establishments were shut down by the thousands in the 1920s and 1930s. By 1940, as many as 90% of the churches, synagogues, and mosques that had been operating in 1917 were closed; the majority of them were demolished or re-purposed for state needs with little concern for their historic and cultural value.<ref>{{cite book |author=Atwood, Craig D. |title=Always Reforming: A History of Christianity Since 1300 |location=Macon, Georgia |publisher=[[Mercer University Press]] |year=2001 |url=https://archive.org/details/alwaysreformingh0000atwo |url-access=registration |isbn=978-0-86554-679-0 |page=[https://archive.org/details/alwaysreformingh0000atwo/page/311 311] |access-date=20 June 2015}}</ref>

More than 85,000 Orthodox priests were shot in 1937 alone.<ref>{{cite web |url-status=dead |work=The Globe and Mail (Canada) |date=9 March 2001 |title=Johnson's Russia List #5141 - Why father of glasnost is despised in Russia |via=CDI |first1=Geoffrey |last1=York |url=http://www.cdi.org/russia/johnson/5141.html# |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20120120105914/http://www.cdi.org/russia/johnson/5141.html |archive-date=20 January 2012 |quote=In his new book, Maelstrom of Memory, Mr. Yakovlev lists some of the nightmares uncovered by his commission. More than 41 million Soviets were imprisoned from 1923 to 1953. More than 884,000 children were in internal exile by 1954. More than 85,000 Orthodox priests were shot in 1937 alone.}}</ref> Only a twelfth of the Russian Orthodox Church's priests were left functioning in their parishes by 1941.<ref>D. Pospielovsky, ''The Russian Orthodox Church under the Soviet Regime'', vol. 1, p. 175.{{date missing}}</ref> In the period between 1927 and 1940, the number of Orthodox Churches in Russia fell from 29,584 to less than 500 (1.7%).<ref>Dimitry V. Pospielovsky. ''A History of Soviet Atheism in Theory, and Practice, and the Believer'', vol 2: Soviet Antireligious Campaigns and Persecutions, St Martin's Press, New York (1988).{{isbn?}}{{pn|date=May 2026}}</ref>

The Soviet Union was officially a [[secular state]],<ref>{{cite web |url=http://www.departments.bucknell.edu/russian/const/36cons04.html |title=ARTICLE 124. |access-date=4 February 2019 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20190102163245/http://www.departments.bucknell.edu/russian/const/36cons04.html |archive-date=2 January 2019 |url-status=live}}</ref><ref>{{cite web |url=http://www.departments.bucknell.edu/russian/const/77cons02.html |title=Article 52. |access-date=4 February 2019 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20190216062245/http://www.departments.bucknell.edu/russian/const/77cons02.html |archive-date=16 February 2019 |url-status=live}}</ref> but a 'government-sponsored program of forced conversion to [[Marxist-Leninist atheism|atheism]]' was conducted under the doctrine of [[state atheism]].<ref>Religion and the State in Russia and China: Suppression, Survival, and Revival, by Christopher Marsh, page 47. Continuum International Publishing Group, 2011.</ref><ref>{{cite book |title=Inside Central Asia: A Political and Cultural History |first1=Dilip |last1=Hiro |publisher=Penguin |date=2009 }}{{isbn?}}{{pn|date=May 2026}}</ref><ref>{{cite book |last1=Adappur |first1=Abraham |title=Religion and the Cultural Crisis in India and the West: An Ecumenical Inquiry |date=2000 |publisher=Intercultural Publications |isbn=978-81-85574-47-9 |quote-page=306 |quote=Forced Conversion under Atheistic Regimes: It might be added that the most modern example of forced 'conversions' came not from any theocratic state, but from a professedly atheist government—that of the Soviet Union under the Communists. }}</ref> The government targeted religions based on state interests, and while most organized religions were never outlawed, religious property was confiscated, believers were harassed, and religion was ridiculed while atheism was propagated in schools.<ref>USGOV1.{{full citation needed|date=August 2023}}</ref> In 1925, the government founded the [[League of Militant Atheists]] to intensify the propaganda campaign.<ref>{{cite book |first=Geoffrey |last=Blainey |title=A Short History of Christianity |publisher=Viking |year=2011 |page=494}}{{isbn?}}</ref> Accordingly, although personal expressions of religious faith were not explicitly banned, a strong sense of social stigma was imposed on them by the formal structures and mass media, and it was generally considered unacceptable for members of certain professions (teachers, state bureaucrats, soldiers) to be openly religious. While persecution accelerated following Stalin's rise to power, a revival of Orthodoxy was fostered by the government during World War II and the Soviet authorities sought to control the Russian Orthodox Church rather than liquidate it. During the first five years of Soviet power, the Bolsheviks executed 28 Russian Orthodox bishops and over 1,200 Russian Orthodox priests. Many others were imprisoned or exiled. Believers were harassed and persecuted. Most seminaries were closed, and the publication of most religious material was prohibited. By 1941, only 500 churches remained open out of about 54,000 in existence before World War I.{{fact|date=May 2026}}

Convinced that religious [[anti-Sovietism]] had become a thing of the past, and with the looming threat of war, the Stalin administration began shifting to a more moderate religion policy in the late 1930s.{{sfn|Janz|1998|pp=38–39}} Soviet religious establishments overwhelmingly rallied to support the war effort during World War II. Amid other accommodations to religious faith after the German invasion, churches were reopened. [[Radio Moscow]] began broadcasting a religious hour, and a historic meeting between Stalin and Orthodox Church leader [[Patriarch Sergius of Moscow]] was held in 1943. Stalin had the support of the majority of the religious people in the USSR even through the late 1980s.{{sfn|Janz|1998|pp=38–39}} The general tendency of this period was an increase in religious activity among believers of all faiths.<ref>{{cite book |last1=Yaacov |first1=Ro'i |chapter=The Jewish Religion in the Soviet Union after World War II |pages=263–289 |chapter-url={{GBurl|bJBH5pxzSyMC|p=263}} |editor-first1=Yaacov |editor-last1=Ro'i |title=Jews and Jewish Life in Russia and the Soviet Union |date=2016 |doi=10.4324/9781315036205 |isbn=978-1-135-20510-2 }}</ref>

Under [[Nikita Khrushchev]], the state leadership clashed with the churches in 1958–1964, a period when [[atheism]] was emphasized in the educational curriculum, and numerous state publications promoted atheistic views.{{sfn|Janz|1998|pp=38–39}} During this period, the number of churches fell from 20,000 to 10,000 from 1959 to 1965, and the number of synagogues dropped from 500 to 97.<ref name="Victor Swoboda-1990">{{cite book |author1=Nahaylo, Bohdan |author2=Victor Swoboda |name-list-style=amp |title=Soviet Disunion: A History of the Nationalities Problem in the USSR |location=London |publisher=[[Hamish Hamilton]] |year=1990 |url={{GBurl|ZrG7vrPue4wC|p=144}} |isbn=978-0-02-922401-4 |page=144 }}</ref> The number of working mosques also declined, falling from 1,500 to 500 within a decade.<ref name="Victor Swoboda-1990" />

Religious institutions remained monitored by the Soviet government, but churches, synagogues, temples, and mosques were all given more leeway in the [[Brezhnev era]].<ref>{{cite book |author=Mark D. Steinberg |author2=Catherine Wanner |title=Religion, morality, and community in post-Soviet societies |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=LR6X3EY8oPIC |date=2008 |publisher=Indiana University Press |isbn=978-0-253-22038-7 |page=6 |access-date=25 May 2020 |archive-date=17 June 2020 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20200617211211/https://books.google.com/books?id=LR6X3EY8oPIC |url-status=live}}</ref> Official relations between the Orthodox Church and the government again warmed to the point that the Brezhnev government twice honored Orthodox Patriarch [[Alexy I]] with the [[Order of the Red Banner of Labour]].<ref>{{harvnb|Janz|1998|p=42}}</ref> A poll conducted by Soviet authorities in 1982 recorded 20% of the Soviet population as 'active religious believers.'<ref>{{cite book |author1=McKay, George |author2=Williams, Christopher |title=Subcultures and New Religious Movements in Russia and East-Central Europe |publisher=[[Peter Lang (publishing company)|Peter Lang]] |year=2009 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=xpNBm-z7aOYC |isbn=978-3-03911-921-9 |pages=231–232 |access-date=20 June 2015 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20150512035801/http://books.google.com/books?id=xpNBm-z7aOYC&dq |archive-date=12 May 2015 |url-status=live}}</ref>

== Culture ==
{{Main|Culture of the Soviet Union}}

{{See also|Soviet cuisine|Music of the Soviet Union|Cinema of the Soviet Union|Fashion in the Soviet Union|Broadcasting in the Soviet Union|Printed media in the Soviet Union|Samizdat}}
[[File:Марш энтузиастов.ogg|thumb|The 'Enthusiast's March', a 1930s song famous in the Soviet Union]]
[[File:Vladimir Vysotsky.jpg|thumb|upright|Soviet singer-songwriter, poet and actor [[Vladimir Vysotsky]] in 1979]]
The culture of the Soviet Union evolved through several stages during its existence. During the first decade following the revolution, there was relative freedom and artists experimented with several different styles 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, such as [[Nikolay Gumilyov]] who was shot for alleged conspiracy against the Bolsheviks, and [[Yevgeny Zamyatin]].<ref>'On the other hand{{nbsp}}...' See the index of ''Stalin and His Hangmen'' by Donald Rayfield, 2004, Random House</ref>

The government encouraged a variety of trends. In art and literature, numerous schools, some traditional and others radically experimental, proliferated. Communist writers [[Maxim Gorky]] and [[Vladimir Mayakovsky]] were active during this time. As a means of influencing a largely illiterate society, films received encouragement from the state, and much of director [[Sergei Eisenstein]]'s best work dates from this period.

During Stalin's rule, the Soviet culture was characterized by the rise and domination of the government-imposed style of [[socialist realism]], with all other trends being severely repressed, with rare exceptions, such as [[Mikhail Bulgakov]]'s works. Many writers were imprisoned and killed.<ref>{{harvnb|Rayfield|2004|pp=317–320}}</ref>

Following the [[Khrushchev Thaw]], censorship was diminished. During this time, a distinctive period of Soviet culture developed, characterized by conformist public life and an intense focus on personal life. Greater experimentation in art forms was again permissible, resulting in the production of more sophisticated and subtly critical work. The government 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. 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 music, in response to the increasing popularity of forms of popular music like [[jazz]] in the West, many jazz orchestras were permitted throughout the USSR, notably the Melodiya Ensemble, named after the principle record label in the USSR.

In the second half of the 1980s, Gorbachev's policies of ''[[perestroika]]'' and ''[[glasnost]]'' significantly expanded [[freedom of expression]] throughout the country in the media and the press.<ref>{{Cite web |date=26 August 2023 |title=Mikhail Gorbachev {{!}} Biography, Facts, Cold War, & Significance {{!}} Britannica |url=https://www.britannica.com/biography/Mikhail-Gorbachev |access-date=4 October 2023 |website=www.britannica.com |language=en}}</ref>

== Sport ==
{{See also|Voluntary Sports Societies of the Soviet Union|CSKA Moscow|Soviet Union at the Olympics|Soviet Union men's national ice hockey team}}
[[File:RR5110-0098R.png|thumb|[[Valeri Kharlamov]] represented the Soviet Union at 11 [[Ice Hockey World Championships]], winning eight gold medals, two silvers and one bronze.]]
In summer of 1923 in Moscow was established the [[Dynamo Sports Club|Proletarian Sports Society "Dynamo"]] as a sports organization of Soviet secret police [[Cheka]].

On 13 July 1925 the [[Central Committee of the Russian Communist Party (Bolsheviks)]] adopted a statement "About the party's tasks in sphere of physical culture". In the statement was determined the role of physical culture in Soviet society and the party's tasks in political leadership of physical culture movement in the country.

The [[Soviet Olympic Committee]] formed on 21 April 1951, and the [[IOC]] recognized the new body in its [[List of IOC meetings|45th session]]. In the same year, when the Soviet representative Konstantin Andrianov became an IOC member, the USSR officially joined the [[Olympic Movement]]. The [[1952 Summer Olympics]] in Helsinki thus became first Olympic Games for Soviet athletes. The Soviet Union was the biggest rival to the United States at the Summer Olympics, winning [[Soviet Union at the Olympics#Medals by Summer Games|six of its nine appearances at the games]] and also topping the medal tally at the Winter Olympics six times. The Soviet Union's Olympics success has been attributed to its large investment in sports to demonstrate its superpower image and political influence on a global stage.<ref name="Benson">{{cite web |url=http://blogs.bu.edu/guidedhistory/russia-and-its-empires/tyler-benson/ |website=BU Blogs |first1=Tyler |last1=Benson |title=The Role of Sports in the Soviet Union &#124; Guided History |access-date=8 March 2021 |archive-date=22 October 2014 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20141022002522/http://blogs.bu.edu/guidedhistory/russia-and-its-empires/tyler-benson/ |url-status=live}}</ref>

The [[Soviet Union national ice hockey team]] won nearly every [[Ice Hockey World Championships|world championship]] and [[Ice hockey at the Olympic Games|Olympic tournament]] between 1954 and 1991 and never failed to medal in any [[International Ice Hockey Federation]] (IIHF) tournament in which they competed.

The Soviet Olympic team was notorious for skirting the edge of amateur rules. All Soviet athletes held some nominal jobs, but were in fact state-sponsored and trained full-time. According to many experts, that gave the Soviet Union a huge advantage over the [[United States]] and other Western countries, whose athletes were students or real amateurs.<ref>{{Cite news |url=https://www.nytimes.com/1974/07/21/archives/soviet-amateur-athlete-a-real-pro-dr-john-nelson-washburn-is-an.html |title=Soviet Amateur Athlete: A Real Pro |newspaper=The New York Times |date=21 July 1974 |last1=Washburn |first1=J. N.}}</ref><ref>{{Cite web |url=https://www.latimes.com/archives/la-xpm-1986-07-22-sp-30740-story.html |title=Sports in Soviet Union Only for Elite : There Are Top Athletes, and then There Are Those Who Sunbathe and Watch Drawbridges Go up |website=[[Los Angeles Times]] |date=22 July 1986}}</ref> Indeed, the Soviet Union monopolized the top place in the medal standings after 1968, and, until its collapse, placed second only once, in the [[1984 Winter Olympics|1984 Winter games]], after another Eastern bloc nation, the [[GDR]]. Amateur rules were relaxed only in the late 1980s and were almost completely abolished in the 1990s, after the [[fall of the USSR]].<ref name="Benson"/><ref>{{cite web |url=https://www.cia.gov/library/readingroom/docs/CIA-RDP80-00810A005600130009-0.pdf |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20170123110037/https://www.cia.gov/library/readingroom/docs/CIA-RDP80-00810A005600130009-0.pdf |url-status=dead |archive-date=23 January 2017 |title=Info |website=www.cia.gov}}</ref>

According to British journalist [[Andrew Jennings]], a [[KGB]] colonel stated that the agency's officers had posed as anti-doping authorities from the [[International Olympic Committee]] (IOC) to undermine [[doping test]]s and that Soviet athletes were "rescued with [these] tremendous efforts".<ref>{{cite book |url=https://books.google.com/books?isbn=0292739575 |title=Drug Games: The International Olympic Committee and the Politics of Doping |first=Thomas M. |last=Hunt |year=2011 |publisher=University of Texas Press |isbn=978-0-292-73957-4 |page=66}}</ref><ref>{{cite web |url=https://www.rferl.org/a/the-1980-moscow-olympics-rank-as-the-cleanest-in-history-athletes-recall-how-the-u-s-s-r-cheated-the-system-/30741567.html |title=The 1980 Olympics Are The 'Cleanest' In History. Athletes Recall How Moscow Cheated The System. |last1=Aleksandrov |first1=Alexei |last2=Aleksandrov |first2=Grebeniuk |last3=Runets |first3=Volodymyr |publisher= |date=22 July 2020 |website=Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty |access-date=26 December 2021}}</ref> Documents obtained in 2016 revealed the Soviet Union's plans for a statewide doping system in track and field in preparation for the [[1984 Summer Olympics]] in Los Angeles. Dated prior to the country's decision to boycott the Games, the document detailed the existing steroids operations of the program, along with suggestions for further enhancements.<ref>{{Cite news |url=https://www.nytimes.com/2016/08/14/sports/olympics/soviet-doping-plan-russia-rio-games.html |title=The Soviet Doping Plan: Document Reveals Illicit Approach to '84 Olympics |last=Ruiz |first=Rebecca R. |date=13 August 2016 |newspaper=The New York Times |issn=0362-4331 |access-date=3 September 2016}}</ref>

In the late 1980s, the government was persuaded to fund construction of a racing yacht specifically to take part in the [[1989–1990 Whitbread Round the World Race]] with a Soviet crew. The 25 metre sloop ''[[Fazisi]]'' was built in 1989 to the design of Vladislav Murnikov in Poti, Georgia. She came a creditable 11th in a field of 23 boats, but the project was not repeated.<ref name="SailMag">{{cite news|work=Sailing Magazine|title=The boat that just won't die|date=1 March 2018|first=Vlad|last=Murnikov|url=https://sailingmagazine.net/article-1951-the-boat-that-just-wont-die.html|access-date=30 August 2025}}</ref>

== Legacy ==
{{See also|Neo-Sovietism|Nostalgia for the Soviet Union}}
The legacy of the USSR remains a controversial topic. The socio-economic nature of [[communist state]]s such as the USSR, especially under Stalin, has also been much debated, varyingly being labelled a form of [[bureaucratic collectivism]], [[state capitalism]], [[state socialism]], or a totally unique [[mode of production]].<ref>{{cite book |last=Sandle |first=Mark |title=A Short History Of Soviet Socialism |publisher=[[Routledge]] |date=16 September 2003 |isbn=978-1-135-36640-7 |doi=10.4324/9780203500279 |pages=265–266}}</ref> The USSR implemented a broad range of policies over a long period of time, with a large amount of conflicting policies being implemented by different leaders. Some have a positive view of it whilst others are critical towards the country, calling it a repressive [[oligarchy]].<ref>{{Cite journal |title=The USSR: Oligarchy or Dictatorship? |first=Robert G. |last=Wesson |date=26 June 1972 |journal=[[Slavic Review]] |volume=31 |issue=2 |pages=314–322 |doi=10.2307/2494336 |jstor=2494336 |doi-access=free}}</ref> The opinions on the USSR are complex and have changed over time, with different generations having different views on the matter as well as on Soviet policies corresponding to separate time periods during its history.<ref>{{cite journal |last1=Tetlock |first1=Philip E. |title=Integrative complexity of American and Soviet foreign policy rhetoric: A time-series analysis. |journal=Journal of Personality and Social Psychology |date=December 1985 |volume=49 |issue=6 |pages=1565–1585 |doi=10.1037/0022-3514.49.6.1565 }}</ref>
[[File:Stamp of Moldova md383.jpg|thumb|2001 stamp of [[Moldova]] shows [[Yuri Gagarin]], the first human in space.]]

Western academicians published various analyses of the post-Soviet states' development, claiming that the dissolution was followed by a severe drop in economic and social conditions in these countries,<ref>[https://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/business/966616.stm "Child poverty soars in eastern Europe"], BBC News, 11 October 2000.</ref><ref>{{Cite book |last=Parenti |first=Michael |url=https://archive.org/details/blackshirtsredsr00pare |title=Blackshirts and Reds: Rational Fascism and the Overthrow of Communism |date=1997 |publisher=[[City Lights Books]] |isbn=978-0-87286-329-3 |page=[https://archive.org/details/blackshirtsredsr00pare/page/n70 118] |author-link=Michael Parenti |url-access=limited}}</ref> including a rapid increase in poverty,<ref name="Scheidel-2017" /><ref>{{Cite book |last=McAaley |first=Alastair |url=http://www.crop.org/viewfile.aspx?id=381 |title=Russia and the Baltics: Poverty and Poverty Research in a Changing World |access-date=18 July 2016 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20170123224044/http://webcache.googleusercontent.com/search?q=cache%3A8M3JFdbXA7sJ%3Awww.crop.org%2Fviewfile.aspx%3Fid%3D381+&cd=10&hl=en&ct=clnk&gl=nz |archive-date=23 January 2017 |url-status=live}}</ref><ref>{{Cite news |title=An epidemic of street kids overwhelms Russian cities |work=The Globe and Mail |url=https://www.theglobeandmail.com/news/world/an-epidemic-of-street-kids-overwhelms-russian-cities/article4141933/ |url-status=live |access-date=17 July 2016 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20160828195036/http://www.theglobeandmail.com/news/world/an-epidemic-of-street-kids-overwhelms-russian-cities/article4141933/ |archive-date=28 August 2016}}</ref><ref>{{Cite book |last=Targ |first=Harry |title=Challenging Late Capitalism, Neoliberal Globalization, & Militarism |date=2006}}</ref> crime,<ref>Theodore P. Gerber & Michael Hout, "More Shock than Therapy: Market Transition, Employment, and Income in Russia, 1991–1995", AJS Volume 104 Number 1 (July 1998): 1–50.</ref> corruption,<ref>{{Cite news |date=2010 |title=Cops for hire |url=https://www.economist.com/europe/2010/03/18/cops-for-hire |url-status=live |newspaper=[[The Economist]] |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20151208110401/http://www.economist.com/node/15731344 |archive-date=8 December 2015 |access-date=4 December 2015}}</ref><ref>{{cite web |title=Corruption Perceptions Index 2014 |date=3 December 2014 |url=http://www.transparency.org/cpi2014/results |url-status=live |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20151202072021/http://www.transparency.org/cpi2014/results |archive-date=2 December 2015 |access-date=18 July 2016 |publisher=Transparency International}}</ref> unemployment,<ref>{{Cite book |last=Hardt |first=John |title=Russia's Uncertain Economic Future: With a Comprehensive Subject Index |date=2003 |publisher=[[M. E. Sharpe]] |page=481}}</ref><ref>{{cite book |last=Mattei |first=Clara E. |date=2022 |title=The Capital Order: How Economists Invented Austerity and Paved the Way to Fascism |pages=301–302 |url=https://press.uchicago.edu/ucp/books/book/chicago/C/bo181707138.html |location= |publisher=[[University of Chicago Press]] |isbn=978-0-226-81839-9}}</ref> homelessness,<ref>{{Cite book |last1=Alexander |first1=Catharine |title=Urban Life in Post-Soviet Asia |last2=Buchil |first2=Victor |last3=Humphrey |first3=Caroline |year=2007 |publisher=CRC Press}}</ref><ref>{{Cite book |last=Smorodinskaya |title=Encyclopaedia of Contemporary Russian |publisher=Routledge}}</ref> rates of disease,<ref>{{Cite journal |last=Galazkaa |first=Artur |year=2000 |title=Implications of the Diphtheria Epidemic in the Former Soviet Union for Immunization Programs |journal=Journal of Infectious Diseases |volume=181 |pages=244–248 |doi=10.1086/315570 |pmid=10657222 |doi-access=free}}</ref><ref>{{cite web |last=Shubnikov |first=Eugene |title=Non-communicable Diseases and Former Soviet Union countries |url=http://www.pitt.edu/~super4/33011-34001/33991.ppt |url-status=live |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20161011091551/http://www.pitt.edu/~super4/33011-34001/33991.ppt |archive-date=11 October 2016 |access-date=18 July 2016}}</ref><ref>{{Cite journal |last1=Wharton |first1=Melinda |last2=Vitek |first2=Charles |year=1998 |title=Diphtheria in the Former Soviet Union: Reemergence of a Pandemic Disease |journal=Emerging Infectious Diseases |volume=4 |issue=4 |pages=539–550 |doi=10.3201/eid0404.980404 |pmc=2640235 |pmid=9866730}}</ref> infant mortality and domestic violence,<ref>{{Cite book |last=Parenti |first=Michael |title=Blackshirts and Reds: Rational Fascism and the Overthrow of Communism |publisher=[[City Lights Books]] |year=1997 |isbn=978-0-87286-329-3 |location=San Francisco |pages=107, 115 |author-link=Michael Parenti}}</ref> as well as demographic losses,<ref>{{Cite news |last1=Hudson |first1=Michael |author-link=Michael Hudson (economist) |last2=Sommers |first2=Jeffrey |date=20 December 2010 |title=Latvia provides no magic solution for indebted economies |work=[[The Guardian]] |url=https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2010/dec/20/latvia-debt-economy-europe-austerity |url-status=live |access-date=24 October 2017 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20171025021924/https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2010/dec/20/latvia-debt-economy-europe-austerity |archive-date=25 October 2017 |quote=Neoliberal austerity has created demographic losses exceeding Stalin's deportations back in the 1940s (although without the latter's loss of life). As government cutbacks in education, healthcare and other basic social infrastructure threaten to undercut long-term development, young people are emigrating to better their lives rather than suffer in an economy without jobs. More than 12% of the overall population (and a much larger percentage of its labour force) now works abroad.}}</ref> income inequality and the rise of an [[Russian oligarchs|oligarchical class]],<ref>{{Cite journal |last=Hoepller |first=C |date=2011 |title=Russian Demographics: The Role of the Collapse of the Soviet Union |url=http://www.kon.org/urc/v10/hoeppler.html |url-status=live |journal=Undergraduate Research Journal for the Human Sciences |volume=10 |issue=1 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20160806005855/http://www.kon.org/urc/v10/hoeppler.html |archive-date=6 August 2016 |access-date=18 July 2016}}</ref><ref name="Scheidel-2017">{{Cite book |last=Scheidel |first=Walter |title=The Great Leveler: Violence and the History of Inequality from the Stone Age to the Twenty-First Century |publisher=[[Princeton University Press]] |year=2017 |isbn=978-0-691-16502-8 |location=Princeton |pages=[https://books.google.com/books?id=NgZpDQAAQBAJ&pg=PA51 51] & [https://books.google.com/books?id=NgZpDQAAQBAJ&pg=PA222 222–223] |author-link=Walter Scheidel}}</ref> along with decreases in calorie intake, life expectancy, adult literacy, and income.<ref>{{cite web |last=Poland |first=Marshall |title=Russian Economy in the Aftermath of the Collapse of the Soviet Union |url=http://www2.needham.k12.ma.us/nhs/cur/Baker_00/03-04/baker%20poland%20p1/ussr.htm |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20160708010129/http://www2.needham.k12.ma.us/nhs/cur/Baker_00/03-04/baker%20poland%20p1/ussr.htm |archive-date=8 July 2016 |access-date=18 July 2016 |website=Needham K12}}</ref> Between 1988–1989 and 1993–1995, the [[Gini ratio]] (a measure of inequality) increased by an average of 9 percentage points for all former Soviet republics.<ref name="Scheidel-2017" /> According to Western analysis, the economic shocks that accompanied wholesale [[privatization]] were associated with sharp increases in mortality,<ref>{{cite book |last1=Ghodsee |first1=Kristen |author1-link=Kristen Ghodsee |last2=Orenstein |first2=Mitchell A. |date=2021 |title=Taking Stock of Shock: Social Consequences of the 1989 Revolutions |publisher=[[Oxford University Press]] |pages=83–85 |doi=10.1093/oso/9780197549230.001.0001 |isbn=978-0-19-754924-7}}</ref> Russia, Kazakhstan, Latvia, Lithuania, and Estonia saw a tripling of unemployment and a 42% increase in male death rates between 1991 and 1994,<ref>{{cite journal | last1 = Stuckler | first1 = David | last2 = King | first2 = Lawrence | last3 = McKee | first3 = Martin | year = 2009 | title = Mass privatisation and the post-communist mortality crisis: a cross-national analysis | url = | journal = The Lancet | volume = 373 | issue = 9661| pages = 399–407 | doi = 10.1016/S0140-6736(09)60005-2 | pmid = 19150132 }}</ref><ref>[https://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/health/7828901.stm Privatisation 'raised death rate'] . ''BBC'', 15 January 2009. Retrieved 19 November 2014.</ref> and in the following decades, only five or six of the post-communist states are on a path to joining the wealthy capitalist West while most are falling behind, some to such an extent that it will take over fifty years to catch up to where they were before the fall of the Soviet Bloc.<ref>{{Cite book |last=Ghodsee |first=Kristen |url=https://www.dukeupress.edu/red-hangover |title=Red Hangover: Legacies of Twentieth-Century Communism |date=2017 |publisher=[[Duke University Press]] |isbn=978-0-8223-6949-3 |page=63 |author-link=Kristen R. Ghodsee |access-date=6 August 2018 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20180804180848/https://www.dukeupress.edu/red-hangover |archive-date=4 August 2018 |url-status=dead}}</ref><ref>{{Cite journal |last=Milanović |first=Branko |author-link=Branko Milanović |year=2015 |title=After the Wall Fell: The Poor Balance Sheet of the Transition to Capitalism |journal=[[Challenge (economics magazine)|Challenge]] |volume=58 |issue=2 |pages=135–138 |doi=10.1080/05775132.2015.1012402 }}</ref> As of 2011, the experience of the former Soviet republics was mixed, with some having recovered in terms of [[gross domestic product]] and others not.<ref>{{Cite news |title=End of the USSR: visualising how the former Soviet countries are doing, 20 years on |url=https://www.theguardian.com/news/datablog/2011/aug/17/ussr-soviet-countries-data |access-date=21 January 2021 |work=[[The Guardian]] |archive-date=28 January 2021 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20210128064905/https://www.theguardian.com/news/datablog/2011/aug/17/ussr-soviet-countries-data |url-status=live}}</ref> There are large wealth disparities, and many post-soviet economies are described as oligarchic.<ref>{{harvnb|Russell|2018}}; {{harvnb|Libman|Obydenkova|2019}}; {{harvnb|Ovcharova|Biryukova|2018}}; {{harvnb|Michalski|Hlynskyy|2009}}; {{harvnb|Habibov|2013}}; {{harvnb|Stewart|Klein|Schmitz|Schröder|2012}}</ref>

Since the [[dissolution of the Soviet Union]], annual polling by the [[Levada Center]] has shown that over 50% of Russia's population regretted this event, with the only exception to this being in 2012 when support for the Soviet Union dipped below 50 percent.<ref name="Ностальгия по СССР-2018">{{cite news |title=Ностальгия по СССР |trans-title=Nostalgia for the USSR |language=ru |url=https://www.levada.ru/2018/12/19/nostalgiya-po-sssr-2/ |publisher=levada.ru |date=19 December 2018}}</ref> A 2018 poll showed that 66% of [[Russians]] regretted the fall of the Soviet Union, setting a 15-year record, and the majority of these regretting opinions came from people older than 55.<ref name="Ностальгия по СССР-2018"/><ref>{{cite news |author-last=Maza |author-first=Christina |date=19 December 2018 |title=Russia vs. Ukraine: More Russians Want the Soviet Union and Communism Back Amid Continued Tensions |url=https://www.newsweek.com/russia-vs-ukraine-soviet-union-communism-1264875 |work=[[Newsweek]] |access-date=20 December 2018}}</ref> In 2020, polls conducted by the Levada Center found that 75% of Russians agreed that the Soviet era was the greatest era in their country's history.<ref>{{cite news |title=75% of Russians Say Soviet Era Was 'Greatest Time' in Country's History – Poll |author=<!--Staff writer(s); no by-line.--> |url=https://www.themoscowtimes.com/2020/03/24/75-of-russians-say-soviet-era-was-greatest-time-in-countrys-history-poll-a69735 |location=Moscow |date=20 March 2020 |access-date=4 March 2023 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20230209105256/https://www.themoscowtimes.com/2020/03/24/75-of-russians-say-soviet-era-was-greatest-time-in-countrys-history-poll-a69735 |archive-date=9 February 2023}}</ref>

According to the New Russia Barometer (NRB) polls by the Centre for the Study of Public Policy, 50% of Russian respondents reported a positive impression of the Soviet Union in 1991.<ref name="Rose-2011">{{cite book |last1=Rose |first1=Richard |last2=Mishler |first2=William |last3=Munro |first3=Neil |title=Popular Support for an Undemocratic Regime: The Changing Views of Russians |date=2011 |pages=92–93 |publisher=[[Cambridge University Press]] |location=Cambridge |isbn=978-0-521-22418-5}}</ref> This increased to about 75% of NRB respondents in 2000, dropping slightly to 71% in 2009.<ref name="Rose-2011"/> Throughout the 2000s, an average of 32% of NRB respondents supported the restoration of the Soviet Union.<ref name="Rose-2011"/>

In a 2021 poll, a record 70% of Russians indicated they had a mostly/very favourable view of [[Joseph Stalin]].<ref>{{cite news |last=Arkhipov |first=Ilya |date=16 April 2019 |title=Russian Support for Stalin Surges to Record High, Poll Says |url=https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2019-04-16/russian-support-for-soviet-tyrant-stalin-hits-record-poll-shows |work=Bloomberg |access-date=8 October 2020 |archive-date=3 October 2020 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20201003223316/https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2019-04-16/russian-support-for-soviet-tyrant-stalin-hits-record-poll-shows |url-status=live}}</ref> In [[Armenia]], 12% of respondents said the USSR collapse did good, while 66% said it did harm. In [[Kyrgyzstan]], 16% of respondents said the collapse of the USSR did good, while 61% said it did harm.<ref>{{cite web |title=Former Soviet Countries See More Harm From Breakup |date=19 December 2013 |url=https://news.gallup.com/poll/166538/former-soviet-countries-harm-breakup.aspx |publisher=Gallup |access-date=19 December 2013 |archive-date=11 November 2020 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20201111230251/https://news.gallup.com/poll/166538/former-soviet-countries-harm-breakup.aspx |url-status=live}}</ref> In a 2018 [[Sociological group "RATING"|Rating Sociological Group]] poll, 47% of [[Ukrainians|Ukrainian]] respondents had a positive opinion of Soviet leader [[Leonid Brezhnev]], who ruled the Soviet Union from 1964 to 1982, while viewing [[Lenin]], Stalin, and [[Gorbachev]] very negatively.<ref>{{cite news |title=Survey shows Ukrainians most negatively regard Stalin, Lenin and Gorbachev |url=https://www.kyivpost.com/ukraine-politics/survey-shows-ukrainians-most-negatively-regard-stalin-lenin-and-gorbachev.html |work=Kyiv Post |date=20 November 2018 |access-date=9 December 2020 |archive-date=8 November 2020 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20201108124647/https://www.kyivpost.com/ukraine-politics/survey-shows-ukrainians-most-negatively-regard-stalin-lenin-and-gorbachev.html |url-status=live}}</ref> A 2021 poll conducted by the Levada Center found that 49% of Russians prefer the USSR's political system, while 18% prefer the current political system and 16% would prefer a [[Western democracy]]. A further 62% of people polled preferred the Soviet system of central planning, while 24% prefer a market-based system.<ref>{{Cite web |date=November 2021 |title=What Should Russia be in the View of Russians? |url=https://www.levada.ru/2021/09/10/kakoj-dolzhna-byt-rossiya-v-predstavlenii-rossiyan/ |access-date=4 March 2022 |website=Levada Center |archive-date=5 March 2022 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20220305061703/https://www.levada.ru/2021/09/10/kakoj-dolzhna-byt-rossiya-v-predstavlenii-rossiyan/ |url-status=live}}</ref> According to the Levada Center's polls, the primary reasons cited for Soviet nostalgia are the advantages of the shared economic union between the Soviet republics, including perceived financial stability.<ref name="The Washington Post-2016">{{cite news |url=https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/worldviews/wp/2016/12/21/why-do-so-many-people-miss-the-soviet-union/ |title=Why do so many people miss the Soviet Union? |newspaper=[[The Washington Post]] |date=21 December 2016}}</ref> This was referenced by up to 53% of respondents in 2016.<ref name="The Washington Post-2016"/> At least 43% also lamented the loss of the Soviet Union's global political superpower status.<ref name="The Washington Post-2016"/> About 31% cited the loss of social trust and capital.<ref>{{cite news |title=The Fall of the Soviet Union |url=https://www.levada.ru/en/2017/01/09/the-fall-of-the-soviet-union/ |publisher=Levada.ru |date=9 January 2017}}</ref> The remainder of the respondents cited a mix of reasons ranging from practical travel difficulties to a sense of national displacement.<ref name="The Washington Post-2016"/>

The 1941–1945 period of World War&nbsp;II is still known in Russia as the '[[Great Patriotic War (term)|Great Patriotic War]]'. The war became a topic of great importance in cinema, literature, history lessons at school, the mass media, and the arts. As a result of the [[World War II casualties of the Soviet Union|massive losses]] suffered by the military and civilians during the conflict, [[Victory Day (9 May)|Victory Day]] celebrated on 9 May is still one of the most important and emotional dates in Russia.<ref>{{cite web |last1=Ločmele |first1=K. |last2=Procevska |first2=O. |last3=Zelče |first3=V. |year=2011 |title=Celebrations, Commemorative Dates and Related Rituals: Soviet Experience, its Transformation and Contemporary Victory Day Celebrations in Russia and Latvia |editor-last=Muižnieks |editor-first=Nils |editor-link=Nils Muižnieks |work=The Geopolitics of History in Latvian-Russian Relations |location=Riga |publisher=Academic Press of the University of Latvia |url=https://www.szf.lu.lv/fileadmin/user_upload/szf_faili/Petnieciba/sppi/lat_un_starp/The%20Geopolitics%20of%20History%20in%20Latvian-Russian%20Relations.pdf |access-date=9 December 2020 |archive-date=2 July 2021 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20210702115233/https://www.szf.lu.lv/fileadmin/user_upload/szf_faili/Petnieciba/sppi/lat_un_starp/The%20Geopolitics%20of%20History%20in%20Latvian-Russian%20Relations.pdf |url-status=live}}</ref> Catherine Wanner asserts that Victory Day commemorations are a vehicle for Soviet nostalgia, as they "kept alive a mythology of Soviet grandeur, of solidarity among the ''Sovietskii narod'', and of a sense of self as citizen of a superpower state".<ref>{{cite book |last=Wanner |first=Catherine |title=Burden of Dreams: History and Identity in Post-Soviet Ukraine |date=1998 |pages=70, 160–167 |publisher=The Pennsylvania State University Press |location=University Park, Pennsylvania |isbn=978-0-271-01793-8}}</ref>

Russian Victory Day parades are organized annually in most cities, with the central military parade taking place in [[Moscow]] (just as during the Soviet times).<ref>{{cite news |url=https://www.npr.org/2022/05/08/1097184192/russia-victory-day-2022 |title=Russia's Victory Day celebrations take on new importance for the Kremlin this year |work=[[NPR]]}}</ref><ref>{{cite web |url=http://en.kremlin.ru/events/president/news/68366 |title=Victory Parade on Red Square |date=9 May 2022}}</ref> Additionally, the recently introduced [[Immortal Regiment]] on 9 May sees millions of Russians carry the portraits of their relatives who fought in the war.<ref>{{Cite web|url=https://www.realinstitutoelcano.org/en/analyses/the-immortal-regiment-the-pride-and-prejudice-of-russia/|title=The Immortal Regiment: the pride and prejudice of Russia}}</ref> Russia also [[Public holidays in Russia|retains other Soviet holidays]], such as the [[Defender of the Fatherland Day]] (23 February), [[International Women's Day]] (8 March), and [[International Workers' Day#Russia|International Workers' Day]].<ref>{{Cite web |url=https://ru.usembassy.gov/holiday-calendar/ |title=U.S. & Russian Holidays in 2022 & 2023 |website=U.S. Embassy & Consulates in Russia}}</ref>

=== In the former Soviet republics ===
{{See also|Anti-Sovietism|Anti-Russian sentiment|Decommunization in Ukraine}}
[[File:2018-05-09. День Победы в Донецке f171.jpg|thumb|right|People in the [[Donetsk People's Republic]] celebrate the annual [[Victory Day (9 May)|Victory Day]] over [[Nazi Germany|Germany]], 9 May 2018]]
[[File:2014-03-08. Митинг в Донецке 006.jpg|thumb|right|Protest against [[Decommunization in Ukraine|Ukrainian decommunization policies]] in Donetsk, 2014. The red banner reads, "Our homeland USSR".]]
In some post-Soviet republics, there is a more negative view of the USSR, although there is no unanimity on the matter.<ref name="Budryte">{{cite journal |last1=Budrytė |first1=Dovilė |title='A Decolonising Moment of Sorts': The Baltic States' Vicarious Identification with Ukraine and Related Domestic and Foreign Policy Developments |journal=Central European Journal of International and Security Studies |date=14 December 2023 |volume=17 |issue=4 |pages=82–105 |doi=10.51870/YPIJ8030 |url=https://cejiss.org/a-decolonising-moment-of-sorts-the-baltic-states-vicarious-identification-with-ukraine-and-related-domestic-and-foreign-policy-developments|doi-access=free }}</ref> In large part due to the [[Holodomor]], ethnic [[Ukrainians]] have a negative view of the Soviet Union.<ref>{{Cite thesis |url=http://lup.lub.lu.se/record/25786 |title=Making Sense of Suffering : Holocaust and Holodomor in Ukrainian Historical Culture |first=Johan |last=Dietsch |date=26 October 2006 |publisher=Lund University |type=thesis/docmono |via=lup.lub.lu.se |access-date=26 October 2020 |archive-date=24 April 2022 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20220424221612/https://lup.lub.lu.se/search/publication/25786 |url-status=live}}</ref> [[Russian language in Ukraine|Russian]]-speaking Ukrainians of Ukraine's southern and eastern regions have a more positive view of the USSR. In some countries with internal conflict, there is also nostalgia for the USSR, especially for [[refugee]]s of the [[post-Soviet conflicts]] who have been forced to flee their homes and have been displaced. The many Russian enclaves in the former USSR republics such as [[Transnistria]] have in a general a positive remembrance of it.<ref>{{Cite thesis |url=https://www.elibrary.ru/item.asp?id=5289947 |title=Nostalgia and discontinuity of life: A multiple case study of older ex-Soviet refugees seeking psychotherapeutic help for immigration-related problems. |type=PhD |first=A. V. |last=Zinchenko |date=26 October 2003 |pages=1 |via=eLibrary.ru |access-date=26 October 2020}}</ref>

=== For China ===
As its counterpart as a powerful communist state, the [[Chinese Communist Party]] (CCP) has continually placed an emphasis on understanding the Soviet Union and its collapse as lessons for itself. In 2011, the CCP completed a study focusing on four reasons for the Soviet collapse. First, Gorbachev's rapid pursuit of democracy which undermined the centrality of the Communist Party. Second, rapid privatization of state-owned enterprises. Third, the end of the ideological monopoly of the Communist Party, leading to historical nihilism and attacks on socialism. Fourth, the West's promotion of a [[peaceful evolution]], cultivating a pro-West "[[fifth column]]" in Soviet society.<ref>{{Cite web |title=The CCP's Changing Understanding of the Soviet Union's Collapse |url=https://thediplomat.com/2022/10/the-ccps-changing-understanding-of-the-soviet-unions-collapse/ |access-date=2026-02-14 |website=thediplomat.com |language=en-US}}</ref>

A 2023 [[Center for Strategic and International Studies]] report argued modern Chinese scholarship's [[Historical nihilism#Collapse of the Soviet Union|attributes the Soviet collapse]] primarily to its concept of [[historical nihilism]], equated to the penetration of Western ideas into society. In December 1989, then-leader [[Jiang Zemin]] first attributed both the [[Fall of communism|fall of communism in Eastern Europe]] and the [[1989 Tiananmen Square protests and massacre|Tiananmen Square protests]] to historical nihilism. A second current in Chinese writing are from [[Sovietologist]]s who argue the [[Communist Party of the Soviet Union]]'s institutions and policies was more responsible for collapse than its ideology. Despite [[Xi Jinping]]'s focus on the historical nihilism current, he stated in 2021 "the Soviet Communist Party separated itself from the people and became a privileged bureaucratic group". The report also noted that between 1960 and 1980, [[Propaganda in China|China's state propaganda]] chose to publish "gray-cover books" ({{Langx|zh|灰皮书|huī pí shū}}), a large range of socialist and anti-socialist foreign literature criticizing the Soviet system. These included [[Leon Trotsky]]'s ''[[The Revolution Betrayed]]'' and ''[[Stalin: An Appraisal of the Man and His Influence|Stalin]]'', works of [[Eduard Bernstein]] and [[Karl Kautsky]], [[Milovan Djilas]]' ''[[The New Class: An Analysis of the Communist System|The New Class]]'', and [[Friedrich Hayek]]'s ''[[The Road to Serfdom]]''. The report suggested these publications influenced interest in the Soviet failures among Chinese leaders Xi, Jiang, and [[Deng Xiaoping]].<ref>{{Cite web |last=Buckley |first=Martin Dimitrov, Elizabeth Perry, Neil Thomas, Chris |date=2023-05-08 |title=Chinese Assessments of the Soviet Union's Collapse |url=https://interpret.csis.org/chinese-assessments-of-the-soviet-unions-collapse/ |access-date=2026-02-13 |website=Interpret: China |language=en-US}}</ref>

=== For the political left ===

==== Criticism ====
{{See also|Criticism of communist party rule#Left-wing criticism}}
The left's view of the USSR is complex.{{Citation needed|date=October 2025}} While some leftists regard the USSR as an example of state capitalism or that it was an oligarchical state, other leftists admire [[Vladimir Lenin]] and the [[Russian Revolution]].<ref>{{cite journal |last1=Howard |first1=M.C. |last2=King |first2=J.E. |title='State Capitalism' in the Soviet Union |journal=History of Economics Review |date=January 2001 |volume=34 |issue=1 |pages=110–126 |doi=10.1080/10370196.2001.11733360 }}</ref> [[Council communists]] generally view the USSR as failing to create [[class consciousness]], turning into a corrupt state in which the elite controlled society.

[[Trotskyists]] believe that the ascendancy of the Stalinist bureaucracy ensured a [[degenerated workers' state|degenerated]] or [[deformed workers' state]], where the capitalist elite have been replaced by an unaccountable bureaucratic elite and there is no true democracy or workers' control of industry.<ref>{{cite book |last=Taaffe |first=Peter |author-link=Peter Taaffe |date=October 1995 |title=The Rise of Militant |url=https://www.socialistparty.org.uk/militant/ |chapter=Preface, and Trotsky and the Collapse of Stalinism |publisher=Bertrams |quote=The Soviet bureaucracy and Western capitalism rested on mutually antagonistic social systems. |isbn=978-0906582473 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20021217071256/https://www.socialistparty.org.uk/militant/ |archive-date=17 December 2002 |url-status=live}}</ref> In particular, American Trotskyist [[David North (socialist)|David North]] noted that the generation of [[nomenklatura|bureaucrats]] that rose to power under Stalin's tutelage presided over the [[Stagnation of the Soviet Union|stagnation]] and [[Dissolution of the Soviet Union|breakdown]] of the Soviet Union.<ref>{{cite book |last1=North |first1=David |author-link=David North (socialist) |title=In Defense of Leon Trotsky |date=2010 |publisher=[[Mehring Books]] |isbn=978-1-893638-05-1 |pages=172–173 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=mVqvouA22IkC |language=en}}</ref>

Many [[anti-Stalinist left]]ists such as anarchists are extremely critical of Soviet authoritarianism and [[Nabat#Decline|repression]]. Much of the criticism it receives is centered around [[List of massacres in the Soviet Union|massacres in the Soviet Union]], the centralized [[hierarchy]] present in the USSR and mass [[Political repression in the Soviet Union|political repression]] as well as violence towards government critics and [[Soviet dissidents|political dissidents]] such as other leftists. Critics also point towards its failure to implement any substantial [[worker cooperatives]] or implementing worker liberation, as well as corruption and the Soviet authoritarian nature.{{Citation needed|date=June 2023}}

Anarchists are also critical of the country, labeling the Soviet system as ''[[red fascism]]''. Factors contributing to the anarchist animosity towards the USSR included the Soviet destruction of the [[Makhnovist movement]] after an initial alliance, the suppression of the anarchist [[Kronstadt rebellion]], and the defeat of the rival anarchist factions by the Soviet-supported Communist faction during the [[Spanish Civil War]].<ref>{{cite book |title=ABC of Anarchism |orig-year=1942 |first=Alexander |last=Berkman |url=http://assets.zinedistro.org/zines/pdfs/116.pdf |publisher=Freedom Press |year=2006 |isbn=978-0-900384-03-5 |via=Zine Distro |access-date=8 October 2020 |archive-date=5 November 2020 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20201105124142/http://assets.zinedistro.org/zines/pdfs/116.pdf |url-status=live}}</ref>

[[Maoists]] also have a mixed opinion on the USSR, viewing it negatively during the [[Sino-Soviet Split]] and denouncing it as revisionist and reverted to capitalism. The Chinese government in 1963 articulated its criticism of the USSR's system and promoted China's ideological line as an alternative.<ref>{{cite web |title=A Proposal Concerning the General Line of the International Communist Movement |url=http://www.marxists.org/history/international/comintern/sino-soviet-split/cpc/proposal.htm |website=[[Marxists Internet Archive]] |access-date=24 February 2016 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20160131074829/https://www.marxists.org/history/international/comintern/sino-soviet-split/cpc/proposal.htm |archive-date=31 January 2016 |url-status=live}}</ref><ref>{{cite web |title=Seven Letters Exchanged Between the Central Committees of the Communist Party of China and the Communist Party of the Soviet Union |url=http://www.etext.org/Politics/MIM/classics/mao/polemics/sevenlet.html |access-date=21 October 2007 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20071225024740/http://www.etext.org/Politics/MIM/classics/mao/polemics/sevenlet.html |archive-date=25 December 2007 |url-status=dead |website=Etext Archives}}</ref>

After the dissolution of the Soviet Union, the [[Japanese Communist Party]] (JCP) released a press statement titled "We welcome the end of a party which embodied the historical evil of [[great power]] [[chauvinism]] and [[hegemonism]]".<ref>{{cite web |url=http://www.yomiuri.co.jp/dy/national/T120715002061.htm |title=JCP struggling to become relevant |website=The Daily Yomiuri |date=16 July 2012 |access-date=12 July 2012 |url-status=dead |archive-date=17 October 2012 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20121017085837/http://www.yomiuri.co.jp/dy/national/T120715002061.htm}}</ref>

[[Noam Chomsky]] called the collapse of the Soviet Union "a small victory for socialism, not only because of the fall of one of the most anti-socialist states in the world, where working people had fewer rights than in the West, but also because it freed the term 'socialism' from the burden of being associated in the propaganda systems of East and West with Soviet tyranny—for the East, in order to benefit from the aura of authentic socialism, for the West, in order to demonize the concept."<ref>{{Cite news |last=Polychroniou |first=C. J. |date=17 July 2016 |title=Noam Chomsky on Anarchism, Communism and Revolutions |url=https://truthout.org/articles/noam-chomsky-on-anarchism-communism-and-revolutions/ |access-date=21 June 2023 |work=[[Truthout]] |language=en-US}}</ref> Some scholars on the left have posited that the end of the Soviet Union and [[communism]] as a global force allowed [[neoliberal]] [[capitalism]] to become a global system, which has resulted in rising [[economic inequality]].<ref>{{cite book |last=Ghodsee |first=Kristen |author-link=Kristen Ghodsee |date=2018 |title=[[Why Women Have Better Sex Under Socialism]] |url= |location= |publisher=[[Vintage Books]] |pages=3–4 |isbn=978-1568588902|quote=Without the looming threat of a rival superpower, the last thirty years of global neoliberalism have witnessed a rapid shriveling of social programs that protect citizens from cyclical instability and financial crises and reduce the vast inequality of economic outcomes between those at the top and bottom of the income distribution.}}</ref><ref>{{cite journal |last1=Greene|first1=Julie|authorlink1= Julie Greene (historian) |date=April 2020|title=Bookends to a Gentler Capitalism: Complicating the Notion of First and Second Gilded Ages|url=|journal=[[The Journal of the Gilded Age and Progressive Era]] |volume=19 |issue=2 |publisher=[[Cambridge University Press]]|pages=197–205|doi=10.1017/S1537781419000628|pmc= |pmid= |access-date=}}</ref><ref>{{cite book |last=Bartel |first=Fritz |date=2022 |title=The Triumph of Broken Promises: The End of the Cold War and the Rise of Neoliberalism |url=https://www.hup.harvard.edu/catalog.php?isbn=9780674976788 |publisher=[[Harvard University Press]] |isbn=9780674976788 |pages=5–6}}</ref><ref>{{cite book |last=Gerstle |first=Gary |author-link=Gary Gerstle |date=2022 |title=The Rise and Fall of the Neoliberal Order: America and the World in the Free Market Era |url=https://global.oup.com/academic/product/the-rise-and-fall-of-the-neoliberal-order-9780197519646?cc=us&lang=en& |location= |publisher=[[Oxford University Press]] |pages=10–12, 149 |isbn=978-0-19-751964-6|quote=The collapse of communism, then, opened the entire world to capitalist penetration, shrank the imaginative and ideological space in which opposition to capitalist thought and practices might incubate, and impelled those who remained leftists to redefine their radicalism in alternative terms, which turned out to be those that capitalist systems could more, rather than less, easily manage. This was the moment when neoliberalism in the United States went from being a political movement to a political order.}}</ref>

==== Praise ====
{{See also|Anti anti-communism}}
A 1986 study published in the ''[[American Journal of Public Health]]'' claimed that, citing [[World Bank]] data, the Soviet model provided a better [[quality of life]] and [[Human development (economics)|human development]] than market economies at the same level of economic development in most cases.<ref>{{cite journal |last1=Cereseto |first1=Shirley|last2=Waitzkin |first2=H |date=June 1986 |title=Economic Development, Political-Economic System, and the Physical Quality of Life |journal=American Journal of Public Health |volume=76 |issue=6 |pages=661–666 |pmc=1646771 |pmid=3706593 |doi=10.2105/ajph.76.6.661}}</ref>

In her 2012 book ''The Communist Horizon'', [[Jodi Dean]] argued that there is a double standard among all sides of the political spectrum, including [[conservatives]], [[Liberalism|liberals]], and [[social democrats]], in how communism and capitalism are perceived nearly two decades after the [[dissolution of the Soviet Union]]. Dean stated that the worst excesses of capitalism are often minimized, while communism is often equated only with the Soviet Union, and experiments in Eastern Europe, Latin America, Africa, and Asia are often ignored, with an emphasis placed on the [[Stalin era]] and its violent excesses including [[gulags]], [[Purges of the Communist Party of the Soviet Union|purges]], [[Droughts and famines in Russia and the Soviet Union|droughts and famines]], and almost no consideration for the [[Industrialization in the Soviet Union|industrialization]] and [[modernization]] of the [[Soviet economy]], the successes of [[Soviet science]] (such as the [[Soviet space program]]), or the rise in the [[standard of living]] for the once predominantly [[agrarian society]]. The dissolution of the Soviet Union is therefore seen as the proof that communism cannot work, allowing for all left-wing criticism of the excesses of neoliberal capitalism to be silenced, for the alternatives would supposedly inevitably result in economic inefficiency and violent authoritarianism.<ref name="Ghodsee 2015">{{cite book |last=Ghodsee|first=Kristen|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=QkJ5CAAAQBAJ|title=The Left Side of History: World War II and the Unfulfilled Promise of Communism in Eastern Europe|publisher=Duke University Press|year=2015|isbn=978-0-8223-5835-0|location=Durham, North Carolina|pages=[https://books.google.com/books?id=QkJ5CAAAQBAJ&pg=PT16 xvi]–[https://books.google.com/books?id=QkJ5CAAAQBAJ&pg=PT17 xvii]|access-date=6 January 2025|via=Google Books}}</ref><ref name="Dean 2012">{{cite book |last=Dean |first=Jodi |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=kBghOq42S3YC |title=The Communist Horizon |date=2012 |publisher=Verso |isbn=978-1-84467-954-6 |pages=[https://books.google.com/books?id=kBghOq42S3YC&pg=PA6 6]–[https://books.google.com/books?id=kBghOq42S3YC&pg=PA7 7] |access-date=6 January 2025 |via=Google Books}}</ref><ref>{{cite magazine |last=Ehms |first=Jule |date=9 March 2014 |title=The Communist Horizon (review) |url=http://marxandphilosophy.org.uk/reviewofbooks/reviews/2014/980 |url-status=live |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20160322200241/https://marxandphilosophy.org.uk/society/events/2014abstracts/ |archive-date=22 March 2016 |access-date=6 January 2025 |magazine=Marx & Philosophy Society Review of Books}}</ref>

[[Michael Parenti]]'s 1997 book ''Blackshirts and Reds'' takes the controversial position of defending the Soviet Union and other communist countries from reflexive condemnation, arguing that they featured a number of advantages over capitalist countries, e.g., by ensuring less economic inequality. He later argues that the Soviet Union's "well-publicized deficiencies and injustices" were exacerbated by the [[Russian Civil War]], the [[Operation Barbarossa|Nazi-led multinational invasion]], and by non-military modes of capitalist intervention against the [[Eastern Bloc]]. Moreover, he claims that "pure socialists" and "[[Left-wing anti-communism|left anticommunists]]" had failed to specify a viable alternative to the "siege socialism" implemented in the Soviet model. Parenti argued the Soviet Union played a crucial role in "tempering the worst impulses of Western capitalism and imperialism" that in the post-Cold War era is "no longer restrained by a competing system" and is now "rolling back the many gains that working people in the West have won over the years".<ref>{{cite book |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=dEX8DwAAQBAJ&pg=PA45 |title=Blackshirts and Reds: Rational Fascism and the Overthrow of Communism |publisher=City Lights Books |year=1997 |isbn=978-0872868199 |pages=45–53}}</ref> By offering a rare defense of 20th century Communism, ''Blackshirts and Reds'' has elicited strong reactions from anarchist and Communist publications.<ref>{{cite web |title=Worker's ice pick |url=https://theanarchistlibrary.org/library/free-earth-worker-s-ice-pick |access-date=July 3, 2023 |website=The Anarchist Library |language=en}}</ref><ref>{{Cite web |last=Halpern |first=Max |date=November 9, 2023 |title=A Communist Review of Michael Parenti's Blackshirts and Reds |url=https://socialistrevolution.org/a-communist-review-of-michael-parentis-blackshirts-and-reds/ |website=The Communist}}</ref>

=== For the political right ===
Both [[Liberalism in the United States|liberals]] and [[Neoconservatism|neoconservatives]] in the United States celebrated the dissolution of the Soviet Union. Ideas such as [[Francis Fukuyama]]'s [[end of history]] and [[Charles Krauthammer]]'s [[unipolar moment]] gained prominence to describe the victory of Western [[liberal democracy]]. At the same time, both sides of the political spectrum in the US criticized the [[George H. W. Bush administration]] for its comparative cautiousness and political support of Gorbachev over more pro-democracy and nationalist forces in the Soviet Union.<ref>{{Cite web |title=The quiet revolution: Bush and the demise of the Soviet empire |url=https://www.ussc.edu.au/the-quiet-revolution-bush-and-the-demise-of-the-soviet-empire |access-date=2026-02-14 |website=www.ussc.edu.au |language=en-AU}}</ref>

== See also ==
{{div col|colwidth=22em}}
* [[Outline of the Soviet Union]]
* [[Baltic states under Soviet rule (1944–1991)]]
* {{annotated link|Ideocracy}}
* {{annotated link|Neo-Stalinism}}
* [[Orphans in the Soviet Union]]
* {{annotated link|Russification}}
* {{annotated link|Second Cold War}}
* {{annotated link|Soviet patriotism}}
* {{annotated link|Sovietization}}
* [[Succession, continuity and legacy of the Soviet Union]]
{{div col end}}

== Notes ==
{{reflist|group=note}}
{{notelist}}

== References ==
{{reflist}}

== Bibliography ==
{{See also|Bibliography of the Russian Revolution and Civil War|Bibliography of Stalinism and the Soviet Union|Bibliography of the post-Stalinist Soviet Union|Bibliography of the Cold War}}
{{refbegin|30em}}
* {{cite book |last1=Ambler |first1=John |last2=Shaw |first2=Denis J.B. |last3=Symons |first3=Leslie |title=Soviet and East European Transport Problems |publisher=[[Taylor & Francis]] |year=1985 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=Rpg9AAAAIAAJ |isbn=978-0-7099-0557-8 }}
* {{cite book |last=Comrie |first=Bernard |title=The Languages of the Soviet Union |publisher=[[Cambridge University Press]] (CUP) Archive |year=1981 |url=https://archive.org/details/languagesofsovie0000comr |url-access=registration |isbn=978-0-521-29877-3 |author-link=Bernard Comrie }}
* {{cite book |last=Crump |first=Laurien |title=The Warsaw Pact Reconsidered: International Relations in Eastern Europe, 1955–1969 |publisher=[[Routledge]] |date=2015}}
* {{cite book |last1=Davies |first1=Robert |author-link1=Robert William Davies |last2=Wheatcroft |first2=Stephen |author-link2=Stephen G. Wheatcroft |title=The Industrialisation of Soviet Russia Volume 5: The Years of Hunger: Soviet Agriculture 1931–1933 |url=http://www.palgrave.com/us/book/9780333311073 |year=2004 |publisher=[[Palgrave Macmillan]] |isbn=978-0-230-23855-8 }}
* {{cite book |last=Fischer |first=Louis |author-link=Louis Fischer |year=1964 |title=The Life of Lenin |publisher=Weidenfeld and Nicolson |location=London}}
* {{cite web |last1=Fischer |first1=Stanley |author-link1=Stanley Fischer |last2=Easterly |first2=William |author-link2=William Easterly |title=The Soviet Economic Decline, Historical and Republican Data |publisher=[[World Bank]] |year=1994 |url=http://www-wds.worldbank.org/external/default/WDSContentServer/IW3P/IB/1994/04/01/000009265_3961006063138/Rendered/PDF/multi0page.pdf |access-date=23 October 2010 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20110301162126/http://www-wds.worldbank.org/external/default/WDSContentServer/IW3P/IB/1994/04/01/000009265_3961006063138/Rendered/PDF/multi0page.pdf |archive-date=1 March 2011 |url-status=live }}
* {{cite book |last=Goldstein |first=Erik |date=2013 |title=The First World War Peace Settlements, 1919–1925 |location=London |publisher=[[Routledge]] |isbn=978-1-31-7883-678}}
* {{cite journal |last1=Habibov |first1=Nazim |date=June 2013 |title=Who Wants to Redistribute? An Analysis of 14 Post-Soviet Nations |journal=Social Policy & Administration |volume=47 |number=3 |pages=262–286 |doi=10.1111/j.1467-9515.2011.00834.x}}
* {{cite book |last=Janz |first=Denis |year=1998 |title=World Christianity and Marxism |location=New York |publisher=[[Oxford University Press]] |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=EUVwrcnXwBsC |isbn=978-0-19-511944-2 }}
* {{cite book |last=Lane |first=David Stuart |title=Soviet Society under Perestroika |publisher=[[Routledge]] |year=1992 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=rcXafOqyxgQC |isbn=978-0-415-07600-5 }}
* {{cite book |last=Lee |first=Stephen J. |year=2003 |title=Lenin and Revolutionary Russia |location=London |publisher=[[Routledge]] |isbn=978-0-415-28718-0}}
* {{cite book |last=Leggett |first=George |year=1981 |title=The Cheka: Lenin's Political Police |location=Oxford |publisher=[[Oxford University Press]] |isbn=978-0-19-822552-2 |url-access=registration |url=https://archive.org/details/chekaleninspolit0000legg }}
* {{cite book |last=Lewin |first=Moshe |author-link=Moshe Lewin |year=1969 |title=Lenin's Last Struggle |publisher=Faber and Faber |location=London |translator-last=Sheridan Smith |translator-first=A. M. |translator-link=Alan Sheridan}}
* {{cite journal |last1=Libman |first1=Alexander |last2=Obydenkova |first2=Anastassia V. |date=2019 |title=Historical Legacy of the Communist Party of the Soviet Union and Inequality: Evidence from Post-Communist Regions |journal=Post-Communist Economies |volume=31 |number=6 |pages=699–724 |doi=10.1080/14631377.2019.1607440 |hdl=10261/201912 |hdl-access=free}}
* {{cite book |last=Mccauley |first=Martin |author-link=Martin McCauley (historian) |title=The Rise and Fall of the Soviet Union |publisher=[[Taylor & Francis]] |year=2014 |isbn=978-1-317-86783-8}}
* {{cite book |last1=Michalski |first1=Tomasz |last2=Hlynskyy |first2=Nazar |date=2009 |chapter=Economic transformation disparity in European post-Soviet countries in the period of transformation |title=The Problems of Development and International Cooperation in the Region of the Southern Baltic |editor1-first=Tadeusz |editor1-last=Palmowski |editor2-first=Stasys |editor2-last=Vaitekūnas |isbn=978-83-7380-819-5 |pages=134–143 |publisher=Wydawnictwo "Bernardinum}}
* {{cite book |last1=Ovcharova |first1=Lilia |last2=Biryukova |first2=Svetlana |date=2018 |chapter=Poverty and the Poor in Post-Soviet Russia |title=Poverty, Politics and the Poverty of Politics |editor1-first=Daniel |editor1-last=Rauhut |editor2-first=Neelambar |editor2-last=Hatti |publisher=B.R. Publishing Corporation |pages=157–183}}
* {{cite book |last1=Pons |first1=Silvio |author1-link=Silvio Pons |last2=Service |first2=Robert |author2-link=Robert Service (historian) |title=A Dictionary of 20th-Century Communism |publisher=[[Princeton University Press]] |year=2010 |isbn=978-1-4008-3452-5}}
* {{cite book |last=Rayfield |first=Donald |title=Stalin and His Hangmen: An Authoritative Portrait of a Tyrant and Those Who Served Him |publisher=[[Viking Press]] |year=2004 |isbn=978-0-375-75771-6 |author-link=Donald Rayfield |title-link=Stalin and His Hangmen}}
* {{cite book |last=Read |first=Christopher |author-link=Christopher Read |title=From Tsar to Soviets |publisher=[[Taylor & Francis]] |year=2005 |isbn=978-1-135-36625-4}}
* {{cite report |last=Russell |first=Martin |date=April 2018 |title=Socioeconomic inequality in Russia |url=https://www.europarl.europa.eu/RegData/etudes/ATAG/2018/620225/EPRS_ATA(2018)620225_EN.pdf |publisher=[[European Parliament]] }}
* {{Cite book |last=Ryan |first=James |year=2012 |title=Lenin's Terror: The Ideological Origins of Early Soviet State Violence |location=London |publisher=[[Routledge]] |isbn=978-1138815681 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=XJ6LAgAAQBAJ }}
* {{cite book |last=Service |first=Robert |author-link=Robert Service (historian) |year=2000 |title=Lenin: A Biography |publisher=Macmillan |location=London |isbn=978-0-333-72625-9 |title-link=Lenin: A Biography}}
* {{cite book |last=Service |first=Robert |author-link=Robert Service (historian) |year=2005 |title=A History of Modern Russia from Nicholas II to Vladimir Putin |publisher=[[Harvard University Press]] |isbn=978-0-674-01801-3}}
* {{cite book |last=Simon |first=Gerard |year=1974 |title=Church, State, and Opposition in the U.S.S.R |location=Berkeley and Los Angeles |publisher=[[University of California Press]] |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=sTLc8H3b4vUC |isbn=978-0-520-02612-4 }}
* {{cite book |last1=Stewart |first1=Susan |last2=Klein |first2=Margarete |last3=Schmitz |first3=Andrea |last4=Schröder |first4=Hans-Henning |date=2012 |chapter=Introduction |title=Presidents, Oligarchs and Bureaucrats: Forms of Rule in the Post-Soviet Space |editor1-first=Susan |editor1-last=Stewart |editor2-first=Margarete |editor2-last=Klein |editor3-first=Hans-Henning |editor3-last=Schröder |publisher=[[Ashgate Publishing]] |isbn=9781138278790 |pages=1–14}}
* {{cite book |last=Volkogonov |first=Dmitri |author-link=Dmitri Volkogonov |year=1994 |title=Lenin: Life and Legacy |translator-last=Shukman |translator-first=Harold |translator-link=Harold Shukman |publisher=[[HarperCollins]] |location=London |isbn=978-0-00-255123-6}}
* {{cite book |title=Lenin: The Practice and Theory of Revolution |last=White |first=James D. |year=2001 |series=European History in Perspective |publisher=Palgrave |location=Basingstoke, England |isbn=978-0-333-72157-5}}
* {{cite book |last=Wilson |first=David |title=The Demand for Energy in the Soviet Union |publisher=[[Taylor & Francis]] |year=1983 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=1qgOAAAAQAAJ |isbn=978-0-7099-2704-4 }}
* {{cite journal |last=Wheatcroft |first=Stephen |author-link=Stephen G. Wheatcroft |year=1996 |url=http://sovietinfo.tripod.com/WCR-German_Soviet.pdf |title=The Scale and Nature of German and Soviet Repression and Mass Killings, 1930–45 |volume=48 |issue=8 |pages=1319–1353 |journal=[[Europe-Asia Studies]] |jstor=152781 |doi=10.1080/09668139608412415 |archive-date=17 July 2011 |access-date=7 November 2017 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20110717103830/http://sovietinfo.tripod.com/WCR-German_Soviet.pdf |url-status=dead }}
{{refend}}

== External links ==
{{Sister project links|Soviet Union|collapsible=collapsed|auto=yes}}
* {{Wikiatlas|the Soviet Union}}
* [https://ariwatch.com/VS/JD/ImpressionsOfSovietRussia.htm Impressions of Soviet Russia] by [[John Dewey]]
* [https://www.loc.gov/item/97007563/ A Country Study: Soviet Union] (PDF)

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