What area did the USSR occupy? Which republics were part of the USSR? History of the Byelorussian SSR

USSR (Union of Soviet Socialist Republics or Soviet Union for short) - former state, which 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 largest country in the world.
The capital of the USSR was Moscow.
There were many large cities in the USSR: 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, Kiev, 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, and Czechoslovakia.
The length of the land borders of the Soviet Union was 62,710 kilometers.
By sea, the USSR bordered the USA, Sweden and Japan.
The size of the former empire of socialism was impressive:
a) length - more than 10,000 km from the extreme geographical 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 of the Taimyr Autonomous Okrug Krasnoyarsk Territory to the city of Kushka, Mary region, Turkmen SSR).
The shores of the USSR were washed by twelve seas: the Kara, Barents, Baltic, Laptev Sea, 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 largest and deepest lakes in the world were located in the Soviet Union: Ladoga lake, Lake Onega, Lake Baikal (the deepest in the world).
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 the summer, and areas where there was never snow all year round and 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 rivaled in its complexity only 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).
The republics were divided into administrative units of the second level - autonomous republics, autonomous okrugs, 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 - districts, and those, in turn, were divided into administrative units of the fourth level - city, rural and township 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 Autonomous Soviet Socialist Republic, Chuvash Autonomous Soviet Socialist Republic, Yakut Autonomous Soviet Socialist Republic;
c) autonomous regions - Adygea Autonomous Okrug, Gorno-Altai Autonomous Okrug, Jewish Autonomous Okrug, Karachay-Cherkess Autonomous Okrug, Khakass Autonomous Okrug;
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, Oryol, Penza, Perm, Pskov, Rostov, Ryazan Saratov, Sakhalin, Sverdlovsk, Smolensk, Tambov, Tomsk, Tula, Tyumen, Ulyanovsk, Chelyabinsk, Chita, Yaroslavl:
e) autonomous districts: Aginsky Buryat Autonomous District, Komi-Permyak Autonomous District, Koryak Autonomous District, Nenets Autonomous District, Taimyr (Dolgano-Nenets) Autonomous District, Ust-Orda Buryat Autonomous District, Khanty-Mansi Autonomous District, Chukotka Autonomous District, Evenki Autonomous District, Yamalo-Nenets Autonomous District.
f) territories - Altai, Krasnodar, Krasnoyarsk, Primorsky, Stavropol, Khabarovsk.
Ukraine (Ukrainian SSR) included only regions. Its members included: Vinnitskaya. Volyn, Voroshilovgrad (modern Lugansk), Dnepropetrovsk, Donetsk, Zhitomir, Transcarpathian, Zaporozhye, Ivano-Frankivsk, Kiev, Kirovograd, Crimean (until 1954 part of the RSFSR), Lviv, Nikolaev, Odessa, Poltava, Rivne, Sumy, Ternopil , Kharkov, Kherson, Khmelnitsky, 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, Turgai, Ural, Tselinograd , Shymkent region.
Turkmenistan (TurSSR) included five regions: Chardzhou, Ashgabat, Krasnovodsk, Mary, Tashauz;
Uzbekistan (UzSSR) included one autonomous republic (Karakalpak Autonomous Soviet Socialist Republic), the city of republican subordination of Tashkent and the regions: Tashkent, Fergana, Andijan, Namangan, Syrdarya, Surkhandarya, Kashkadarya, Samarkand, Bukhara, Khorezm.
Georgia (GrSSR) consisted of the city of republican subordination of Tbilisi, two autonomous republics (Abkhazian Autonomous Soviet Socialist Republic and Adjarian Autonomous Soviet Socialist Republic) and one autonomous region (South Ossetian Autonomous Okrug).
Kyrgyzstan (KyrSSR) consisted of only two regions (Osh and Naryn) and the city of republican subordination of Frunze.
Tajikistan (Tad SSR) consisted of one autonomous region (Gorno-Badakhshan Autonomous Okrug), three regions (Kulyab, Kurgan-Tube, 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 Okrug) and the city of republican subordination of Baku.
Armenia (Armenian SSR) was divided only into districts and a city of republican subordination - Yerevan.
Moldova (MSSR) was divided only into districts and the city of republican subordination - Chisinau.
Lithuania (Lithuanian SSR) was divided only into districts and the city of republican subordination - Vilnius.
Latvia (LatSSR) was divided only into districts and the city of republican subordination - Riga.
Estonia (ESSR) was divided only into districts 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 the autocracy collapsed in tsarist Russia. This happened in February 1917, when a Provisional Government was formed in place of the defeated monarchy.
The provisional government failed to restore order in the former empire, and the ongoing First World War and the failures of the Russian army only contributed to the further escalation of unrest.
Taking advantage of the weakness of the Provisional Government, the Bolshevik Party led by V.I. Lenin organized an armed uprising in Petrograd at the end of October 1917, which led to the elimination 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. A bloody Civil War began. The fire of war engulfed all of Ukraine, the western regions of Belarus, the Urals, Siberia, the Far East, the Caucasus and Turkestan. For about four years, Bolshevik Russia waged a bloody war against supporters of the restoration of the old regime. Part of the territories of the former Russian Empire was lost, and some countries (Poland, Finland, Lithuania, Latvia, Estonia) declared their sovereignty and unwillingness to accept the new Soviet government.
Lenin pursued the single goal of creating the USSR - the creation powerful country, 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 government bodies of the USSR came under the strict control of the Communist Party. No decision was made on the spot without the approval of the party leadership.
The highest authority in the USSR during the time of Lenin was the Politburo of the Central Committee of the All-Union Communist Party of Bolsheviks.
After Lenin's death, a struggle for power in the country broke out 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 future dictator-tyrant of the totalitarian USSR, J.V. Stalin, turned out to be the most cunning of all. Initially, in order to destroy some of his competitors in the struggle for power, Stalin teamed up with Zinoviev and Kamenev into the so-called “troika”.
At the XIII Congress, the question of who would become the leaders of the Bolshevik Party and the country after Lenin’s death was decided. Zinoviev and Kamenev managed to rally most of the communists around themselves and most of them voted for I.V. Stalin. So a new leader appeared in the country.
Having led the USSR, Stalin first began to strengthen his power and get rid of his recent supporters. This practice was soon adopted by the entire Stalinist circle. 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 internal party struggle, until 1929, Lenin’s NEP (New Economic Policy) was carried out in the country. During these years, private enterprise was not yet completely prohibited in the country.
In 1924, the new Soviet ruble was introduced into circulation in the USSR.
In 1925, at the XIV Congress of the All-Union Communist Party of Bolsheviks, a course was set for collectivization and industrialization of the entire country. The first five-year plan is being developed. Dispossession of lands began, millions of kulaks (rich landowners) were exiled to Siberia and the Far East, or were driven away from good fertile lands and received in return waste 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 parts of the country were starving. Cases of theft in the fields have become more frequent. A notorious law was adopted (popularly called the “Law of Three Ears”), according to which anyone caught with even a handful of grain was sentenced to long prison terms and long-term exile to the regions of the Far North, Siberia and 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 of Nazi Germany to reach almost unhindered almost all the way to Moscow.
The mistakes of Stalin and his leadership cost the country dearly. However, there were also positive aspects. As a result of industrialization, the country has reached second place in the world in terms of industrial production.
In August 1939, just before the start of World War II, a non-aggression treaty and the division of Eastern Europe (the so-called Molotov-Ribbentrop Pact) was concluded between Nazi Germany and the USSR.
After World War II began, the USSR and Germany divided the territory of Poland between themselves. The USSR included Western Ukraine, Western Belarus, and subsequently 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 Hitler's 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 evacuated. At the same time, a complete mobilization of the male population into the active army was carried out.
The initial stage of the war was affected by the strategic mistakes made by the Stalinist leadership in previous years. There were few new weapons in the army, and the fact that
there was, inferior in its characteristics to the German. The Red Army was retreating, many people were captured. Headquarters threw more and more units into battle, but this did not have much success - the Germans stubbornly advanced 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 roar of tanks and airplanes could already be heard. German generals could observe the center of Moscow through their binoculars.
Only in December 1941 did the Red Army go on the offensive and push the Germans back 200-300 kilometers to the west. However, by spring, the Nazi command managed to recover from defeat and changed the direction of the main attack. Now Hitler’s main goal was Stalingrad, which opened up further advance to the Caucasus, to the oil fields in the area of ​​​​Baku and Grozny.
In the summer of 1942, the Germans came close to Stalingrad. And by the end of autumn, fighting was already taking place in the city itself. However, the German Wehrmacht was unable to advance beyond Stalingrad. 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 his 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 its rapid advance westward, liberating more and more territories.
In 1944, all of Ukraine, the Baltic states and Belarus were liberated. The Red Army came to state border USSR and rushed to Europe, to Berlin.
In 1945, the Red Army liberated most of the countries of Eastern Europe from the Nazis and entered Berlin in May 1945. The war ended with the complete victory of the USSR and their 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 factories 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 the situation in the country of the Soviets began to improve.
In 1949, the atomic bomb was invented in the USSR as a symmetrical response to the US attempt at nuclear dominance in the world. Relations with the United States deteriorate and the Cold War begins.
In March 1953, J.V. Stalin dies. The era of Stalinism in the country is ending. The so-called “Khrushchev thaw” is coming. At the next party congress, Khrushchev sharply criticized the former Stalinist regime. Tens of thousands are released from numerous camps political prisoners. 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 spacecraft was launched in the USSR with the first cosmonaut, Yuri Gagarin.
During the time of Khrushchev, in contrast to the NATO bloc created by Western countries, the Warsaw Pact Organization was created - a military alliance of Eastern European countries that had taken the socialist path of development.
After Brezhnev came to power, the first signs of stagnation began to appear in the USSR. Industrial production growth has slowed. The first signs of party corruption began to appear in the country. The Brezhnev leadership and Brezhnev himself did not realize that the country was facing the need for fundamental changes in politics, ideology, and economics.
With Mikhail Gorbachev coming to power, the so-called “perestroika” began. A course was taken towards the wholesale eradication of domestic drunkenness, towards 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 union republics Ah, especially in the Baltic states and Ukraine, a massive growth of nationalist sentiments began, associated with the declaration of independence and separation 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 secession from the USSR. Lithuania was then supported by Latvia and Estonia, which also declared their sovereignty. Events in these two Baltic republics developed more peacefully.
Then Transcaucasia began to boil. Another hot spot has emerged - Nagorno-Karabakh. Armenia announced the annexation of Nagorno-Karabakh. Azerbaijan responded by launching a blockade. 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. A new conflict begins on the territory of this country - 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 last try save the dying USSR. The putsch failed, Gorbachev was actually removed from power by Yeltsin. Immediately after the failure of the coup, Ukraine, Kazakhstan, republics Central Asia and Moldova declare their independence and are declared sovereign states. The most recent countries to proclaim their sovereignty are Belarus and Russia.
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 create the Commonwealth of Independent States.
So the empire of socialism ceased to exist, just one year short of its 70th anniversary.

USSR
the former largest state in the world by area, second by economic and military power and third by population. The USSR was created on December 30, 1922, when the Russian Soviet Federative Socialist Republic (RSFSR) merged with the Ukrainian and Belarusian Soviet Socialist Republics and the Transcaucasian Soviet Federative Socialist Republic. All these republics arose after the October Revolution and the collapse of the Russian Empire in 1917. From 1956 to 1991, the USSR consisted of 15 union republics. In September 1991, Lithuania, Latvia and Estonia left the union. On December 8, 1991, the leaders of the RSFSR, Ukraine and Belarus at a meeting in Belovezhskaya Pushcha announced that the USSR had ceased to exist and agreed to form a free association - the Commonwealth of Independent States (CIS). On December 21, in Almaty, the leaders of 11 republics signed a protocol on the formation of this commonwealth. On December 25, USSR President M.S. Gorbachev resigned, and the next day the USSR was dissolved.

Geographical location and boundaries. The USSR occupied the eastern half of Europe and the northern third of Asia. Its territory was located north of 35° N latitude. between 20°E and 169° W. The Soviet Union was washed in the north by the Arctic Ocean for most of the year frozen in ice; in the east - the Bering, Okhotsk and Japanese seas, which freeze in winter; in the southeast it bordered on land with the DPRK, the People's Republic of China and Mongolia; in the south - with Afghanistan and Iran; in the southwest with Turkey; in the west with Romania, Hungary, Slovakia, Poland, Finland and Norway. Occupying a significant part of the coast of the Caspian, Black and Baltic seas, the USSR, however, did not have direct access to the warm open waters of the oceans.
Square. Since 1945, the area of ​​the USSR has been 22,402.2 thousand square meters. km, including the White Sea (90 thousand sq. km) and the Sea of ​​Azov (37.3 thousand sq. km). As a result of the collapse of the Russian Empire during the First World War and the Civil War of 1914-1920, Finland, central Poland, the western regions of Ukraine and Belarus, Lithuania, Latvia, Estonia, Bessarabia, the southern part of Armenia and the Uriankhai region (in 1921 became a nominally independent Tuvan People's Republic) were lost. Republic). At the time of its founding in 1922, the USSR had an area of ​​21,683 thousand square meters. km. In 1926, the Soviet Union annexed the Franz Josef Land archipelago in the North Arctic Ocean. As a result of World War II, the following territories were annexed: the western regions of Ukraine and Belarus (from Poland) in 1939; Karelian Isthmus (from Finland), Lithuania, Latvia, Estonia, as well as Bessarabia and Northern Bukovina (from Romania) in 1940; the Pechenga region, or Petsamo (since 1940 in Finland), and Tuva (as the Tuva Autonomous Soviet Socialist Republic) in 1944; the northern half of East Prussia (from Germany), southern Sakhalin and the Kuril Islands (from 1905 in Japan) in 1945.
Population. In 1989, the population of the USSR was 286,717 thousand people; There were more only in China and India. During the 20th century. it almost doubled, although the rate of overall growth lagged behind the world average. The famine years of 1921 and 1933, World War I and the Civil War slowed population growth in the USSR, but perhaps the main reason for the lag is the losses suffered by the USSR in World War II. Direct losses alone amounted to more than 25 million people. If we take into account indirect losses - a decrease in the birth rate during wartime and an increased mortality rate from harsh conditions life, the total figure probably exceeds 50 million people.
National composition and languages. The USSR was created as a multinational union state, consisting (from 1956, after the transformation of the Karelo-Finnish SSR into the Karelian ASSR, until September 1991) of 15 republics, which included 20 autonomous republics, 8 autonomous regions and 10 autonomous okrugs, - all of them were formed along national lines. More than a hundred ethnic groups and peoples were officially recognized in the USSR; more than 70% of the total population were Slavic peoples, mostly Russians, who settled throughout huge territory states within 12-
19th centuries and until 1917 they occupied a dominant position even in those areas where they did not constitute a majority. Non-Russian peoples in this area (Tatars, Mordovians, Komi, Kazakhs, etc.) gradually assimilated in the process of interethnic communication. Although national cultures were encouraged in the republics of the USSR, the Russian language and culture remained a necessary condition almost every career. The republics of the USSR received their names, as a rule, according to the nationality of the majority of their population, but in two union republics - Kazakhstan and Kyrgyzstan - Kazakhs and Kyrgyz made up only 36% and 41% of the total population, and in many autonomous entities and even less. The most homogeneous republic in terms of national composition was Armenia, where more than 90% of the population were Armenians. Russians, Belarusians and Azerbaijanis made up more than 80% of the population in their national republics Oh. Changes in uniformity ethnic composition population of the republics occurred as a result of migration and unequal population growth of various national groups. For example, the peoples of Central Asia, with their high birth rates and low mobility, absorbed a mass of Russian immigrants, but maintained and even increased their quantitative superiority, while approximately the same influx into the Baltic republics of Estonia and Latvia, which had low birth rates of their own, disrupted the balance is not in favor of the indigenous people.
Slavs. This language family consists of Russians (Great Russians), Ukrainians and Belarusians. The share of Slavs in the USSR gradually declined (from 85% in 1922 to 77% in 1959 and to 70% in 1989), mainly due to the low rate of natural increase compared to the peoples of the southern outskirts. Russians made up 51% of the total population in 1989 (65% in 1922, 55% in 1959).
Central Asian peoples. The largest non-Slavic group of peoples in the Soviet Union was the group of peoples of Central Asia. Most of these 34 million people (1989) (including Uzbeks, Kazakhs, Kyrgyz and Turkmens) speak Turkic languages; Tajiks, numbering more than 4 million people, speak a dialect of the Iranian language. These peoples traditionally adhere to the Muslim religion, engage in agriculture and live in overpopulated oases and dry steppes. The Central Asian region became part of Russia in the last quarter of the 19th century; Previously, there were emirates and khanates that competed and were often at war with each other. In the Central Asian republics in the mid-20th century. there were almost 11 million Russian immigrants, most of whom lived in cities.
Peoples of the Caucasus. The second largest group of non-Slavic peoples in the USSR (15 million people in 1989) were peoples living on both sides of the Caucasus Mountains, between the Black and Caspian Seas, up to the borders with Turkey and Iran. The most numerous of them are Georgians and Armenians with their forms of Christianity and ancient civilizations, and the Turkic-speaking Muslims of Azerbaijan, related to the Turks and Iranians. These three peoples made up almost two-thirds of the non-Russian population in the region. The rest of the non-Russians included a large number of small ethnic groups, including Iranian-speaking Orthodox Ossetians, Mongol-speaking Buddhist Kalmyks and Muslim Chechen, Ingush, Avar and other peoples.
Baltic peoples. Along the coast Baltic Sea lives approx. 5.5 million people (1989) of three main ethnic groups: Lithuanians, Latvians and Estonians. Estonians speak a language close to Finnish; Lithuanian and Latvian languages ​​belong to the group of Baltic languages, close to Slavic. Lithuanians and Latvians are geographically intermediate between Russians and Germans, who, along with the Poles and Swedes, have had a great cultural influence on them. The rate of natural population increase in Lithuania, Latvia and Estonia, which seceded from the Russian Empire in 1918, existed as independent states between the world wars and regained independence in September 1991, is about the same as that of the Slavs.
Other peoples. The remaining national groups constituted less than 10% of the USSR population in 1989; these were a variety of peoples who lived within the main zone of settlement of the Slavs or were dispersed among the vast and desert spaces of the Far North. The most numerous among them are the Tatars, after the Uzbeks and Kazakhs - the third largest non-Slavic people of the USSR (6.65 million people in 1989). The term "Tatar" has been applied throughout Russian history to various ethnic groups. More than half of the Tatars (Turkic-speaking descendants of the northern group of Mongolian tribes) live between the middle Volga and the Urals. After the Mongol-Tatar yoke, which lasted from the mid-13th to the end of the 15th century, several groups of Tatars troubled the Russians for several more centuries, and the large Tatar people on the Crimean Peninsula were conquered only at the end of the 18th century. Other large national groups in the Volga-Ural region are the Turkic-speaking Chuvash, Bashkirs and Finno-Ugric Mordovians, Mari and Komi. Among them, the natural process of assimilation in a predominantly Slavic community continued, partly due to the influence of increasing urbanization. This process did not proceed so quickly among traditionally pastoral peoples - the Buddhist Buryats living around Lake Baikal, and the Yakuts inhabiting the banks of the Lena River and its tributaries. Finally, there are many small northern peoples engaged in hunting and cattle breeding, scattered in the northern part of Siberia and regions of the Far East; there are approx. 150 thousand people.
National question. In the late 1980s, the national question came to the forefront of political life. The traditional policy of the CPSU, which sought to eliminate nations and ultimately create a homogeneous “Soviet” people, ended in failure. Interethnic conflicts broke out, for example, between Armenians and Azerbaijanis, Ossetians and Ingush. In addition, anti-Russian sentiments emerged - for example, in the Baltic republics. Ultimately, the Soviet Union disintegrated along the borders of national republics, and many ethnic antagonisms fell to the newly formed countries that retained the old national-administrative divisions.
Urbanization. The pace and scale of urbanization in the Soviet Union since the late 1920s is probably unparalleled in history. In both 1913 and 1926, less than one-fifth of the population lived in cities. However, by 1961, the urban population in the USSR began to exceed the rural population (Great Britain reached this ratio around 1860, the USA - around 1920), and in 1989 66% of the USSR population lived in cities. The scale of Soviet urbanization is evidenced by the fact that the urban population of the Soviet Union increased from 63 million people in 1940 to 189 million in 1989. last years The USSR had approximately the same level of urbanization as in Latin America.
The growth of cities. Before the start of the industrial, urbanization and transport revolutions in the second half of the 19th century. Most Russian cities had small populations. In 1913, only Moscow and St. Petersburg, founded respectively in the 12th and 18th centuries, had a population of more than 1 million people. In 1991, there were 24 such cities in the Soviet Union. First Slavic cities were founded in the 6th-7th centuries; during Mongol invasion mid 13th century most of them were destroyed. These cities, which arose as military-administrative strong points, had a fortified Kremlin, usually near the river on an elevated place, surrounded by craft suburbs (posads). When did trade begin important look activities of the Slavs, cities such as Kyiv, Chernigov, Novgorod, Polotsk, Smolensk, and later Moscow, which were located at the crossroads of waterways, quickly increased their size and influence. After the nomads blocked the trade route from the Varangians to the Greeks in 1083 and the destruction of Kyiv by the Mongol-Tatars in 1240, Moscow, located in the center of the river system of northeastern Rus', gradually turned into the center of the Russian state. Moscow's position changed when Peter the Great moved the country's capital to St. Petersburg (1703). In its development, St. Petersburg by the end of the 18th century. overtook Moscow and remained the largest Russian city until the end of the Civil War. The foundations for the growth of most large cities of the USSR were laid in the last 50 years of the tsarist regime, during rapid development industry, railway construction and development international trade. In 1913, there were 30 cities in Russia, the population of which exceeded 100 thousand people, including trade and industrial centers in the Volga region and Novorossia, such as Nizhny Novgorod, Saratov, Odessa, Rostov-on-Don and Yuzovka (now Donetsk). The rapid growth of cities during the Soviet period can be divided into three stages. During the period between the world wars, the development of heavy industry was the basis for the growth of cities such as Magnitogorsk, Novokuznetsk, Karaganda and Komsomolsk-on-Amur. However, cities in the Moscow region, Siberia and Ukraine grew especially rapidly at this time. Between the 1939 and 1959 censuses there was a noticeable shift in urban settlement. Two-thirds of all cities that had a population of over 50 thousand people, which doubled during this time, were located mainly between the Volga and Lake Baikal, mainly along the Trans-Siberian Railway. From the late 1950s to 1990, the growth of Soviet cities slowed; Only the capitals of the Union republics showed faster growth.
Largest cities. In 1991, there were 24 cities in the Soviet Union with a population of more than one million inhabitants. These included Moscow, St. Petersburg, Kiev, Nizhny Novgorod, Kharkov, Kuibyshev (now Samara), Minsk, Dnepropetrovsk, Odessa, Kazan, Perm, Ufa, Rostov-on-Don, Volgograd and Donetsk in the European part; Sverdlovsk (now Yekaterinburg) and Chelyabinsk - in the Urals; Novosibirsk and Omsk - in Siberia; Tashkent and Alma-Ata - in Central Asia; Baku, Tbilisi and Yerevan are in Transcaucasia. Another 6 cities had a population of 800 thousand to one million inhabitants and 28 cities - more than 500 thousand inhabitants. Moscow, with a population of 8967 thousand people in 1989, is one of the largest cities in the world. It grew up in the center of European Russia and became the main node of the network of railways and highways , airlines and pipelines of a very centralized country. Moscow is the center of political life, the development of culture, science and new industrial technologies. St. Petersburg (from 1924 to 1991 - Leningrad), which in 1989 had a population of 5,020 thousand people, was built at the mouth of the Neva by Peter the Great and became the capital of the empire and its main port. After the Bolshevik Revolution, it became a regional center and gradually fell into decline due to the increased development of Soviet industry in the east, a decrease in foreign trade volumes and the transfer of the capital to Moscow. St. Petersburg suffered greatly during World War II and reached its pre-war population only in 1962. Kyiv (2,587 thousand people in 1989), located on the banks of the Dnieper River, was the main city of Rus' until the capital was moved to Vladimir (1169). The beginning of its modern growth dates back to the last third of the 19th century, when the industrial and agricultural development of Russia was proceeding at a rapid pace. Kharkov (with a population of 1,611 thousand people in 1989) is the second largest city in Ukraine. Until 1934 the capital of the Ukrainian SSR, it was formed as an industrial city at the end of the 19th century, being an important railway junction connecting Moscow and heavy industrial areas in southern Ukraine. Donetsk, founded in 1870 (1,110 thousand people in 1989) was the center of a large industrial agglomeration in the Donetsk coal basin. Dnepropetrovsk (1,179 thousand people in 1989), which was founded as the administrative center of Novorossiya in the second half of the 18th century. and formerly called Ekaterinoslav, was the center of a group of industrial cities in the lower reaches of the Dnieper. Odessa, located on the Black Sea coast (population 1,115 thousand people in 1989), grew rapidly at the end of the 19th century. as the main southern port of the country. It still remains an important industrial and cultural center. Nizhny Novgorod (from 1932 to 1990 - Gorky) - the traditional venue for the annual All-Russian Fair, first held in 1817 - is located at the confluence of the Volga and Oka rivers. In 1989, 1,438 thousand people lived in it, and it was the center of river navigation and the automobile industry. Below the Volga is Samara (from 1935 to 1991 Kuibyshev), with a population of 1257 thousand people (1989), located near the largest oil and gas fields and powerful hydroelectric power stations, in the place where the Moscow-Chelyabinsk railway line crosses the Volga. A powerful impetus to the development of Samara was given by the evacuation of industrial enterprises from the west after the German attack on the Soviet Union in 1941. 2,400 km to the east, where the Trans-Siberian Railway crosses another major river, the Ob, is Novosibirsk (1,436 thousand people in 1989), which is the youngest (founded in 1896) among the top ten largest cities of the USSR. These are transport, industrial and science Center Siberia. To the west of it, where the Trans-Siberian Railway crosses the Irtysh River, is Omsk (1,148 thousand people in 1989). Having given up the role of the capital of Siberia in Soviet time Novosibirsk, it remains the center of an important agricultural region, as well as major center aircraft manufacturing and oil refining. West of Omsk is Yekaterinburg (from 1924 to 1991 - Sverdlovsk), with a population of 1,367 thousand people (1989), which is the center of the metallurgical industry of the Urals. Chelyabinsk (1,143 thousand people in 1989), also located in the Urals, south of Yekaterinburg, became the new “gateway” to Siberia after the construction of the Trans-Siberian Railway began from here in 1891. Chelyabinsk, a center of metallurgy and mechanical engineering, which had only 20 thousand inhabitants in 1897, developed faster than Sverdlovsk during the Soviet period. Baku, with a population of 1,757 thousand in 1989, located on the western shore of the Caspian Sea, is located near oil fields that for almost a century were the main source of oil in Russia and the Soviet Union, and at one time in the world. The ancient city of Tbilisi (1,260 thousand people in 1989) is also located in Transcaucasia, an important regional center and capital of Georgia. Yerevan (1199 people in 1989) is the capital of Armenia; its rapid growth from 30 thousand people in 1910 testified to the process of revival of Armenian statehood. In the same way, the growth of Minsk - from 130 thousand inhabitants in 1926 to 1589 thousand in 1989 - is an example of the rapid development of the capitals of national republics (in 1939 Belarus regained the borders that it had as part of the Russian Empire). The city of Tashkent (population in 1989 - 2073 thousand people) is the capital of Uzbekistan and the economic center of Central Asia. The ancient city of Tashkent was incorporated into the Russian Empire in 1865, when the Russian conquest of Central Asia began.
GOVERNMENT AND POLITICAL SYSTEM
Background of the issue. The Soviet state arose as a result of two coups that took place in Russia in 1917. The first of them, the February Revolution, replaced the tsarist autocracy with an unstable political structure in which power, due to the general collapse of state power and law and order, was divided between the Provisional Government, consisting of members of the former legislative assembly (Duma), and councils of workers' and soldiers' deputies elected in factories and military units. At the Second All-Russian Congress of Soviets on October 25 (November 7), Bolshevik representatives announced the overthrow of the Provisional Government as unable to resolve crisis situations arising from failures at the front, famine in the cities and expropriation of property from landowners by peasants. The governing bodies of the councils overwhelmingly consisted of representatives of the radical wing, and the new government - the Council of People's Commissars (SNK) - was formed by the Bolsheviks and left socialist revolutionaries (SRs). The Bolshevik leader V.I. Ulyanov (Lenin) stood at the head (of the Council of People's Commissars). This government proclaimed Russia the world's first socialist republic and promised to hold elections to the Constituent Assembly. Having lost the elections, the Bolsheviks dispersed the Constituent Assembly (January 6, 1918), established a dictatorship and unleashed terror, which led to a civil war. Under these circumstances, the councils lost their real significance in the political life of the country. The Bolshevik Party (RKP(b), VKP(b), later CPSU) led the punitive and administrative bodies created to govern the country and the nationalized economy, as well as the Red Army. The return to a more democratic order (NEP) in the mid-1920s gave way to campaigns of terror, which were associated with the activities of the General Secretary of the CPSU (b) I.V. Stalin and the struggle in the leadership of the party. The political police (Cheka - OGPU - NKVD) turned into a powerful institution of the political system, maintaining a huge system of labor camps (GULAG) and spreading the practice of repression to the entire population, from ordinary citizens to leaders of the Communist Party, which claimed the lives of many millions of people. After Stalin's death in 1953, the power of the political intelligence services was weakened for some time; Formally, some power functions of the councils were also restored, but in fact the changes turned out to be insignificant. Only in 1989 a number of constitutional amendments allowed for the first time since 1912 to hold alternative elections and modernize state system, in which democratic authorities began to play a significant role big role. A constitutional amendment in 1990 eliminated the monopoly on political power established by the Communist Party in 1918 and established the post of President of the USSR with broad powers. At the end of August 1991 supreme power in the USSR collapsed following a failed state coup organized by a group of conservative leaders of the Communist Party and government. On December 8, 1991, the presidents of the RSFSR, Ukraine and Belarus at a meeting in Belovezhskaya Pushcha announced the creation of the Commonwealth of Independent States (CIS), a free interstate association. On December 26, the Supreme Soviet of the USSR decided to dissolve itself, and the Soviet Union ceased to exist.
State structure. Since its creation in December 1922 on the ruins of the Russian Empire, the USSR has been a totalitarian one-party state. The party-state exercised its power, called the “dictatorship of the proletariat,” through the Central Committee, the Politburo and the government controlled by them, the system of councils, trade unions and other structures. The monopoly of the party apparatus on power, the total control of the state over the economy, public life and culture led to common mistakes in public policy, the gradual backwardness and degradation of the country. The Soviet Union, like other totalitarian states of the 20th century, turned out to be unviable and at the end of the 1980s was forced to begin reforms. Under the leadership of the party apparatus, they acquired a purely cosmetic character and were unable to prevent the collapse of the state. The following describes the state structure of the Soviet Union, taking into account the changes that occurred in recent years before the collapse of the USSR.
Presidency. The post of president was established by the Supreme Soviet on March 13, 1990, at the proposal of its chairman M.S. Gorbachev after the Central Committee of the CPSU agreed to this idea a month earlier. Gorbachev was elected president of the USSR by secret ballot at the Congress of People's Deputies after the Supreme Soviet concluded that direct popular elections would take time and could destabilize the country. The President, by decree of the Supreme Council, is the head of state and commander-in-chief of the armed forces. He assists in organizing the work of the Congresses of People's Deputies and the Supreme Council; has the authority to issue administrative decrees that are binding throughout the Union, and to appoint a number of senior officials. These include the Constitutional Oversight Committee (subject to approval by the Congress), the Chairman of the Council of Ministers and the Chairman of the Supreme Court (subject to approval by the Supreme Council). The President can suspend decisions of the Council of Ministers.
Congress of People's Deputies. The Congress of People's Deputies was defined in the constitution as "the highest body of state power of the USSR." The 1,500 deputies of the Congress were elected in accordance with the threefold principle of representation: from the population, national entities and from public organizations. All citizens aged 18 and over had the right to vote; all citizens over 21 years of age had the right to be elected deputies to the Congress. The nomination of candidates in the districts was open; their number was not limited. The congress, elected for a term of five years, was to meet annually for several days. At its first meeting, the congress elected by secret ballot from among its members the Supreme Council, as well as the chairman and first deputy chairman of the Supreme Council. The congress considered the most important state issues, such as the national economic plan and budget; amendments to the constitution could be adopted by two-thirds of the vote. He could approve (or repeal) laws passed by the Supreme Council, and had the power, by a majority vote, to overturn any government decision. At each of its annual sessions, the Congress was obliged to rotate one fifth of the Supreme Council by voting.
The Supreme Council. The 542 deputies elected by the Congress of People's Deputies to the Supreme Soviet constituted the current legislative body of the USSR. It was convened annually for two sessions, each lasting 3-4 months. It had two chambers: the Council of the Union - from among deputies from national public organizations and from majoritarian territorial districts - and the Council of Nationalities, where deputies elected from national-territorial districts and republican public organizations sat. Each chamber elected its own chairman. Decisions were made by a majority of deputies in each chamber, disagreements were resolved with the help of a conciliation commission consisting of members of the chambers, and then at a joint meeting of both chambers; when it was impossible to reach a compromise between the chambers, the issue was referred to the Congress. Laws adopted by the Supreme Council could be monitored by the Constitutional Supervision Committee. This Committee consisted of 23 members who were not deputies and did not hold other positions. government positions. The Committee could act on its own initiative or at the request of legislative and executive authorities. He had the power to temporarily suspend laws or those administrative regulations that were contrary to the constitution or other laws of the country. The committee transmitted its conclusions to the bodies that passed laws or issued decrees, but did not have the power to repeal the law or decree in question. The Presidium of the Supreme Council was a collective body consisting of a chairman, first deputy and 15 deputies (from each republic), chairmen of both chambers and standing committees of the Supreme Council, chairmen of the Supreme Councils of the union republics and the chairman of the Committee people's control. The Presidium organized the work of the Congress and the Supreme Council and its standing committees; he could issue his own decrees and hold national referendums on issues raised by the Congress. He also gave accreditation to foreign diplomats and, in the intervals between sessions of the Supreme Council, had the right to decide issues of war and peace.
Ministries. The executive branch of government consisted of almost 40 ministries and 19 state committees. Ministries were organized along functional lines - foreign affairs, agriculture, communications, etc. - while state committees carried out cross-functional communications, such as planning, supply, labor and sports. The Council of Ministers included the chairman, several of his deputies, ministers and heads of state committees (all of them were appointed by the chairman of the government and approved by the Supreme Council), as well as the chairmen of the Councils of Ministers of all union republics. The Council of Ministers carried out foreign and domestic policies and ensured the implementation of state economic plans. In addition to its own resolutions and orders, the Council of Ministers developed legislative projects and sent them to the Supreme Council. The general part of the work of the Council of Ministers was carried out by a government group consisting of the chairman, his deputies and several key ministers. The Chairman was the only member of the Council of Ministers who was a member of the deputies of the Supreme Council. Individual ministries were organized according to the same principle as the Council of Ministers. Each minister was assisted by deputies who supervised the activities of one or more departments (headquarters) of the ministry. These officials constituted a collegium that functioned as the collective governing body of the ministry. Enterprises and institutions subordinate to the ministry carried out their work on the basis of the tasks and instructions of the ministry. Some ministries operated at the all-Union level. Others, organized along the union-republican principle, had a structure of dual subordination: the ministry at the republican level was accountable both to the existing union ministry and to the legislative bodies (the Congress of People's Deputies and the Supreme Council) of its own republic. Thus, the Union Ministry exercised general management of the industry, and the Republican Ministry, together with regional executive and legislative bodies, developed more detailed measures for their implementation in its republic. As a rule, union ministries managed industries, and union-republican ministries managed the production of consumer goods and the service sector. Union ministries had more powerful resources, better provided their workers with housing and wages, and had greater influence in carrying out national policy than union-republican ministries.
Republican and local government. The Union republics that made up the USSR had their own state and party bodies and were formally considered sovereign. The constitution gave each of them the right to secede, and some even had their own foreign ministries, but in reality their independence was illusory. Therefore, it would be more accurate to interpret the sovereignty of the republics of the USSR as a form of administrative government that took into account the specific interests of the party leadership of a particular national group. But during 1990, the Supreme Councils of all republics, following Lithuania, re-proclaimed their sovereignty and adopted resolutions that republican laws should have priority over all-Union laws. In 1991 the republics became independent states. The management structure of the union republics was similar to the management system at the union level, but the Supreme Councils of the republics each had one chamber, and the number of ministries in the republican Councils of Ministers was less than in the union. The same organizational structure, but with an even smaller number of ministries, was in the autonomous republics. The larger union republics were divided into regions (the RSFSR also had regional units of less homogeneous national composition, which were called territories). The regional administration consisted of a Council of Deputies and an Executive Committee, which were under the jurisdiction of their republic in much the same way that the republic was connected with the all-Union government. Elections to regional councils were held every five years. City and district councils and executive committees were created in each district. These local authorities were subordinate to the corresponding regional (territorial) authorities.
Communist Party. The ruling and only legal political party The USSR, before its monopoly on power was undermined by perestroika and free elections in 1990, was the Communist Party of the Soviet Union. The CPSU justified its right to power on the basis of the principle of the dictatorship of the proletariat, of which it considered itself the vanguard. Once a small group of revolutionaries (in 1917 it numbered about 20 thousand members), the CPSU eventually became a mass organization with 18 million members. At the end of the 1980s, approximately 45% of party members were employees, approx. 10% are peasants and 45% are workers. Membership in the CPSU was usually preceded by membership in the party's youth organization - the Komsomol, whose members in 1988 were 36 million people. aged 14 to 28 years. People usually joined the party at the age of 25. To become a party member, the applicant had to receive a recommendation from party members with at least five years of experience and demonstrate dedication to the ideas of the CPSU. If members of the local party organization voted to admit the applicant, and the district party committee approved this decision, then the applicant became a candidate member of the party (without the right to vote) with a probationary period of one year, after the successful completion of which he received the status of party member. According to the charter of the CPSU, its members were required to pay membership fees, attend party meetings, be an example for others at work and in personal life, and also propagate the ideas of Marxism-Leninism and the CPSU program. For lapses in any of these areas, a party member was reprimanded, and if the matter turned out to be serious enough, he was expelled from the party. However, the party in power was not a union of sincere like-minded people. Since promotion was dependent on party membership, many used the party card for career purposes. The CPSU was the so-called a new type of party, organized on the principles of “democratic centralism”, according to which all higher bodies in the organizational structure were elected by lower ones, and all lower bodies, in turn, were obliged to carry out the decisions of higher authorities. Until 1989, the CPSU existed approx. 420 thousand primary party organizations (PPO). They were formed in all institutions and enterprises where at least 3 party members or more worked. All PPOs elected their leader - a secretary, and those in which the number of members exceeded 150 were headed by secretaries who were relieved of their main work and occupied only with party affairs. The released secretary became a representative of the party apparatus. His name appeared in the nomenklatura, one of the lists of positions that party authorities approved for all management positions in the Soviet Union. The second category of party members in the PPO included “activists.” These people often held responsible positions - for example, as members of the party bureau. In total, the party apparatus consisted of approx. 2-3% members of the CPSU; activists made up about another 10-12%. All PPOs within a given administrative region elected delegates to the district party conference. Based on the nomenklatura list, the district conference elected a district committee (district committee). The district committee consisted of leading officials of the district (some of them were party officials, others headed councils, factories, collective and state farms, institutions and military units) and party activists who did not hold official positions. The district committee elected, on the basis of recommendations from higher authorities, a bureau and a secretariat of three secretaries: the first was fully responsible for party affairs in the region, the other two oversaw one or more areas of party activity. The departments of the district committee - personal accounting, propaganda, industry, agriculture - functioned under the control of secretaries. The secretaries and one or more heads of these departments sat at the bureau of the district committee along with other top officials of the district, such as the chairman of the district council and the heads of large enterprises and institutions. The bureau represented the political elite of the corresponding region. Party bodies above the district level were organized similar to district committees, but selection for them was even stricter. District conferences sent delegates to the regional (in large cities - city) party conference, which elected the regional (city) party committee. Each of the 166 elected regional committees thus consisted of the elite of the regional center, the elite of the second echelon and several regional activists. The regional committee, based on the recommendations of higher authorities, selected the bureau and secretariat. These bodies controlled the district-level bureaus and secretariats reporting to them. In each republic, delegates elected by party conferences met once every five years at party congresses of the republics. The congress, after hearing and discussing the reports of the party leaders, adopted a program that outlined the party's policy for the next five years. Then the governing bodies were re-elected. At the national level, the CPSU Congress (approximately 5,000 delegates) represented the highest authority in the party. According to the charter, the congress was convened every five years for meetings lasting about ten days. The reports of senior leaders were followed by short speeches by party workers at all levels and several ordinary delegates. The Congress adopted a program that was prepared by the secretariat, taking into account changes and additions made by the delegates. However, the most important act was the election of the Central Committee of the CPSU, which was entrusted with the management of the party and the state. The Central Committee of the CPSU consisted of 475 members; almost all of them held leadership positions in the party, state and public organizations. At its plenary sessions, held twice a year, the Central Committee formulated party policy on one or more issues - industry, agriculture, education, the judiciary, international relations, etc. In the event of disagreements among members of the Central Committee, he had the authority to convene all-Union party conferences. The Central Committee entrusted control and management of the party apparatus to the secretariat, and responsibility for coordinating policies and solving major problems was assigned to the Politburo. The secretariat was subordinate to the general secretary, who supervised the activities of the entire party apparatus with the help of several (up to 10) secretaries, each of whom controlled the work of one or more departments (about 20 in total) that made up the secretariat. The Secretariat approved the nomenclature of all leadership positions at the national, republican and regional levels. Its officials controlled and, if necessary, directly intervened in the affairs of state, economic and public organizations. In addition, the secretariat directed the all-Union network of party schools, which trained promising workers for advancement in the party and in the government field, as well as in the media.
Political modernization. In the second half of the 1980s, General Secretary of the CPSU Central Committee M.S. Gorbachev began implementing a new policy known as “perestroika.” The main idea of ​​the perestroika policy was to overcome the conservatism of the party-state system through reforms and adapt the Soviet Union to modern realities and problems. Perestroika included three main changes in political life. Firstly, under the slogan of glasnost, the boundaries of freedom of speech expanded. Censorship has weakened and the old atmosphere of fear has almost disappeared. A significant part of the long-hidden history of the USSR was made accessible. Party and government sources of information began to report more openly on the state of affairs in the country. Secondly, perestroika revived ideas about grassroots self-government. Self-government involved members of any organization - factory, collective farm, university, etc. - in the process of making key decisions and implied the manifestation of initiative. The third feature of perestroika, democratization, was related to the previous two. The idea here was that full information and a free exchange of views would help society make decisions on a democratic basis. Democratization made a sharp break with the previous political practice. After leaders began to be elected on an alternative basis, their responsibility to the electorate increased. This change weakened the dominance of the party apparatus and undermined the cohesion of the nomenklatura. As perestroika moved forward, the struggle between those who preferred the old methods of control and coercion and those who advocated new methods of democratic leadership began to intensify. This struggle reached its climax in August 1991, when a group of party and state leaders attempted to seize power through a coup d'etat. The putsch failed on the third day. Soon after this, the CPSU was temporarily banned.
Legal and judicial system. The Soviet Union inherited nothing from the legal culture of the Russian Empire that preceded it. During the years of revolution and civil war, the communist regime viewed law and courts as weapons of struggle against class enemies. The concept of “revolutionary legality” continued to exist, despite the weakening of the 1920s, until Stalin’s death in 1953. During the Khrushchev “thaw”, the authorities tried to revive the idea of ​​“socialist legality”, which arose in the 1920s. Arbitrariness repressive bodies was weakened, the terror ended, and stricter judicial procedures were introduced. However, from the point of view of law, order and justice, these measures were insufficient. The legal ban on “anti-Soviet propaganda and agitation,” for example, was interpreted extremely broadly. Based on these pseudo-legal provisions, people were often found guilty in court and sentenced to prison, forced labor, or sent to mental hospitals. Extrajudicial punishments were also applied to persons accused of “anti-Soviet activities.” A.I. Solzhenitsyn, worldwide famous writer, and the famous musician M.L. Rostropovich were among those who were deprived of citizenship and deported abroad; many were expelled from educational institutions or fired from their jobs. Legal abuses took many forms. Firstly, the activities of repressive bodies based on party instructions narrowed or even eliminated the scope of legality. Secondly, the party actually remained above the law. The mutual responsibility of party officials prevented the investigation of crimes of high-ranking party members. This practice was complemented by corruption and the protection of those who broke the law under the cover of party bosses. Finally, party bodies exercised strong unofficial influence on the courts. The policy of perestroika proclaimed the rule of law. In accordance with this concept, the law was recognized as the main instrument for regulating social relations - above all other acts or decrees of the party and government. The implementation of the law was the prerogative of the Ministry of Internal Affairs (MVD) and the State Security Committee (KGB). Both the Ministry of Internal Affairs and the KGB were organized according to the union-republican principle of double subordination, with departments from the national to the district level. Both of these organizations included paramilitary units (border guards in the KGB system, internal troops and special purpose police OMON - in the Ministry of Internal Affairs). As a rule, the KGB dealt with problems in one way or another related to politics, and the Ministry of Internal Affairs dealt with criminal crimes. The internal functions of the KGB were counterintelligence, protection state secrets and control over the “subversive” activities of oppositionists (dissidents). To carry out its tasks, the KGB worked both through “special departments”, which it organized in large institutions, and through a network of informants. The Ministry of Internal Affairs was organized into departments that corresponded to its main functions: criminal investigation, prisons and correctional labor institutions, passport control and registration, investigation of economic crimes, traffic regulation and traffic inspection and patrol service. Soviet judicial law was based on the code of laws of the socialist state. At the national level and in each of the republics there were criminal, civil and criminal procedural codes. The structure of the court was determined by the concept of "people's courts", which operated in every region of the country. District judges were appointed for five years by the regional or city council. "People's assessors", formally equal to the judge, were elected for terms of two and one and a half years at meetings held at the place of work or residence. Regional courts consisted of judges appointed by the Supreme Soviets of the respective republics. Judges of the Supreme Court of the USSR, Supreme Courts of union and autonomous republics and regions were elected by the Councils of People's Deputies at their levels. Both civil and criminal cases were heard first in the district and city people's courts, the verdicts of which were made by a majority vote of the judge and people's assessors. Appeals were sent to higher courts at the regional and republican levels and could reach all the way to the Supreme Court. The Supreme Court had significant powers of supervision over lower courts, but had no power of review court decisions. The main body for monitoring compliance with the rule of law was the prosecutor's office, which exercised overall legal supervision. The Prosecutor General was appointed by the Supreme Soviet of the USSR. In turn, the Prosecutor General appointed the heads of his staff at the national level and prosecutors in each of the union republics, autonomous republics, territories and regions. Prosecutors at the city and district levels were appointed by the prosecutor of the corresponding union republic, reporting to him and the Prosecutor General. All prosecutors held office for a five-year term. In criminal cases, the accused had the right to use the services of a defense lawyer - his own or assigned to him by the court. In both cases, legal costs were minimal. Lawyers belonged to parastatal organizations known as "colleges" which existed in all cities and regional centers. In 1989, an independent lawyer association, the Union of Lawyers, was also organized. The lawyer had the right to review the entire investigative file on behalf of the client, but rarely represented his client during the preliminary investigation. Criminal codes in the Soviet Union used a "public danger" standard to determine the seriousness of offenses and set appropriate penalties. For minor violations, suspended sentences or fines were usually applied. Those found guilty of more serious and socially dangerous offenses could be sentenced to work in a labor camp or up to 10 years in prison. The death penalty was imposed for serious crimes such as premeditated murder, espionage and terrorist acts. State security and international relations. The objectives of Soviet state security underwent a number of fundamental changes over time. At first, the Soviet state was conceived as the result of a global proletarian revolution, which the Bolsheviks hoped would end the First World War. The Communist (III) International (Comintern), whose founding congress took place in Moscow in March 1919, was supposed to unite socialists around the world to support revolutionary movements. Initially, the Bolsheviks did not even imagine that it was possible to build a socialist society (which, according to Marxist theory, corresponds to a more advanced stage of social development - more productive, freer, with higher levels of education, culture and social well-being - compared to a developed capitalist society, which must precede it) in vast peasant Russia. The overthrow of the autocracy opened the path to power for them. When the post-war leftist movements in Europe (in Finland, Germany, Austria, Hungary and Italy) collapsed, Soviet Russia found herself in isolation. The Soviet state was forced to abandon the slogan of world revolution and follow the principle of peaceful coexistence (tactical alliances and economic cooperation) with its capitalist neighbors. Along with the strengthening of the state, the slogan of building socialism in one particular country was put forward. Having led the party after Lenin's death, Stalin took control of the Comintern, purged it, got rid of factionalists ("Trotskyists" and "Bukharinites") and transformed it into an instrument of his politics. Stalin's foreign and domestic policies are encouraging German National Socialism and accusing German Social Democrats of “social fascism,” which made it much easier for Hitler to seize power in 1933; dispossession of peasants in 1931-1933 and extermination command staff The Red Army during the "Great Terror" 1936-1938; alliance with Nazi Germany in 1939-1941 - brought the country to the brink of destruction, although ultimately the Soviet Union, at the cost of mass heroism and enormous losses, managed to emerge victorious in World War II. After the war, which ended with the establishment of communist regimes in most countries of Eastern and Central Europe, Stalin declared the existence of “two camps” in the world and took over the leadership of the countries of the “socialist camp” to fight the irreconcilably hostile “capitalist camp”. The appearance of nuclear weapons in both camps confronted humanity with the prospect of universal destruction. The arms burden became unbearable, and in the late 1980s the Soviet leadership reformulated the basic principles of its foreign policy, which came to be called “new thinking.” The central idea of ​​the “new thinking” was that in the nuclear age, the security of any state, and especially countries with nuclear weapons, can only be based on the mutual security of all parties. In accordance with this concept, Soviet policy gradually reoriented toward global nuclear disarmament by 2000. To this end, the Soviet Union replaced its strategic doctrine of nuclear parity with perceived adversaries with a doctrine of "reasonable sufficiency" in order to prevent attack. Accordingly, it reduced its nuclear arsenal as well as its conventional military forces and began to restructure them. The transition to “new thinking” in international relations entailed a number of radical political changes in 1990 and 1991. At the UN, the USSR put forward diplomatic initiatives that contributed to the resolution of both regional conflicts, as well as a number of global problems. The USSR changed its relations with former allies in Eastern Europe, abandoned the concept of a "sphere of influence" in Asia and Latin America, and stopped interfering in conflicts arising in Third World countries.
ECONOMIC HISTORY
Compared to Western Europe, Russia throughout its history has been an economically backward state. Due to the vulnerability of its southeastern and western borders, Russia was often subject to invasions from Asia and Europe. The Mongol-Tatar yoke and Polish-Lithuanian expansion depleted the resources of economic development. Despite its backwardness, Russia made attempts to catch up with Western Europe. The most decisive attempt was made by Peter the Great at the beginning of the 18th century. Peter vigorously encouraged modernization and industrialization - mainly to increase Russia's military power. The policy of external expansion was continued under Catherine the Great. Tsarist Russia's last push towards modernization came in the second half of the 19th century, when serfdom was abolished and the government implemented programs that stimulated the country's economic development. The state encouraged agricultural exports and attracted foreign capital. An ambitious railway construction program was launched, financed by both the state and private companies. Tariff protectionism and concessions stimulated the development of domestic industry. Bonds issued to landowners-nobles as compensation for the loss of their serfs were repaid with “redemption” payments by the former serfs, thereby forming an important source of accumulation of domestic capital. Forcing peasants to sell most of their produce for cash in order to make these payments, plus the fact that the nobles retained the best land, allowed the state to sell agricultural surpluses on foreign markets.
The consequence of this was a period of rapid industrial
development, when the average annual increase in industrial production reached 10-12%. Russia's gross national product increased threefold over the 20 years from 1893 to 1913. After 1905, the program of Prime Minister Stolypin began to be implemented, aimed at encouraging large peasant farms using hired labor. However, by the beginning of the First World War, Russia did not have time to complete the reforms it had begun.
The October Revolution and the Civil War. Russia's participation in the First World War ended with the revolution in February - October (new style - March - November) 1917. The driving force of this revolution was the desire of the peasantry to end the war and redistribute the land. The provisional government, which replaced the autocracy after the abdication of Tsar Nicholas II in February 1917 and consisted mainly of representatives of the bourgeoisie, was overthrown in October 1917. The new government (Council of People's Commissars), headed by left-wing Social Democrats (Bolsheviks) who returned from emigration, proclaimed Russia the world's first socialist republic. The very first decrees of the Council of People's Commissars proclaimed the end of the war and the lifelong and inalienable right of peasants to use the land taken from the landowners. The most important economic sectors were nationalized - banks, grain trade, transport, military production and the oil industry. Private enterprises outside this "state-capitalist" sector were subject to workers' control through trade unions and factory councils. By the summer of 1918, the Civil War broke out. Most of the country, including Ukraine, Transcaucasia and Siberia, fell into the hands of opponents of the Bolshevik regime, the German occupation army and other foreign invaders. Not believing in the strength of the Bolsheviks' position, industrialists and intellectuals refused to cooperate with the new government.
War communism. In this critical situation, the communists found it necessary to establish centralized control over the economy. In the second half of 1918, all large and medium-sized enterprises and most of the small enterprises were nationalized. To avoid starvation in the cities, the authorities requisitioned grain from the peasants. The "black market" flourished - food was exchanged for household items and industrial goods, which workers received as payment instead of depreciated rubles. Industrial and agricultural production fell sharply. The Communist Party in 1919 openly recognized this situation in the economy, defining it as “war communism”, i.e. "systematic regulation of consumption in a besieged fortress." The authorities began to view War Communism as the first step towards a truly communist economy. War communism enabled the Bolsheviks to mobilize human and industrial resources and win the Civil War.
New economic policy. By the spring of 1921, the Red Army had largely defeated its opponents. However, the economic situation was catastrophic. Industrial production was barely 14% of pre-war levels, and most of the country was starving. On March 1, 1921, the sailors of the garrison in Kronstadt, a key fortress in the defense of Petrograd (St. Petersburg), rebelled. The most important goal of the party's new course, soon called the NEP (new economic policy), was to increase labor productivity in all spheres of economic life. The forced seizure of grain stopped - the surplus appropriation system was replaced by a tax in kind, which was paid as a certain share of the products produced by the peasant farm in excess of the consumption rate. After deducting the tax in kind, surplus food remained the property of the peasants and could be sold on the market. This was followed by the legalization of private trade and private property, as well as the normalization of monetary circulation through a sharp reduction in government spending and the adoption of a balanced budget. In 1922, the State Bank issued a new stable monetary unit, backed by gold and goods, the chervonets. The “commanding heights” of the economy - the fuel, metallurgical and military production, transport, banks and foreign trade - remained under the direct control of the state and were financed from state budget. All other large nationalized enterprises were to operate independently on a commercial basis. These latter were allowed to unite into trusts, of which there were 478 by 1923; they worked approx. 75% of all employed in industry. Trusts were taxed on the same basis as private economy. The most important trusts of heavy industry were provided with state orders; The main lever of control over the trusts was the State Bank, which had a monopoly on commercial credit. The new economic policy quickly brought successful results. By 1925, industrial production had reached 75% of pre-war levels, and agricultural production had been almost completely restored. However, the successes of the NEP confronted the Communist Party with new complex economic and social problems.
Discussion about industrialization. Suppression of revolutionary uprisings of leftist forces throughout Central Europe meant that Soviet Russia had to begin socialist construction in an unfavorable international environment. Russian industry, devastated by the world and civil wars, lagged far behind the industry of the then advanced capitalist countries of Europe and America. Lenin defined the social basis of the NEP as a bond between a small (but led by the Communist Party) urban working class and a large but dispersed peasantry. In order to move towards socialism as far as possible, Lenin proposed that the party adhere to three fundamental principles: 1) encourage in every possible way the creation of production, marketing and purchasing peasant cooperatives; 2) consider the electrification of the entire country to be the primary task of industrialization; 3) maintain the state monopoly on foreign trade to protect domestic industry from foreign competition and use export proceeds to finance high-priority imports. Political and state power remained with the Communist Party.
"Price scissors". In the fall of 1923, the first serious economic problems of the NEP began to appear. Because of quick recovery private agriculture and the lagging state industry, prices for industrial products grew faster than for agricultural goods (which was graphically depicted by diverging lines resembling open scissors). This necessarily had to lead to a decline in agricultural production and a decrease in prices for industrial goods. 46 leading party members in Moscow published an open letter protesting against this line in economic policy. They believed that it was necessary to expand the market in every possible way by stimulating agricultural production.
Bukharin and Preobrazhensky. Statement 46 (soon to become known as the “Moscow opposition”) marked the beginning of a broad internal party discussion that affected the foundations of the Marxist worldview. Its initiators, N.I. Bukharin and E.N. Preobrazhensky, were in the past friends and political associates (they were co-authors of the popular party textbook “The ABCs of Communism”). Bukharin, who led the right-wing opposition, promoted a course of slow and gradual industrialization. Preobrazhensky was one of the leaders of the left (“Trotskyist”) opposition, which advocated accelerated industrialization. Bukharin assumed that the capital needed to finance industrial development would come from the growing savings of peasants. However, the vast majority of peasants were still so poor that they lived mainly by subsistence farming, used all their meager cash income for its needs and had almost no savings. Only the kulaks sold enough meat and grain to allow themselves to create large savings. Grain that was exported brought funds only for small-scale imports of engineering products - especially after expensive consumer goods began to be imported for sale to wealthy townspeople and peasants. In 1925, the government allowed the kulaks to rent land from poor peasants and hire farm laborers. Bukharin and Stalin argued that if the peasants enriched themselves, then the amount of grain for sale would increase (which would increase exports) and cash deposits in the State Bank. As a result, they believed, the country should industrialize, and the kulak should “grow into socialism.” Preobrazhensky stated that a significant increase in industrial production would require large investments in new equipment. In other words, if measures are not taken, production will become even more unprofitable due to equipment wear and tear, and overall production volume will decrease. To get out of the situation, the left opposition proposed to begin accelerated industrialization and introduce a long-term state economic plan. The key question remained how to find the capital investment needed for rapid industrial growth. Preobrazhensky's response was a program he called "socialist accumulation." The state had to use its monopoly position (especially in the area of ​​imports) to increase prices as much as possible. A progressive taxation system was supposed to guarantee large monetary receipts from the kulaks. Instead of providing loans preferentially to the richest (and therefore most creditworthy) peasants, the State Bank should give preference to cooperatives and collective farms made up of poor and middle peasants who would be able to purchase agricultural equipment and quickly increase their yields by introducing modern farming methods.
International relationships. The question of the country's relations with the leading industrial powers of the capitalist world was also of decisive importance. Stalin and Bukharin expected that the economic prosperity of the West, which began in the mid-1920s, would continue for a long period - this was a basic precondition for their theory of industrialization financed by ever-increasing grain exports. Trotsky and Preobrazhensky, for their part, assumed that in a few years this economic boom would end in a deep economic crisis. This position formed the basis of their theory of rapid industrialization, financed by the immediate large-scale export of raw materials at favorable prices - so that when the crisis struck, there would already be an industrial base for the accelerated development of the country. Trotsky advocated attracting foreign investment (“concessions”), which Lenin also spoke for at one time. He hoped to use the contradictions between the imperialist powers to break out of the regime of international isolation in which the country found itself. The leadership of the party and state saw the main threat in probable war with Great Britain and France (as well as with their Eastern European allies Poland and Romania). To protect themselves from such a threat, diplomatic relations with Germany were established even under Lenin (Rapallo, March 1922). Later, under a secret agreement with Germany, German officers were trained, and new types of weapons were tested for Germany. In turn, Germany provided the Soviet Union with significant assistance in the construction of heavy industrial enterprises intended for the production of military products.
The end of NEP. By the beginning of 1926, the freezing of wages in production, coupled with the growing prosperity of party and government officials, private traders and wealthy peasants, caused discontent among the workers. The leaders of the Moscow and Leningrad party organizations L.B. Kamenev and G.I. Zinoviev, speaking out against Stalin, formed a united left opposition in a bloc with the Trotskyists. Stalin's bureaucratic apparatus easily dealt with the oppositionists, concluding an alliance with Bukharin and other moderates. The Bukharinists and Stalinists accused the Trotskyists of “excessive industrialization” through the “exploitation” of the peasantry, of undermining the economy and the union of workers and peasants. In 1927, in the absence of investment, the costs of producing manufactured goods continued to rise and living standards declined. The growth of agricultural production stopped due to the emerging commodity shortage: peasants were not interested in selling their agricultural products at low prices. In order to accelerate industrial development, the first five-year plan was developed and approved in December 1927 by the 15th Party Congress.
Bread riots. The winter of 1928 was the threshold of an economic crisis. Purchasing prices for agricultural products were not increased, and the sale of grain to the state fell sharply. Then the state returned to direct expropriation of grain. This affected not only the kulaks, but also the middle peasants. In response, peasants reduced their crops and grain exports virtually ceased.
Turn left. The government's response was a radical change in economic policy. To provide resources for rapid growth, the party began to organize the peasantry into a system of collective farms under state control.
Revolution from above. In May 1929, the party opposition was crushed. Trotsky was deported to Turkey; Bukharin, A.I. Rykov and M.P. Tomsky were removed from leadership positions; Zinoviev, Kamenev and other weaker oppositionists capitulated to Stalin, publicly renouncing their political views. In the fall of 1929, immediately after the harvest, Stalin gave the order to begin the implementation of complete collectivization.
Collectivization of agriculture. By the beginning of November 1929, approx. 70 thousand collective farms, which included almost only poor or landless peasants, attracted by promises of state assistance. They accounted for 7% of total number everyone peasant families, and they owned less than 4% of the cultivated land. Stalin set the party the task of accelerated collectivization of the entire agricultural sector. A resolution of the Central Committee at the beginning of 1930 established its deadline - by the fall of 1930 in the main grain-producing regions, and by the fall of 1931 in the rest. At the same time, through representatives and in the press, Stalin demanded to speed up this process, suppressing any resistance. In many areas, complete collectivization was carried out by the spring of 1930. During the first two months of 1930, approx. 10 million peasant farms were united into collective farms. The poorest and landless peasants viewed collectivization as a division of the property of their richer countrymen. However, among the middle peasants and kulaks, collectivization caused massive resistance. Widespread slaughter of livestock began. By March, the cattle population had decreased by 14 million heads; Large numbers of pigs, goats, sheep and horses were also slaughtered. In March 1930, in view of the threat of failure of the spring sowing campaign, Stalin demanded a temporary suspension of the collectivization process and accused local officials of “excesses.” Peasants were even allowed to leave collective farms, and by July 1, approx. 8 million families left collective farms. But in the fall, after the harvest, the collectivization campaign resumed and did not stop thereafter. By 1933, more than three-quarters of the cultivated land and more than three-fifths of peasant farms were collectivized. Everyone wealthy peasants“dekulakized”, confiscating their property and crops. In cooperatives (collective farms), peasants had to supply the state with a fixed volume of products; payment was made depending on the labor contribution of each person (the number of “workdays”). The purchasing prices set by the government were extremely low, while the required supplies were high, sometimes exceeding the entire harvest. However, collective farmers were allowed to have personal plots of 0.25-1.5 hectares in size, depending on the region of the country and the quality of the land, for their own use. These plots, the products from which were allowed to be sold at collective farm markets, provided a significant part of the food for city residents and fed the peasants themselves. There were much fewer farms of the second type, but they were allocated better land and were better provided with agricultural equipment. These state farms were called state farms and functioned as industrial enterprises. Agricultural workers here received wages in cash and did not have the right to a plot of land. It was obvious that the collectivized peasant farms will require a significant amount of equipment, especially tractors and combines. By organizing machine and tractor stations (MTS), the state created an effective means of control over collective peasant farms. Each MTS served a number of collective farms on a contractual basis for payment in cash or (mainly) in kind. In 1933 in the RSFSR there were 1,857 MTS, with 133 thousand tractors and 18,816 combines, which cultivated 54.8% of the sown areas of collective farms.
Consequences of collectivization. The first five-year plan envisaged increasing agricultural production by 50% from 1928 to 1933. However, the collectivization campaign that resumed in the fall of 1930 was accompanied by a decline in production and the slaughter of livestock. By 1933, the total number of cattle in agriculture had decreased from more than 60 million heads to less than 34 million. The number of horses decreased from 33 million to 17 million; pigs - from 19 million to 10 million; sheep - from 97 to 34 million; goats - from 10 to 3 million. Only in 1935, when tractor factories were built in Kharkov, Stalingrad and Chelyabinsk, the number of tractors became sufficient to restore the level of total draft power that peasant farms had in 1928. The total grain harvest, which in 1928 exceeded the level of 1913 and amounted to 76.5 million tons, by 1933 it decreased to 70 million tons, despite the increase in the area of ​​cultivated land. Overall, agricultural production fell by approximately 20% from 1928 to 1933. The consequence of rapid industrialization was a significant increase in the number of city dwellers, which necessitated a strictly rationed distribution of food. The situation was made worse by the global economic crisis that began in 1929. By 1930, grain prices on the world market had fallen sharply - just when large quantities of industrial equipment had to be imported, not to mention the tractors and combines needed for agriculture (mainly from the USA and Germany). To pay for imports, it was necessary to export grain in huge quantities. In 1930, 10% of the collected grain was exported, and in 1931 - 14%. The result of grain exports and collectivization was famine. The situation was worst in the Volga region and Ukraine, where peasant resistance to collectivization was strongest. In the winter of 1932-1933, more than 5 million people died of hunger, but even more were sent into exile. By 1934, violence and hunger finally broke the resistance of the peasants. The forced collectivization of agriculture led to fatal consequences. The peasants no longer felt like masters of the land. Significant and irreparable damage to the culture of management was caused by the destruction of the wealthy, i.e. the most skilled and hardworking peasantry. Despite the mechanization and expansion of sown areas due to the development of new lands in virgin lands and other areas, the increase in purchase prices and the introduction of pensions and other social benefits collective farmers, labor productivity on collective and state farms lagged far behind the level that existed on private plots and especially in the West, and the gross volume of agricultural production increasingly lagged behind population growth. Due to the lack of incentives to work, agricultural machinery and equipment on collective and state farms were usually poorly maintained, seeds and fertilizers were used wastefully, and harvest losses were enormous. Since the 1970s, despite the fact that approx. 20% of the labor force (in the USA and Western European countries - less than 4%), the Soviet Union became the world's largest importer of grain.
Five-year plans. The justification for the costs of collectivization was the construction of a new society in the USSR. This goal undoubtedly aroused the enthusiasm of many millions of people, especially the generation that grew up after the revolution. During the 1920s and 1930s, millions of young people found education and party work as the key to moving up the social ladder. With the help of the mobilization of the masses, an unprecedentedly rapid industrial growth was achieved just at a time when the West was experiencing an acute economic crisis. During the first five-year plan (1928-1933), approx. 1,500 large factories, including metallurgical plants in Magnitogorsk and Novokuznetsk; agricultural machinery and tractor factories in Rostov-on-Don, Chelyabinsk, Stalingrad, Saratov and Kharkov; chemical plants in the Urals and a heavy engineering plant in Kramatorsk. New centers of oil production, metal production and weapons production arose in the Urals and Volga region. The construction of new railways and canals began, in which the forced labor of dispossessed peasants played an increasingly important role. Results of the implementation of the first five-year plan. During the period of accelerated implementation of the second and third five-year plans (1933-1941), many mistakes made during the implementation of the first plan were taken into account and corrected. During this period of mass repression, the systematic use of forced labor under the control of the NKVD became an important part of the economy, especially in the timber and gold mining industries, and on new construction projects in Siberia and the Far North. The economic planning system as it was created in the 1930s lasted without fundamental changes until the late 1980s. The essence of the system was planning carried out by the bureaucratic hierarchy using command methods. At the top of the hierarchy were the Politburo and the Central Committee of the Communist Party, which led the highest economic decision-making body, the State Planning Committee (Gosplan). More than 30 ministries were subordinated to the State Planning Committee, subdivided into “main departments” responsible for specific types of production, combined into one industry. At the base of this production pyramid were the primary production units - plants and factories, collective and state agricultural enterprises, mines, warehouses, etc. Each of these units was responsible for the implementation of a specific part of the plan, determined (based on the volume and cost of production or turnover) by higher-level authorities, and received its own planned quota of resources. This pattern was repeated at each level of the hierarchy. Central planning agencies set target figures in accordance with a system of so-called “material balances”. Each production unit at each level of the hierarchy agreed with a higher authority about what its plans would be for the coming year. In practice, this meant shaking up the plan: everyone below wanted to do the minimum and receive the maximum, while everyone above wanted to get as much as possible and give as little as possible. From the compromises reached, a “balanced” overall plan emerged.
The role of money. Control figures for plans were presented in physical units (tons of oil, pairs of shoes, etc.), but money also played an important, albeit subordinate, role in the planning process. With the exception of periods of extreme shortages (1930-1935, 1941-1947), when basic consumer goods were rationed, all goods usually went on sale. Money was also a means for non-cash payments - it was assumed that each enterprise should minimize the cash costs of production so as to be conditionally profitable, and the State Bank should allocate limits for each enterprise. All prices were tightly controlled; Money was thus assigned an exclusively passive economic role as a means of accounting and a method of rationing consumption.
Victory of socialism. At the 7th Congress of the Comintern in August 1935, Stalin declared that “in the Soviet Union, complete and final victory socialism." This statement - that the Soviet Union built a socialist society - became an unshakable dogma of Soviet ideology.
Great terror. Having dealt with the peasantry, taking control of the working class and raising an obedient intelligentsia, Stalin and his supporters, under the slogan of “exacerbating the class struggle,” began to purge the party. After December 1, 1934 (on this day S.M. Kirov, the secretary of the Leningrad party organization, was killed by Stalin’s agents), several political trials were held, and then almost all the old party cadres were destroyed. With the help of documents fabricated by German intelligence services, many representatives of the high command of the Red Army were repressed. Over 5 years, more than 5 million people were shot or sent to forced labor in NKVD camps.
Post-war reconstruction. The Second World War led to devastation in western regions Soviet Union, but accelerated the industrial growth of the Ural-Siberian region. The industrial base was quickly restored after the war: this was facilitated by the removal of industrial equipment from East Germany and Soviet-occupied Manchuria. In addition, the Gulag camps again received multimillion-dollar replenishment from German prisoners of war and former Soviet prisoners of war accused of treason. Heavy and military industries remained top priorities. Particular attention was paid to the development of nuclear energy, primarily for weapons purposes. The pre-war level of supply of food and consumer goods was already achieved in the early 1950s.
Khrushchev's reforms. Stalin's death in March 1953 put an end to terror and repression, which were becoming increasingly widespread, reminiscent of pre-war times. The softening of party policy during the leadership of N.S. Khrushchev, from 1955 to 1964, was called the “thaw.” Millions of political prisoners have returned from Gulag camps; most of them were rehabilitated. Significantly greater attention in the five-year plans began to be paid to the production of consumer goods and housing construction. The volume of agricultural production increased; wages grew, mandatory supplies and taxes decreased. In order to increase profitability, collective and state farms were enlarged and disaggregated, sometimes without much success. Large large state farms were created during the development of virgin and fallow lands in Altai and Kazakhstan. These lands produced crops only in years with sufficient rainfall, about three out of every five years, but they allowed a significant increase in the average amount of grain harvested. The MTS system was liquidated, and collective farms received their own agricultural equipment. The hydroelectric, oil and gas resources of Siberia were developed; Large scientific and industrial centers arose there. Many young people went to the virgin lands and construction sites of Siberia, where bureaucratic orders were comparatively less rigid than in the European part of the country. Khrushchev's attempts to accelerate economic development soon encountered resistance from the administrative apparatus. Khrushchev tried to decentralize ministries by transferring many of their functions to new regional economic councils (economic councils). A debate broke out among economists about developing a more realistic pricing system and giving real autonomy to industrial directors. Khrushchev intended to carry out a significant reduction in military spending, which followed from the doctrine of “peaceful coexistence” with the capitalist world. In October 1964, Khrushchev was removed from his post by a coalition of conservative party bureaucrats, representatives of the central planning apparatus and the Soviet military-industrial complex.
Period of stagnation. The new Soviet leader L.I. Brezhnev quickly nullified Khrushchev's reforms. With the occupation of Czechoslovakia in August 1968, he destroyed any hope for the centralized economies of Eastern Europe to develop their own models of society. The only area of ​​rapid technological progress was in industries related to military industry- production of submarines, missiles, aircraft, military electronics, space program. As before, no special attention was paid to the production of consumer goods. Large-scale land reclamation has led to catastrophic consequences for the environment and public health. For example, the cost of introducing cotton monoculture in Uzbekistan was the severe shallowing of the Aral Sea, which until 1973 was the fourth largest inland body of water in the world.
Slowing economic growth. During the leadership of Brezhnev and his immediate successors, the development of the Soviet economy slowed down extremely. And yet, the bulk of the population could firmly count on small but guaranteed salaries, pensions and benefits, control over prices for basic consumer goods, free education and healthcare, and practically free, although always in short supply, housing. To maintain minimum subsistence standards, large quantities of grain and various consumer goods were imported from the West. Since the main Soviet exports - mainly oil, gas, timber, gold, diamonds and weapons - provided insufficient amounts of hard currency, the Soviet foreign debt reached $6 billion by 1976 and continued to increase rapidly.
The period of collapse. In 1985, M. S. Gorbachev became the General Secretary of the CPSU Central Committee. He took up this post fully aware that radical economic reforms, which he launched under the slogan of “restructuring and acceleration.” To increase labor productivity - i.e. use the most quick way ensuring economic growth, he authorized an increase in wages and limited the sale of vodka in the hope of stopping the rampant drunkenness of the population. However, proceeds from the sale of vodka were the main source of income for the state. The loss of this income and higher wages increased the budget deficit and increased inflation. In addition, the ban on the sale of vodka revived the underground trade in moonshine; Drug use has increased sharply. In 1986, the economy suffered a terrible shock after the explosion at the Chernobyl nuclear power plant, which led to radioactive contamination of large areas of Ukraine, Belarus and Russia. Until 1989-1990, the economy of the Soviet Union was closely linked through the Council for Mutual Economic Assistance (CMEA) with the economies of Bulgaria, Poland, Czechoslovakia, the German Democratic Republic (GDR), Hungary, Romania, Mongolia, Cuba and Vietnam. For all these countries, the USSR was the main source of oil, gas and industrial raw materials, and in return it received from them mechanical engineering products, consumer goods and agricultural products. The reunification of Germany in mid-1990 led to the destruction of the Comecon. By August 1990, everyone already understood that radical reforms aimed at encouraging private initiative were inevitable. Gorbachev and his main political opponent, President of the RSFSR B.N. Yeltsin, jointly put forward the “500 days” structural reform program developed by economists S.S. Shatalin and G.A. Yavlinsky, which envisaged the release from state control and privatization of most of the national economy in an organized manner, without reducing the standard of living of the population. However, in order to avoid confrontation with the apparatus of the central planning system, Gorbachev refused to discuss the program and its implementation in practice. In early 1991, the government tried to curb inflation by limiting the money supply, but the huge budget deficit continued to increase as the union republics refused to transfer taxes to the center. At the end of June 1991, Gorbachev and the presidents of most of the republics agreed to conclude a union treaty to preserve the USSR, giving the republics new rights and powers. But the economy was already in a hopeless state. The size of external debt was approaching $70 billion, production was declining by almost 20% per year, and inflation rates exceeded 100% per year. The emigration of qualified specialists exceeded 100 thousand people per year. To save the economy, the Soviet leadership, in addition to reforms, needed serious financial assistance Western powers. At a July meeting of the leaders of seven leading industrialized countries, Gorbachev asked them for help, but found no response.
CULTURE
The leadership of the USSR attached great importance the formation of a new, Soviet culture - “national in form, socialist in content.” It was assumed that the ministries of culture at the union and republican levels should subordinate the development of national culture to the same ideological and political guidelines that prevailed in all sectors of economic and public life. This task was not easy to cope with in a multinational state with more than 100 languages. Having created national-state formations for the majority of the peoples of the country, the party leadership stimulated development in the right direction national cultures; in 1977, for example, 2,500 books were published in Georgian with a circulation of 17.7 million copies. and 2200 books in Uzbek with a circulation of 35.7 million copies. A similar state of affairs existed in other union and autonomous republics. Due to the lack of cultural traditions, most books were translations from other languages, mainly from Russian. The task of the Soviet regime in the field of culture after October was understood differently by two competing groups of ideologists. The first, which considered itself the promoters of a general and complete renewal of life, demanded a decisive break with the culture of the “old world” and the creation of a new, proletarian culture. The most prominent herald of ideological and artistic innovation was the futurist poet Vladimir Mayakovsky (1893-1930), one of the leaders of the avant-garde literary group Left Front (LEF). Their opponents, who were called “fellow travelers,” believed that ideological renewal did not contradict the continuation of the advanced traditions of Russian and world culture. The inspirer of the supporters of proletarian culture and at the same time the mentor of “fellow travelers” was the writer Maxim Gorky (A.M. Peshkov, 1868-1936), who gained fame in pre-revolutionary Russia. In the 1930s, the party and state strengthened their control over literature and art by creating unified all-Union creative organizations. After Stalin's death in 1953, a cautious and increasingly in-depth analysis of what had been done under Soviet power to strengthen and develop Bolshevik cultural ideas, and the following decade witnessed ferment in all spheres of Soviet life. The names and works of victims of ideological and political repression have come out of total oblivion, and the influence of foreign literature has increased. Soviet culture began to come to life during the period collectively called the “thaw” (1954-1956). Two groups of cultural figures emerged - "liberals" and "conservatives" - who were represented in various official publications.
Education. The Soviet leadership paid a lot of attention and resources to education. In a country where more than two-thirds of the population could not read, illiteracy was virtually eliminated by the 1930s through several mass campaigns. In 1966, 80.3 million people, or 34% of the population, had secondary specialized, incomplete or completed higher education; if in 1914 there were 10.5 million people studying in Russia, then in 1967, when universal compulsory secondary education was introduced, there were 73.6 million. In 1989, there were 17.2 million pupils in nurseries and kindergartens in the USSR, 39, 7 million primary school students and 9.8 million secondary school students. Depending on the decisions of the country's leadership, boys and girls studied in secondary schools, sometimes together, sometimes separately, sometimes for 10 years, sometimes for 11. The schoolchildren, almost entirely covered by the Pioneer and Komsomol organizations, had to fully monitor the progress and behavior of everyone. In 1989, there were 5.2 million full-time students and several million part-time or part-time students in Soviet universities. evening departments. The first academic degree after graduation was a Ph.D. To obtain it, it was necessary to have a higher education, gain some work experience, or complete graduate school and defend a dissertation in your specialty. The highest academic degree, Doctor of Science, was usually achieved only after 15-20 years of professional work and with a large number of published scientific works.
Science and academic institutions. In the Soviet Union, significant advances were made in some natural sciences and in military technology. This happened despite the ideological pressure of the party bureaucracy, which banned and abolished entire branches of science, such as cybernetics and genetics. After World War II, the state sent the best minds to the development of nuclear physics and applied mathematics and their practical applications. Physicists and rocket scientists could rely on generous financial support for their work. Russia has traditionally produced excellent theoretical scientists, and this tradition continued in the Soviet Union. Intensive and multilateral research activities were ensured by a network of research institutes that were part of the USSR Academy of Sciences and the Academies of the Union Republics, covering all areas of knowledge - both natural sciences and the humanities.
Traditions and holidays. One of the first tasks of the Soviet leadership was the elimination of old holidays, mainly church ones, and the introduction of revolutionary holidays. At first, even Sunday and New Year were cancelled. The main Soviet revolutionary holidays were November 7 - the holiday of the October Revolution of 1917 and May 1 - the day of international workers' solidarity. Both of them were celebrated for two days. Mass demonstrations were organized in all cities of the country, and in large administrative centers- military parades; The largest and most impressive was the parade in Moscow on Red Square. See below

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. Was the largest state in the world. Its area was equal to 1/6 of the land. Now on site former USSR There are 15 countries: Russia, Ukraine, Belarus, Kazakhstan, Uzbekistan, Tajikistan, Armenia, Georgia, Azerbaijan, Kyrgyzstan, Lithuania, Latvia, Estonia, Moldova and Turkmenistan.

The country's territory was 22.4 million square kilometers. The Soviet Union occupied vast territories in Eastern Europe, Northern 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 Soviet Union's land border was the longest in the world, measuring over 60,000 km.

The territory of the Soviet Union had five climate zones and was divided into 11 time zones. Within the USSR there was the largest lake in the world - the Caspian and the deepest lake in the world - Baikal.

Natural resources The USSR were the richest in the world (their list included all the elements of the periodic table).

Administrative division of the USSR

The Union of Soviet Socialist Republics positioned itself as a single union multinational state. This norm was enshrined in the 1977 Constitution. The USSR included 15 allied - 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 okrugs, 129 territories and regions. All of the above administrative-territorial units were divided into districts and cities of regional, regional and republican subordination.

The population of the USSR was (millions):
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%); rural - 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, Azerbaijanis - 5477, Armenians - 4151, Georgians - 3571, Moldovans - 2968, Tajiks - 2898, Lithuanians - 2851, Turkmens - 2028, Germans - 1936, Kyrgyz - 1906, Jews - 1811, Chuvash - 1751, peoples of the Republic of Dagestan - 1657, Latvians - 1439 , Bashkirs - 1371, Mordovians - 1192, Poles - 1151, Estonians - 1020.

The 1977 Constitution of the USSR 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. The most densely populated regions of the USSR were:
- Center. areas of the European part of the RSFSR, especially between the Oka and Volga rivers.
- Donbass and Right Bank Ukraine.
- Moldavian SSR.
- Certain 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, Kiev - 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, Almaty - 1108 thousand, Ufa - 1092 thousand, Donetsk - 1090 thousand, Perm - 1075 thousand, Kazan - 1068 thousand, Rostov-on-Don - 1004 thousand.

Throughout its history, the capital of the USSR was 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 nations and nationalities inhabiting it. Democracy was officially declared in the Soviet Union. Article 2 of the 1977 USSR Constitution proclaimed: “All power in the USSR belongs to the people. The people are implementing state power through the Councils of People's Deputies, which form the political basis of the USSR. All other government 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. In the intervals 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 directing force of Soviet society, the core of its political system, state and public organizations.” The leader - the General Secretary - of the CPSU actually owned all the power in the Soviet Union.

Leaders of the USSR

The actual leaders of the USSR were:
- Chairmen of the Council People's Commissars: IN AND. 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 and the Turkmen SSR were formed;

In 1929, the Tajik SSR, which had previously been an autonomous republic, was separated from the Uzbek SSR as part of the USSR;

In 1936, the Transcaucasian Soviet Federative Socialist Republic was abolished. The Georgian SSR, Azerbaijan SSR, and Armenian SSR were formed on its territory.

In the same year, two more autonomies were separated from the RSFSR - the Cossack Autonomous Soviet Socialist Republic and the Kirghiz Autonomous Soviet Socialist Republic. 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), obtained as a result of the division of Poland, were annexed to the BSSR.

In 1940, the territory of the USSR expanded significantly. New union republics were formed:
- Moldavian SSR (created from part of the Moldavian Autonomous Soviet Socialist Republic, which was part of the Ukrainian SSR, and part of the territory transferred to the USSR by Romania),
- Latvian SSR (formerly independent Latvia),
- Lithuanian SSR (formerly independent Lithuania),
- Estonian SSR (formerly independent Estonia).
- Karelo-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, into the republic.

In 1944, the Tuva Autonomous Region (formerly independent Tuva People's Republic) became part of the RSFSR.

In 1945, it was annexed to the RSFSR Kaliningrad region(East Prussia, separated from Germany), and the Transcarpathian region, voluntarily transferred by socialist Czechoslovakia, became part of the Ukrainian SSR.

In 1946, new territories became part of the RSFSR - the southern part of Sakhalin Island and the Kuril Islands, recaptured from Japan.

In 1956, the Karelo-Finnish SSR was abolished, and its territory was again included in the RSFSR as the Karelian Autonomous Soviet Socialist Republic.

Main stages of the history of the USSR

1. New economic policy (1921 - 1928). The reform of state policy was caused by a deep socio-political crisis that gripped the country as a result of miscalculations in the policy of “war communism”. X Congress of the RCP(b) in March 1921 on the initiative of V.I. Lenin decided to replace the surplus appropriation system with a tax in kind. This marked the beginning of the New Economic Policy (NEP). Other reforms include:
- small industry was partially denationalized;
- private trade is allowed;
- free hiring of labor in the USSR. In industry, labor conscription will be abolished;
- reform of economic management - weakening of centralization;
- transition of enterprises to self-financing;
- introduction of the banking system;
- monetary reform is being carried out. The goal is to stabilize the Soviet currency against the dollar and pound sterling at the gold parity level;
- cooperation and joint ventures based on concessions are encouraged;
- In the agricultural sector, renting land using hired labor is allowed.
The state left only heavy industry and foreign trade in its hands.

2. “The Great Leap Forward Policy” of I. Stalin in the USSR. Late 1920-1930s Includes industrial modernization (industrialization) and collectivization of agriculture. The main goal is to rearm the armed forces and create a modern, technically equipped army.

3. Industrialization of the USSR. In December 1925, the XIV Congress of the All-Union Communist Party (Bolsheviks) proclaimed a course towards industrialization. It envisaged the beginning of a great 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 to 1925

In 1928, a course towards accelerated industrialization was proclaimed. The 1st 5-year plan was approved in its maximum version, but the planned increase in production of 36.6% was fulfilled by only 17.7%. In January 1933, the completion of the first 5-year plan was solemnly announced. It was reported that 1,500 new enterprises were put into operation and unemployment was eliminated. The industrialization of industry continued throughout the history of the USSR, but it was accelerated only during the 1930s. It was as a result of the successes of this period that it was possible to create a heavy industry, which in its indicators exceeded those of the most developed Western countries - 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 the government considered as the main source of attracting foreign currency for industrialization. The following measures have been taken:
1) On March 16, 1927, a decree “On collective farms” was issued. The need to strengthen the technical base on collective farms and eliminate equalization in wages was declared.
2) Exemption of the poor from agricultural taxes.
3) Increase in the amount of tax for kulaks.
4) The policy of limiting the kulaks as a class, and then its complete destruction, a 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 at 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, Nazi Germany attacked the Soviet Union without declaring war. On June 23, 1941, the Soviet leadership established the Headquarters of the Supreme High Command. 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 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, and Ukraine were abandoned, and the enemy approached Leningrad and Moscow. On November 15, a new offensive began. In some areas, the Nazis came within 25-30 km of the capital, but were unable to advance further. On December 5-6, 1941, Soviet troops launched a counteroffensive near Moscow. At the same time they 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 to a distance of up to 300 km. from the capital. The first stage of the Patriotic War (June 22, 1941 - December 5-6, 1941) ended. The plan for a lightning war was thwarted.

After an unsuccessful offensive near Kharkov at the end of May 1942, Soviet troops soon left Crimea and retreated to the North Caucasus and Volga. . On November 19-20, 1942, the counter-offensive of Soviet troops began near Stalingrad. By November 23, 22 fascist divisions numbering 330 thousand people were surrounded at Stalingrad. January 31, the main forces of the surrounded German troops led by Field Marshal Paulus surrendered. On February 2, 1943, the operation to completely destroy the encircled group was completed. After the victory of the Soviet troops at 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 Oryol and Belgorod, on August 23, Kharkov was liberated, and on August 30, Taganrog. 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 on 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 fall of 1944, Soviet troops liberated the Baltic states, Romania, Bulgaria, Yugoslavia, Czechoslovakia, Hungary, and Poland. On September 4, Germany's ally Finland withdrew from the war. The result of the offensive of the Soviet Army in 1944 was complete liberation THE USSR.

On April 16, 1945, the Berlin operation began. On May 8, Germany capitulated. The hostilities in Europe ended.
The main result of the war was the complete defeat of Nazi Germany. Humanity was freed from slavery, world culture and civilization were saved. As a result of the war, the USSR lost a third of its national wealth. Almost 30 million people died. 1,700 cities and 70 thousand villages were destroyed. 35 million people were left homeless.

The restoration of Soviet industry (1945 - 1953) and the national economy took place in the USSR under difficult conditions:
1) Lack of food, difficult working and living conditions, high morbidity and mortality rates. But an 8-hour working day, annual leave were introduced, and forced overtime was abolished.
2) Conversion was completely completed only by 1947.
3) Labor shortage in the USSR.
4) Increased migration of the population of the USSR.
5) Increased transfer of funds from villages to cities.
6) Redistribution of funds from light and Food Industry, agriculture and social sphere in favor of heavy industry.
7) The desire to implement scientific and technical developments in production.

There was a drought in the village in 1946, which led to 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 repression 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 20th Congress of the CPSU took place, at which the personality cult of Joseph Stalin was condemned. As a result, partial rehabilitation of the enemies of the people was carried out, and some repressed peoples were allowed to return to their homeland.

Investments in agriculture increased 2.5 times.

All debts from collective farms were written off.

MTS - material and technical stations - were transferred to collective farms

Taxes on personal plots are increasing

The course for the development of the Virgin Lands is 1956; it is planned to develop and sow grain on 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 livestock farming and agriculture (the sowing of large areas with corn).

1963 - The Soviet Union purchases grain for gold for the first time since the revolutionary period.
Almost all ministries were abolished. The territorial principle of management was introduced - the management of enterprises and organizations was transferred to economic councils formed in economic administrative regions.

Period of stagnation in the USSR (1962 - 1984)

Followed Khrushchev's thaw. Characterized by stagnation in socio-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) Small growth production is achieved by increasing the production of raw materials and fuel.
In the 70s, there was a sharp lag in agriculture, and a crisis in the social sphere was emerging. The housing problem has become extremely acute. There is a growth of the bureaucratic apparatus. The number of all-Union ministries increased from 29 to 160 over 2 decades. In 1985, they employed 18 million officials.

Perestroika in the USSR (1985 - 1991)

A set of measures to solve the accumulated problems in the Soviet economy, as well as the political and social system. The initiator of its implementation was the new General Secretary of the CPSU M.S. Gorbachev.
1.Democratization of public life and the 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.Transition of the economy to self-financing. Introduction of free market elements in the country. Permit for private entrepreneurship.
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. Economic ties between republics and regions within the USSR gradually weakened.
2) The gradual destruction of the Soviet system on the ground. Significant weakening of the union center.
3) The weakening of the influence of the CPSU on all aspects of life in the USSR and its subsequent ban.
4) Exacerbation 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 - the attempted coup d'etat (GKChP) and its failure - made the process of collapse of the USSR inevitable.
The V Congress of People's Deputies (held on September 5, 1991) surrendered its powers to the USSR State Council, which included the highest officials of the republics, and the Supreme Council of the USSR.
September 9 - The State Council officially recognized the independence of the Baltic states.
On December 1, the overwhelming majority of the Ukrainian population approved the Declaration of Independence of Ukraine in a national referendum (August 24, 1991).

On December 8, the Belovezhskaya Agreement was signed. The Presidents of Russia, Ukraine and Belarus B. Yeltsin, L. Kravchuk and S. Shushkevich announced the unification of their republics into the CIS - the Commonwealth of Independent States.

By 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 Republics and the Supreme Council officially recognized the dissolution of the USSR.