USSR (Union of Soviet Socialist Republics or abbreviated Soviet Union)
- former state that existed in Eastern Europe and Asia.
The USSR was a superpower-empire (in a figurative sense), a stronghold of socialism in the world.
The country existed from 1922 to 1991.
The Soviet Union occupied one sixth of the total surface area of the Earth. It was the most big country in the world.
The capital of the USSR was the city of Moscow.
In the USSR there were many major cities: Moscow, Leningrad (modern St. Petersburg), Sverdlovsk (modern Yekaterinburg), Perm, Krasnoyarsk, Novosibirsk, Kazan, Ufa, Kuibyshev (modern Samara), Gorky (modern Nizhny Novgorod), Omsk, Tyumen, Chelyabinsk, Volgograd, Rostov- on-Don, Voronezh, Saratov, Kyiv, Dnepropetrovsk, Donetsk, Kharkov, Minsk, Tashkent, Tbilisi, Baku, Alma-Ata.
The population of the USSR before its collapse was about 250 million people.
The Soviet Union had land borders with Afghanistan, Hungary, Iran, China, North Korea, Mongolia, Norway, Poland, Romania, Turkey, Finland, Czechoslovakia.
The length of the land borders of the Soviet Union was 62,710 kilometers.
By sea, the USSR bordered on the United States, Sweden and Japan.
Dimensions former empire socialism impressed:
a) length - more than 10,000 km from the extreme geographic points(from the Curonian Spit in the Kaliningrad region to Ratmanov Island in the Bering Strait);
b) width - more than 7,200 km from the extreme geographical points (from Cape Chelyuskin, Taimyr Autonomous Okrug, Krasnoyarsk Territory to the city of Kushka, Mary Region, Turkmen SSR).
The shores of the USSR were washed by twelve seas: Kara, Barents, Baltic, Laptev, East Siberian, Bering, Okhotsk, Japanese, Black, Caspian, Azov, Aral.
There were many mountain ranges and systems in the USSR: the Carpathians, the Crimean Mountains, the Caucasus Mountains, the Pamir Range, the Tien Shan Range, the Sayan Range, the Sikhote-Alin Range, the Ural Mountains.
The Soviet Union had the largest and deepest lakes in the world: Lake Ladoga, Lake Onega, Lake Baikal (the deepest in the world).
On the territory of the Soviet Union there were as many as five climatic zones.
On the territory of the USSR there were areas where there was a polar day and a polar night for four months a year and only polar moss grew in summer, and areas where there was never snow all year round and where palm trees and citrus trees grew.
The Soviet Union had eleven time zones. The first zone differed from universal time by two hours, and the last by as much as thirteen hours.
The administrative-territorial division of the USSR competed in its complexity only with the modern administrative-territorial division of Great Britain. The administrative units of the first level were the union republics: Russia (Russian Soviet Federative Socialist Republic), Belarus (Belarusian Soviet Socialist Republic), Ukraine (Ukrainian Soviet Socialist Republic), Kazakhstan (Kazakh Soviet Socialist Republic), Moldova (Moldavian Soviet Socialist Republic), Georgia (Georgian Soviet Socialist Republic), Armenia (Armenian Soviet Socialist Republic), Azerbaijan (Azerbaijan Soviet Socialist Republic), Turkmenistan (Turkmen Soviet Socialist Republic), Tajikistan (Tajik Soviet Socialist Republic), Kyrgyzstan (Kyrgyz Soviet Socialist Republic), Uzbekistan (Uzbek Soviet Socialist Republic), Lithuania (Lithuanian Soviet Socialist Republic), Latvia ( Latvian Soviet Socialist Republic), Estonia (Estonian Soviet Socialist Republic).
Republics were divided into administrative divisions the second level - autonomous republics, autonomous districts, autonomous regions, territories and regions. In turn, autonomous republics, autonomous okrugs, autonomous regions, territories and regions were divided into administrative units of the third level - into districts, and those, in turn, were divided into administrative units of the fourth level - city, village and settlement councils. Some republics (Lithuania, Latvia, Estonia, Armenia, Moldova) were immediately divided into second-level administrative units - into districts.
Russia (RSFSR) had the most complex administrative-territorial division. It included:
a) cities of union subordination - Moscow, Leningrad, Sevastopol;
b) autonomous Soviet socialist republics - Bashkir ASSR, Buryat ASSR, Dagestan ASSR, Kabardino-Balkarian ASSR, Kalmyk ASSR, Karelian ASSR, Komi ASSR, Mari ASSR, Mordovian ASSR, North Ossetian ASSR, Tatar ASSR, Tuva ASSR, Udmurt ASSR, Chechen-Ingush ASSR, Chuvash ASSR, Yakut ASSR;
c) autonomous regions - Adygei Autonomous District, Gorno-Altai Autonomous District, Jewish Autonomous District, Karachay-Cherkess Autonomous District, Khakass Autonomous District;
d) regions - Amur, Arkhangelsk, Astrakhan, Belgorod, Bryansk, Vladimir, Volgograd, Vologda, Voronezh, Gorky, Ivanovo, Irkutsk, Kaliningrad, Kalinin, Kaluga, Kamchatka, Kemerovo, Kirov, Kostroma, Kuibyshev, Kurgan, Kursk, Leningrad, Lipetsk Magadan, Moscow, Murmansk, Novgorod, Novosibirsk, Omsk, Orenburg, Orel, Penza, Perm, Pskov, Rostov, Ryazan Saratov, Sakhalin, Sverdlovsk, Smolensk, Tambov, Tomsk, Tula, Tyumen, Ulyanovsk, Chelyabinsk, Chita, Yaroslavl:
e) Autonomous Okrugs: Aginsky Buryat AO, Komi-Permyatsky AO, Koryaksky AO, Nenets AO, Taimyr (Dolgano-Nenetsky) AO, Ust-Ordynsky Buryat AO, Khanty-Mansiysk AO, Chukotsky AO, Evenki AO, Yamalo-Nenets AO.
f) territories - Altai, Krasnodar, Krasnoyarsk, Primorsky, Stavropol, Khabarovsk.
Ukraine (Ukrainian SSR) included only regions. It included: Vinnitsa. Volyn, Voroshilovgrad (modern Lugansk), Dnepropetrovsk, Donetsk, Zhytomyr, Transcarpathian, Zaporozhye, Ivano-Frankivsk, Kyiv, Kirovograd, Crimean (until 1954 was part of the RSFSR), Lvov, Nikolaev, Odessa, Poltava, Rivne, Sumy, Ternopil , Kharkiv, Kherson, Khmelnytsky, Cherkasy, Chernivtsi, Chernihiv regions.
Belarus (BSSR) consisted of regions. It included: Brest, Minsk, Gomel, Grodno, Mogilev, Vitebsk regions.
Kazakhstan (KazSSR) consisted of regions. It included: Aktobe, Alma-Ata, East Kazakhstan, Guryev, Dzhambul, Dzhezkazgan, Karaganda, Kzyl-Orda, Kokchetav, Kustanai, Mangyshlak, Pavlodar, North Kazakhstan, Semipalatinsk, Taldy-Kurgan, Turgay, Ural, Tselinograd , Chimkent region.
Turkmenistan (TurSSR) included five regions: Chardzhous, Ashgabat, Krasnovodsk, Mary, Tashauz;
Uzbekistan (UzSSR) included one autonomous republic (Karakalpak ASSR), the city of republican subordination Tashkent and regions: Tashkent, Ferghana, Andijan, Namangan, Syrdarya, Surkhandarya, Kashkadarya, Samarkand, Bukhara, Khorezm.
Georgia (GrSSR) consisted of the city of republican subordination of Tbilisi, two autonomous republics (Abkhaz ASSR and Adjara ASSR) and one autonomous region (South Ossetian Autonomous Region).
Kyrgyzstan (KyrSSR) consisted of only two regions (Osh and Naryn) and the city of republican subordination Frunze.
Tajikistan (Tad SSR) consisted of one autonomous region (Gorno-Badakhshan Autonomous Okrug), three regions (Kulyab, Kurgan-Tyubinsk, Leninabad) and the city of republican subordination - Dushanbe.
Azerbaijan (AzSSR) consisted of one autonomous republic (Nakhichevan Autonomous Soviet Socialist Republic), one autonomous region (Nagorno-Karabakh Autonomous Region) and the city of republican subordination Baku.
Armenia (Armenian SSR) was divided only into regions and the city of republican subordination - Yerevan.
Moldova (MSSR) was divided only into regions and the city of republican subordination - Chisinau.
Lithuania (Lithuanian SSR) was divided only into regions and the city of republican subordination - Vilnius.
Latvia (LatSSR) was divided only into regions and the city of republican subordination - Riga.
Estonia (ESSR) was divided only into regions and the city of republican subordination - Tallinn.
The USSR has gone through a difficult historical path.
The history of the empire of socialism begins with the period when autocracy collapsed in tsarist Russia. This happened in February 1917, when the Provisional Government was formed in place of the defeated monarchy.
The provisional government failed to restore order in the former empire, and the ongoing World War I and the failures Russian army only contributed to further escalation of the unrest.
Taking advantage of the weakness of the Provisional Government, the Bolshevik Party, headed by V.I., Lenin, at the end of October 1917, organized in Petrograd armed uprising, which led to the liquidation of the power of the Provisional Government and the establishment of Soviet power in Petrograd.
The October Revolution led to an escalation of violence in a number of regions of the former Russian Empire. The bloody Civil War. All Ukraine was covered by the fire of war, western areas Belarus, Ural, Siberia, Far East, Caucasus and Turkestan. For about four years, Bolshevik Russia led bloody war against the supporters of the restoration of the old regime. Part of the territories of the former Russian Empire were lost, and some countries (Poland, Finland, Lithuania, Latvia, Estonia) declared their sovereignty and unwillingness to accept the new Soviet power.
Lenin pursued the single goal of creating the USSR - the creation of a powerful state capable of resisting any manifestation of counter-revolution. And such a power was created on December 29, 1922 - Lenin's Decree on the formation of the USSR was signed.
Immediately after the formation of the new state, it initially included only four republics: Russia (RSFSR), Ukraine (Ukrainian SSR), Belarus (BSSR) and Transcaucasia (Transcaucasian Socialist Federative Soviet Republic (ZSFSR)).
All organs of state power in the USSR came under the strict control of the Communist Party. Any decision on the spot was not made without the approval of the party leadership.
The Politburo of the Central Committee of the All-Union Communist Party of Bolsheviks was the highest authority in the USSR during Lenin's time.
After the death of Lenin, a struggle for power in the country flared up in the highest echelons of power. With equal success, I.V. Stalin, L.D. Trotsky,
G.I. Zinoviev, L.B. Kamenev, A.I. Rykov. The most cunning of all was the future dictator-tyrant of the totalitarian USSR - I. V. Stalin. Initially, in order to destroy some of his competitors in the struggle for power, Stalin teamed up with Zinoviev and Kamenev in the so-called "troika".
At the XIII Congress, the question was decided who would become the leaders of the Bolshevik Party and the country after the death of Lenin. Zinoviev and Kamenev managed to rally around themselves the majority of the Communists and most of them voted for I.V. Stalin. So the country has a new leader.
Having headed the USSR, Stalin first of all began to strengthen his power and get rid of his recent supporters. This practice was soon adopted by the entire Stalinist environment. Now, after the elimination of Trotsky, Stalin took Bukharin and Rykov as his allies in order to jointly oppose Zinoviev and Kamenev.
This struggle of the new dictator continued until 1929. This year, all of Stalin's strong competitors were exterminated; there were no more competitors to him in the struggle for power in the country.
In parallel with the inner-party struggle, until 1929, Lenin's NEP (New Economic Policy) was carried out in the country. During these years, private entrepreneurship was not yet completely banned in the country.
In 1924, a new Soviet ruble was put into circulation in the USSR.
In 1925, at the XIV Congress of the All-Union Communist Party of Bolsheviks, a course was set for the collectivization and industrialization of the entire country. The first five-year plan is being developed. The dispossession of lands began, millions of kulaks (wealthy landowners) were exiled to Siberia and the Far East, or were driven from good fertile lands and received in return junk lands that were not suitable for agriculture.
Forced collectivization and dispossession caused an unprecedented famine in 1932-1933. Ukraine, the Volga region, Kuban, and other regions of the country were starving. Cases of theft in the fields have become more frequent. The notorious law was adopted (popularly called " Law of three spikelets"), according to which those caught even with a handful of grain were assigned long terms of imprisonment and a long exile in the regions of the Far North, Siberia and the Far East.
1937 was marked by a year of mass repressions. The repressions primarily affected the leadership of the Red Army, which seriously weakened the country's defense in the future and allowed the army to Nazi Germany almost unimpeded walk almost to Moscow itself.
The mistakes of Stalin and his leadership cost the country dearly. However, there were also positive moments. As a result of industrialization, the country has taken the second place in the world in terms of industrial production.
In August 1939, just before the start of World War II, Nazi Germany and the USSR signed a non-aggression pact and the division of Eastern Europe (the so-called Molotov-Ribbentrop Pact).
After the Second World War began, the USSR and Germany divided the territory of Poland between them. The USSR included Western Ukraine, Western Belarus, and later Bessarabia (became part of the Moldavian SSR). A year later, Lithuania, Latvia and Estonia were included in the USSR, which were also turned into union republics.
June 22, 1941 Nazi Germany, violating the non-aggression pact, began to bomb Soviet cities from the air. Hitler's Wehrmacht crossed the border. The Great Patriotic War began. The main production facilities were evacuated to the Far East, Siberia and the Urals, and the population was being evacuated. At the same time, the full mobilization of the male population into the active army was carried out.
At the initial stage of the war affected strategic mistakes allowed by the Stalinist leadership in previous years. There were few new weapons in the army, and what
there was, inferior in its characteristics to the German one. The Red Army retreated, many people were taken prisoner. The headquarters threw more and more new units into battle, however special success it didn't - the Germans were pushing hard towards Moscow. In some sectors of the front, the distance to the Kremlin was no more than 20 kilometers, and on Red Square, according to eyewitnesses of those times, artillery cannonade and the rumble of tanks and aircraft were already heard. German generals could observe the center of Moscow through their binoculars.
Only in December 1941, the Red Army went on the offensive and pushed the Germans back 200-300 kilometers to the west. However, by the spring, the Nazi command managed to recover from the defeat and changed the direction of the main attack. Now Hitler's main goal was Stalingrad, which opened up a further advance to the Caucasus, to the oil fields in the region of Baku and Grozny.
In the summer of 1942, the Germans came close to Stalingrad. And by the end of autumn, fighting was already going on in the city itself. However, to move beyond Stalingrad german wehrmacht failed. In the middle of winter, a powerful offensive of the Red Army began, a 100,000-strong group of Germans under the command of Field Marshal Paulus was captured, and Paulus himself was captured. The German offensive failed, moreover, it ended in complete defeat.
Hitler planned to take the last revenge in the summer of 1943 in the Kursk region. The famous tank battle took place near Prokhorovka, in which a thousand tanks from each side took part. The Battle of Kursk was lost again and from that moment the Red Army began a rapid advance to the west, freeing more and more new territories.
In 1944, all of Ukraine, the Baltic states and Belarus were liberated. The Red Army reached the state border of the USSR and rushed to Europe, to Berlin.
In 1945, the Red Army liberated most of the countries of Eastern Europe from the Nazis and in May 1945 entered Berlin. The war ended with the complete victory of the USSR and its allies.
In 1945 Transcarpathia became part of the USSR. A new Transcarpathian region was formed.
After the war, the country was again gripped by famine. Factories and plants did not work, schools and hospitals were destroyed. The first five post-war years were very difficult for the country, and only in the early fifties did the situation in the country of the Soviets begin to improve.
In 1949, the atomic bomb was invented in the USSR as a symmetrical response to the US nuclear domination attempt in the world. Relations with the United States worsen, the Cold War begins.
In March 1953, JV Stalin dies. The era of Stalinism in the country ends. The so-called "Khrushchev thaw" is coming. At the next party congress, Khrushchev sharply criticized the former Stalinist regime. Tens of thousands of political prisoners are released from numerous camps. The mass rehabilitation of the repressed begins.
In 1957, the world's first artificial Earth satellite was launched in the USSR.
In 1961, the world's first manned aircraft was launched in the USSR. spaceship with the first cosmonaut - Yuri Gagarin.
During the time of Khrushchev, in opposition to the NATO bloc created by Western countries, the Warsaw Pact Organization was created - a military alliance of Eastern European countries that embarked on a socialist path of development.
After Brezhnev came to power in the USSR, the first signs of stagnation began to appear. The growth of industrial production slowed down. The first signs of party corruption began to appear in the country. The Brezhnev leadership, and even Brezhnev himself, did not realize that the country was facing the need for fundamental changes both in politics, and in ideology, and in the economy.
With the coming to power of Mikhail Gorbachev, the so-called "perestroika" began. A course was taken for the wholesale eradication of domestic drunkenness, for the development of private
entrepreneurship. However, all the measures taken did not give positive results - in the late eighties it became clear that the huge empire of socialism had cracked and was beginning to fall apart, and the final collapse was only a matter of time. In the union republics, especially in the Baltic states and Ukraine, a massive increase in nationalist sentiments began, associated with declarations of independence and secession from the USSR.
The first impetus for the collapse of the USSR was the bloody events in Lithuania. This republic was the first of all the Union republics to declare its withdrawal from the USSR. Then Lithuania was supported by Latvia and Estonia, which also declared their sovereignty. Events in these two Baltic republics developed in a more peaceful way.
Then Transcaucasia began to seethe. Another hot spot has emerged - Nagorno-Karabakh. Armenia announced its accession Nagorno-Karabakh. Azerbaijan started a blockade in response. A war began that lasted for five years, now the conflict is frozen, but tensions between the two countries remain.
Around the same time, Georgia separated from the USSR. On the territory of this country begins new conflict- with Abkhazia, which wished to secede from Georgia and become a sovereign country.
In August 1991, a putsch begins in Moscow. The so-called State Committee for state of emergency(GKChP). It was the last attempt to save the dying USSR. The coup failed, Gorbachev was actually removed from power by Yeltsin. Immediately after the failure of the coup, Ukraine, Kazakhstan, the republics of Central Asia and Moldova declare their independence and are proclaimed sovereign states. Belarus and Russia are the latest to declare their sovereignty.
In December 1991, a meeting of the leaders of Russia, Ukraine and Belarus, held in Belovezhskaya Pushcha in Belarus, stated that the USSR as a state no longer exists and annulled Lenin's decree on the formation of the USSR. An agreement was signed to establish the Commonwealth of Independent States.
So the empire of socialism ceased to exist, not having lived only one year before its 70th anniversary.
Union of Soviet Socialist Republics |
|
Motto: "Workers of all countries, unite!" |
|
Largest cities: |
Moscow, Leningrad, Kyiv, Tashkent, Baku, Kharkov, Minsk, Gorky, Novosibirsk, Sverdlovsk, Kuibyshev, Tbilisi, Dnepropetrovsk, Yerevan, Odessa |
Russian (de facto) |
|
Currency unit: |
Ruble of the USSR |
Time Zones: |
|
22,402,200 km² |
|
Population: |
293 047 571 people |
Form of government: |
Soviet republic |
Internet domain: |
|
Telephone code: |
|
Founding states |
States after the collapse of the USSR |
Union of Soviet Socialist Republics- a state that existed from 1922 to 1991 in Europe and Asia. The USSR occupied 1/6 of the inhabited land and was the largest country in the world in terms of area on the territory previously occupied by the Russian Empire without Finland, part of the Polish Kingdom and some other territories, but with Galicia, Transcarpathia, part of Prussia, Northern Bukovina, Southern Sakhalin and the Kuriles.
According to the Constitution of 1977, the USSR was proclaimed a single union multinational and socialist state.
After World War II, the USSR had land borders with Afghanistan, Hungary, Iran, China, North Korea (since September 9, 1948), Mongolia, Norway, Poland, Romania, Turkey, Finland, Czechoslovakia, and only sea borders with the USA, Sweden and Japan.
Consisted of union republics (in different years from 4 to 16), according to the Constitution, they were sovereign states; each Union republic retained the right to freely secede from the Union. The Union Republic had the right to enter into relations with foreign countries, conclude agreements with them and exchange diplomatic and consular representatives, participate in the activities of international organizations. Among the 50 founding countries of the UN, along with the USSR, were its two union republics: the BSSR and the Ukrainian SSR.
Part of the republics included autonomous Soviet socialist republics (ASSR), territories, regions, autonomous regions (AO) and autonomous (until 1977 - national) districts.
After World War II, the USSR, along with the United States, was a superpower. The Soviet Union dominated the world socialist system and was also a permanent member of the UN Security Council.
The collapse of the USSR was characterized by a sharp confrontation between representatives of the central allied power and the newly elected local authorities (Supreme Soviets, presidents of the union republics). In 1989-1990, all republican councils adopted declarations of state sovereignty, some of them - declarations of independence. On March 17, 1991, in 9 of the 15 republics of the USSR, an All-Union referendum on the preservation of the USSR was held, in which two-thirds of the citizens voted for the preservation of the renewed union. But the central authorities failed to stabilize the situation. The failed coup d'etat of the GKChP was followed by the official recognition of the independence of the Baltic republics. After the All-Ukrainian independence referendum, where the majority of the population voted for the independence of Ukraine, the preservation of the USSR as public education became virtually impossible, as stated in Agreement establishing the Commonwealth of Independent States, signed on December 8, 1991 by the heads of the three union republics - Yeltsin from the RSFSR (Russian Federation), Kravchuk from Ukraine (Ukrainian SSR) and Shushkevich from the Republic of Belarus (BSSR). The USSR officially ceased to exist on December 26, 1991. At the end of 1991, the Russian Federation was recognized as the successor state of the USSR in international legal relations and took its place in the UN Security Council.
Geography of the USSR
With an area of 22,400,000 square kilometers, the Soviet Union was largest state peace. It occupied a sixth of the land, and its size was comparable to the size of North America. The European part made up a quarter of the country's territory, and was its cultural and economic center. The Asian part (to the Pacific Ocean in the east and to the border with Afghanistan in the south) was much less populated. The length of the Soviet Union was more than 10,000 kilometers from east to west (across 11 time zones), and almost 7,200 kilometers from north to south. There are five climatic zones in the country.
The Soviet Union had the longest border in the world (over 60,000 km). The Soviet Union also bordered on the USA, Afghanistan, China, Czechoslovakia, Finland, Hungary, Iran, Mongolia, North Korea, Norway, Poland, Romania and Turkey (from 1945 to 1991).
The longest river in the Soviet Union was the Irtysh. Highest mountain: Communism Peak (7495 m, now Ismail Samani Peak) in Tajikistan. Also within the USSR was the world's largest lake - the Caspian and the world's largest and deepest freshwater lake - Baikal.
History of the USSR
Formation of the USSR (1922-1923)
On December 29, 1922, at a conference of delegations from the congresses of Soviets of the RSFSR, the Ukrainian SSR, the BSSR and the ZSFSR, the Treaty on the Formation of the USSR was signed. This document was approved on December 30, 1922 by the First All-Union Congress of Soviets and signed by the heads of delegations. This date is considered the date of the formation of the USSR, although the Soviet People's Commissars The USSR (Government) and People's Commissariats (Ministries) were created only on July 6, 1923.
Pre-war period (1923-1941)
Since the autumn of 1923, and especially after the death of V. I. Lenin, a sharp political struggle for power unfolded in the country's leadership. The authoritarian methods of leadership used by I. V. Stalin to establish the regime of one-man power were established.
From the mid-1920s, the folding of a new economic policy(NEP), and then - the implementation of forced industrialization and collectivization, in 1932-1933 there was also a massive famine.
After a fierce factional struggle, by the end of the 1930s, Stalin's supporters completely subjugated the structures of the ruling party. A totalitarian, strictly centralized social system was created in the country.
In 1939, the Soviet-German agreements of 1939 (including the so-called Molotov-Ribbentrop Pact) were concluded, which divided the spheres of influence in Europe, according to which a number of territories in Eastern Europe were defined as the sphere of the USSR. The territories designated in the agreements (with the exception of Finland) were changed in the autumn of that year and the following year. At the beginning of the Second World War in 1939, the USSR joined the Western Republic of Poland at that time.
Ukraine and Western Belarus; this territorial change is regarded in different ways: both as a “return” and as an “annexation”. Already in October 1939, the city of Vilna of the Byelorussian SSR was transferred to Lithuania, and part of Polissya to Ukraine.
In 1940, the USSR included Estonia, Latvia, Lithuania, Bessarabia (annexed by Romania in 1918 . Bessarabia within Romania) and Northern Bukovina, the Moldavian, Latvian, Lithuanian (including 3 regions of the BSSR, which became part of the Lithuanian SSR in 1940) and the Estonian SSR were created. The accession of the Baltic states to the USSR is regarded different sources as "voluntary annexation" and as "annexation".
In 1939, the USSR offered Finland a non-aggression pact, but Finland refused. Launched by the USSR after the presentation of an ultimatum Soviet-Finnish war(November 30, 1939 - March 12, 1940) dealt a blow to the international authority of the country (the USSR was expelled from the League of Nations). Due to the relatively large losses and the unpreparedness of the Red Army, the protracted war was over before the defeat of Finland; following its results, the Karelian Isthmus, Ladoga, Salla with Kuolajärvi and the western part of the Rybachy Peninsula departed from Finland to the USSR. On March 31, 1940, the Karelian-Finnish SSR (with its capital in Petrozavodsk) was formed from the Karelian ASSR and territories transferred from Finland (except for the Rybachy Peninsula, which became part of Murmansk region).
USSR in World War II (1941-1945)
On June 22, 1941, Germany attacked the Soviet Union, violating the Non-Aggression Pact between Germany and the Soviet Union. The Soviet troops managed to stop his invasion by the end of the autumn of 1941 and go on a counteroffensive from December 1941, the Battle of Moscow became the defining event. However, during the summer-autumn of 1942, the enemy managed to advance to the Volga, capturing a huge part of the country's territory. From December 1942 to 1943 there was a radical change in the war, the Stalingrad and Battle of Kursk. Between 1944 and May 1945 Soviet troops liberated the entire territory of the USSR occupied by Germany, as well as the countries of Eastern Europe, victoriously ending the war by signing the Act on unconditional surrender Germany.
The war brought great damage to the entire population of the Soviet Union, led to the death of 26.6 million people, the liquidation of a huge number of the population in the territories occupied by Germany, the destruction of part of the industry - on the one hand; creation of a significant military-industrial potential in eastern regions country, the revival of church and religious life in the country, the acquisition of significant territories, the victory over fascism - on the other.
In 1941-1945 a number of peoples were deported from their places of traditional residence. In 1944-1947. The USSR included:
- the Tuva People's Republic, which received the status of an autonomous region within the RSFSR;
- The northern part of East Prussia, which became part of the RSFSR as the Kaliningrad region;
- Transcarpathia (Transcarpathian region of the Ukrainian SSR);
- Pechenga, which became part of the Murmansk region;
- South Sakhalin and Kurile Islands, which formed the Yuzhno-Sakhalinsk region as part of the Khabarovsk Territory of the RSFSR.
At the same time, the Belostok region, parts of the Grodno and Brest regions of the BSSR, as well as parts of the Lvov and Drogobych regions of the Ukrainian SSR became part of Poland.
Post-war period (1945-1953)
After the victory in the war, the demilitarization of the USSR economy was carried out, its restoration in the areas affected by the occupation. By 1950, industrial production had increased by 73% compared to pre-war levels. Agriculture recovered over slowly, with huge difficulties, mistakes and miscalculations. Nevertheless, already in 1947 the food situation stabilized, cards for food and industrial goods were abolished, and a monetary reform was carried out, which made it possible to stabilize the financial situation.
In accordance with the decisions of the Yalta and Potsdam conferences The USSR established control over the respective occupation zones in Germany and Austria in 1945-1949. In a number of Eastern European countries, the establishment of communist regimes began, as a result of which a military-political bloc states allied to the USSR (socialist camp, Warsaw Pact). Immediately after the end of the World War, a period of global political and ideological confrontation began between the USSR and other socialist countries, on the one hand, and Western countries, on the other, which in 1947 was called the Cold War, accompanied by an arms race.
"Khrushchev thaw" (1953-1964)
At the 20th Congress of the CPSU (1956), N. S. Khrushchev criticized the personality cult of I. V. Stalin. The rehabilitation of the victims of repressions began, more attention was paid to raising the standard of living of the people, developing agriculture, housing construction, and light industry.
The political situation inside the country has become softer. Many members of the intelligentsia took Khrushchev's report as a call for publicity; samizdat appeared, which was only allowed to expose the "cult of personality", criticism of the CPSU and the existing system was still prohibited.
The concentration of scientific and production forces, material resources in certain areas of science and technology made it possible to achieve significant achievements: the world's first nuclear power plant was created (1954), the first artificial Earth satellite was launched (1957), the first manned spacecraft with a pilot-cosmonaut (1961) and others
In the foreign policy of this period, the USSR supported favorable interests of the country political regimes in different countries. In 1956, Soviet troops participated in the suppression of the uprising in Hungary. In 1962, disagreements between the USSR and the USA almost led to a nuclear war.
In 1960, a diplomatic conflict with China began, which split the world communist movement.
"Stagnation" (1964-1985)
In 1964 Khrushchev was removed from power. Leonid Ilyich Brezhnev became the new first secretary of the Central Committee of the CPSU, in fact the head of state. The period of the 1970s-1980s was called in the sources of that time era of developed socialism.
During Brezhnev's rule, new cities and towns, plants and factories, palaces of culture and stadiums were built in the country; universities were created, new schools and hospitals were opened. The USSR came to the forefront in space exploration, the development of aviation, nuclear energy, fundamental and applied sciences. Certain achievements were observed in education, medicine, system social security. World-wide fame and recognition was given to the work of famous cultural figures. High results on international arena achieved by Soviet athletes. In 1980, the XXII Summer Olympiad was held in Moscow.
At the same time, there was a decisive turn towards curtailing the remnants of the thaw. With the advent of Brezhnev to power, the state security agencies intensified the fight against dissent - the first sign of this was the process of Sinyavsky - Daniel. In 1968, the USSR army entered Czechoslovakia in order to suppress the trend of political reforms. As a sign of the final liquidation of the “thaw”, the resignation of A. T. Tvardovsky from the post of editor of the journal “ New world» at the beginning of 1970.
In 1975, an uprising took place on the Watchtower - an armed manifestation of disobedience on the part of a group of Soviet military sailors on a large anti-submarine ship (BPK) of the USSR Navy Watchtower. The leader of the uprising was the political officer of the ship, captain of the 3rd rank Valery Sablin.
Since the beginning of the 1970s, Jewish emigration has been coming from the USSR. Many famous writers, actors, musicians, athletes, and scientists emigrated.
In the field of foreign policy, Brezhnev did much to achieve political detente in the 1970s. American-Soviet treaties on the limitation of strategic offensive weapons were concluded (although, since 1967, the accelerated installation of intercontinental missiles in underground mines began), which, however, were not supported by adequate measures of trust and control.
Thanks to some liberalization, a dissident movement appeared, such names as Andrei Sakharov and Alexander Solzhenitsyn became famous. The ideas of the dissidents did not find the support of the majority of the population of the USSR. Since 1965, the USSR has provided military aid North Vietnam in the fight against the United States and South Vietnam, which lasted until 1973 and ended with the withdrawal of American troops and the unification of Vietnam. In 1968, the USSR army entered Czechoslovakia in order to suppress the trend of political reforms. In 1979, the USSR introduced a limited military contingent into the DRA at the request of the Afghan government (see Afghan War (1979-1989)), which led to the end of détente and the resumption of the Cold War. From 1989 to 1994, Soviet troops were withdrawn from all controlled territories.
Perestroika (1985-1991)
In 1985, after the death of K. U. Chernenko, M. S. Gorbachev came to power in the country. In 1985-1986, Gorbachev carried out the so-called policy of accelerating the social economic development, which consisted in recognizing certain shortcomings of the existing system and trying to correct them with several large administrative campaigns (the so-called "Acceleration") - an anti-alcohol campaign, "the fight against unearned income", the introduction of state acceptance. After the January 1987 plenum, the country's leadership launched cardinal reforms. In fact, the new state ideology was declared "perestroika" - a set of economic and political reforms. In the course of perestroika (since the second half of 1989, after the first Congress of People's Deputies of the USSR), the political confrontation between the forces advocating the socialist path of development and parties and movements that link the future of the country with the organization of life on the principles of capitalism sharply escalated, as well as confrontation over issues of the future the image of the Soviet Union, the relationship between union and republican bodies of state power and administration. By the early 1990s, perestroika reached a dead end. The authorities could no longer stop the approaching collapse of the USSR.
The USSR officially ceased to exist on December 26, 1991. In its place, a number of independent states have formed (currently 19, 15 of which are UN members, 2 are partially recognized by UN member countries, and 2 are not recognized by any of the UN member countries). As a result of the collapse of the USSR, the territory of Russia (the successor country of the USSR in terms of external assets and liabilities, and in the UN) decreased compared to the territory of the USSR by 24% (from 22.4 to 17 million km²), and the population decreased by 49% (from 290 to 148 million people) (at the same time, the territory of Russia has practically not changed compared to the territory of the RSFSR). The unified armed forces and the ruble zone disintegrated. A number of interethnic conflicts flare up on the territory of the USSR, the most acute of which is the Karabakh conflict, since 1988 there have been mass pogroms of both Armenians and Azerbaijanis. In 1989, the Supreme Council of the Armenian SSR announces the annexation of Nagorno-Karabakh, the Azerbaijan SSR begins a blockade. In April 1991, a war actually begins between the two Soviet republics.
Political system and ideology
Article 2 of the USSR Constitution of 1977 proclaimed: “ All power in the USSR belongs to the people. The people exercise state power through the Soviets of People's Deputies, which constitute the political foundation of the USSR. All other state bodies are controlled and accountable to the Councils of People's Deputies.» Candidates from labor collectives, trade unions, youth organizations (VLKSM), amateur creative organizations and from the party (CPSU) were nominated in the elections.
Before the proclamation of socialism in the USSR by the Constitution of 1936, the dictatorship of the proletariat and peasantry was officially proclaimed in the USSR. Article 3 of the Constitution of 1936 stated: "All power in the USSR belongs to the working people of town and countryside represented by the Soviets of Working People's Deputies."
The Soviet political system rejected the principle of separation and independence of powers, putting the legislative power above the executive and judicial. Formally, only the decrees of the legislator, that is, the Supreme Soviet of the USSR (V.S. USSR), were formally the source of law, although the actual practice differed significantly from the constitutional provisions. Day-to-day lawmaking in practice was carried out by the Presidium of the Supreme Soviet of the USSR, which consisted of the Chairman, 15 Vice-Chairmen, the Secretary and 20 other members. The Supreme Soviet of the USSR, elected for 4 years, elected the Presidium of the Supreme Soviet of the USSR, formed the Council of Ministers of the USSR, elected judges of the Supreme Court of the USSR and appointed Attorney General USSR.
Collective head of state in 1922-1937. there was the All-Union Congress of Soviets, in the intervals between congresses - its Presidium. In 1937-1989. the collective head of state was the Supreme Soviet of the USSR, in the intervals between sessions - the Presidium of the Supreme Soviet of the USSR. In 1989-1990 the sole head of state was the Chairman of the Supreme Soviet of the USSR, in 1990-1991. - President of the USSR.
The actual power in the USSR belonged to the leadership of the CPSU [VKP (b)], which functioned in accordance with its internal charter. Unlike earlier constitutions, the 1977 Constitution for the first time reflected the actual role of the CPSU in government: "The guiding and guiding force Soviet society, its core political system, state and public organizations is the Communist Party of the Soviet Union. (Article 6th)
In the USSR, no ideology was legally proclaimed state or dominant; but, in view of the political monopoly of the Communist Party, such was the de facto ideology of the CPSU - Marxism-Leninism, which in the late USSR was called "socialist Marxist-Leninist ideology." The political system of the USSR was viewed as a "socialist state", that is, as "the political part of the superstructure over the economic basis of socialism, a new type of state that is replacing the bourgeois state as a result of socialist revolution". However, as Western researchers of Soviet society noted, in the late USSR Marxism in reality transformed into a nationalist and etatic ideology, while classical Marxism proclaimed the withering away of the state under socialism.
The only institutions that legally remained (but were often persecuted) as organized carriers of a fundamentally different, hostile to Marxism-Leninism, ideology were religious associations(religious societies and groups) ( see the Religion in the USSR section below for details).
Legal and judicial systems
The Marxist-Leninist ideology in the USSR considered the state and law in general as a political part of the superstructure over the economic basis of society and emphasized the class nature of law, which was defined as "the will of the ruling class elevated to law." A later modification of this interpretation of law read: “Law is the state will erected into law.”
The “socialist law” (“the highest historical type of law”) that existed in the late (nationwide) USSR was considered the will of the people elevated to law: it “for the first time in history establishes and really guarantees truly democratic freedoms”
Soviet socialist law was considered by some researchers in the West as a kind of Roman law, but Soviet jurists insisted on its independent status, which was recognized by the world community in practice after the Second World War by the election of judges representing it to the International Court of Justice - in accordance with Article 9 of the Charter of the Court , providing for the representation of the main forms of civilization and legal systems.
The foundations of the judicial system of the USSR were laid before its establishment - in the RSFSR - by a number of decrees, the first of which was the Decree of the Council of People's Commissars "On the Court" of November 22, 1917 ( see article Decrees on Judgment). The main element of the judicial system was proclaimed the "people's court" of the city or district (court of general jurisdiction), which was elected directly by citizens. The Constitution of 1977 set out the basic principles of the organization of the judicial system of the USSR in Chapter 20. The higher courts were elected by the respective Councils. The people's courts included a judge and people's assessors who took part in the consideration of civil and criminal cases (Article 154 of the 1977 Constitution).
The function of supreme supervision "over the exact and uniform execution of laws by all ministries, state committees and departments, enterprises, institutions and organizations, executive and administrative bodies of local Soviets of People's Deputies, collective farms, cooperative and other public organizations, officials, as well as citizens" was assigned to General Prosecutor's Office (Chapter 21st). The Constitution (Article 168) declared the independence of the prosecutor's office from any local authorities, although there is evidence that the prosecutors were under the direct operational control of the NKVD.
Leaders of the USSR and their contribution to the development of the USSR
Legally, the head of state was considered: since 1922 - Chairman of the Presidium of the Central Executive Committee of the USSR, since 1938 - Chairman of the Presidium of the Supreme Soviet of the USSR, since 1989 - Chairman of the Supreme Soviet of the USSR, since 1990 - President of the USSR. The head of government was the Chairman of the Council of People's Commissars, since 1946 - the Chairman of the Council of Ministers of the USSR, who was usually a member of the Politburo of the CPSU Central Committee.
head of state |
Head of the government |
Chairmen of the All-Russian Central Executive Committee:
Chairmen of the Presidium of the Supreme Soviet (Presidium of the Central Executive Committee) of the USSR:
USSR President:
|
Prime Minister of the USSR:
Chairman of the KOUNKH of the USSR, IEC of the USSR:
|
There were eight actual leaders of the USSR in the entire history of its existence (including Georgy Malenkov): 4 chairmen of the Council of People's Commissars / Council of Ministers (Lenin, Stalin, Malenkov, Khrushchev) and 4 chairmen of the Presidium of the Supreme Council (Brezhnev, Andropov, Chernenko, Gorbachev). Gorbachev was also the only president of the USSR.
Beginning with N. S. Khrushchev, the General (First) Secretary of the Central Committee of the CPSU (VKP (b)) was the actual head of state, usually also the chairman of the Presidium of the Supreme Soviet of the USSR.
Under Lenin, the treaty on the formation of the USSR laid the foundations for state structure enshrined in the first Constitution of the USSR. The founder of the USSR ruled the Soviet Union for a little over a year - from December 1922 to January 1924, during sharp deterioration health.
During the reign of I.V. Stalin, collectivization and industrialization were carried out, the Stakhanov movement began, and the result of intra-factional struggle in the CPSU (b) in the 1930s was Stalinist repressions(their peak came in 1937-1938). In 1936 it was accepted new constitution USSR, which increased the number of union republics. Victory was won in the Great Patriotic War, new territories annexed, formed world system socialism. After the joint defeat of Japan by the allies, a sharp aggravation of relations between the USSR and its allies in the anti-Hitler coalition began - the Cold War, the formal beginning of which is often associated with the Fulton speech of former British Prime Minister Winston Churchill on March 5, 1946. At the same time, a treaty of eternal friendship was signed with Finland. In 1949, the USSR became a nuclear power. He was the first in the world to test the hydrogen bomb.
Under G. M. Malenkov, who, after Stalin's death, took over his post as Chairman of the Council of Ministers of the USSR, an amnesty was held for prisoners for minor violations, the Doctors' Case was closed, and the first rehabilitations of the victims were carried out political repression. In the field of agriculture: increasing purchase prices, reducing the tax burden. Under the personal supervision of Malenkov, the first industrial nuclear power plant in the world was launched in the USSR. In the field of economics, he proposed to remove the emphasis on heavy industry and move on to the production of consumer goods, but after his resignation, this idea was rejected.
N. S. Khrushchev condemned the personality cult of Stalin and carried out some democratization, which was called the Khrushchev thaw. The slogan "catch up and overtake" was put forward, calling for as soon as possible ahead of the capitalist countries (in particular the United States) in terms of economic development. The development of virgin lands was continued. The USSR launched the first artificial satellite and put a man into space, the first to launch spacecraft towards the Moon, Venus and Mars, built a nuclear power plant and a peaceful ship with nuclear reactor- icebreaker "Lenin". During Khrushchev's reign, the Cold War peaked - Caribbean crisis. In 1961, the building of communism until 1980 was announced. In agriculture, Khrushchev's policy (sowing corn, division of regional committees, struggle against farms) gave negative results. In 1964, Khrushchev was removed from office and retired.
The time of L. I. Brezhnev's leadership in the USSR was generally peaceful and, according to the conclusion of Soviet theorists, culminated in the construction of developed socialism, the formation of a nationwide state and the formation of a new historical community - the Soviet people. These provisions were enshrined in the Constitution of the USSR in 1977. In 1979, Soviet troops entered Afghanistan. In 1980, the Moscow Olympics took place. The second half of the reign of L. I. Brezhnev is called a period of stagnation.
Yu. V. Andropov during his short leadership of the party and the state was remembered, first of all, as a fighter for labor discipline; K. U. Chernenko, who replaced him, was seriously ill, and the leadership of the country under him was actually concentrated in the hands of his entourage, who sought to return to the "Brezhnev" order. A significant fall in world oil prices in 1986 caused a deterioration economic situation USSR. The leadership of the CPSU (Gorbachev, Yakovlev and others) decided to start reforming the Soviet system, which went down in history as "Perestroika". In 1989, Soviet troops were withdrawn from Afghanistan. The reforms of MS Gorbachev were an attempt to change the political system of the USSR within the framework of the economic theory of Marxism. Gorbachev somewhat eased the oppression of censorship (the policy of glasnost), allowed alternative elections, introduced a permanent Supreme Soviet, and took the first steps towards a market economy. In 1990 he became the first president of the Soviet Union. In 1991 he retired.
Economy of the USSR
By the early 1930s, most of the economy, the entire industry and 99.9% of agriculture was state-owned or cooperative, which made it possible to use resources more rationally, distribute them fairly and significantly improve working conditions compared to pre-Soviet ones. The development of the economy required a transition to a five-year form of economic planning. The industrialization of the USSR was carried out over several years. Turksib, the Novokuznetsk Iron and Steel Works, and new machine-building enterprises in the Urals were built.
By the beginning of the war, a significant part of the production was in Siberia, Central Asia, this made it possible to effectively switch to the wartime mobilization regime. After the Great Patriotic War, the restoration of the USSR began, new sectors of the economy appeared: the rocket industry, electrical engineering, and new power plants appeared. A significant volume of the economy of the USSR was military production.
The industry was dominated by heavy industry. In 1986, in the total volume of industrial output, group "A" (production of means of production) accounted for 75.3%, for group "B" (production of consumer goods) - 24.7%. Industries that provide scientific and technical progress. Between 1940 and 1986, the output of the electric power industry increased 41 times, that of mechanical engineering and metalworking, 105 times, and that of the chemical and petrochemical industries, 79 times.
About 64% of the foreign trade turnover was accounted for by the socialist countries, including 60% by the CMEA member countries; over 22% - to the developed capitalist countries (Germany, Finland, France, Italy, Japan, etc.); over 14% - to developing countries.
The composition of the economic regions of the USSR changed in accordance with the tasks of improving management and planning National economy in order to accelerate the pace and increase the efficiency of social production. Plans for the 1st five-year plan (1929-1932) were drawn up for 24 districts, the 2nd five-year plan (1933-1937) for 32 districts and the zone of the North, the 3rd (1938-1942) for 9 districts and 10 union republics, at the same time, the regions and territories were grouped into 13 main economic regions, according to which the planning of the development of the national economy in the territorial context was carried out. In 1963, a taxonomic grid was approved, refined in 1966, including 19 large economic regions and the Moldavian SSR.
Armed Forces of the USSR
Until February 1946, the USSR Armed Forces consisted of the Red Army (RKKA) and the Workers 'and Peasants' Red Fleet. By May 1945, the number was 11,300,000 people. From February 25, 1946 until the beginning of 1992, the USSR Armed Forces were called the Soviet Army. The Soviet army included the Strategic Missile Forces, SV, Air Defense Forces, Air Force and other formations, except for the Navy, the Border Troops of the KGB of the USSR, and the Internal Troops of the USSR Ministry of Internal Affairs. Throughout the history of the USSR Armed Forces, the position Supreme Commander entered twice. The first time Joseph Stalin was appointed to it, the second time - Mikhail Gorbachev. The USSR Armed Forces consisted of five types: Rocket Forces strategic purpose(1960), Ground Waxes (1946), Air Defense Troops (1948), Navy and Air Force(1946), and also included the rear of the USSR Armed Forces, the headquarters and troops of the Civil Defense (GO) of the USSR, internal troops Ministry of Internal Affairs (MVD) of the USSR, border troops Committee state security(KGB) USSR.
Higher government leadership in the field of defense of the country, on the basis of laws, were carried out by the highest bodies of state power and administration of the USSR, guided by the policy of the Communist Party of the Soviet Union (CPSU), directing the work of all state apparatus in such a way that when resolving any issues of governing the country, the interests of strengthening its defense capabilities must be taken into account: - The USSR Defense Council (Council of Workers 'and Peasants' Defense of the RSFSR), the Supreme Soviet of the USSR (Article 73 and 108 of the Constitution of the USSR), the Presidium of the Supreme Soviet USSR (Article 121, Constitution of the USSR), Council of Ministers of the USSR (Council of People's Commissars of the RSFSR) (Article 131, Constitution of the USSR).
The USSR Defense Council coordinated the activities of the bodies of the Soviet state in the field of strengthening defense, approving the main directions for the development of the USSR Armed Forces. The USSR Defense Council was headed by the General Secretary of the Central Committee of the CPSU, Chairman of the Presidium of the Supreme Soviet of the USSR.
The penitentiary system and special services
1917—1954
In 1917, in connection with the threat of an anti-Bolshevik strike, the All-Russian Extraordinary Commission (VChK) was formed, headed by F. E. Dzerzhinsky. On February 6, 1922, the All-Russian Central Executive Committee of the RSFSR adopted a resolution on the abolition of the Cheka and the formation of the State Political Directorate (GPU) under the People's Commissariat of Internal Affairs (NKVD) of the RSFSR. The troops of the Cheka were transformed into GPU troops. Thus, the management of the police and state security was in front of one department. After the formation of the USSR, the Presidium of the Central Executive Committee of the USSR on November 15, 1923 adopted a resolution on the creation of the United State Political Administration (OGPU) under the Council of People's Commissars of the USSR and approves the "Regulations on the OGPU of the USSR and its bodies." Prior to this, the GPUs of the union republics (where they were created) existed as independent structures, with a single union executive power. People's Commissariats of Internal Affairs of the Union republics were exempted from the functions of ensuring state security.
On May 9, 1924, the Presidium of the Central Executive Committee of the USSR adopted a resolution on the expansion of the rights of the OGPU in order to combat banditry, which provided for the operational subordination of the OGPU of the USSR and its local subdivisions of the police and criminal investigation departments. On July 10, 1934, the Central Executive Committee of the USSR adopted a resolution "On the Formation of the All-Union People's Commissariat of Internal Affairs of the USSR", which included the OGPU of the USSR, renamed the Main Directorate of State Security (GUGB). The organs of the NKVD of the USSR carried out the Great Terror, the victims of which were hundreds of thousands of people. From 1934 to 1936 The NKVD was led by G. G. Yagoda. From 1936 to 1938, the NKVD was headed by N.I. Yezhov, from November 1938 to December 1945, L.P. Beria was the head of the NKVD.
On February 3, 1941, the NKVD of the USSR was divided into two independent bodies: the NKVD of the USSR and the People's Commissariat for State Security (NKGB) of the USSR. In July 1941, the NKGB of the USSR and the NKVD of the USSR were again merged into a single people's commissariat - the NKVD of the USSR. The People's Commissar for State Security was V. N. Merkulov. In April 1943, the NKGB of the USSR was again separated from the NKVD. Most likely, the SMERSH GUKR was created on April 19, 1943. On March 15, 1946, the NKGB of the USSR was renamed the Ministry of State Security (MGB) of the USSR. In 1947, the Committee of Information (CI) was established under the Council of Ministers of the USSR, in February 1949 it was transformed into the CI under the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of the USSR. Then intelligence was again returned to the system of state security organs - in January 1952, the First Main Directorate (PGU) of the USSR Ministry of State Security was organized. On March 7, 1953, a decision was made to merge the Ministry of Internal Affairs (MVD) of the USSR and the Ministry of State Security of the USSR into a single Ministry of Internal Affairs of the USSR.
Heads of the Cheka-GPU-OGPU-NKVD-NKGB-MGB
- F. E. Dzerzhinsky
- V. R. Menzhinsky
- G. G. Yagoda
- N. I. Ezhov
- L. P. Beria
- V. N. Merkulov
- V. S. Abakumov
- S. D. Ignatiev
- S. N. Kruglov
1954—1992
On March 13, 1954, the State Security Committee (KGB) was established under the Council of Ministers of the USSR (since July 5, 1978 - the KGB of the USSR). The KGB system included state security agencies, border troops and government communications troops, military counterintelligence agencies, educational establishments and research institutions. In 1978, Yu. V. Andropov, as Chairman, achieved an increase in the status of the State Security bodies and the withdrawal from the direct subordination of the Council of Ministers of the USSR. March 20, 1991 received the status of the central body government controlled USSR, headed by the Minister of the USSR. Abolished December 3, 1991.
Territorial division of the USSR
The total area of the territory of the Soviet Union as of August 1991 was 22.4 million km².
Initially, according to the Treaty on the Formation of the USSR (December 30, 1922), the USSR included:
- Russian Socialist Federative Soviet Republic,
- Ukrainian Socialist Soviet Republic,
- Belarusian Socialist Soviet Republic(until 1922 - the Socialist Soviet Republic of Belarus, SSRB),
- Transcaucasian Socialist Federative Soviet Republic.
On May 13, 1925, the Uzbek SSR, separated on October 27, 1924 from the RSFSR, the Bukhara SSR, and the Khorezm NSR, entered the USSR.
December 5, 1929 entered the USSR Tajik SSR, allocated October 16, 1929 from the Uzbek SSR.
On December 5, 1936, the Azerbaijan, Armenian and Georgian SSR, which left the Transcaucasian SFSR, entered the USSR. At the same time, the Kazakh and Kirghiz SSR, which left the RSFSR, entered the USSR.
In 1940, the Karelian-Finnish, Moldavian, Lithuanian, Latvian and Estonian SSRs entered the USSR.
In 1956, the Karelian-Finnish Autonomous Soviet Socialist Republic was transformed into the Karelian Autonomous Soviet Socialist Republic within the RSFSR.
On September 6, 1991, the State Council of the USSR recognized the withdrawal from the USSR of Lithuania, Latvia and Estonia.
On December 25, 1991, the President of the USSR M. S. Gorbachev resigned. State structures of the USSR self-liquidated.
Administrative-territorial division of the USSR |
||||||
Territory, thousand km? |
Population, thousand people (1966) |
Population, thousand people (1989) |
Number of cities |
Number of towns |
Administrative center |
|
Uzbek SSR |
||||||
Kazakh SSR |
||||||
Georgian SSR |
||||||
Azerbaijan SSR |
||||||
Lithuanian SSR |
||||||
Moldavian SSR |
||||||
Latvian SSR |
||||||
Kirghiz SSR |
||||||
Tajik SSR |
||||||
Armenian SSR |
||||||
Turkmen SSR |
||||||
Estonian SSR |
||||||
Large republics, in turn, were divided into regions, ASSR and AO. Latvian, Lithuanian, Estonian SSR (before 1952 and after 1953); Turkmen SSR (from 1963 to 1970) The Moldavian and Armenian SSRs were divided only into districts.
The RSFSR also included krais, and the krais included autonomous regions (there were exceptions, for example, the Tuva Autonomous Okrug until 1961). The regions and krais of the RSFSR also included national okrugs (later called autonomous okrugs). There were also cities of republican subordination, the status of which was not specified in the constitutions (until 1977): in fact, they were separate entities, since their Councils had the appropriate powers.
Some union republics (RSFSR, Ukrainian SSR, Georgian SSR, Azerbaijan SSR, Uzbek SSR, Tajik SSR) included Autonomous Soviet Socialist Republics (ASSR) and autonomous regions.
All the above administrative-territorial units were divided into districts and cities of regional, regional and republican subordination.
Occupied one sixth of the planet. The area of the USSR is forty percent of Eurasia. The Soviet Union was 2.3 times larger than the United States and very little less than a continent North America. The area of the USSR is a large part of northern Asia and eastern Europe. Approximately a quarter of the territory fell on the European part of the world, the remaining three quarters lay in Asia. The main area of the USSR was occupied by Russia: three-quarters of the entire country.
The largest lakes
In the USSR, and now in Russia, there is the deepest and cleanest lake in the world - Baikal. This is the largest reservoir fresh water, created by nature, with unique fauna and flora. No wonder people have long called this lake the sea. It is located in the center of Asia, where the border of the Republic of Buryatia and Irkutsk region, and stretched for six hundred and twenty kilometers in a giant crescent. The bottom of Baikal is 1167 meters below the ocean level, and its mirror is 456 meters higher. Depth - 1642 meters.
Another lake in Russia - Ladoga - is the largest in Europe. It refers to the basin of the Baltic (sea) and Atlantic (ocean), northern and east coast located in the Republic of Karelia, and the western, southern and southeastern - in the Leningrad region. The area of Lake Ladoga in Europe, like the area of the USSR in the world, has no equal - 18,300 square kilometers.
The largest rivers
The longest river in Europe is the Volga. It is so long that the peoples who inhabited its shores gave it different names. It flows in the European part of the country. This is one of the largest water arteries on earth. In Russia, a huge part of the territory adjacent to it is called the Volga region. Its length was 3690 kilometers, and the catchment area was 1,360,000 square kilometers. There are four cities on the Volga with a population of more than a million people - Volgograd, Samara (in the USSR - Kuibyshev), Kazan, Nizhny Novgorod (in the USSR - Gorky).
In the period from the 30s to the 80s of the twentieth century, eight huge hydroelectric power stations were built on the Volga - part of the Volga-Kama cascade. The river flowing in Western Siberia - the Ob is even more full-flowing, although a little shorter. Starting in Altai, it runs across the country to the Kara Sea for 3,650 kilometers, and its drainage basin is 2,990,000 square kilometers. In the southern part of the river is the man-made Ob Sea, formed during the construction of the Novosibirsk hydroelectric power station, the place is amazingly beautiful.
Territory of the USSR
The western part of the USSR occupied more than half of all of Europe. But if we take into account the entire area of the USSR before the collapse of the country, then the territory of the western part was barely a quarter of the entire country. However, the population was much higher: throughout the vast eastern territory settled only twenty-eight percent of the inhabitants of the country.
In the west, between the Ural and Dnieper rivers, the Russian Empire was born and it was here that all the prerequisites for the emergence and prosperity of the Soviet Union appeared. The area of the USSR before the collapse of the country changed several times: some territories joined, for example, Western Ukraine and Western Belarus, the Baltic states. Gradually, the largest agricultural and industrial enterprises were organized in the eastern part, due to the presence there of various and richest minerals.
Borderland in length
The borders of the USSR, since our country, even now, after the separation of fourteen republics from it, is the largest in the world, are extremely long - 62,710 kilometers. From the west, the Soviet Union stretched east for ten thousand kilometers - ten time zones from the Kaliningrad region (Curonian Spit) to Ratmanov Island in the Bering Strait.
From south to north, the USSR ran for five thousand kilometers - from Kushka to Cape Chelyuskin. It had to border on land with twelve countries - six of them in Asia (Turkey, Iran, Afghanistan, Mongolia, China and North Korea), six in Europe (Finland, Norway, Poland, Czechoslovakia, Hungary, Romania). The territory of the USSR had sea borders only with Japan and the USA.
borderline wide
From north to south, the USSR stretched for 5000 km from Cape Chelyuskin in Taimyr autonomous region Krasnoyarsk Territory to the Central Asian city of Kushka, Mary Region, Turkmen SSR. By land, the USSR bordered on 12 countries: 6 in Asia (DPRK, China, Mongolia, Afghanistan, Iran and Turkey) and 6 in Europe (Romania, Hungary, Czechoslovakia, Poland, Norway and Finland).
By sea, the USSR bordered on two countries - the USA and Japan. The country was washed by twelve seas of the Arctic, Pacific and Atlantic Oceans. The thirteenth sea is the Caspian, although in all respects it is a lake. That is why two-thirds of the borders were located along the seas, because the area former USSR had the longest coastline in the world.
Republics of the USSR: unification
In 1922, at the time of the formation of the USSR, it included four republics - the Russian SFSR, the Ukrainian SSR, the Byelorussian SSR and the Transcaucasian SFSR. Further divisions and replenishment took place. In Central Asia, the Turkmen and Uzbek SSRs were formed (1924), and there were six republics within the USSR. In 1929, the autonomous republic located in the RSFSR was transformed into the Tajik SSR, of which there were already seven. In 1936, Transcaucasia was divided: three union republics were separated from the federation: Azerbaijan, Armenian and Georgian SSR.
At the same time, two more Central Asian autonomous republics that were part of the RSFSR were separated as the Kazakh and Kirghiz SSR. There are eleven republics in total. In 1940, several more republics were admitted to the USSR, and there were sixteen of them: the Moldavian SSR, the Lithuanian SSR, the Latvian SSR and the Estonian SSR joined the country. In 1944, Tuva joined, but the SSR Tuva Autonomous Region did not. The Karelian-Finnish SSR (ASSR) changed its status several times, so there were fifteen republics in the 60s. In addition, there are documents according to which in the 60s Bulgaria asked to join the ranks of the union republics, but the request of Comrade Todor Zhivkov was not satisfied.
Republics of the USSR: collapse
From 1989 to 1991, the so-called parade of sovereignties took place in the USSR. Six of the fifteen republics refused to join the new federation - the Union of Soviet Sovereign Republics and declared independence (Lithuanian SSR, Latvian, Estonian, Armenian and Georgian), and the Moldavian SSR declared a transition to independence. With all this, a number of autonomous republics decided to remain part of the union. These are Tatar, Bashkir, Chechen-Ingush (all - Russia), South Ossetia and Abkhazia (Georgia), Transnistria and Gagauzia (Moldova), Crimea (Ukraine).
collapse
But the collapse of the USSR took on a landslide character, and in 1991 almost all union republics proclaimed independence. The confederation also failed to be created, although Russia, Uzbekistan, Turkmenistan, Tajikistan, Kyrgyzstan, Kazakhstan and Belarus decided to conclude such an agreement.
Then Ukraine held a referendum on independence and the three founding republics signed the Bialowieza agreements to dissolve the confederation, creating the CIS (Commonwealth of Independent States) at the level of an interstate organization. The RSFSR, Kazakhstan and Belarus did not declare independence and did not hold referendums. Kazakhstan, however, did it later.
Georgian SSR
It was formed in February 1921 under the name of the Georgian Soviet Socialist Republic. Since 1922, it was part of the Transcaucasian SFSR as part of the USSR, and only in December 1936 directly became one of the republics of the Soviet Union. The Georgian SSR included the South Ossetian Autonomous Region, the Abkhaz ASSR, and the Adzhar ASSR. In the 1970s, the dissident movement under the leadership of Zviad Gamsakhurdia and Mirab Kostava intensified in Georgia. Perestroika brought new leaders to the Communist Party of Georgia, they lost the elections.
South Ossetia and Abkhazia declared independence, but this did not suit Georgia, the invasion began. Russia took part in this conflict on the side of Abkhazia and South Ossetia. In 2000, the visa-free regime between Russia and Georgia was abolished. In 2008 (August 8) there was " five day war", as a result of which the President of Russia signed decrees recognizing the republics of Abkhazia and South Ossetia as sovereign and independent states.
Armenia
The Armenian SSR was formed in November 1920, at first it was also a member of the Transcaucasian Federation, and in 1936 it was separated and directly became part of the USSR. Armenia is located in the south of Transcaucasia, bordering on Georgia, Azerbaijan, Iran and Turkey. The area of Armenia is 29,800 square kilometers, the population is 2,493,000 people (1970 census). The capital of the republic is Yerevan, the largest city among twenty-three (compared with 1913, when there were only three cities in Armenia, one can imagine the volume of construction and the scale of development of the republic in its Soviet period).
At thirty four districts In addition to cities, twenty-eight new urban-type settlements were built. The terrain is mostly mountainous, harsh, so almost half of the population lived in the Ararat valley, which is only six percent of common territory. The population density is very high everywhere - 83.7 people per square kilometer, and in the Ararat valley - up to four hundred people. In the USSR, there was a lot of crowding only in Moldova. Also, favorable climatic and geographical conditions attracted people to the shores of Lake Sevan and to the Shirak valley. Sixteen percent of the territory of the republic is not covered by the permanent population at all, because it is impossible to live for a long time at altitudes of more than 2500 above sea level. After the collapse of the country, the Armenian SSR, already being a free Armenia, experienced several very difficult ("dark") years of blockade by Azerbaijan and Turkey, the confrontation with which has a long history.
Belarus
The Byelorussian SSR was located in the west of the European part of the USSR, bordering on Poland. The area of the republic is 207,600 square kilometers, the population is 9,371,000 people as of January 1976. National composition according to the 1970 census: 7,290,000 Belarusians, the rest was divided by Russians, Poles, Ukrainians, Jews and a very small number of people of other nationalities.
The density is 45.1 people per square kilometer. The largest cities: the capital - Minsk (1,189,000 inhabitants), Gomel, Mogilev, Vitebsk, Grodno, Bobruisk, Baranovichi, Brest, Borisov, Orsha. In Soviet times, new cities appeared: Soligorsk, Zhodino, Novopolotsk, Svetlogorsk and many others. In total, there are ninety-six cities and one hundred and nine urban-type settlements in the republic.
The nature is mainly of a flat type, moraine hills (Belarusian Ridge) stretch in the north-west, south under the marshes of the Belarusian Polesie. There are many rivers, the main ones are the Dnieper with Pripyat and Sozh, the Neman, the Western Dvina. In addition, there are more than eleven thousand lakes in the republic. The forest occupies a third of the territory, it is mostly coniferous.
History of the Byelorussian SSR
It was established in Belarus almost immediately after the October Revolution, after which the occupation followed: first German (1918), then Polish (1919-1920). In 1922, the BSSR was already part of the USSR, and in 1939 it was reunited with Western Belarus, which was torn away by Poland in connection with the treaty. The socialist society of the republic in 1941 fully rose to fight the Nazi-German invaders: partisan detachments operated throughout the territory (there were 1255 of them, almost four hundred thousand people participated in them). Belarus has been a member of the UN since 1945.
Communist construction after the war was highly successful. The BSSR was awarded two Orders of Lenin, the Orders of Friendship of Peoples and the Order of the October Revolution. From an agrarian poor country, Belarus has turned into a prosperous and industrial one, which has established close ties with the rest union republics. In 1975, the level of industrial production exceeded the level of 1940 twenty-one times, and the level of 1913 - one hundred and sixty-six. Heavy industry and mechanical engineering developed. Power stations were built: Berezovskaya, Lukomlskaya, Vasilevichskaya, Smolevichskaya. Peat (the oldest in the industry) grew oil production and processing.
Industry and standard of living of the population of the BSSR
Mechanical engineering by the seventies of the twentieth century was represented by machine tool building, tractor building (the well-known tractor "Belarus"), automotive engineering (the giant "Belaz", for example), radio electronics. The chemical, food, and light industries developed and grew stronger. The standard of living in the republic rose steadily; in the ten years since 1966, the national income grew two and a half times, and real income per capita almost doubled. The retail turnover of cooperative and state trade (including public catering) has increased tenfold.
In 1975, the amount of deposits in reached almost three and a half billion rubles (in 1940 it was seventeen million). The republic became educated, moreover, education has not changed to this day, since it has not departed from the Soviet standard. The world highly appreciated such fidelity to the principles: colleges and universities of the republic attract great amount foreign students. Two languages are used equally here: Belarusian and Russian.
The Union of Soviet Socialist Republics (USSR or Soviet Union) is a state that existed from December 1922 to December 1991 on the territory of the former Russian Empire. It was the largest state in the world. Its area was equal to 1/6 of the land. Now 15 countries are located on the territory of the former USSR: Russia, Ukraine, Belarus, Kazakhstan, Uzbekistan, Tajikistan, Armenia, Georgia, Azerbaijan, Kyrgyzstan, Lithuania, Latvia, Estonia, Moldova and Turkmenistan.
The area of the country was 22.4 million square kilometers. The Soviet Union occupied vast territories in Eastern Europe, North and Central Asia, stretching from west to east for almost 10 thousand km and from north to south for almost 5 thousand km. The USSR had land borders with Afghanistan, Hungary, Iran, China, North Korea, Mongolia, Norway, Poland, Romania, Turkey, Finland, Czechoslovakia and only sea borders with the USA, Sweden and Japan. The land border of the Soviet Union was the longest in the world, at over 60,000 km.
There were five climatic zones on the territory of the Soviet Union, and it was divided into 11 time zones. Within the limits of the USSR there was the largest lake in the world - the Caspian and the deepest lake in the world - Baikal.
The natural resources of the USSR were the richest in the world (their list included all the elements of the periodic table).
Administrative divisions of the USSR
The Union of Soviet Socialist Republics positioned itself as a single union multinational state. This provision was enshrined in the Constitution of 1977. The USSR included 15 union - Soviet socialist - republics (RSFSR, Ukrainian SSR, BSSR, Uzbek SSR, Kazakh SSR, Georgian SSR, Azerbaijan SSR, Lithuanian SSR, Moldavian SSR, Latvian SSR, Kirghiz SSR, Tajik SSR, Armenian SSR, Turkmen SSR , Estonian SSR), 20 autonomous republics, 8 autonomous regions, 10 autonomous regions, 129 territories and regions. All the above administrative-territorial units were divided into districts and cities of regional, regional and republican subordination.
The population of the USSR was (million people):
in 1940 - 194.1,
in 1959 - 208.8,
in 1970 - 241.7,
in 1979 - 262.4,
in 1987 -281.7.
The urban population (1987) was 66% (for comparison: in 1940 - 32.5%); agriculture - 34% (in 1940 - 67.5%).
More than 100 nations and nationalities lived in the USSR. According to the 1979 census, the most numerous of them were (in thousands of people): Russians - 137,397; Ukrainians - 42,347; Uzbeks - 12,456; Belarusians - 9463; Kazakhs - 6556; Tatars - 6317; - 4151, Georgians - 3571, Moldovans - 2968, Tajiks - 2898, Lithuanians - 2851, Turkmens - 2028, Germans - 1936, Kirghiz - 1906, Jews - 1811, Chuvashs - 1751, peoples of the Republic of Dagestan - 1657, Latvians - 1439, Bashki - 1371, Mordvinians - 1192, Poles - 1151, Estonians - 1020.
The USSR Constitution of 1977 proclaimed the formation of "a new historical community - the Soviet people."
The average population density (as of January 1987) was 12.6 people. per 1 square km.; in the European part, the density was much higher - 35 people. per 1 square km., in the Asian part - only 4.2 people. per 1 square km. most densely populated regions USSR were:
- Center. regions of the European part of the RSFSR, especially the interfluve of the Oka and Volga.
- Donbass and Right-Bank Ukraine.
- Moldavian SSR.
- Separate regions of Transcaucasia and Central Asia.
The largest cities of the USSR
The largest cities of the USSR, the number of inhabitants in which exceeded one million people (as of January 1987): Moscow - 8815 thousand, Leningrad (St. Petersburg) - 4948 thousand, Kyiv - 2544 thousand, Tashkent - 2124 thousand, Baku - 1741 thousand, Kharkov - 1587 thousand, Minsk - 1543 thousand, Gorky (Nizhny Novgorod) - 1425 thousand, Novosibirsk - 1423 thousand, Sverdlovsk - 1331 thousand, Kuibyshev (Samara) - 1280 thousand, Tbilisi - 1194 thousand, Dnepropetrovsk - 1182 thousand, Yerevan - 1168 thousand, Odessa - 1141 thousand, Omsk - 1134 thousand, Chelyabinsk - 1119 thousand, Alma-Ata - 1108 thousand, Ufa - 1092 thousand, Donetsk - 1090 thousand, Perm - 1075 thousand, Kazan - 1068 thousand, Rostov-on-Don - 1004 thousand.
The capital of the USSR throughout its history was the city of Moscow.
Social system in the USSR
The USSR declared itself as a socialist state, expressing the will and protecting the interests of the working people of all the nations and nationalities inhabiting it. Democracy was officially declared in the Soviet Union. Article 2 of the USSR Constitution of 1977 proclaimed: “All power in the USSR belongs to the people. The people exercise state power through the Soviets of People's Deputies, which constitute the political foundation of the USSR. All other state bodies are controlled and accountable to the Councils of People's Deputies.
From 1922 to 1937, the All-Union Congress of Soviets was considered the collective governing body of the state. From 1937 to 1989 formally, the USSR had a collective head of state - the Supreme Soviet of the USSR. Between its sessions, power was exercised by the Presidium of the Supreme Soviet of the USSR. In 1989-1990. the head of state was considered the Chairman of the Supreme Soviet of the USSR, in 1990-1991. — President of the USSR.
Ideology of the USSR
The official ideology was formed by the only party allowed in the country - the Communist Party of the Soviet Union (CPSU), which, according to the 1977 Constitution, was recognized as "The leading and guiding force of Soviet society, the core of its political system, state and public organizations." The head - the general secretary - of the CPSU actually owned all the power in the Soviet Union.
USSR leaders
The actual leaders of the USSR were:
- Chairmen of the Council of People's Commissars: V.I. Lenin (1922 - 1924), I.V. Stalin (1924 - 1953), G.M. Malenkov (1953 - 1954), N.S. Khrushchev (1954-1962).
- Chairmen of the Presidium of the Supreme Council: L.I. Brezhnev (1962 - 1982), Yu.V. Andropov (1982-1983), K.U. Chernenko (1983 - 1985), M.S. Gorbachev (1985-1990).
- President of the USSR: M.S. Gorbachev (1990 - 1991).
According to the Treaty on the Formation of the USSR, signed on December 30, 1922, the new state included four formally independent republics - the RSFSR, the Ukrainian SSR, the Byelorussian SSR, the Transcaucasian Soviet Federative Socialist Republic (Georgia, Armenia, Azerbaijan);
In 1925, the Turkestan ASSR was separated from the RSFSR. On its territories and on the lands of the Bukhara and Khiva People's Soviet Republics the Uzbek SSR, the Turkmen SSR were formed;
In 1929, the Tajik SSR was separated from the Uzbek SSR as part of the USSR, which had previously been an autonomous republic;
In 1936, the Transcaucasian Soviet Federative Socialist Republic was abolished. The Georgian SSR, the Azerbaijan SSR, and the Armenian SSR were formed on its territory.
In the same year, two more autonomies were separated from the RSFSR - the Kazak ASSR and the Kirghiz ASSR. They were transformed, respectively, into the Kazakh SSR and the Kirghiz SSR;
In 1939, Western Ukrainian lands (Lvov, Ternopil, Stanislav, Dragobych regions) were annexed to the Ukrainian SSR, and Western Belarusian lands (Grodno and Brest regions) received as a result of the partition of Poland were annexed to the BSSR.
In 1940 the territory of the USSR expanded considerably. New union republics were formed:
- Moldavian SSR (created from part of the Moldavian ASSR, which was part of the Ukrainian SSR, and part of the territory transferred to the USSR by Romania),
- Latvian SSR (former independent Latvia),
- Lithuanian SSR (former independent Lithuania),
- Estonian SSR (former independent Estonia).
- Karelian-Finnish SSR (formed from the Autonomous Karelian ASSR, which was part of the RSFSR, and part of the territory annexed after the Soviet-Finnish War);
- The territory of the Ukrainian SSR increased due to the inclusion of the Chernivtsi region, formed from the territory of Northern Bukovina transferred by Romania.
In 1944, the Tuva Autonomous Region (the former independent Tuva People's Republic) became part of the RSFSR.
In 1945, the Kaliningrad region (East Prussia torn away from Germany) was annexed to the RSFSR, and the Transcarpathian region, voluntarily transferred by socialist Czechoslovakia, became part of the Ukrainian SSR.
In 1946, new territories became part of the RSFSR - southern part Sakhalin Islands and the Kuril Islands, recaptured from Japan.
In 1956, the Karelian-Finnish SSR was abolished, and its territory was re-incorporated into the RSFSR as the Karelian ASSR.
The main stages of the history of the USSR
1. New economic policy (1921 - 1928). Reformation public policy was caused by a deep socio-political crisis that swept the country as a result of the miscalculations of the policy of "war communism". Tenth Congress of the RCP(b) in March 1921 on the initiative of V.I. Lenin decided to replace the surplus with a tax in kind. This marked the beginning of the New Economic Policy (NEP). Other reforms include:
- partially de-nationalized small industry;
- private trade is allowed;
- Free employment of labor in the USSR. In industry, labor service will be abolished;
- reform of economic management - weakening of centralization;
- transition of enterprises to self-financing;
- introduction of the banking system;
- held monetary reform. The goal is to stabilize the Soviet currency against the dollar and the pound sterling at the level of gold parity;
- encouragement of cooperation and joint ventures on the basis of concessions;
- In the agricultural sector, the lease of land with the use of hired labor is allowed.
The state left in its hands only heavy industry and foreign trade.
2. "Policy of the Great Leap Forward" by I. Stalin in the USSR. Late 1920s-1930s Includes the modernization of industry (industrialization) and the collectivization of agriculture. The main goal is the rearmament of the armed forces and the creation of a modern, technically equipped army.
3. Industrialization of the USSR. In December 1925, the 14th Congress of the All-Union Communist Party of Bolsheviks proclaimed a course towards industrialization. It provided for the start of large-scale industrial construction (power plants, DneproGES, reconstruction of old enterprises, construction of giant factories).
In 1926-27. - gross output exceeded the pre-war level. Growth of the working class by 30% compared with 1925
In 1928, a course towards accelerated industrialization was proclaimed. The plan of the 1st 5-year plan was approved in the maximum version, but the planned increase in production of 36.6% was fulfilled only by 17.7%. In January 1933, the completion of the first 5-year plan was solemnly announced. It was reported about the commissioning of 1,500 new enterprises, the elimination of unemployment. The industrialization of industry continued throughout the history of the existence of the USSR, but it was forced only during the 1930s. It was as a result of the success of this period that it was possible to create a heavy industry, which, in terms of its indicators, surpassed those of the most developed countries of the West - Great Britain, France and the USA.
4. Collectivization of agriculture in the USSR. Agriculture lagged behind the rapid development of industry. It was the export of agricultural products that was considered by the government as main source attraction of foreign exchange funds for industrialization. The following measures have been taken:
1) On March 16, 1927, a resolution "On Collective Farms" was issued. The need was declared to strengthen the technical base in the collective farms, to eliminate the equalization of wages.
2) Exemption of the poor from agricultural tax.
3) Increasing the tax rate for kulaks.
4) The policy of limiting the kulaks as a class, and then its complete destruction, the course towards complete collectivization.
As a result of collectivization in the USSR, a failure was recorded in the agro-industrial complex: the gross grain harvest was planned in the amount of 105.8 million poods, but in 1928 it was possible to collect only 73.3 million, and in 1932 - 69.9 million.
Great Patriotic War 1941-1945
On June 22, 1941, fascist Germany attacked the Soviet Union without declaring war. On June 23, 1941, the Headquarters of the Supreme High Command was formed by the Soviet leadership. June 30 created State Committee Defense led by Stalin. During the first month of the war, 5.3 million people were drafted into the Soviet army. In July, they began to create parts of the people's militia. A partisan movement began behind enemy lines.
At the initial stage of the war, the Soviet army suffered defeat after defeat. The Baltic States, Belarus, Ukraine were abandoned, the enemy approached Leningrad and Moscow. On November 15, a new offensive began. In some areas, the Nazis approached the capital at 25-30 km, but could not advance further. On December 5-6, 1941, Soviet troops launched a counteroffensive near Moscow. Simultaneously began offensive operations on the Western, Kalinin and Southwestern fronts. During the offensive in the winter of 1941/1942. the Nazis were thrown back in a number of places at a distance of up to 300 km. from the capital. The first stage of the Patriotic War (June 22, 1941 - December 5-6, 1941) is over. The lightning war plan was thwarted.
After an unsuccessful offensive near Kharkov at the end of May 1942, Soviet troops soon left the Crimea, withdrew to the North Caucasus and the Volga. . On November 19-20, 1942, the counter-offensive of the Soviet troops near Stalingrad began. By November 23, 22 fascist divisions numbering 330 thousand people were surrounded near Stalingrad. January 31, the main forces of the encircled German troops led by Field Marshal Paulus surrendered. On February 2, 1943, the operation for the final destruction of the encircled group was completed. After the victory of the Soviet troops near Stalingrad, a great turning point in the Great Patriotic War began.
In the summer of 1943, the Battle of Kursk took place. On August 5, Soviet troops liberated Orel and Belgorod, Kharkov was liberated on August 23, and Taganrog on August 30. At the end of September, the crossing of the Dnieper began. On November 6, 1943, Soviet units liberated Kyiv.
In 1944, the Soviet Army launched an offensive in all sectors of the front. On January 27, 1944, Soviet troops lifted the blockade of Leningrad. In the summer of 1944, the Red Army liberated Belarus and most of Ukraine. The victory in Belarus opened the way for an offensive into Poland, the Baltic States and East Prussia. On August 17, Soviet troops reached the border with Germany.
In the autumn of 1944, Soviet troops liberated the Baltic States, Romania, Bulgaria, Yugoslavia, Czechoslovakia, Hungary, and Poland. On September 4, Finland, Germany's ally, withdrew from the war. The result of the offensive of the Soviet Army in 1944 was the complete liberation of the USSR.
April 16, 1945 began Berlin operation. May 8, Germany capitulated.. Hostilities in Europe ended.
The main result of the war was the complete defeat of Nazi Germany. Mankind was delivered from slavery, world culture and civilization were saved. As a result of the war, the USSR lost a third of its national wealth. Nearly 30 million people died. 1700 cities and 70 thousand villages were destroyed. 35 million people were left homeless.
Recovery Soviet industry(1945 - 1953) and the national economy took place in the USSR in difficult conditions:
1) Lack of food, the most difficult working and living conditions, a high level of morbidity and mortality. But the 8 hour work day was introduced, annual leave forced overtime work has been abolished.
2) Conversion, fully completed only by 1947.
3) Lack of labor force in the USSR.
4) Strengthening the migration of the population of the USSR.
5) Increasing the transfer of funds from the village to the city.
6) Redistribution of funds from the light and food industries, agriculture and the social sphere in favor of heavy industry.
7) Commitment to implementation scientific and technical developments in production.
There was a drought in the countryside in 1946, which led to a large-scale famine. Private trade in agricultural products was allowed only to those peasants whose collective farms fulfilled state orders.
A new wave of political repressions began. They affected party leaders, the military, and the intelligentsia.
Ideological thaw in the USSR (1956 - 1962). Under this name, the reign of the new leader of the USSR, Nikita Khrushchev, went down in history.
On February 14, 1956, the XX Congress of the CPSU took place, at which the personality cult of I. Stalin was condemned. As a result, a partial rehabilitation of the enemies of the people was carried out, some repressed peoples were allowed to return to their homeland.
Investments in agriculture increased by 2.5 times.
All debts from collective farms were written off.
MTS - material and technical stations - were transferred to collective farms
Increasing land taxes
The course for the development of virgin lands - 1956, it is planned to develop and sow with grain 37 million hectares of land in southern Siberia and northern Kazakhstan.
The slogan appeared - "Catch up and overtake America in the production of meat and milk." This led to excesses in animal husbandry and agriculture (sowing large areas with corn).
1963 - The Soviet Union for the first time after the revolutionary period buys grain for gold.
Almost all ministries were abolished. The territorial principle of leadership was introduced - the management of enterprises and organizations was transferred to economic councils formed in economic administrative regions.
The period of stagnation in the USSR (1962 - 1984)
Followed Khrushchev's thaw. Characterized by stagnation in social and political life and lack of reforms
1) A steady decline in the rate of economic and social development of the country (industrial growth decreased from 50% to 20%, in agriculture - from 21% to 6%).
2) Stage lag.
3) A slight increase in production is achieved by increasing the production of raw materials and fuel.
In the 70s, there was a sharp lag in agriculture, a crisis is looming in social sphere. The housing problem has become extremely acute. There is an increase in the bureaucracy. The number of all-union ministries increased from 29 to 160 in 2 decades. In 1985 they employed 18 million officials.
Perestroika in the USSR (1985 - 1991)
A set of measures to address the accumulated problems in Soviet economy as well as political and social system. The initiator of its holding was the new General Secretary of the CPSU, MS Gorbachev.
1.Democratization public life and political system. In 1989, elections of people's deputies of the USSR took place, in 1990 - elections of people's deputies of the RSFSR.
2. The transition of the economy to self-financing. Introduction of free market elements in the country. Private business license.
3. Glasnost. Pluralism of opinions. Condemnation of the policy of repression. Criticism of communist ideology.
1) A deep socio-economic crisis that has engulfed the entire country. Gradually weakened economic ties between republics and regions within the USSR.
2) The gradual destruction of the Soviet system on the ground. Significant weakening of the allied center.
3) The weakening of the influence of the CPSU on all aspects of life in the USSR and its subsequent ban.
4) Aggravation of interethnic relations. National conflicts undermined state unity, becoming one of the reasons for the destruction of the union statehood.
The events of August 19-21, 1991 - an attempted coup d'etat (GKChP) and its failure - made the collapse of the USSR inevitable.
The 5th Congress of People's Deputies (held on September 5, 1991) handed over its powers to the State Council of the USSR, which included the highest officials of the republics, and the Supreme Soviet of the USSR.
September 9 - The State Council officially recognized the independence of the Baltic states.
On December 1, the vast majority of the population of Ukraine at a national referendum approved the declaration of independence of Ukraine (August 24, 1991).
On December 8, the Belovezhskaya agreement was signed. Presidents of Russia, Ukraine and Belarus B. Yeltsin, L. Kravchuk and S. Shushkevich announced the unification of their republics in the CIS - the Commonwealth of Independent States.
Until the end of 1991, 12 former republics of the Soviet Union joined the CIS.
On December 25, 1991, M. Gorbachev resigned, and on December 26, the Council of the Republics and the Supreme Council officially recognized the dissolution of the USSR.
It hasn't been for over a quarter of a century. How has life changed since the collapse of the country? Which countries of the former USSR are thriving today? We will briefly try to answer this question. We will also list: which countries of the former USSR are on the world map today, which blocs and unions they belong to.
union state
Two countries that wanted to maintain economic and political ties were Belarus and Russia. After the collapse of the USSR, the presidents of the two countries signed an agreement on the creation of a union state.
Initially, it included full integration into a kind of confederation with broad autonomy within each. They even created a project for a single flag, coat of arms and anthem. However, the project stalled. Reason is different economic views for internal transformations. Russian side accused Belarus of total state control over the economy, refusal to privatize many objects.
President Lukashenko did not want "thieves' privatization." He believes that selling the public sector for a penny is a crime against the state. Both countries are currently integrating into new economic association- the Customs Union (CU), and the Eurasian Union (EAEU).
Eurasian Union (EAEU)
After the collapse of the USSR, an understanding came about the fallacy of destroying all economic ties between countries. This thought led to the creation of the EAEU. In addition to Russia and Belarus, it includes Kazakhstan, Armenia, Kyrgyzstan.
Not only the countries of the former USSR can enter it, but others as well. There was information in the media that Turkey would join him, but then all talk about this stopped. Today Tajikistan is the candidate from the former USSR.
Baltic countries
Lithuania, Latvia, Estonia - three Baltic countries, which traditionally stretched to the West. Today they are all members of the European Union. After the collapse of the USSR, they had one of the most developed economies: electrical engineering, perfumery, the maritime industry, mechanical engineering, shipping, etc. produced colossal production volumes.
In the Russian media, one of the favorite topics is to discuss how "bad" it has become in these countries. However, if we look at the level of GDP per capita, we will see that after the collapse of the USSR, Lithuania, Latvia, and Estonia are among the top three leaders among all participating countries. Until 1996, Russia still kept the lead, after that the Baltic countries did not concede it.
However, there is still a trend of population decline in these countries. The reason is that the rest of the EU members live better, much more developed. This leads to the migration of young people from the Baltic states to Western Europe.
The countries of the former USSR that aspire to the EU and NATO
Other countries that want to join the EU and NATO are Georgia, Ukraine, Moldova. There is also Azerbaijan. But he does not reach the EU in the truest sense of the word, since geographically he is unlikely to be able to do this. However, Azerbaijan is a reliable friend and ally of Turkey, which, in turn, is a NATO member and a candidate for EU membership.
As for Georgia, Ukraine, and Moldova, they all want to join the EU, but the level of their socio-economic development does not yet allow it. The issue of NATO is even more difficult: all countries have territorial disputes, directly or indirectly connected with Russia. Ukraine makes claims over Crimea and Donbass, which our country, in their opinion, has occupied. Georgia has lost South Ossetia and Abkhazia, Moldova has no control in Transnistria, which is also supported by Russia.
Countries that aspire to join the EAEU and the CU
There are also countries of the former USSR that want to become members of the EAEU and the CU, but so far they are not. Among them are Tajikistan (the official candidate), Turkmenistan and Uzbekistan.
Territory of the former USSR
The territory of the former USSR was about 22,400,000 square kilometers in area.
In total, it included 15 republics:
- RSFSR.
- Ukrainian SSR.
- Uzbek SSR.
- Kazakh SSR.
- Byelorussian SSR.
- Lithuanian SSR.
- Latvian SSR.
- Estonian SSR.
- Armenian SSR.
- Georgian SSR.
- Turkmen SSR.
- Tajik SSR.
- Azerbaijan SSR.
- Moldavian SSR.
- Kirghiz SSR.
In addition to them, the Union included 20 autonomous republics, 18 autonomous regions and districts.
A similar division of the state with internal national autonomies inevitably had to lead to numerous conflicts after the collapse of the USSR. This is what happened in the end. Until now, we hear echoes in Ukraine, in Georgia, in Moldova, in Armenia.
