Union of Soviet Socialist Republics (1922–1991)

Союз Советских Социалистических Республик
Flag Coat of arms
Motto: Пролетарии всех стран, соединяйтесь! Workers of the world, unite!
Anthem: Государственный гимн СССР
Capital and largest city	Moscow
Government	Federal Marxist–Leninist socialist state
• Notable leaderships	Vladimir Lenin (1922–1924) Joseph Stalin (1924–1953)
History
• October Revolution	1917 November 7th
• Establishment of the USSR	1922 December 30th
• World War II victory	1945 May 9th
• Dissolution	1991 December 26th
Population
• 1989 estimate	285,742,511
Labour
• Labour force	152.3 million
• Occupation	80% industry and other nonagricultural fields 20% agriculture
• Unemployment rate	1–2%
GDP (nominal)	1989 estimate
• Total	$2.66 trillion (2nd)
• Per capita	$9,211
Exports	1988 estimate
• Value	$110.7 billion
• Commodities	Petroleum and petroleum products, natural gas, metals, wood, agricultural products, and a wide variety of manufactured goods (primarily capital goods and arms)
• Partners	Eastern Europe (49%), Western Europe (14%), Cuba (5%), United States
Imports	1988 estimate
• Value	$107.3 billion
• Commodities	Grain and other agricultural products, machinery and equipment, steel products (including large-diameter pipe), consumer manufactures
• Partners	Eastern Europe (43%), Western Europe (18%), Cuba, China, United States
Currency	Soviet ruble (РУБ)

The Soviet Union, officially known as the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics (USSR) [Russian: Союз Советских Социалистических Республик (СССР)], was a Marxist-Leninist federal socialist state that existed in Eurasia from 1922 to 1991.

The USSR was established in 1922 as a union of four Soviet socialist republics formed after the October Revolution of 1917, the Russian SFSR, the Transcaucasian SFSR, the Ukrainian SSR and the Byelorussian SSR. From 1956 to 1991, the union had 15 member nations in total.

The Soviet Union developed under conditions of extreme pressure provoked by capitalist powers, from the Russian Civil War the Nazi invasion, and espionage from the West. Besides the difficulties that it faced, the USSR managed to provide a positive political role for the working people, especially in a time when workers in the capitalist world were still struggling for basic union rights. The USSR also played an essential military role in the defeat of fascism in World War II.

The Soviet Union was the subject of some of the most impressive economical achievements in modern history. The socialist system transformed a nation of illiterate and starving peasants into an industrial superpower, with one of the fastest growing economies on Earth, one of the world's best-educated and healthiest populations, and some of the most impressive industrial and technological achievements to date. It provided a very influential model for other socialist nations of the world, such as China, Cuba and Vietnam.

From 1988, many Soviet Socialist Republics seceded from the USSR before its dissolution in 1991. Its past territory is now occupied by the states of Russia, Latvia, Lithuania, Estonia, Belarus, Ukraine, Transnistria, Moldova, Georgia, Azerbaijan, Armenia, Kazakhstan, Uzbekistan, Turkmenistan, Tajikistan, and Kyrgyzstan.

History

Background

World war I

See main article: World War I

October Revolution

See main article: October Revolution

The October Revolution is an extremely important event in world history. It was the first successful workers revolution.

The Russian Empire was a totalitarian police state ruled by an absolute monarchy. The country was very backward economically and culturally. The average life expectancy in Russia was about 35 years. Literacy rates were only about 20%. The workers and peasants lived horrible lives, without the 8 hour working day, minimum wage laws or basic work safety regulations. There were many large strikes and protests but it was not uncommon that the police would be deployed and break the strike, often by firing at the strikers.

Despite the size of the country, there was a constant shortage of farm land and famines were common. Most of the land belonged to the wealthy landlords and rich peasants. Because of technological backwardness, only the softest and most fertile soil could be used, which severely limited the amount of available farm land.

In 1898 the Russian Social Democratic Labor Party was created. Among its founders were people like Vladimir Lenin and Julius Martov. This was a marxist party, that wanted to overthrow the monarchy and bring about socialism. However during the course of the struggle there was a lot of disagreement about when this goal was to be implemented and how. In 1903 there emerged a split in the party, and two factions split off: the Mensheviks led by Martov and the Bolsheviks led by Lenin.

Although Lenin and many others first anticipated the two groups could merge again, the split ended up worsening and the two factions became separate parties: the Russian Social-Democratic Labour Party (Mensheviks) and the Russian Social-Democratic Labour Party (Bolsheviks).

The main differences between the groups were the following:

1. The Bolsheviks wanted an organisationally united party of serious revolutionaries while the Mensheviks wanted a more loose reformist party.

2. Both parties agreed that the next course of action was to overthrow the monarchy and carry out the so-called “bourgeois-democratic revolution”. This would make Russia a capitalist parliamentary democracy. However the Mensheviks argued that the class to lead the revolution was the bourgeoisie, the capitalist class, as the bourgeois class served this function in the French Revolution. The Bolsheviks disagreed, they thought the capitalists couldn’t be trusted to carry out the democratic revolution: they were weaker than the bourgeoisie in France at the time, they allied with the monarchy, and they feared the workers and peasants. In fact, Lenin argued that the Russian proletariat was much stronger and more developed than the French proletariat of the late 1700s and therefore should lead the democratic revolution, and not merely support it.

3. Lastly, the Mensheviks didn’t think Russia was ready for Socialism, in their opinion the workers could never take power in Russia until after a long time of capitalist and parliamentary development. Even though the debate about workers revolution and socialism would only come about fully later, this attitude relates to the Menshevik position that the workers shouldn’t lead the democratic revolution, but only support the capitalist class against the monarchy.

There was a first attempt a democratic revolution in 1905. Massive protests erupted all over the country, mutinies were widespread in the army and the people organized public meetings, called “soviets” or councils, which would get together and discuss what to do as a form of organisation. The revolution eventually failed however. It won some democratic liberties from the Tsar, but those liberties would be constantly under attack by the monarchy afterwards. This revolution would be seen as a rehearsal for the later revolution.

In 1914 the First World War began and launched Russia into chaos. The economy was ruined by the war, there was a shortage of food and large amounts of the population were drafted to fight in the war. The war is seen by many people, especially the socialist, as an unjust imperialist conquest, where millions of poor and working class people from different countries had to die for the profits and wealth of the capitalist and monarchist governments of their countries.

The attitude towards the war ended up splitting the international socialist movement, the so-called Second international working men’s association. Many parties initially opposed the war, but then chose to support their own government in it, so as to protect their country from the other imperialist powers. Lenin, Rosa Luxemburg and other revolutionaries saw this as treachery. In their opinion, if everyone only supported their own imperialist government in an imperialist war, it wouldn't do anything to stop the war. They called for “turning the imperialist war to a class war”, friendship between the workers of the various countries, and unity against the capitalist governments of all warring countries. This led to the splitting of the International.

In February 1917 the Russian monarchy was overthrown. This led to the creation of the Russian Provisional Government, consisting of the capitalist Cadet party, the Socialist-Revolutionary party (or SR) and the Mensheviks.

The Bolsheviks initially gave “conditional support” for the Provisional Government, meaning they supported it to the degree that it carried out the democratic reforms and other policies demanded by the population. However it soon became very evident the Provisional Government was a failure.

The Provisional government refused to carry out land reforms. This was necessary to prevent famine and reduce the land shortage, but it would have meant going against the landlords.

The Provisional government also refused to impose stricter regulations on trading and the economy. This would have been necessary to prevent economic disaster, but it would have meant going against the capitalists who greatly profited from the war and chaos.

Lastly, the Provisional government supported the war. They advocated a “war to a finish”, meaning until they won. It became evident that Russia was losing the war, however the Provisional government was still committed to fulfil the treaties and agreements with their allies in World War 1.

The Bolsheviks were quick to point out that the Provisional government acted exactly like the Tsarist government, which also sided with the landlords, capitalists and started the imperialist war. In their view, the Provisional government was continuing the Tsarist policy.

In April 1917, Vladimir Lenin returned to Russia from exile and puts forward his April theses, political proposals which call for the overthrow of the Provisional government.

The Bolsheviks put forward their slogans:

Down with the provisional government!

Down with the capitalist ministers!

Factories for the workers, land to the peasants, end to the imperialist war!

Peace, Bread & Land

In June of that year, the capital city Petrograd (today called St. Petersburg) held municipal elections. Bolsheviks achieved a massive victory, growing from essentially nothing to one of the biggest parties in Russia. The so-called “defencist bloc” still held the majority of seats however. This bloc consisted of the SR-party and Mensheviks. Defencism meant that they supported the war effort. The biggest loser of the election was the Cadet party, which achieved only 15% of the votes and lost its power as the biggest party.

On July 1, Russia launched an offensive on the front, which was known as the “Kerensky offensive” or the “July offensive.” The war was going badly and casualties were mounting for Russia, the thirst for blood from the imperialists and the Provisional government were very evident.

On July 3 and 4, there was a massive demonstration in Petrograd, of hundreds of thousands of people. Among the demonstrators were armed soldiers who came from the front to demand change and revolution. The Bolsheviks urged caution and said that the demonstration should be peaceful and organized. They opposed bringing weapons to the demonstration and said that they were not yet strong enough for a revolution. The workers and soldiers decided to bring weapons despite the advice of the Bolsheviks but the Bolsheviks still took part in the demonstrations to lend support to the workers.

The workers and soldiers carried the Bolshevik slogans of "End the war”, "Peace, bread and land". There was a government crack down against the demonstrators. Machine guns were turned towards the crowd, leaving countless dead. The Bolsheviks were now seen as a serious threat by the government. A warrant was issued for Lenin’s arrest, which forced him into hiding. Bolshevik newspaper Pravda was banned, their printing plant and party offices were destroyed. This period of repression is known as the “July Days”. The Provisional government restored the death penalty on the front, against soldiers who disobeyed orders.

The Bolsheviks lost a lot of their forces, and many of their important resources. They began publishing their newspapers under new names to avoid censorship. Despite all their difficulties the workers supported them more than ever, the Provisional government was exposed as a supporter of the capitalist elite and the imperialists. The Provisional government started forming stronger ties with the old capitalist party, the Cadets, to make up for the support they lost from the workers.

In August, there was an attempted coup against the Provisional government, called the “Kornilov Affair”. Kornilov was a general of the White Guard in the Russian army, who wanted to institute military dictatorship and strong rule of law, to stop the chaos in Russia. In other words, complete counter-revolution, end to the demonstrations, end to democracy, end to the working class movement.

The railway workers started a strike and refused to transport his troops while the workers and soldiers of Petrograd formed the armed Red Guard units and took up the defence of Petrograd against Kornilov. Kornilov’s coup ended in failure.

After the overthrow of the monarchy, the formation of soviets had begun again in all large cities, but at the time their leadership would be predominantly Menshevik.

In September the Bolsheviks gained the majority in the Petrograd Soviet and soon after in the soviets of Moscow and other large cities. The Soviets already carried out many important functions in the cities as the Russian government was incapable of doing so. The Soviets even organized the defence of Petrograd. As the economy was in ruins and the war effort was failing, more people turned towards the Soviets' leadership.

The 6th Bolshevik party congress had agreed that they should carry out an armed revolution. In October, the Petrograd Soviet created a Military Revolutionary Committee. These special bodies were formed all over the country connected with each soviet in each city. The Menshevik and SR minorities in the soviets opposed revolution, but the SR party split. The “left-SR” group sided with the Bolsheviks.

The Bolshevik soldiers organization took over the garrison. On October 24 the Military Revolutionary Committee occupied the telegraph, telephone offices and other important buildings. The cruiser Aurora, which was controlled by Bolshevik sailors, fired a shot to signal the beginning of the revolution. The workers and soldiers stormed the winter palace. The same evening there was a congress of Soviets, where delegates arrived from all over the country. This congress elected the new Russian government, elected by the soviets of workers and soldiers, the Soviet Government. The October Revolution had taken power.

This would lead to a civil war where the Capitalists tried to seize back the state. 14 capitalist governments including the USA, Great Britain, France, Japan, Poland and many others invaded Soviet Russia to destroy the Soviet government. But they failed, and the soviet union was created.

The October Revolution showed that a revolution by the ordinary people was possible. It showed that capitalism is ultimately incapable of solving its internal contradictions. Despite getting moderate leftists into the government, the policy was as imperialist, profit-driven and anti-popular as during the Tsarist era. The moderate leftists didn’t improve capitalism, they were used by capitalism. Only revolution stopped Russia’s involvement in the World War, carried out land reform and dealt with the crisis of unregulated capitalism, and began the process of building a new economic model which would serve the needs and interests of the people, not profits.

Treaty on formation of the USSR

See main article: Declaration and Treaty on the Formation of the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics

World War II

See main article: World War II

Dissolution

See main article: Dissolution of the USSR

Economy

Infrastructure

Demographics

Culture

"USSR is a mighty sports power!" B. Reshetnikov, 1962

Sports

The USSR put a lot of emphasis on sports, as evidenced by the material they produced (such as posters). They were also a participant in the Olympic Games and created their own competing event, the Spartakiads (named after Spartacus, the slave rebel).

Weightlifting

Moreover, the USSR produced many record-setting athletes, mainly in weightlifting, which was a very popular sport in the USSR and remains one to this day in existing socialist countries such as China or the DPRK.

The Soviets pioneered their own system, which is today mostly saved and translated by Pavel Tsatsouline. While most weightlifters today reach their peak around 26 and retire around the age of 35, a few Soviet weightlifters produced world records well past their 30s. This is because their method focused on preserving longevity in their athletes, developed with the scientific method. Athletes were followed by scientists who analysed their data and produced a routine adapted to their level.

The most famous Soviet weightlifter is arguably Vasily Alekseyev, who set 80 world records in an eight-year period. He retired at the age of 38 after failing to register a total at the Moscow Olympics, following an injury he sustained in 1978.