Internally, Stalin used the conflict to target and deport entire peoples accused of collaborating with the Nazis. Aside from these politically motivated aspects, another fundamental characteristic of the Great Terror was the social component. However, in May 1922 after Lenin became temporarily incapacitated by a stroke, the unity of the Communist Party fractured. S. Courtois et al. (1998). The largest country in the world by area, Russia is bounded by Norway and Finland in the northwest; by Estonia, Latvia, Belarus, ..... Click the link for more information. ) Large numbers of "Old Bolsheviks," former opponents, and a host of unreliable double dealers, wreckers, and saboteurs were targeted in what became an arbitrary frenzy of bloodletting. New York: Random House. The Union of Soviet Socialist Republics was a country that existed in Earth's 20th century, stretching across Europe and Asia. Gorbachev invented the idea of keeping the Soviet Union together with each republic being more independent but under the same leader. . During this time, the Soviet leadership experimented with economic reform and several individuals contended for power. Before reforms were enacted in 1989, Soviet political institutions merely carried out the policies and directives of the Communist Party. Already in 1948 and 1949 hundreds of Jewish intellectuals had been arrested, at least one of whom, the world-renowned actor and theater director Solomon Mikhoels, was murdered. The civil war between the Reds and the Whites started in 1917 and ended in 1923. World Encyclopedia. Russia declared independence in December 1991. Khrushchev’s removal from office was followed by another period of rule by collective leadership. The USSR launched the first artificial satellite, Sputnik 1 in 1957; a living dog named Laika in 1957; the first human being, Yuri Gagarin in 1961; the first woman in space, Valentina Tereshkova in 1963; Alexei Leonov, the first person to walk in space in 1965; the first soft landing on the Moon by spacecraft Luna 9 in 1966; and the first Moon rovers, Lunokhod 1 and Lunokhod 2. A provision of the Soviet constitution allowed republics to vote to secede from the Soviet Union, and each of their respective legislatures—with freely elected non-CPSU members now—took advantage of the clause and declared their independence. Here it is suggested that the roots of Soviet terror lay not only in the personal ambitions and whims of Lenin and Stalin, but also equally in the ideologically driven utopian mission of creating the perfect communist society purged of the politically and socially unfit in circumstances of international isolation and perceived foreign threats. By 1991 revolution had swept through Eastern Europe bringing down several Communist governments. ." Gale Encyclopedia of World History: Governments. The Soviet Union at its largest size in 1991, with 22,400,000 square kilometres (8,600,000 sq mi), was the world's biggest country. In turn the Soviet Union began taking an active role in the United Nations as well as in other major international and regional organizations. of capitalist exploitation, the emancipation of the working class, the transformation of "bourgeois" values, and the creation of a socialist state and society—justified any means of achieving these ends, including class discrimination, illegal arrest and incarceration, even mass executions. The spiral of terror and counterterror was growing. After the coup the Soviet republics accelerated their process toward independence. During Brezhnev’s sixteen years as first secretary, economic and political reform was nonexistent. The most prominent leader was Leon Trotsky (1879–1940), a Bolshevik revolutionary and a founding member of the Politburo. https://www.encyclopedia.com/social-sciences/applied-and-social-sciences-magazines/union-soviet-socialist-republics, "Union of Soviet Socialist Republics By eliminating these undesirables and replacing them with devoted "yes men," Stalin's power base was mightily strengthened. International Encyclopedia of the Social Sciences. Oxford: Oxford University Press. Encyclopedia of Russian History. In Stalinism: The Essential Readings, ed. New Haven, Conn.: Yale University Press. The breakup of the Soviet Union was more ambiguous in respect of democratic developments. "Union of Soviet Socialist Republics But, Khrushchev did face significant opposition in the Presidium, or Politburo, which threatened much needed economic reform and the de-Stalinization campaign. Although there is debate over what exactly caused the Soviet Union’s demise, it is clear that the policies of perestroika and glasnost led to unintended consequences that greatly contributed to this. "Union of Soviet Socialist Republics What impact did the dissolution of the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics have? Two thirds of the Soviet border was coastline of the Arctic Ocean. Each republic was independent and handled its own cultural affairs. Indeed, ethnically based repression did not end in the late 1930s. 2006. The games were heavily boycotted by the western nations, particularly the United States. The History of Twentieth Century Russia. . The last Russian Tsar (emperor), Nicholas II, ruled Russia until March 1917, when the Russian Empire was taken over and a short-lived "provisional government" replaced it, led by Alexander Kerensky and soon to be overthrown in November by Bolsheviks. It was announced after Vladimir Lenin overthrew Alexander Kerensky as Russian leader. The socalled Polish Operation, ratified by the Politburo on August 7, 1937, resulted in the arrest of approximately 140,000 people, a staggering 111,000 of whom were executed. Why did Stalin order the mass arrest of loyal Party and state bureaucrats? Lenin, Stalin and Khrushchev are the only leaders who were not (de jure) head of state during their leaderships. The Soviet Union was made of 15 republics. Союз Советских Социалистических Республик, Learn how and when to remove this template message, Soviet of the Republics of the Supreme Soviet of the Soviet Union, General Secretary of the Communist Party of the Soviet Union, Day of International Solidarity of Labor people, Russian Soviet Federative Socialist Republic, The Fine Line between the Enforcement of Human Rights Agreements and the Violation of National Sovereignty: The Case of Soviet Dissidents. At its peak it consisted of fifteen republics making it one of the most strongly centralized federal unions in the history of the world. The nail in tsarism's coffin came during World War I. Russia's largely unsuccessful efforts to conduct the war against Germany and Austria added significantly to internal discontent. As with the previous documents, civil liberties such as freedom of speech, of religion, and of assembly were protected—so long as they did not infringe upon the goals of the state or tenets of the Communist Party, which the 1977 Constitution described the “leading and guiding force” of the state. The United States set up Alexander Romanov as a puppet ruler. "State Violence as Technique: The Logic of Violence in Soviet Totalitarianism." . The Revenge of the Past: Nationalism, Revolution, and the Collapse of the Soviet Union. See also: bolshevism; communist party of the soviet union; economic growth, soviet; nationalism in the soviet union; union of sovereign states. (1999). (1971). This culminated in the imperial government of Czar Nicholas II (1868–1918) being overthrown. International Encyclopedia of the Social Sciences, Gale Encyclopedia of World History: Governments, Brezhnev, Leonid The Soviet Union was created about five years after the Russian Revolution. A parliament (legislative assembly)—the State Duma—was created in 1906 after the Russian Revolution of 1905, but the Tsar protested people trying to move from absolute to constitutional monarchy. It existed for 69 years, from 1922 until 1991. . As a consequence of this police state and emergent modernization during the course of the late nineteenth century, social tensions ran deep in tsarist Russia. ." The Soviet leadership's fears of a fifth column among Party, state, and military elites, who in the event of war could rely on broad support from socially harmful elements and hostile national minorities in the USSR, seem to account for the dramatic rise in arrests and executions. J oseph Stalin was the brutal and absolute leader of the communist Soviet Union from 1929 until his death in 1953. The single most…, Andrei Andreevich Gromyko (1909-1989) represented the Soviet Union for many years in major international conferences after World War II, first as min…, Union of Orthodox Rabbis of the United States and Canada, Union of Orthodox Jewish Congregations of America, Union of Farmers and Agricultural Laborers of Brazil (ULTAB), Union of Councils for Jews in the Former Soviet Union, Union Nationale Des Forces Populaires (UNFP), Union Nationale Des Etudiants Marocains (UNEM), Union Institute & University: Tabular Data, Union Institute & University: Narrative Description, Union of Struggle for The Emancipation of Labor, Union Socialiste Des Forces Populaires (USFP), Union Theological Seminary and Presbyterian School of Christian Education, Union Theological Seminary and Presbyterian School of Christian Education: Distance Learning Programs, Union Tunisienne Des Industrialistes, Compagnies, Artisans (UTICA), Union University: Distance Learning Programs, Utopian Ideologies as Motives for Genocide, https://www.encyclopedia.com/international/encyclopedias-almanacs-transcripts-and-maps/union-soviet-socialist-republics, https://www.encyclopedia.com/social-sciences/applied-and-social-sciences-magazines/union-soviet-socialist-republics, https://www.encyclopedia.com/history/encyclopedias-almanacs-transcripts-and-maps/union-soviet-socialist-republics-0, https://www.encyclopedia.com/history/encyclopedias-almanacs-transcripts-and-maps/union-soviet-socialist-republics, https://www.encyclopedia.com/environment/encyclopedias-almanacs-transcripts-and-maps/union-soviet-socialist-republics, Anti-Soviet President Gorbachev Caricatured Protest Sign During Soviet Armed Crackdown on Independence-Bent Baltic SSR. 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