Portal:Soviet Union

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UNION OF SOVIET SOCIALIST REPUBLICS

Introduction

The Soviet Union, officially the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics (USSR), was a transcontinental country that spanned much of Eurasia from 1922 until its dissolution in 1991. It was the world's third-most populous country, the largest by area, and bordered twelve countries. A diverse multinational state, it was organized as a federal union of national republics, with the largest and most populous being the Russian SFSR. In practice, its government and economy were highly centralized. As a one-party state governed by the 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 Bolshevik victory in the Russian Civil War, the Russian SFSR and its subordinate republics were merged into the Soviet Union in 1922. Following Lenin's death in 1924, Joseph Stalin came to power, initiating rapid industrialization and forced collectivization that led to significant growth but contributed to a devastating famine in the 1930s that killed millions. The 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 deportations, executions, and show trials. Failing to build an anti-Nazi coalition in Europe, the Soviet Union signed 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, while liberating much of Central and Eastern Europe. With around 27 million casualties, it suffered the most deaths of any country in World War II. In the war's aftermath, the Soviet Union consolidated the territories occupied by the Red Army into satellite states and undertook rapid economic development, cementing its status as a superpower.

Geopolitical tensions 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 little direct combat, the blocs engaged in ideological and proxy wars. In 1953, following Stalin's death, Nikita Khrushchev initiated a campaign of de-Stalinization, which led to ideological tensions with communist China, under Mao Zedong, and culminated in an acrimonious split. The Soviet military suppressed uprisings in East Germany, Hungary and Czechoslovakia, while the resolution of the Cuban Missile Crisis narrowly averted a global conflict. Under Leonid Brezhnev, prosperity shifted toward stagnation, although relations with the US eased. In 1985, Mikhail Gorbachev sought reform through his policies of glasnost and perestroika. In 1989, most Warsaw Pact countries overthrew their Soviet-backed regimes, effectively ending the Eastern Bloc. Nationalist movements across the Soviet republics declared sovereignty, and in 1991, a successful referendum to establish a renewed federation was followed by a failed coup by hardliners. This prompted Russia, Ukraine, and Belarus 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 Soviet Union's successor state. All fifteen republics became independent states; all except the Baltic states joined the Commonwealth of Independent States. The post-Soviet states experienced a humanitarian disaster.

The Soviet Union was one of the world's two superpowers, with hegemony in Eastern Europe, global diplomacy, ideological influence (particularly in the Global South), military might, economic strength, and scientific and technological accomplishments. Its space program made significant achievements in the Space Race. It had the world's second-largest economy and the largest standing military. As a nuclear state, it wielded the largest arsenal of nuclear weapons in the world. As an Allied nation, it was a founding member of the United Nations and one of five permanent members of its Security Council. (Full article...)

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Entries here consist of Good and Featured articles, which meet a core set of high editorial standards.

Late 1920s battle flag of the type issued to the division with unit designation to the left of the globe

The 68th Mountain Rifle Division (Russian: 68-я горнострелковая дивизия) was a mountain infantry division of the Red Army before and during World War II.

Formed in late 1919 during the Russian Civil War as the 3rd Turkestan Rifle Division, it served with the Turkestan Front in the defeat of White Cossack forces for the next several months. The division began participating in the suppression of the Basmachi movement in late 1920, and was briefly renumbered as the 2nd Turkestan Rifle Division between 1921 and 1922. The division was stationed in the Dushanbe area from 1923 and eliminated the last remnants of the Basmachi in that area within a year. It was awarded the Honorary Revolutionary Red Banner in 1928 and converted to a mountain division a year later before being redesignated as the 3rd Turkestan Mountain Rifle Division. (Full article...)

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Selected picture

Credit: Communist Party of the Soviet Union

Konstantin Chernenko was the leader of the Soviet Union with the shortest reign of only thirteen months, from February 1984 to March 1985.

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Did you know... - show different entries

... that the proposals for a new Crimean flag after the collapse of the Soviet Union included a white flag with seven rainbow colors at the top and a blue-white-red tricolor design, which was officially adopted in 1999?

... that tickets bought for the ceremonial opening of Kiev Republican Stadium scheduled for June 22, 1941 were still valid 7 years later, as the event was "postponed until after the Victory" due to the Nazi invasion to the USSR?

... that the massacre in Vinnytsia by the Soviet secret police NKVD in the purges of 1937-1938 was investigated in 1943 during the German invasion of Ukraine and used in the propaganda war against the Soviet Union?

... that the Poltava Bandurist Capella, directed by Hnat Khotkevych, was the first Soviet ensemble to be invited to tour North America?

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Selected quote

“

Greece is a sort of American vassal; the Netherlands is the country of American bases that grow like tulip bulbs; Cuba is the main sugar plantation of the American monopolies; Turkey is prepared to kowtow before any United States proconsul and Canada is the boring second fiddle in the American symphony.

”

— Andrei Gromyko, talking about Soviet foreign affairs

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Andrei Pavlovich Kirilenko (Ukrainian: Андрій Павлович Кириленко; Russian: Андре́й Па́влович Кириле́нко, IPA: [ɐnˈdrʲej ˈpavləvʲɪtɕ kʲɪrʲɪˈlʲɛnkə]; 8 September [O.S. 26 August] 1906 – 12 May 1990) was a Soviet politician, and a member of the Secretariat of the Communist Party of the Soviet Union. He was one of the most loyal politicians to Leonid Brezhnev.

His role in the CPSU was to ensure Brezhnev's power base and, if possible, to strengthen Brezhnev's position within the party. In order to accomplish this task, he emerged as one of the leading figures in the Secretariat under Brezhnev's rule. (Full article...)

List of selected biographies

General images

The following are images from various Soviet Union-related articles on Wikipedia.

Image 1Soldiers blocking Narva Gate on Bloody Sunday (from Russian Revolution)
Image 2Revolutionaries protesting in February 1917 (from Russian Revolution)
Image 3European theatre of the Russian Civil War in 1918 (from October Revolution)
Image 4Russian troops meeting German troops in No Man's Land (from Russian Revolution)
Image 5The Russian famine of 1921–22 killed an estimated 5 million people.
(from History of the Soviet Union)
Image 6Changes in national boundaries after the end of the Cold War (from History of the Soviet Union)
Image 7American, British, and Japanese Troops parade through Vladivostok in armed support to the White Army. (from Russian Revolution)
Image 8Soviet leader Nikita Khrushchev (left) with US President John F. Kennedy in Vienna, 3 June 1961 (from History of the Soviet Union)
Image 9Mikhail Gorbachev in one-to-one discussions with US President Ronald Reagan (left), 1985 (from History of the Soviet Union)
Image 10Provisional Government's volunteer soldiers secure Petrograd's Palace Square with the Austin Armoured Car, summer 1917. (from Russian Revolution)
Image 11Lenin, Trotsky and Kamenev celebrating the second anniversary of the October Revolution (from October Revolution)
Image 12Stalin and Lavrentiy Beria with Stalin's daughter, Svetlana, on his lap. As head of the NKVD, Beria was responsible for many political repressions in the Soviet Union. (from History of the Soviet Union)
Image 13T-80 tank on Red Square during the August Coup (from History of the Soviet Union)
Image 14Soviet general secretary Leonid Brezhnev and US President Jimmy Carter sign the SALT II arms limitation treaty in Vienna on 18 June 1979. (from History of the Soviet Union)
Image 15Cruiser Aurora (from October Revolution)
Image 16The Battle of Stalingrad, considered by many historians as a decisive turning point of World War II (from History of the Soviet Union)
Image 17Petrograd Milrevcom proclamation about the deposing of the Russian Provisional Government (from October Revolution)
Image 18From left to right, the Soviet General Secretary Joseph Stalin, US President Franklin D. Roosevelt and British Prime Minister Winston Churchill confer in Tehran, 1943 (from History of the Soviet Union)
Image 19"Pogrom in the Winter Palace" by Ivan Vladimirov (from October Revolution)
Image 20Forward gun of Aurora that fired the signal shot (from October Revolution)
Image 21Map showing the greatest territorial extent of the Soviet Union and the sovereign states that it dominated politically, economically and militarily in 1960, after the Cuban Revolution of 1959 but before the official Sino-Soviet split of 1961 (total area: c. 35,000,000 km²) (from History of the Soviet Union)
Image 22A revolutionary meeting of Russian soldiers in March 1917 in Dalkarby of Jomala, Åland (from Russian Revolution)
Image 23Soldiers marching in Petrograd, March 1917 (from Russian Revolution)
Image 24Anniversary of October Revolution in Riga, Soviet Union in 1988 (from October Revolution)
Image 25The dissolution of the Constituent Assembly on 6 January 1918. The Tauride Palace is locked and guarded by Trotsky, Sverdlov, Zinoviev and Lashevich. (from Russian Revolution)
Image 26Red Guard unit of the Vulkan factory in Petrograd, October 1917 (from October Revolution)
Image 27Russian Civil War in the European part of Russia (from History of the Soviet Union)
Image 28The Pan-European Picnic took place in August 1989 on the Hungarian-Austrian border. (from History of the Soviet Union)
Image 29The 2nd Moscow Women Death Battalion protecting the Winter Palace as the last guards of the stronghold (from Russian Revolution)
Image 30Country emblems of the Soviet Republics before and after the dissolution of the Soviet Union (the Transcaucasian Socialist Federative Soviet Republic (fifth in the second row) no longer exists as a political entity of any kind and the emblem is unofficial.) (from History of the Soviet Union)
Image 31Revolutionaries attacking the tsarist police in the early days of the February Revolution (from Russian Revolution)
Image 32Nikolai Podgorny visiting Tampere, Finland on 16 October 1969 (from History of the Soviet Union)
Image 33Soviet painting Vladimir Lenin, by Isaac Brodsky (from Russian Revolution)
Image 34Lenin, Trotsky, and Kamenev celebrating the second anniversary of the October Revolution (from History of the Soviet Union)
Image 35Bolshevik (1920) by Boris Kustodiev (from October Revolution)
Image 36Russian troops in trenches awaiting a German attack (from Russian Revolution)
Image 37The Petrograd Soviet Assembly meeting in 1917 (from Russian Revolution)
Image 38Residents of Leningrad leave their homes destroyed by German bombing. About 1 million civilians died during the 871-day Siege of Leningrad, mostly from starvation. (from History of the Soviet Union)
Image 39The dissolution of the Constituent Assembly on 6 January 1918. The Tauride Palace is locked and guarded by Trotsky, Sverdlov, Zinoviev, and Lashevich. (from October Revolution)
Image 40The elections to the Constituent Assembly took place in November 1917. The Bolsheviks won 24% of the vote. (from October Revolution)
Image 41The New York Times headline from 9 November 1917 (from October Revolution)
Image 42A scene from the July Days. The army has just opened fire on street protesters. (from October Revolution)
Image 43On 21 December 1991, the leaders of 11 former Soviet republics, including Russia and Ukraine, agreed to the Alma-Ata Protocols, formally establishing the Commonwealth of Independent States (CIS). (from History of the Soviet Union)
Image 44Five Marshals of the Soviet Union in 1935. Only two of them—Budyonny and Voroshilov—survived the Great Purge. Blyukher, Yegorov and Tukhachevsky were executed. (from History of the Soviet Union)
Image 45Meeting before the Russian wire entanglements (from Russian Revolution)
Image 46Internally displaced Azerbaijanis from Nagorno-Karabakh, 1993 (from History of the Soviet Union)
Image 47Murder of the Romanov family, Le Petit Journal (from Russian Revolution)

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Selected anniversaries for May

International Labor Day - 1 and 2 May - celebrated with elaborate popular parade in the centre of the major cities
Radio Day - May 7 - is a commemoration of the development of radio in Russia.
Victory Day - 9 May - end of Great Patriotic War, marked by capitulation of Nazi Germany, 1945

More anniversaries ...

More Did you know (auto generated)

... that from March to May 1962, 60,000 Chinese citizens migrated to the Soviet Union through two ports of entry?
... that Hometown Village is a community of Sakhalin Koreans who were finally allowed to return to South Korea after the dissolution of the Soviet Union?
... that 1920s belles-lettres books published by the State Publishing House of Ukraine sold out more rapidly than similar books published elsewhere in the Soviet Union, despite the higher average price?
... that the Praga E-55 was abandoned due to the Czech aircraft industry being directed to concentrate on licensed production of Soviet aircraft?
... that Wu Zhong was recognized as the youngest general in the Chinese People's Liberation Army after the first holder was stripped of the title following his emigration to the Soviet Union?
... that the first model of cosmic inflation was formulated by a Soviet physicist but initially remained unknown outside the Soviet Union?

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Recognized content

This is a list of recognized content, updated weekly by JL-Bot (talk · contribs) (typically on Saturdays). There is no need to edit the list yourself. If an article is missing from the list, make sure it is tagged (e.g. {{WikiProject Soviet Union}}) or categorized correctly and wait for the next update. See WP:RECOG for configuration options.

Featured articles

Former featured articles

Featured lists

Former featured lists

List of spacewalks and moonwalks 1965–1999

A-Class articles

Good articles

Former good articles

Good article nominees

1984 Summer Olympics boycott

Featured pictures

2020-09-16 165855 Soviet submarine B-515
Alexei Leonov
Field Marshall Keitel signs German surrender terms in Berlin 8 May 1945 - Restoration
German instrument of surrender2
Instrument of surrender Japan2
Mamoru Shigemitsu signs the Instrument of Surrender, officially ending the Second World War
Maxim Gorky LOC Restored edit1
Moscow Elektrozavodskaya metro station asv2018-09
Prokofieff (i.e. Prokofiev) LCCN2014708419 Crop 2
RUS-2016-Murmansk-Icebreaker Lenin 01
Raising a flag over the Reichstag - Restoration
Russian Imperial Family 1913
USS Yorktown collision
Yalta Conference (Churchill, Roosevelt, Stalin) (B&W)
Yuri Gagarin (1961) - Restoration
Yury Pen - Portrait of Marc Chagall

Picture of the day pictures

German instrument of surrender2 (2009-05-07)
Instrument of surrender Japan2 (2009-09-02)
Yalta Conference (Churchill, Roosevelt, Stalin) (B&W) (2010-05-08)
USS Yorktown collision (2011-02-12)
Maxim Gorky LOC Restored edit1 (2013-03-28)
Yuri Gagarin (1961) - Restoration (2020-03-09)
Alexei Leonov (2020-03-18)
Field Marshall Keitel signs German surrender terms in Berlin 8 May 1945 - Restoration (2020-05-08)
RUS-2016-Murmansk-Icebreaker Lenin 01 (2020-06-08)
Moscow Elektrozavodskaya metro station asv2018-09 (2022-02-26)
Russian Imperial Family 1913 (2022-07-17)
Mamoru Shigemitsu signs the Instrument of Surrender, officially ending the Second World War (2022-09-02)
2020-09-16 165855 Soviet submarine B-515 (2023-04-18)
Prokofieff (i.e. Prokofiev) LCCN2014708419 Crop 2 (2023-07-25)
Raising a flag over the Reichstag - Restoration (2025-05-02)

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