What was the USSR?

The USSR was composed of 15 Soviet Socialist Republics (SSRs), which were nominally sovereign entities that shared a common political and economic system.

The largest and most influential SSR was the Russian SFSR, which also served as the capital of the union.

The other SSRs were Armenia, Azerbaijan, Belarus, Estonia, Georgia, Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Latvia, Lithuania, Moldova, Tajikistan, Turkmenistan, Ukraine and Uzbekistan.

Each SSR had its own flag, anthem, constitution and government, but they were all subordinate to the central authorities in Moscow.

The USSR was founded in 1922 by a treaty between four Soviet republics that emerged after the Russian Revolution of 1917 and the subsequent civil war.

The revolution overthrew the tsarist monarchy and established a socialist regime led by Vladimir Lenin and his Bolshevik party.

The civil war pitted the Bolsheviks against various anti-communist forces, known as the Whites, as well as foreign interventionists.

The Bolsheviks prevailed and consolidated their power by creating the Soviet Union as a federation of socialist republics.

The USSR underwent several political and economic transformations during its existence.

Under Lenin's successor, Joseph Stalin, the USSR became a totalitarian dictatorship that suppressed any opposition and dissent.

Stalin also launched a series of five-year plans that industrialized and collectivized the Soviet economy, but at a huge cost of human lives and suffering.

Stalin also led the USSR in World War II, when it allied with Britain and the United States against Nazi Germany and its allies.

The USSR suffered enormous losses but emerged victorious and expanded its territory and influence in Eastern Europe and Asia.

After Stalin's death in 1953, the USSR entered a period of de-Stalinization and relative liberalization under Nikita Khrushchev.

Khrushchev denounced Stalin's crimes and initiated reforms that eased political repression and improved living standards.

He also pursued a policy of peaceful coexistence with the West, but also engaged in confrontations such as the Cuban Missile Crisis.

Khrushchev was ousted in 1964 by Leonid Brezhnev, who restored some of Stalin's policies and presided over an era of stagnation and corruption.

The USSR faced various challenges and crises in the 1970s and 1980s, such as the arms race with the US, the Afghan War, ethnic unrest, economic decline and environmental degradation.

In 1985, Mikhail Gorbachev became the leader of the USSR and introduced radical reforms known as glasnost (openness) and perestroika (restructuring).

These reforms aimed to democratize and modernize the Soviet system, but also unleashed forces that ultimately led to its collapse.

The USSR disintegrated in 1991 after a failed coup attempt by hardliners against Gorbachev.

The SSRs declared their independence and formed new states, ending the existence of the Soviet Union.