Soviet Union
The Soviet Union, officially known as the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics (USSR), was a significant communist state that existed from 1922 until its dissolution in 1991. It emerged from the Russian Revolution of 1917, which overthrew the tsarist regime amid widespread social unrest and food shortages. The Bolsheviks, led by Vladimir Lenin and later Joseph Stalin, established a centralized government that transitioned the economy from agriculture to industrialization through ambitious Five-Year Plans. While the USSR played a crucial role in defeating Nazi Germany during World War II, it also faced internal repression, notably during Stalin's Great Purge, which led to widespread political arrests and executions.
During the Cold War, the Soviet Union emerged as one of the two global superpowers, engaging in an arms race with the United States and spreading its influence in numerous countries. Key events during this period included the Cuban Missile Crisis, a pivotal moment in nuclear tensions. However, the USSR faced challenges in the late 20th century, including a costly war in Afghanistan and rising nationalist sentiments among its republics. Ultimately, these factors contributed to its dissolution in 1991, marking the end of a significant chapter in global history and leading to the independence of several former Soviet states.
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Soviet Union
The Union of Soviet Socialist Republics (USSR), also known as the Soviet Union, existed from 1922 to 1991. It was a massive communist empire that controlled most of Eastern Europe and parts of Central Asia. For much of its existence, the USSR was one of just two international superpowers. However, the USSR was also marked by famine, genocide, and bloody revolutions. The USSR ended when Soviet president Mikhail Gorbachev voluntarily removed himself from power, dividing Soviet lands into the various smaller states they once were.
Overview
The founding of the USSR can be traced back to the Russian Revolution of 1917. At the time, Russia was controlled by a tsar, a royal leader similar to a king or queen. Throughout 1917, the Russian populace revolted against Tsar Nicholas II, mostly because of severe food shortages. Rather than face more revolts, Tsar Nicholas II abdicated the throne. A small, temporary government of socialists then took control. While they planned to eventually set up a permanent government, the new leaders first had to guide Russia through World War I. Shortly before the end of the war, the Bolshevik political faction managed to take almost complete control of the temporary government. When World War I ended in 1918 with massive territory loss for Russia, the Bolsheviks were blamed. The Bolsheviks and their supporters refused to give up power, and civil war followed.
The Bolsheviks, led by communist revolutionaries Vladimir Lenin and Joseph Stalin, succeeded in defeating their rivals as well as European intervention. They formed the USSR in 1922, which became a communist form of government, though it instituted some capitalist economic reforms on an international level. Soon, Bolshevik leader Lenin died, giving Stalin the chance he needed to rise to power. Stalin quickly expanded the secret police, a ruthless section of the military that operated outside the law and was accountable only to the highest government officials and established labor prisons called gulags.
By the late 1920s, Stalin had abandoned the capitalistic reforms instituted by Lenin in favor of his own "Five-Year Plans." Stalin's Five-Year Plans were designed to force the USSR to transition from a farm-based economy to an industrial economy, which he believed would allow the USSR to compete with western economies. Over several years, Stalin's regime took control of all peasant farmland. At the time, the government viewed wealthy rural peasants as threats to its authority and did its best to undermine them. More than a million of these peasants had all their property confiscated and were forcibly deported to Siberia with nothing but what they could carry. By 1937, private agriculture in the USSR ceased to exist. Many other peasants were forced to become laborers. They built factories, smelted metal, or mined to significantly increase industrial output. Meanwhile, Stalin continued to crack down on political dissent, overseeing a period in the late 1930s known as the Great Purge or Great Terror, when at least hundreds of thousands of people, including members of the military, were arrested and executed.
When World War II broke out in 1939, the Soviet Union was a major power. The USSR honored its promises not to attack Germany, but the Nazi regime in Germany betrayed the USSR. The Nazis launched a surprise invasion deep into the Soviet Union. However, the USSR's huge numbers of soldiers and the Nazis' failure to deal with the brutal subzero temperatures of a Soviet winter halted the invasion. The Soviets then helped the Allies win the war in 1945 by invading Germany and capturing the German capital, Berlin.
The period called the Cold War followed. The Soviet Union was the only world power left that could match the military might and influence of the United States. An arms race began between the two nations, with the Soviet Union spreading its influence and converting more nations to communism, and the United States doing everything in its power to stop it. Many feared an open war between the two countries. Since both sides eventually possessed nuclear weapons, some even feared that a nuclear war might occur.
In 1953, Stalin died from a brain hemorrhage. While there has been speculation that Stalin was poisoned by his staff, the general consensus is that he died from complications resulting from his poor physical health. Stalin was temporarily succeeded by Georgi Malenkov, but the famous Nikita Khrushchev quickly took control of the Communist Party. While the Soviet Union saw success under his leadership in its technological race against the United States by conquering milestones in spaceflight, Khrushchev also oversaw some of the Soviet Union's most tense and difficult times. Chief among these was the 1962 Cuban missile crisis.
The Cuban missile crisis was the closest the world had ever come to nuclear war by that point. The Soviet Union intended to install nuclear missiles in Cuba, which would put the missiles within range of most of the United States. When the United States discovered this, President John F. Kennedy ordered a naval blockade of Cuba and stated that the United States would use military force to stop the missile shipments, if necessary. For thirteen days, the nations negotiated while the Soviet ships grew closer. Eventually, President Kennedy made a secret deal with the Soviets to remove American missiles from Turkey if it would halt its operations in Cuba. The Soviet leaders agreed, and war was avoided.
The USSR found itself involved in various wars for territory and influence in the coming decades. Possibly the most detrimental was its failed invasion of Afghanistan. Due to Soviet disapproval of a newly elected leader, the Soviet Union invaded Afghanistan on Christmas Eve of 1979. The United States did everything it could to make the invasion difficult and costly for the Soviets, who admitted defeat after ten years of war and millions of deaths.
As republics within the empire had become increasingly nationalistic and opposed to Soviet policy, the Soviet Union dissolved itself in 1991. Some Communist Party officials attempted to stage a coup to prevent its dissolution but failed. Boris Yeltsin, a powerful Russian politician, banned the Soviet Communist Party in Russia. Gorbachev, then president of the Soviet Union, voluntarily resigned from his position. Various formerly Soviet regions declared themselves independent, and the Soviet Union ceased to be.
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