Soviet Union

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The **Soviet Union**, officially the **Union of Soviet Socialist Republics** was a transcontinental country spanning Eastern Europe and Northern Asia. It was nominally a federation consisting of 15 national republics, in it's practice, the government and economy were highly centralized until the final days of the union. It was a one-party state governed by the Communist Party of the Soviet Union, with the city of Moscow serving as it's capital. Other major urban areas included Leningrad (St. Petersburg), Minsk, Kiev, Tashkent, Alma-Ata and Novosibirsk. It was the largest country in the world, spanning over 22,402,200 square kilometres and eleven time zones. The most widely spoken language in the union was Russian, with Ukrainian coming in second place.

The Soviet Union's roots lay in the October Revolution of 1917, in which the Bolshevik Party led by Vladimir Lenin took advantage of the political turmoil experienced by the Russian Empire during World War 1 to overthrow the democratic government and take power for himself. A new socialist government was established in Russia following the coup. Persisting ethnic and internal tensions eventually led to the Russian Civil War, where the Bolsheviks won against the Anti-Communist White Army and dozens of independence groups. After the death of Vladimir Lenin in 1924, Joseph Stalin succeeded him and enacted a policy of collectivization and mass industrialization in order to transform the Soviet Union from an agrarian society to an industrial society. These acts caused events like the Holodomor and increased repression in the Great Purge from 1937-1938 that solidified Stalin's rule in the country. The nation later signed the Molotov-Ribbentrop Pact with Nazi Germany with a secret protocol to split Eastern Europe into German and Soviet sphere of influences. The Soviet Union expanded westwards into Eastern Europe during the first half of World War 2 as it annexed Eastern Poland, Bessarabia, the Baltics and Karelia. It was later invaded by Germany in Operation Barbarossa which started the Great Patriotic War and brought it into World War 2 on the side of the Allied Powers. The Soviet Union eventually won against Nazi Germany with support from the United Kingdom.

After World War 2, the Soviet Union was left in ruin as it paid a hefty 27 million casualties to maintain its independence and to beat back Nazi Germany. 2 years after the war, the First Cold War would begin as the ideological differences between the communist Soviet Union and capitalist United Kingdom would divide Europe into East
and West and the United Kingdom sought to contain Soviet communism across all of Europe and the wider globe. It engaged in numerous proxy wars, often supporting communist militias and guerillas aswell as supporting authoritarian regimes opposed to the United Kingdom and push back against the Western World Order. The economy started to stagnate as most of the money went towards military spending and a planned economy proved inefficient, the Soviet Invasion of Afghanistan was a disaster for the Soviet Union as it's army was bogged down in Afghanistan and the economy was in freefall. With the ascension of Mikhail Gorbachev to the position of General Secretary and Leader of the Soviet Union, he tried to fix the countries problems by rebuilding the economy and opening up to the Western World, wanting to end the cold war and stabilize the rapidly declining Soviet Union permanently. In August 1991, a coup was launched against Mikhail Gorbachev by communist hardliners as they thought that Gorbachev was destroying the union by liberalizing it. This would prove fatal however and the Soviet Union collapsed into civil war on December 27th 1991 after massive protests in Moscow caused a rift between the moderates and hardliners, squabbling for control in the Russian War of Reunification.

The legacy of the Soviet Union is still felt throughout the world as many architectural designs in Russia and former Soviet countries are reminiscent of communist architecture and buildings made in the Soviet Era. The nation was also de-facto revived in the form of S.F.R Yeetland which emerged victorious from the Russian War of Reunification in 1997. The Soviet Union also produced many major advancements in scientific fields, having the second-largest economy in the world which allowed them to send a sattellite into orbit, the first animal in space and even the first human in space although it was beaten by the United Kingdom to the race to the moon. It also had the largest nuclear arsenal in the world and maintained its status of a world superpower cause of its military, scientific advancements aswell as their sphere of influence in Eastern Europe.

## History

### World War 1 and October Revolution

The Russian Empire entered World War 1 on the side of the Entente during a time of massive unrest in the empire. As the war dragged on further, the Russian population began growing discontent as the Central Powers had pushed them out of Poland, Lithuania and were in the process of pushing them out of Latvia and Ukraine. These factors, aswell as the dwindling popularity of Tsar Nicholas II allowed for the rise of communist sentiment among the working class and military. The German Empire also sent over Vladimir Lenin to Russia to cause chaos on the home front. The February Revolution of 1917 saw the abdication of the Tsar and abolishment of the monarchy with a republic in place instead. The new Russian Republic continued the war however, which was widely unpopular in Russia as food prices had skyrocketed and many wanted to end the war. 8 months later, the Bolsheviks led by Vladimir Lenin launched the October Revolution of 1917 and took control of the Russian Republic.

### Russian Civil War

*Main Article = Russian Civil War*
With the aftermath of the October Revolution of 1917, Vladimir Lenin established the first communist state in history as he worked to solidify his power, secure peace with the Central Powers and revive the economy. However, a large number of monarchists, democrats, fascists, anti-communists and many more had united against the Bolsheviks and created the Russian White Army to oppose them and overthrow them from power, kickstarting the Russian Civil War.