Union of Soviet Socialist Republics

Russia

The **Union of Soviet Socialist Republics**, abbreviated as the **USSR** or simply the **Soviet Union**, is a country in Northern Eurasia. It is an amalgamation of several SFSRs and SSRs, including the Russian SFSR, Ukrainian SSR, Byelorussian SSR, Uzbek SSR and Kazakh SSR. Originally, the Soviet Union was a Marxist-Leninist beacon, but since the leadership of Joseph Stalin, the country's ideology has amalgamated into a new form of Marxism known as Stalinism. Stalin is the country's General Secretary since the death of Vladimir Lenin in 1924.

The Soviet Union was officially founded in 1922 as a combination of the SSRs, but also to compete to become the strongest Communist superpower since the emergence of the German Socialist Republic in 1920. During Lenin's years, it maintained a key alliance with the Germans with the Rotebindung, until the rise of Stalin caused the alliance to fall into a state of tensions, known as the Roterspaltung. Now, the USSR has become a strong enemy of tensions with the Germans, in what many political scientists are predicting will amount to Roterkrieg, or Red War.

## History

For the most part, the internal politics of the USSR is the same; the main difference is its relationship with Germany.

### Striving for Greatness

When the Russian Empire fell in 1917 after two separate revolutions, the nation fell into Bolshevik hands. The rule was not easy, and the new leader, Vladimir Lenin, faced insurgence after insurgence when securing Soviet power over the country. Furthermore, the Russian Civil War broke out in 1917, resulting in the Soviets fighting for their existence; but with nations such as the United Kingdom and France still locked in a war against Germany and the United States pursuing isolationism under President Hughes, the White Movement had little support, aside from the Japanese and some volunteer forces.

Disorganisation and military ill-discipline became the downfall of the Whites, and the clever movements of Red commander Leon Trotsky resulted in the civil war being over by 1920, a lot earlier than previously predicted. The time afterwards was spent cementing Communist rule in Russia, while also watching in awe as the German Spartacists emerged victorious in a valiant revolution in Berlin.

The Rotebindung, signed in Moscow in October 1920, secured the alliance between Soviet Russia and Germany, but while Lenin saw friendship in Germany, he could not help but feel threatened that Russia would not be the guiding symbol of socialism that he had dreamed it would become. Drastic action and agreements to integrate the lost Russian lands in the Brest-Litovsk Treaty, as well as amount to a size and industry grand enough to rival Germany, resulted in the formation of the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics in 1922, otherwise known as the Soviet Union. The world had super communist power number two.

Lenin believed such an agreement and further industrialisation would be enough for the Soviets to retain their position as head of the Comintern, but he did not live long enough to see such happen. He died in 1924, and in his death, a void of power.

### Stalin: The Man of Steel

Lenin's death paved the way for political dissidence amongst the new Triumvirate. As Germany opted for a new leader following the newly-braindead Karl Liebknecht, the Soviet Union was following a similar path, and in the void came competition between Lenin's prodigy-child, Leon Trotsky and the thuggish Joseph Stalin, the General Secretary.

The man formerly known as Ioseb Besarionis dze Jughashvili was one noticeably violent and autocratic in nature, much like his predecessor. Becoming known by his popular name Joseph Vissarionovich Stalin, he used his power as General Secretary to grant roles to power-hungry yes-men, and to resecure the politburo under his loyal command. With this newfound power, Stalin began to usurp the powers of the nation's leader and formed a personality cult within his government. The brutality of this transition caused much alarm with the once-friendly Germans, and the new Volksführer, Walter Ulbricht, foresaw a breakdown in relations between the two. Ulbricht described the situation as the 'Roterspaltung', or Red Split, as Germany began to pursue a softening of its Spartacist ideology.

Stalin famously decreed 'the Red Binding is becoming unbound', and soon after, in November 1926, Germany left the Comintern. World spectators watched on in belief that Germany and the Soviet Union were preparing for hostilities.

The remainder of the Soviet history focused on Stalin's industrialisation of the Soviet Union in his Five Year Plans, while maintaining a limited foreign policy, specifically in tangent with his 'socialism in one state' mandate. However, what foreign policy they did have revolved around competing with the Germans in a pseudo-Cold War, competing to become the mightier socialist power. Tensions were rife when Germany agreed to harbour the Soviet exile Trotsky in 1929, and many political scientists now believe that the tensions between Stalinism and Spartacism may one day result in a Roterkrieg, or Red War.