Soviet Union

The Soviet Union was a socialist federal state spanning Eurasia from 1922 until its dissolution in 1991. Officially called the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics, it comprised 15 union republics at its end.

Communist Party of the Soviet Union: The ruling political party that governed the Soviet Union from 1917 until its dissolution. Party leadership controlled the state and selected its top officials.
Russian Revolution: The upheavals of 1917 that ended imperial rule in Russia and brought the Bolsheviks to power. The revolutions created the Bolshevik government that later founded the union.
Vladimir Lenin: A Bolshevik revolutionary who led the Russian government after the October Revolution and died in 1924. Lenin led the government that initiated the union’s founding.
Eastern Front (World War II): The theater of World War II fought between the Soviet Union and Nazi Germany and their allies from 1941 to 1945. The Soviet victory brought enormous losses and extended its influence across Eastern Europe.
Capitalism: An economic system based chiefly on private ownership of productive assets and market exchange. Soviet leaders defined their economic project in opposition to capitalist ownership and markets.
Soviet democracy: A political system organized around elected councils of workers, soldiers, and peasants called soviets. The state’s official account of representation centered on councils, though party authority constrained them.
October Revolution: The Bolshevik seizure of power in Petrograd in October 1917, according to the Julian calendar. It established the party-led government that claimed authority over former imperial territories.
Joseph Stalin: The Soviet leader who ruled from the late 1920s until his death in 1953. His rule transformed the state through forced collectivization, rapid industrialization, and mass repression.
Cold War: A global political and strategic rivalry between the United States and the Soviet Union and their allies. The Soviet Union was one of the two principal powers in this decades-long confrontation.
Social democracy: A political tradition combining democratic government with reforms intended to reduce economic inequality. It pursued social equality through multiparty democracy rather than Soviet one-party rule.

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