In this post we will talk about the USSR: countries, history and origin, better known as the “Soviet Union”, was a Federal Socialist state that established a strong Communist-Marxist-Leninist regime. Along with the United States, the Soviet Union played a major role in global economic and cultural policy. It also participated in major wars such as World War II, the Missile Crisis and the Cold War.
It was bureaucracy and ideological repression that caused this great nation to disintegrate. Its economy was the Achilles heel that ended up burying the Union of the Soviet Socialist Republic. The changes came from above after the announcement of Perestroika, but it was the pressure from below that ended up destroying the Soviet system.
USSR are the acronyms for “Union of Soviet Socialist Republics»was a federal state with a Marxist-Leninist system that existed between 1922 and 1991. It was one of the most powerful countries (along with the United States) in the world in the so-called Cold War (1947-1991), facing the United States and its Western European allies.
This nation was located in the current territory of Russia and that of 15 neighboring nations that had been united through a socialist federation that were in search of the ideals of the October Revolution of 1917, the date on which the tsarist regime of Russia he was overthrown and political power was assumed by the Communist Party.
Lenin, who was Stalin’s successor, imposed a personalist government and promoted heavy industry, launching the so-called five-year plans. The Soviet economy was badly affected by World War IIwhich made Stalin reinforce his bureaucratic power and continue his opposition purge in a more accentuated way.
The USSR formally began in December 1922 (when the war communism that lasted until 1920 ended), when the integration treaties of the Soviet socialist republics of Russia, Ukraine and Transcaucasia (which at that time were Georgia, Azeirbaijan and Armenia) were signed. ).
joseph stalin was the one who assumed the head of the new one party state after the death of Vladimir Lenin. He was appointed as General Secretary of the Party, ending all forms of leftist and dissident opposition. Also Leon Trotsky was persecuted a longtime revolutionary who had a communist doctrine very different from his.
The USSR participated in overthrow of Nazi Germany and Imperial Japan in World War II. In addition, it was the country with the highest casualties in the conflict: some 25 million civilians and soldiers killed.
When World War II ended, United States and the Soviet Union they were like the great world powers after Europe was devastated. From this moment began the struggle for the ideological domination of the world between these powers. Each of them defended their model, on the one hand, Western capitalism and, on the other, Soviet communism.
The conflict lasted for a long time and was very particular, because neither of the two countries attacked each other, although they used third countries to fight their battles, financing dictatorships, civil wars, insurgencies and revolutions throughout the world.
The USSR disintegrated between 1990 and 1991 into 15 independent republics.. Due to their common past, some of them still maintain ties with present-day Russia. Let’s see what they are:
Armenia, Georgia, Azerbaijan, Kazakhstan, Belarus, Kyrgyzstan, Moldova, Russia, Lithuania, Turkmenistan, Ukraine, Uzbekistan, Estonia, Latvia, and Tajikistan.
Nowadays, Russia is considered the legal successor of the Soviet Union. Once the USSR was completely dissolved, its legal powers were transferred to Russia. The Sung Revolution occurred between 1987 1991 and consisted of a series of events that led to the baltic states (Estonia, Latvia and Lithuania) not to be part of the USSR and encouraged the separatist movements from other nations. These countries are the furthest from the Russia of today. In addition, they are the only ones that have entered the European Union and NATO.
The Central Asian istans (Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Tajikistan, Uzbekistan and Turkmenistan), did not have major independence claims after the USSR dissolved. This caused power to continue in the same elites as during Soviet times. For this reason, the influence of the Russian government is still very strong throughout this region.
The USSR was last ruled by Mikhail Gorbachev. The December 25, 1991 He announced to the world a televised speech in which he made it official that the communist superpower ceased to exist. In this sense, after almost 70 years, the soviet union disappearedbut also Four decades of Cold War endeda confrontation between Washington and Moscow after World War II.
There are several Causes of the fall of the USSRhowever, one of the most relevant was the continuous erosion of a dictatorial regime and an unsustainable arms race for the United States. This after President Ronald Reagan announced his strategic defense initiative in 1984, which consisted of building the first anti-missile shield in history and filling space with military combat satellites.
But other reasons also influenced his fall, among them: the political and economic reforms promoted by Gorbachev when he arrived at the Kremlin in 1985. Above all, the Perestroika and Glasnost which were the reasons why they changed not only the Soviet Union, but their allies in Eastern Europe.
A proof of this were the riots of 1989 that caused the fall of communist regimes: Poland, Hungary, German Democratic Republic and Romania. Moscow did not want to intervene in them, using each country to find its own way. In addition, the transition from a planned economy to one in which competition existed led to unemployment and inflation, to the point that the citizens of the Soviet Union were overwhelmed.
What ended up accelerating the disintegration of the USSR was the coup against Gorbachevwhich occurred in 1991. This coup d’état was promoted by conservative sectors of the Communist Party who wanted to stop its reforms.
Learn more about the fall of the USSR through our next post: