Portal:Soviet Union
The Soviet Union Portal
A gateway to everything about the former socialist and largest country in the world.
The Soviet Union (Russian: Советский Союз, tr. Sovetsky Soyuz), officially the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics (USSR; Russian: Сою́з Сове́тских Социалисти́ческих Респу́блик, tr. Soyuz Sovetskikh Sotsialisticheskikh Respublik; IPA: [sɐˈjus sɐˈvʲetskʲɪx sətsɨəlʲɪˈstʲitɕɪskʲɪx rʲɪsˈpublʲɪk] ( listen); abbreviated СССР, SSSR), was a constitutionally socialist state that existed in Eurasia between 1922 and 1991. Russia is the legal successor of the USSR.
The Soviet Union was a single-party state ruled by the Communist Party from its foundation until 1990. Even though the USSR was technically a union of 15 subnational Soviet republics, its government and economy were highly centralized.
The Russian Revolution of 1917 caused the downfall of the Russian Empire. Following the Russian Revolution, there was a struggle for power between the Bolshevik party, led by Vladimir Lenin, and the anti-communist White movement. In December 1922, the Bolsheviks won the civil war, and the Soviet Union was formed with the merger of the Russian Soviet Federative Socialist Republic, the Transcaucasian Socialist Federative Soviet Republic, the Ukrainian Soviet Socialist Republic and the Byelorussian Soviet Socialist Republic. Following the death of Vladimir Lenin in 1924, Joseph Stalin took power, leading the USSR through a large-scale industrialization program. Stalin established a planned economy and suppressed political opposition to him and the Communist party.
"Tear down this wall!" was the challenge from United States President Ronald Reagan to Soviet leader Mikhail Gorbachev to destroy the Berlin Wall.
In a speech at the Brandenburg Gate near the Berlin Wall on June 12, 1987, commemorating the 750th anniversary of Berlin, Reagan challenged Gorbachev (who was then the General Secretary of the Communist Party of the Soviet Union), to tear it down as a symbol of Gorbachev's desire for increasing freedom in the Eastern Bloc. (More...) Template:/box-footer
Selected biography
Nikita Sergeyevich Khrushchev (April 15 [O.S. April 3] 1894 – September 11, 1971) led the Soviet Union during part of the Cold War. He served as First Secretary of the Communist Party of the Soviet Union from 1953 to 1964, and as Chairman of the Council of Ministers, or Premier, from 1958 to 1964. Khrushchev was responsible for the partial de-Stalinization of the Soviet Union, for backing the progress of the early Soviet space program, and for several relatively liberal reforms in areas of domestic policy. Khrushchev's party colleagues removed him from power in 1964, replacing him with Leonid Brezhnev as First Secretary and Alexei Kosygin as Premier.
Khrushchev was born in the Russian village of Kalinovka in 1894, close to the present-day border between Russia and Ukraine. He was employed as a metalworker in his youth, and during the Russian Civil War was a political commissar. With the help of Lazar Kaganovich, he worked his way up the Soviet hierarchy. He supported Joseph Stalin's purges, and approved thousands of arrests. In 1939, Stalin sent him to govern the Ukrainian Soviet Socialist Republic, and he continued the purges there. During what was known in the Soviet Union as the Great Patriotic War (Eastern Front of World War II), Khrushchev was again a commissar, serving as an intermediary between Stalin and his generals. Khrushchev was present at the bloody defense of Stalingrad, and he took great pride of this fact throughout his life. After the war, he returned to Ukraine before being recalled to Moscow as one of Stalin's close advisers.
(More…)
- ... that the Gorno-Altai Autonomous Soviet Socialist Republic lasted for only nine months as an Autonomous Soviet Socialist Republic before the dissolution of the Soviet Union, which turned it into the Altai Republic?
- ... that the February 9, 1918 Treaty of Brest-Litovsk was a peace treaty between the Ukrainian People's Republic and the Central Powers that helped clear Bolshevik forces from Ukraine?
- ... 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 1973 Soviet economic reform initiated by Alexei Kosygin, the Premier of the Soviet Union, tried to reduce the powers of the central Ministries?
- 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
Selected picture
The Soviet KGB was an essential part of the Soviet Union's internal security and intelligence.
What are WikiProjects?
Template:/box-header2 Привет and welcome! Wikipedia is the encyclopedia that anyone can edit. If you are interested in the Soviet Union and have some information that can be added to an existing article, please help. Here are some things you can do:
- Cleanup:
- Deletion sorting:
- Notability: articles with notability concerns, listed at WikiProject Notability
- Rate: the Unassessed Soviet Union articles in the Soviet Union WikiProject
- Requested articles: Honoured worker, Soviet occupation of Mongolia, Portal:Military of the Soviet Union
- Requested images:
- Stubs: people stubs, more…
- Add
{{Portal|Soviet Union}}
to the See also section of Soviet-related articles - Tag the talk pages of Soviet-related articles with the {{WikiProject Soviet Union}} banner
Selected quote
Template:/box-header2 {{Wikipedia:WikiProject Soviet Union/Recognized content}} Template:/box-footer
- What are portals?
- List of portals
- Featured portals