Soviet Union (Alternate History 2)

The **Soviet Union,** officially the **Union of Soviet Socialist Republics** (Russian: Союз Советских Социалистических Республик, *Soyuz Sovetskikh Sotsialisticheskikh Respublik*), is a federal socialist state in Northern Eurasia that was established in 1922. Nominally a union of multiple national Soviet republics, it is governed as a one-party state by the Communist Party of the Soviet Union (CPSU), with Moscow as its capital in its largest republic, the Russian SFSR. Other major urban centres are Leningrad (Russian SFSR), Kiev (Ukrainian SSR), Minsk (Byelorussian SSR), Tashkent (Uzbek SSR), Alma-Ata (Kazakh SSR) and Novosibirsk (Russian SFSR). It is the largest country in the world by surface area, spanning over 10,000 kilometers (6,200 mi) east to west across 11 time zones and over 7,200 kilometers (4,500 mi) north to south, and is one of the four superpowers of the world (alongside the United States, European Commonwealth, and People's Republic of China). Its territory includes much of Eastern Europe, parts of Northern Europe and Western Asia, and all of Central and North Asia. Its five biomes are tundra, taiga, steppes, desert, and mountains. Its diverse population are officially known as the Soviet people.

The Soviet Union's roots lay in the October Revolution of 1917, where the Bolsheviks, led by Vladimir Lenin, overthrew the Provisional Government that had earlier replaced the monarchy of the Russian Empire. This led to the Russian Civil War between the Bolshevik Red Army and the loyalist White Army. The Red Army eventually triumphed against the loyalists and the Soviet Union was officially established in 1922 with the unification of the Russian, Transcaucasian, Ukrainian and Byelorussian republics. The New Economic Policy (NEP), which was introduced by Lenin, led to a partial return of a free market and private property; this resulted in a period of economic recovery. The new state's founder, Vladimir Lenin, died in 1924 and after a period of political power-playing, Joseph Stalin came to power. Stalin suppressed all political opposition to his rule inside the Communist Party and inaugurated a command economy, reversing the NEP. As a result, the country underwent a period of rapid industrialization and forced collectivization, which led to significant economic growth, but also led to a man-made famine in 1932–1933 and expanded the Gulag labour camp system originally established in 1918. Stalin also fomented political paranoia and conducted the Great Purge to remove his actual and perceived opponents from the Party through mass arrests of military leaders, Communist Party members, and ordinary citizens alike, who were then sent to correctional labor camps or sentenced to death.

The Soviets took part in the Second World War on the side of the Allies, but initially started the war as a neutral country who signed a non-aggression pact with Nazi Germany, allowing them to invade several Eastern European territories and annexing them to the union. In June 1941 the Germans invaded, opening the largest and bloodiest theatre of war in history. Soviet war casualties accounted for the highest proportion of the conflict in the cost of acquiring the upper hand over Axis forces at intense battles such as Stalingrad. Soviet forces eventually captured Berlin and won World War II in Europe on 9 May 1945. The territory overtaken by the Red Army became satellite states of the Eastern Bloc. The Cold War emerged in 1947 as a result of a post-war Soviet dominance in Eastern Europe, where the Eastern Bloc confronted the Western Bloc that united in the North Atlantic Treaty Organization in 1949.

ollowing Stalin's death in 1953, a period known as de-Stalinization and the Khrushchev Thaw occurred under the leadership of Nikita Khrushchev. The country developed rapidly, as millions of peasants were moved into industrialized cities. The USSR took an early lead in the Space Race with the first ever satellite and the first human spaceflight. In the 1970s, there was a brief *détente* of relations with the United States, but tensions resumed when the Soviet Union deployed troops in Afghanistan in 1979. The war drained economic resources and was matched by an escalation of American military aid to Mujahideen fighters.

The Soviet Union was established in 1922, encompassing much of the territories of the former Russian Empire. The USSR became involved in World War II following Germany's invasion in 1941, eventually siding with the western allies. The Soviets suffered the largest casualties during the war, ending with the Soviet occupation of Berlin in 1945. Following the end of the war, the western allies and the USSR turned against each other for global economic and political hegemony known as the Cold War, the period was noted for the political dominance of the capitalist west (led by the United States) and the Communist east (led by the Soviet Union), which was fought not by direct war but by manipulation, proxy-wars, and Mutually Assured Destruction (MAD) following the detonation of a Soviet nuclear bomb in 1949. The Cold War lasted from 1945 until 1990.

From its formation up until the 1980s the Soviet Union was a single-party Communist state. Upon gaining power, Mikhail Gorbachev initiated economic and political reforms known as Perestroika and cultural reforms known as Glasnost. These reforms are credited with transforming the USSR into a more democratic and open nation, but also helped spark internal tensions. In 1991, six of the [then] 15 republics gained independence, while the remaining helped to establish a decentralized federation of equal states. The 1990s saw the gradual revival of the Soviet Union domestically and acting as a model for all post-Communist states. The 2000s brought the USSR back into global dominance following their involvement in the War on Terror and the Moscow metro bombings of 2003.

Following World War II, the Soviet Union emerged as a global player in the arts, science, and sports. During the late 1950s and early 1960s, the USSR was the leading space power following the launches of *Sputnik* in 1957 and the flight of Yuri Gagarin in 1961. The Soviet Union continues to be a major player in the exploration of space.