Soviet Union (New Union)

The Soviet Union, officially the Union of Soviet Sovereign Republics (USSR), is a in Northern . Spanning over 22 million square kilometers and home to 227 million inhabitants, the Soviet Union is the largest country by area and the fourth largest by population.
The emerged as a recognisable group in Europe between the 3rd and 8th centuries AD. The medieval state of ' arose in the 9th century. In 988 it adopted from the , beginning the synthesis of Byzantine and Slavic cultures. Rus' ultimately disintegrated into a number of smaller states, until it was finally reunified by the in the 15th century. By the 18th century, the nation had greatly expanded through conquest, annexation, and exploration to become the , which became a major European power, and the third-largest empire in history, stretching from on the west to on the east. Following the , the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics was established and was the world's first constitutionally .
 came to power in the mid-1920s. Stalin suppressed all political opposition to his rule, committed the state ideology to , and initiated a centrally . The Soviet Union would play a in and came to rival the United States for decades, known as the . The Soviets and Americans competed for in the , the , and global influence. The Cold War was considered over by 1989 as General Secretary Mikhail Gorbachev followed a policy of . In the late 1980s and early 90s, Gorbachev undertook a series of reforms to overhaul the Soviet Union and begin a transition to . During the 1990s and early 2000s, the Soviet economy rapidly expanded with new private enterprise and investment from both foreign and domestic groups.
Since 1991, the Soviet Union is a . While there are many active political parties, the Communist Party remains the largest in the union. 
==Etymology==
==Geography==
==History==
==Foreign relations==
==Politics==
==Administrative divisions==
===Republics===
:Main article: Republics of the Soviet Union
{| class="wikitable sortable plainrowheaders" style="text-align: center;"
|+ Republics of the Soviet Union
|-
!scope="col" rowspan=2|Flag & name
!scope="col" colspan=2|Cities
!scope="col" rowspan=2|Admission to Union
!scope="col" rowspan=2|Population
!scope="col" colspan=2|Total area
!scope="col" rowspan=2|President
|-
!scope="col"|Capital
!scope="col"|Largest
!scope="col" class="unsortable"|km2
!scope="col"|mi2
|-
!scope="row"| Abkhazia
|colspan=2 |
|
|
| X 
| X 
| 
|-
!scope="row"| Azerbaijan
|colspan=2 |
|
|
| X 
| X 
| 
|-
!scope="row"| Bashkiria
|colspan=2 |
|
|
| X 
| X 
| 
|-
!scope="row"| Buryatia
|colspan=2 |
|
|
| X 
| X 
| 
|-
!scope="row"| Byelorussia
|colspan=2 |
|
|
| X 
| X 
| Alexander Lukashenko
|-
!scope="row"| Chechnya
|colspan=2 |
|
|
| X 
| X 
| 
|-
!scope="row"| Chuvashia
|colspan=2 |
|
|
| X 
| X 
| Oleg Nikolayev
|-
!scope="row"| Crimea
|colspan=2 |
|
|
| X 
| X 
| 
|-
!scope="row"| Dagestan
|colspan=2 |
|
|
| X 
| X 
| 
|-
!scope="row"| Kabardino-Balkaria
|colspan=2 |
|
|
| X 
| X 
| 
|-
!scope="row"| Kalmykia
|colspan=2 |
|
|
| X 
| X 
| 
|-
!scope="row"| Karelia
|colspan=2 |
|
|
| X 
| X 
| 
|-
!scope="row"| Karakalpakstan
|colspan=2 |
|
|
| X 
| X 
| 
|- 
!scope="row"| Kazakhstan
|colspan=2 |
|
|
| X 
| X 
| 
|- 
!scope="row"| Komi
|colspan=2 |
|
|
| X 
| X 
|