Soviet Union
Moscow's former empire
The Soviet Union was a socialist state spanning much of northern Eurasia from 1922 to 1991, comprising Russia and fourteen other republics under centralized Communist Party rule.
Formally the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics (USSR), it emerged from the Russian Revolution and became a Cold War superpower rivaling the United States.
Its collapse in 1991 reshaped global politics.
My grandfather fled the Soviet Union in the 1970s.
Former communist superpower
- KremlinMoscow's fortified government seat
- MoscowRussia's capital city
- PolitburoCommunist party's governing body
- Central CommitteeCommunist party's governing body
General Secretary · Red Army · NKVD · Baltic States · Federation · Secretariat
Soviet founding coup
- BolsheviksLenin's revolutionary party
- LeninSoviet state founder
- StalinSoviet autocrat, mid-century
- KhrushchevCold War Soviet premier
Brezhnev · Gorbachev · Great Purge · Molotov-Ribbentrop Pact · Eastern Front · Siege of Leningrad · Stalingrad · Holodomor
State-led revolutionary socialism
- StalinismTotalitarian Communist doctrine
- ProletariatWage-earning masses
- CominternSoviet-led communist alliance
Cold War's political divide
- SputnikFirst orbital spacecraft
- Cuban Missile Crisis1962 US-Soviet nuclear standoff
- Berlin WallCold War partition
- KGBUSSR intelligence service
CIA · Checkpoint Charlie · SALT · START
Soviet-led military alliance
- ICBMsIntercontinental nuclear weapons
- Non-Aligned MovementNeutral nations' diplomatic group
USSR
Former communist superpower
- KremlinMoscow's fortified government seat
- MoscowRussia's capital city
- PolitburoCommunist party's governing body
Central Committee · General Secretary · Red Army · NKVD · Baltic States · Federation · Secretariat
October Revolution
Soviet founding coup
- BolsheviksLenin's revolutionary party
- LeninSoviet state founder
- StalinSoviet autocrat, mid-century
Khrushchev · Brezhnev · Gorbachev · Great Purge · Molotov-Ribbentrop Pact · Eastern Front · Siege of Leningrad · Stalingrad · Holodomor · Russian Civil War
Marxism-Leninism
State-led revolutionary socialism
- StalinismTotalitarian Communist doctrine
- ProletariatWage-earning masses
- CominternSoviet-led communist alliance
Iron Curtain
Cold War's political divide
- SputnikFirst orbital spacecraft
- Cuban Missile Crisis1962 US-Soviet nuclear standoff
- Berlin WallCold War partition
KGB · CIA · Checkpoint Charlie · SALT · START
Warsaw Pact
Soviet-led military alliance
- ICBMsIntercontinental nuclear weapons
- Non-Aligned MovementNeutral nations' diplomatic group
Pravda
Soviet state newspaper
- PotemkinFalsely impressive display
- Former StatesPrussia, Czechoslovakia, Austria-Hungary, Byzantine Empire, East Germany
- Cold WarBerlin Wall, Iron Curtain, arms race, Warsaw Pact, Cuban Missile Crisis
- Soviet communismLenin, Stalin, Leninism, Bolsheviks, Stalinism
- Soviet HistoryUSSR, CCCP, Stalin, Kremlin, Bolsheviks
- 20th Century EuropeWorld War I, interwar, Nazi Germany, Holocaust, Berlin Wall
- Cold War AsiaNorth Korea, Vietnam, Korean War, Mao, Stalin
Soviet UnionUnited States
North American federal republic
America · USA · NATO · Western Bloc · Free World
Soviet Unionmarket economy
Commerce-based economic system
private enterprise · free market economy · mixed economy · free enterprise · Wall Street
Soviet Unionliberal democracy
Rights-based elected governance
free society · constitutional democracy · open society · democratic republic
union, Soviet, soviet, Soviets, Sovietized, post-Soviet, anti-Soviet