Soviet Union

The Soviet Union was a communist country with a totalitarian regime that existed from 1917 until 1991. The official name was The Union of Soviet Socialist Republics (U.S.S.R.). The country stretched from the Baltic and Black Seas to the Pacific Ocean. In its final years it consisted of 15 Soviet Socialist Republics. Russia was by far the largest Republic in the Soviet Union in terms of both land area and population, and also dominated it politically and economically.

The first leader of the Soviet Union was Vladimir Lenin, who led the Communists to power in the Russian Revolution of 1917. With the newly formed Red Army in confusion, the Soviet Union had to pull out of World War I. The peace treaty with Germany, the Treaty of Brest-Litovsk, made the union give up most of the area of the Ukraine and Belarus. The opponents of communism within and without the union did not accept the new government, and this led to all-out civil war, which lasted until 1922.

After the revolution, the Communist Party of the Soviet Union quickly became the only legal political party. The governing of the country was to be done by local and regional democratically elected soviets. In practice its corresponding party group controlled each level of government. The highest legislate body was the Supreme Soviet. The highest executive body was the Politburo.

The state relied heavily on controlling its citizens with the secret police. In December 1917, the Cheka was founded. Later it changed names to KGB. The secret police was responsible for finding any political dissidents and expel them from the party or bring them to trial for counter-revolutionary activities.

After Lenin died in 1924, power gradually consolidated in the hands of Joseph Stalin, who led the Soviet Union until his death in 1953. Stalin was the supreme leader from 1929 until 1953. From 1921 until 1954, 3.7 million people were sentenced for counter-revolution crimes, including 0.6 million sentenced to death, 2.4 million sentenced to prison and labor camps, and 0.8 million sentenced to expatriation.

The Second World War caught the Soviet military unprepared. To secure Soviet influence over Eastern Europe, Stalin arranged the Molotov-Ribbentrop Pact with Germany on August 23, 1939. A secret addition to the pact gave Eastern Poland, Latvia, Estonia and Finland to the USSR, and Western Poland and Lithuania to Germany. Germany invaded Poland on September 1st, USSR followed on September 17th. On November 30th, USSR attacked Finland in what is called the Winter War.

On June 22nd 1941, Hitler broke the pact and invaded the Soviet Union.