Soviet Union

Table of Contents

Introduction
The Russian Revolution
- Late tsarist Russia
- The February Revolution
- Lenin and the Bolsheviks
- The Bolshevik coup
- The Bolshevik dictatorship
- Brest-Litovsk
- “War Communism”
- The Civil War and the creation of the U.S.S.R.
- The Communist International
- Culture and religion under communism
- Foreign policy
- The communist regime in crisis: 1920–21
- Lenin’s disillusionment
- The struggle for succession
The U.S.S.R. from the death of Lenin to the death of Stalin
- The NEP and the defeat of the Left
- Toward the “second Revolution”: 1927–30
- The Party versus the peasants
- Industrialization, 1929–34
- Internal, 1930–37
- Foreign policy, 1928–40
- Into the war: 1940–45
- Postwar
The U.S.S.R. from 1953 to 1991
- The Khrushchev era
  - The transition
  - The 20th Party Congress and after
  - Nationality policy
  - The cultural Thaw
  - Economic problems
  - Khrushchev’s fall
- The Brezhnev era
  - Collective leadership
  - Economic policy
  - Cultural retrenchment
  - Nationality policy
  - Foreign policy
- The Interregnum: Andropov and Chernenko
- The Gorbachev era
  - Gorbachev’s succession
  - Economic and social reforms
  - Political restructuring
  - Economic policy
  - Foreign policy
  - The attempted coup

References & Edit History Quick Facts & Related Topics

Images & Videos

Union of Soviet Socialist Republics, 1922–91

Operation Barbarossa: Germany's invasion of the Soviet Union

Aleksey Kosygin

Mikhail Gorbachev

Mikhail Gorbachev's legacy: What are glasnost and perestroika?

For Students

Soviet demonstration

Union of Soviet Socialist Republics summary

Read Next

Communism - mosaic hammer and sickle with star on the Pavilion of Ukraine at the All Russia Exhibition Centre (also known as VDNKh) in Moscow. Communist symbol of the former Soviet Union. USSR

Why Did the Soviet Union Collapse?

Computer mapping, woman at early 1990s computer

Timeline of the 1990s

Flag of the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics, 1922-1991. USSR, Soviet Union.

25th Anniversary of the End of the Soviet Union

Operation Barbarossa, German troops in Russia, 1941. Nazi German soldiers in action against the Red Army (Soviet Union) at an along the frontlines in the early days of the German invasion of the Soviet Union, 1941. World War II, WWII

75th Anniversary of Operation Barbarossa

People celebrate in Times Square in New York City, New York on V-E Day (Victory in Europe), May 8, 1945.

70th Anniversary of V-E Day

Discover

The Cheshire Cat is a fictional cat from Lewis Carroll's Alice's Adventures in Wonderland. (Alice in Wonderland)

11 Banned Books Through Time

Santa Claus flying in his sleigh, christmas, reindeer

Was Santa Claus a Real Person?

Close up of books. Stack of books, pile of books, literature, reading. Homepage 2010, arts and entertainment, history and society

12 Novels Considered the “Greatest Book Ever Written”

Leonardo da Vinci (1452-1519), Italian Renaissance painter from Florence. Engraving by Cosomo Colombini (d. 1812) after a Leonardo self portrait. Ca. 1500.

10 Famous Artworks by Leonardo da Vinci

earthquake. Heavily damaged school in the town of Yingxiu after a major earthquake struck China's Sichuan Province on May 12, 2008.

The 6 Deadliest Earthquakes Since 1950

Thanksgiving Turkey with all the sides

Why Do We Eat Turkey on Thanksgiving?

Artist interpretation of a Space meteoroid impact. Meteor impact. Asteroid, End of the world, danger, destruction, dinosaur extinct, Judgement Day, Planet Earth, Doomsday Predictions, comet

10 Failed Doomsday Predictions

Soviet Union: Facts & Related Content

Written and fact-checked by The Information Architects of Encyclopaedia Britannica

Facts

Also Known As	Soyuz Sovetskikh Sotsialisticheskikh Respublik • Russia • Sojuz Sovetskich Socialisticeskich Respublik • Union of Soviet Socialist Republics • Sovetsky Soyuz • U.S.S.R.

Photos and Videos

Union of Soviet Socialist Republics, 1922–91

Aleksey Kosygin

Mikhail Gorbachev

Reagan, Ronald; Gorbachev, Mikhail

George Bush and Mikhail Gorbachev

Boris Yeltsin and the collapse of the Soviet Union

Operation Barbarossa: Germany's invasion of the Soviet Union

Mikhail Gorbachev's legacy: What are glasnost and perestroika?

How Mikhail Gorbachev helped end the Cold War and unite Europe

Hear about the April 1986 disaster at the Chernobyl nuclear power station and the catastrophe caused due to the escaping radiation

Konrad Adenauer's visit to Moscow: The return of German POWs

See All Videos, Images and Audio →

Topics

socialism communism Communist Party of the Soviet Union National Defense Education Act Lenin’s Testament Comecon Bolshevik Menshevik ITAR-TASS flag of Union of Soviet Socialist Republics Ottoman Empire Holy Roman Empire Roman Empire Third Reich Austria-Hungary Mauryan empire Seleucid empire Angevin empire Srivijaya empire Mitanni

Dig Deeper: More Articles That Discuss This Topic

Major Events

World War II: Germany invading Poland

World War II

Aleksandr Kerensky

Russian Provisional Government

Boris Yeltsin and the collapse of the Soviet Union

collapse of the Soviet Union

German soldiers during Operation Barbarossa

Operation Barbarossa

Russo-Polish War

Russo-Polish War

Boris Yeltsin and the collapse of the Soviet Union

1991 Soviet coup attempt

Battle of Stalingrad

Battle of Stalingrad

Soviet invasion of Afghanistan

Afghan War

Berlin blockade and airlift

Cold War

“Big Four”

Treaty of Versailles

Holodomor

Holodomor

National Defense Education Act

Intermediate-Range Nuclear Forces Treaty

Intermediate-Range Nuclear Forces Treaty

Joachim von Ribbentrop

German-Soviet Nonaggression Pact

Kyshtym disaster

Katyn Massacre

John F. Kennedy: Nuclear Test-Ban Treaty

Nuclear Test-Ban Treaty

Tashkent Declaration

Brandenburg Gate

Berlin crisis of 1961

Joseph Stalin

Great Purge

Russia

Ukraine

Kazakhstan

Georgia

Armenia

Azerbaijan

Estonia

Belarus

Latvia

Lithuania

Uzbekistan

Kyrgyzstan

Moldova

Turkmenistan

Tajikistan

Key People

Vladimir Lenin

Vladimir Lenin

prime minister of Soviet Union

Joseph Stalin

Joseph Stalin

premier of Soviet Union

Babel, Isaac

Isaac Babel

Russian author

Nikita Khrushchev

Nikita Khrushchev

premier of Soviet Union

Leon Trotsky

Leon Trotsky

Russian revolutionary

Stanislav Petrov

Soviet military officer

Mikhail Gorbachev

Mikhail Gorbachev

president of Soviet Union

Ivan Pavlov

Ivan Pavlov

Russian physiologist

Anna Akhmatova

Anna Akhmatova

Russian poet

Andrey Sakharov

Andrey Sakharov

Soviet physicist and dissident

Boris Yeltsin

Boris Yeltsin

president of Russia

Leonid Brezhnev

Leonid Brezhnev

president of Soviet Union

Whittaker Chambers

Whittaker Chambers

American journalist

Tsiolkovsky, Konstantin Eduardovich

Konstantin Tsiolkovsky

Russian scientist

Kim Il-Sung

Kim Il-Sung

president of North Korea

Saparmurad Niyazov

president of Turkmenistan

Pyotr Leonidovich Kapitsa

Soviet physicist

Georgy Zhukov

Georgy Zhukov

Soviet marshal

Boris Berezovsky

Russian entrepreneur

Grigory Yevseyevich Zinovyev

Grigory Yevseyevich Zinovyev

Russian revolutionary

Quiz

Tile on a monument of a hammer and sickle. Communist symbolism, communism, Russian Revolution, Russian history, Soviet Union

Exploring Russian History

Thermonuclear hydrogen bomb, code-named MIKE, detonated in the Marshall Islands in the fall of 1952. Photo taken at a height of 12,000 feet, 50 miles from the detonation site. (Photo 3 of a series of 8) Atomic bomb explosion nuclear energy hydrogen energy

Facts You Should Know: The Cold War Quiz

Temple ruins of columns and statures at Karnak, Egypt (Egyptian architecture; Egyptian archaelogy; Egyptian history)

History Buff Quiz