Often referred to as the USSR, the Soviet Union, or more often these days, the former Soviet Union. It was
dissolved in 1991 following a relatively peaceful transition to a parliamentary democracy. Until 1989 the USSR was controlled by the Communist Party via the Politburo and its general secretary. The last general secretary was
Mikhail Gorbachev. The central government controlled all areas of Soviet society including the economy.
In Russian, it is called Soyuz Sovetskikh Sotsialisticheskikh Respublik.
The Revolutionary Years
While the revolutionary period is covered in Russian February Revolution of 1917, Russian October Revolution of 1917, and The Russian Revolution, I will mention a few things here. A depression hit the Russian economy in 1900. In response, a number of student protests and peasant revolts broke out. These were effectively put down by the czarist government, but the repression only sent the parties underground. In 1914, Germany declared war on Russia, and a disasterous campaign followed.
In 1917, riots and strikes broke out in Petrograd. Troops sent to quell the dissidents joined them. Czar Nicholas II was forced to abdicate, and a provisional government was formed. One revolutionary leader, Vladimir Ilych Ulyanov, who called himself Lenin,
demanded that all power be ceded to the people. He was forced into exile and a number of his followers were jailed. As the year wore on, General Lavr Kornilov tried to wrest power from the provisional government. The Bolsheviks were sent for by Alexander Kerensky, the provisional government's Minister of War, to support Petrograd against Kornilov's forces. Lenin insisted that his railway workers and other revolutionaries were resisting Kornilov and not supporting the provisional government. The Bolsheviks dug in, and Lenin returned from exile in Finland and breathed life into
the Bolsheviks. Under his leadership, the Bolsheviks took control of Petrograd in November. (That is, November using the Gregorian calendar, but since the Russians used the Julian calendar, the month was October, thus it is called the October Revolution.) Following the revolutions of 1917, the Soviet government temporarily withdrew from world politics to consolidate its power. The goal of the government was complete socialization. The private management of factories was eliminated, and the farms were collectivized. During this period, the interests of the rural peasantry was marginalized to that of city dwellers and the army. As a result, starvation was a nearly constant feature of Soviet farmers' lives. A rift
between two factions of the Communist Party, the Bolsheviks (Red Army) and Mensheviks (social democrats), resulted in a civil war from 1918 to 1920. One of the enduring legacies of this internal struggle was the formation of secret police, later to be known as the KGB. See: Russian Civil War of 1918-20.
In 1922, Germany formally recognized the Soviet Union in the Treaty of Rapallo. Most of the rest of the world, except for the United States, did the same by 1924 when the Soviet's adopted their constitution declaring a dictatorship of the proletariat and the public ownership of the means of production.
In 1924, Vladimir I. Lenin died. He had been the central figure among the intellectuals who led the revolution. After his death, a power struggle emerged among his lieutenants. Chief among these were Leon Trotsky and Josef Stalin. Trotsky favored an internationalist policy of world revolution, whereas Stalin preferred a more gradual exportation of communism and an emphasis on strengthening the state first. Stalin prevailed and began work on the first Five Year Plan emphasizing the
production of capital goods. During this period (1928 - 1932), Stalin also imposed the collectivization of farms with
greater ruthlessness. Peasants were driven from their lands into forced labor in Siberia, and their property was
confiscated. Millions perished while industrialization spread. Among the positive aspects of this period were the increase
of literacy rates and the availability of medical and social services. Of course the trade off was state control of all
media and education, severely restricted travel, the abolition of all dissent, and the strengthening of the secret police.
Religious communities were also severely persecuted during this period.
The 1930s saw a period of conservatism. Russian heroes were extolled in literature and film. Family, structure,
and discipline were given added emphasis. In 1936 Stalin issued a new constitution featuring aspects of western
democracies, but it was largely a piece of fiction for it was during this time that Stalin began to eliminate all opposition
to his power. In response to the murder of Sergi M. Kirov in 1934 and persistent rumors of Trotskyite plots to overthrow him,
Stalin began a series of purges. Thousand of real and imagined dissidents were sent into forced labor or executed. Most of
this activity was done in secret, but a few show trials were publicized for propaganda purposes. By 1939, Stalin wielded
complete, unopposed power.
During the mid 1930s, Soviet foreign policy was concentrated on easing the fears of its neigbors. Under the leadership
of Maxim M. Litvinov, Soviet diplomacy made some strides to this end. In 1933 the United States recognized the USSR, and
shortly thereafter, the USSR was admitted into the League of Nations. Nevertheless, relations between the USSR and the rest of the world can best be described as tense.
In 1939, with V. M. Molotov as foreign minister, the USSR entered into a non-aggression pact with Nazi Germany. Germany promptly invaded Poland, as did the USSR shortly thereafter. The Baltic states of Latvia, Estonia, and Lithuania were overrun by the Red army in 1940. Russia also demanded parts of Finland and the Finnish-Russian War ensued. After a prolonged struggle, the Finns capitulated and ceded the land that was to become the Karelo-Finnish Soviet Socialist Republic (SSR). Later in 1940, Romania was forced to cede lands that would become the Moldavian SSR. In 1941, the USSR signed a non-aggression pact with Japan. Although an eventual war with Germany was expected, the Soviet Union felt secure for the moment having secured these buffer areas to the north, east, and west.
Joined by Finland, Hungary, Slovakia, and Italy, the Germans invaded the Soviet Union on June 22, 1941 and caught the Soviets by surprise. Leningrad was quickly surrounded, and Axis forces were drawing ever closer to Moscow by the end of 1941. A Soviet counter offensive in 1942 saved Moscow, but the Germans only diverted their forces to the siege of Stalingrad and the Caucasian oil fields. In 1943, the Soviets prevailed despite horrific losses of troops and civilians. Throughout 1944 and 1945, the Soviets pushed relentlessly through Poland, the Baltics, and the Balkan region. By late spring, the Red Army was driving westward through Germany and entered Berlin. On May 2, 1945 Berlin fell.
On August 8, 1945, the USSR declared war on Japan. The Soviet army stormed through Manchuria, Korea, Sakhalin Island and the Kuril Islands.
Though several conferences (notably the Moscow, Tehran, Yalta,
and Potsdam conferences) brought the Allies together to discuss postwar Europe, there was much
suspicion between the Soviet Union and the western Allies (led by the United States who emerged from the war strong
and relatively intact). This tension delayed agreement on a number of issues including the government of Germany
and war reparations. Also in the years following the war, the Soviets increased their influence in the countries they had
overrun in the war, such as Czechoslovakia, the Balkan states, and Poland. Fears of Soviet expansionism were answered that
the USSR was merely responding to western encirclement. Relations with the west worsened in 1949 during the Berlin
airlift and the Chinese People's Revolution, and worsened further during the Korean War (1950 - 1953).
Internally, the late 1940s and early 1950s were a period of recovery. Stalin worked to rebuild the economy and tighten
his grip on power even further. The fourth Five Year Plan poured more resources into industry at the expense of agriculture, and
as a result the drought of 1946 caused a massive famine, which the government was ill equipped to handle. Nevertheless,
Soviet industrial and technical development paid off in 1949 with the detonation of the first Soviet atomic bomb. Stalin
also deported thousands of war veterans, who had exposure to the Germans and Allies, to Siberia to prevent counter-revolutionary
opinion from spreading. He also ordered an anti-Semitic purge, killing thousands.
In 1953, Stalin died and was replaced by Georgi Malenkov. The years that followed resulted in an intentional
dismantling of the intensely personal dictatorship of Stalin. The secret police were reined in, and the Central Committee of
the Communist Party increased in policy making influence. Nikolai Bulganin replaced Malenkov in 1955, and Nikita
Khrushchev, a vociferous anti-Stalinist, took control in 1958. Khrushchev was instrumental in decentralizing the management
of and reducing bureaucratic inefficiency in several areas of the Soviet economy, particularly in agriculture. Foreign relations
were generally more moderate under Khrushchev, and numerous alliances with western countries were forged.
Soviet industry and technology marched forward through the 1950s. Notable feats include the detonation of a hydrogen bomb (1953),
the development of intercontinental ballistic missiles (ICBMs, in 1957), the launch of an artificial satellite into space (Sputnik in 1957),
and the first manned orbital flight (Yuri Gagarin in 1961). These technical successes coupled with political moves such as
shooting down a U.S. U-2 spy plane in 1960 and the erection of the Berlin Wall in 1961 resulted in an increasingly
tense relationship with the west. It was in this environment that the Cuban Missile Crisis happened.
In 1962 the United States discovered ICBMs in Cuba, Communist thorn in the side of the U.S. since its 1959 revolution.
The U.S. demanded the missiles be removed, and the Soviets refused. Days of increasing tension followed where the two
superpowers were on the brink of nuclear war. At last the Soviets withdrew the missiles and found a new respect for
American resolve when its vital interests were threatened. In 1963 a direct communications line was established between the
President of the United States and the Soviet General Secretary to facilitate the resolution of further conflicts.
Leonid Brezhnev replaced Khrushchev in 1964 over concerns over several issues, including Khrushchev's age, the
Cuban Missile Crisis, and his
management of the economy. During the remainder of the 1960s relations with the west moderated, as did Stalin
bashing within Soviet society. While many ministries disbanded under Khrushchev were re-established, industrial decentralization
continued, and market based reforms were experimented with. Overall, the Soviet economy prospered through the 1960s and
1970s.
While conducting their political struggle through proxy wars in the Third World, on the surface East-West relations
generally thawed during this period. The Vietnam War, the Six Day War,
Indo-Pakistani War of 1971, and the 1973 Arab-Israeli War as well as several civil wars in developing countries saw U.S.
backed forces battling Soviet backed forces. At the same time, face to face relations improved between the U.S. and USSR. The
Strategic Arms Limitation Treaty (SALT I) treaty was signed in 1969, and numerous other agreements were penned throughout the
1970s.
The beginning of the end
While Soviet foreign policy, directed towards supporting Marxist revolutions in the Third World, were generally
successful, the Soviet invasion of Afghanistan was a dismal failure and marked the beginning of the end of Soviet influence.
Condemnation of the invasion by the west was strong and sustained. SALT II talks were scuttled, and the 1980 Moscow Olympics were
boycotted by many countries. The Afghan war became a humiliating quagmire, and competition in the arms race with the U.S. began
taking its toll on the economy. The 1980s saw the failure of Soviet industry to meet its goals, and the society began to
crumble from within.
In 1985, Mikhail Gorbachev ascended to the secretariat and immediately began instituting reforms. Campaigning to reduce
social problems such as alcoholism, Gorbachev sought to open up Soviet society to new ideas to revitalize the economy. Gorbachev called these
initiatives glastnost (openness) and perestroika (restructuring). The first major challenge to his reforms came in 1986 when a
aging nuclear reactor exploded in Chernobyl, Ukraine. Gorbachev eliminated all restrictions on reporting the incident, and Soviet
internal problems were laid bare to the world for the first time. As the 1980s closed, numerous dissidents were released, and in
1989 the first openly contested elections were held since 1917.
The end
Across eastern Europe in 1989, governments were collapsing. Once it became clear that the Soviet Union would not send
in troops to support the failing Communist puppet governments as it had in 1956 and 1968, the collapse accelerated. As the
economy worsened, Gorbachev was under increasing pressure to slow down his reforms. More and more Eastern Bloc states
demanded independence, including the Baltics and Georgia in 1990. Miners struck across the country. Two days before
he was to sign a treaty granting unprecedented autonomy to the SSRs, Gorbachev was arrested by a coup of his lieutenants.
Three days later, Boris Yeltsin of the Russian Soviet Federated Socialist Republic successfully countered the coup,
arrested the ring leaders, and later, banned the Communist Party. Yeltsin was in charge, if not formally.
What followed was a series of declarations of independence from the SSRs. In September 1991 the Congress of People's
Deputies voted to dissolve the USSR, and by December it was replaced with the Commonwealth of Independent States.
Gorbachev resigned on Christmas Day 1991, and the United States recognized Yeltsin's government on the same day. The Cold War was over.
Politically the USSR was divided (from 1940 to 1991) into 15 constituent or union republics. While on paper, each had a
distinct government, in reality they were completely controlled by the central government. They were:
- Armenia
- Azerbaijan
- Belorussia (a.k.a. Belarus)
- Estonia
- Georgia
- Kazakhstan
- Kirghizia (a.k.a. Kyrgyzstan)
- Latvia
- Lithuania
- Moldavia (a.k.a. Moldova)
- Russia
- Tadzhikistan (a.k.a. Tajikistan)
- Turkmenistan
- Ukraine
- Uzbekistan
Sources:
Encyclopedia.com
http://school.discovery.com/homeworkhelp/worldbook/atozgeography/u/575240.html
Thanks to numerous noders for corrections. Most recently Noung.
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