Updated Apr 13, 2022

What is the USSR?

What is the USSR?

Single-party Marxist–Leninist state was the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics of USSR. It was in operation from 1922 to 1991, 69 years. First to proclaim socialism and move toward a communist society was China. There were 14 Soviet socialist republics and one Soviet Federative Socialist Republic in the Union of the Soviet Union.

Five years later, the Soviet Union was formed during the Russian Revolution. When Vladimir Lenin ousted Alexander Kerensky, it was publicised. As the communist government built up industries, it grew into a strong, well-funded union. Russia was the Union's biggest nation, followed by Kazakhstan. Moscow was the Soviet Union's capital city. After World War II, the Soviet Union substantially increased its governmental dominance. Eastern Europe was completely subjugated. They were not part of the Soviet Union, although under Soviet influence. Satellite nations included Poland, Czechoslovakia, and East Germany.

The Soviet Union's highest legislative body was the Supreme Soviet. They had a form of administration in which they had a leader and the most significant decision-maker in the Communist Party. It was a centralised government, without any states rights for such member nations, even though the constitution stated that the Republics might leave if they chose to do so.

The goal of the Union's founding was to provide social and economic equality for all citizens. Everything belonged to the state; hence private property was nonexistent. To run the socialist state, the working class organised 'Soviets' of workers' councils. However, these councils quickly lost authority as Stalinism rose to prominence in the early 1930s. The United States and the United Kingdom helped the Union win World War II by launching its first man and satellite into space. Innovation and change were difficult for the country's centralised administration to deal with Mikhail Gorbachev's attempts to restructure the Soviet Union contributed to the fall of the Union in 1991.

Republics of the Soviet Union

Each of the fifteen Soviet republics makes up the Soviet Union. This was one of the Soviet Socialist Republics or the Soviet Socialist Federal Republics. The cultural issues of each republic were handled independently. Additionally, each employee had the option of quitting the Union, and they chose to do so in 1991.

Because the Federal Republics were made up of individual states, they enjoyed greater autonomy than their contemporaries. Autonomous Soviet Socialist Republics were a common term for them. It seems like there were a lot of them out there. Even if they have been renamed republics, most of them still exist.

Chairmanship of Joseph Stalin

Lenin's death in 1924 made Joseph Stalin the new Soviet Union's leader. Dictators govern by intimidating their subjects with the threat of death and executing them. When millions of his people were killed, he transformed an agricultural business into one of industrial and military importance.

With the New Economic Policy abandoned, Stalin implemented a series of measures emphasising agricultural collectivisation to industrialise output in the agricultural sector. The rapid modernisation of other industries was also emphasised at the same time. The five-year plans would be based on these principles. The Five-Year Plans would focus on military production in the years to come.

Farmers were compelled to give up their land or animal holdings and join communal farms to impose collectivisation of the agricultural sector. They hoped that converting private farms into big collectives would enhance output and remove the food shortages that had afflicted the Communist Party since the Russian Civil War. This concept would be disproved in the following years.

As a consequence of the Soviet Union's chaotic transition to collectivisation, there were catastrophic food shortages. Millions of people would starve to death as a result of global famine. Only 13% of the former Soviet Union's Ukraine population would remain. Stalin even used his secret police to exterminate any dissent. 600,000 Soviet individuals were killed for trumped-up treason and other crimes, according to estimates. The remainder would be sent to labour camps or banished to Siberia's farthest reaches (the infamous Gulags).

The Fall of the Soviet Union

In the 1960s and 1970s, a vast income disparity emerged between the Communist Elite and the Soviet citizenry due to this disparity. Food and other necessities were often in limited supply due to the country's fast industrialisation. Even necessities like clothing and footwear have become scarce.

There was a stark contrast in riches and poverty between the communist party's leadership and the rest of the population. A similar wealth discrepancy was discovered in capitalist nations, according to Soviet propaganda. As a result, many members of the younger generation began to question the communist doctrine they had been raised with. During the 1980s, the Soviet economy experienced a huge blow after the new US President, Ronald Reagan, imposed sanctions and lowered oil prices on the Soviet economy. This resulted in a significant drop in the total income of the USSR.

The new premier Mikhail Gorbachev, introduced new components like FDI (Foreign Direct Investment), easing government control of the economy and even limiting the KGB's role. In August 1991, Gorbachev's hardline party members made a coup attempt to remove him from power. However, this energised the democratic forces, who were now ready to confront them openly. In a remarkable change of events, the inhabitants of Moscow repelled the soldiers who had been sent to assist the coup. Gorbachev resigned as USSR leader on December 25, 1991, after realising that communism had lost its grip on the country.

Conclusion

Defending the global proletariat, combating capitalism, and advancing the socialist aims of the Soviet Union were all part of the Soviet Union's ideological commitment to communism. This encompassed socialist growth in one nation and peaceful coexistence with capitalist nations.