The smallest USSR in terms of area. USSR map

Union of Soviets Socialist Republics occupies an area equal to 22402 million sq. km 2, of which only 309 thousand km 2 falls on the islands.

The territory of the world's first socialist state is located on the greatest of the continents - the Eurasian continent and occupies more than 40% of its area. The population of the Soviet Union reaches 229.1 million people (according to 1965 data).

The area of ​​the USSR is 2.5 times the area of ​​the USA and 90 times the area of ​​England (without colonies).

The most northern point The Soviet Union on the mainland - Cape Chelyuskin - is located far beyond the Arctic Circle, at 77°43" N. Cape Fligeli on Rudolf Island in the Franz Josef Land archipelago is located even further north - 81°50" N. w. From metro station Fligeli to the North Pole - 900km.

The southernmost point of the Soviet Union lies on the border with Afghanistan, south of the village of Kushki, in the vicinity of the village of Childukhter (35 ° 08 "N). The length of the territory from this point to the latitude of Cape Chelyuskin is more than 4500 km. Almost the entire territory of the country, with the exception of its extreme north and extreme south, is located in temperate latitudes.

From west to east, the Soviet Union extends over 10,000 km. The extreme western point (19°38" E) is located on the border with Poland, not far from Kaliningrad, on a sandy spit of the Gdansk Bay of the Baltic Sea.

The easternmost point on the mainland is Cape Dezhneva (169°6"W) and Ratmanov Island in the Bering Strait (169°40"W).

The country has 11 time zones - from IIbefore XII; Thus, the time difference between Moscow and Chukotka is 10 hours. The Soviet Union is located mainly in eastern hemisphere, and only part of the territory extends into the Western Hemisphere.

Most of the USSR is located in Asia, and only 25% of its area is in Europe.

Length state borders - 60 000 km, i.e. by 20,000 km greater than the circumference of the equator and three times the distance from the North Pole to the South Pole. At least 2/3 are maritime borders. The northern and eastern borders of the Soviet Union are maritime throughout.

The Soviet Union is washed by the waters of three oceans: the Pacific, Arctic and Atlantic; only the Indian Ocean does not border on Soviet land. It should be noted that the proximity of huge water spaces significantly influences the nature of the USSR.

Arctic coast Almost all of the low-lying ocean is slightly inclined towards the ocean, dissected by bays and river mouths protruding far into the land. On the ocean side, the coast is adjacent to a wide continental shelf just like the coast, slightly inclined, with depths rarely exceeding 200 m. In the coastal part of the ocean there are numerous islands belonging to the Soviet Union (Novosibirsk, Severnaya Zemlya, Novaya Zemlya, etc.).

The Soviet sector of the Arctic is limited by conventional lines running in the east from Ratmanov Island and in the west from Rybachy Peninsula to the North Pole.

The Pacific coast within the USSR is mostly mountainous, and the seas washing it are deep. The Soviet Union owns small islands, most of which are part of the Kuril group. The largest Soviet island in the Pacific Ocean is Sakhalin.

The border of the USSR runs along land and ocean, across low-lying plains and high mountains with snow-capped peaks, crosses forests and deserts, tundra and subtropics.

The natural conditions of the Soviet Union are surprisingly diverse. Within its boundaries, one can trace in the meridional direction the change of all zones except the tropical and equatorial ones. Due to the nature of the surface of our country and its position in relation to the ocean, natural conditions also change significantly from west to east. This is especially clearly visible in the south of the country: there are humid subtropics and deserts at the same latitude. At any time of the year in the USSR it is not difficult to find a place where flowers bloom and one where there is unmelted snow cover.

When spring begins in Moscow, it is already summer in the south, and still winter in the north. It takes about six months for spring to move from the southern borders of the USSR to the northern regions. In the Far East, spring begins 1.5-2 months later than at the same latitude in the west of the country.

It's diversity and richness natural conditions create the prerequisites for development in the USSR various industries Agriculture. The activities of people in a socialist society aimed at transforming nature are increasingly expanding these possibilities. Huge reserves of natural resources predetermine the comprehensive development of industry, which reaches unprecedented proportions under the conditions of a socialist economy.

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 declared 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 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, then 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, mainly Russians, who settled throughout the vast territory of the state during the 12th century.
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 prerequisite for almost any 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. Changes in the homogeneity of the ethnic composition of the 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 decreased (from 85% in 1922 to 77% in 1959 and to 70% in 1989), mainly due to the low rate of natural growth 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 Baltic Sea coast 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 fore 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. In its final years, the USSR had approximately the same level of urbanization as 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. The first Slavic cities were founded in the 6th-7th centuries; during the Mongol invasion of the mid-13th century. most of them were destroyed. These cities, which arose as military-administrative strongholds, had a fortified Kremlin, usually near the river on an elevated site, surrounded by craft suburbs (posadas). As trade became an important activity for the Slavs, cities such as Kyiv, Chernigov, Novgorod, Polotsk, Smolensk, and later Moscow, which were at the crossroads of waterways, quickly increased in 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 the development of international trade. In 1913, Russia had 30 cities with a population exceeding 100 thousand people, including commercial 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 hub of a 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. 2400 km to the east, where the Trans-Siberian Railway crosses another large river- Ob, is Novosibirsk (1436 thousand people in 1989), which is the youngest (founded in 1896) among the top ten largest cities of the USSR. It is the transport, industrial and scientific center of Siberia. To the west of it, where the Trans-Siberian Railway crosses the Irtysh River, is Omsk (1,148 thousand people in 1989). Having ceded its role as the capital of Siberia during Soviet times to 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 people in 1989, located on the western shore of the Caspian Sea, is located near oil fields, which 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 (1260 thousand people in 1989) is also located in Transcaucasia - an important regional center and the 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. 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 made it possible to hold alternative elections for the first time since 1912 and modernize the state system, in which democratic authorities began to play a much larger 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, the 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. December 26 The Supreme Council 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 frequent mistakes in state policy, the gradual lag 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 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 People's Control Committee. 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 more fewer ministries, was also 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 edges). 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 legitimate political party in 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 voting rights) with probationary period in one year, after the successful completion of which he received the status of a 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 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. The arbitrariness of the repressive authorities was weakened, the terror was stopped, 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, the world-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 have taken various 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. Internal functions The KGB was responsible for counterintelligence, protection of state secrets and control over the “subversive” activities of oppositionists (dissidents). To carry out its tasks, the KGB worked through both " special departments", which he 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, control of passports and registration, investigation of economic crimes, traffic regulation and road -transport 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 each 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 Supreme Councils 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 did not have the power to review judicial 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 the world proletarian revolution, which, as 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 in 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 a huge 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 itself isolated. 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 the extermination of the command staff of the Red Army during the “Great Terror” of 1936-1938; alliance with Nazi Germany in 1939-1941 - they 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. According to this concept Soviet politics gradually refocused on 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 an 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 and 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 resources 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 others 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 the 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 the 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. The 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 a state monopoly on foreign trade in order 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. Due to the rapid recovery of private agriculture and the lagging state industry, prices for industrial products rose faster than for agricultural goods (graphically represented 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 ABC 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 cash only for small imports of mechanical 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 a likely 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 cost 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 state aid. They made up 7% of the total number of all 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. All wealthy peasants were “dispossessed,” their property and crops were confiscated. 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 best land and they 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 collectivized peasant farms would 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 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 through the development of new lands in the virgin lands and in other areas, the increase in purchase prices and the introduction of pensions and other social benefits for collective farmers, labor productivity on collective and state farms lagged far behind the level that existed on personal plots and so on. more in the West, and gross 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% work 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 growth of industry was achieved just at a time when the West was experiencing the most 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 forced labor under the control of the NKVD it became an important part of the economy, especially in the timber and gold mining industries, as well as in new buildings 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. Check digits 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 “the complete and final victory of socialism has been achieved in the Soviet Union.” 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. World War II led to devastation in the western regions of the 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. The production of consumer goods, as before, was not given special attention. Large-scale land reclamation has led to catastrophic consequences for the environment and public health. For example, the price of introducing cotton monoculture in Uzbekistan was severe shallowing 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 general secretary The Central Committee of the CPSU became M. S. Gorbachev. He took this post fully aware that radical economic reforms were needed, which he launched under the slogan of “restructuring and acceleration.” To increase labor productivity - i.e. to use the fastest way to ensure 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 experienced a terrible shock after the explosion at the Chernobyl nuclear power plant, which led to radioactive contamination large territories 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 the July meeting of the leaders of seven leading industrial developed countries Gorbachev turned to them with a request for help, but found no response.
CULTURE
The leadership of the USSR attached great importance to 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 social 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 on Georgian language circulation 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 rule to strengthen and develop Bolshevik cultural ideas began, and the following decade saw ferment in all areas 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 evening students in Soviet universities. 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 professional work and with a large number of published scientific papers.
Science and academic institutions. In the Soviet Union, significant advances were made in some natural sciences and in military equipment. 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 development 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 military parades were held in large administrative centers; The largest and most impressive was the parade in Moscow on Red Square. See below

Union of Soviet Socialist Republics Soviet Union/USSR/Union of SSR
Motto: “Workers of all countries, unite!”
Largest cities:	Moscow, Leningrad, Kiev, Tashkent, Baku, Kharkov, Minsk, Gorky, Novosibirsk, Sverdlovsk, Kuibyshev, Tbilisi, Dnepropetrovsk, Yerevan, Odessa
	Russian (de facto)
Currency unit:	USSR ruble
Time Zones:
	22,402,200 km²
Population:	293,047,571 people
Form of government:	Soviet republic
Internet domain:
Telephone code:
Founding states	States after the collapse of the USSR

Union of Soviet Socialist Republics- a state that existed from 1922 to 1991 in Europe and Asia. The USSR occupied 1/6 of the inhabited landmass and was the largest country in the world by area on the territory previously occupied by the Russian Empire without Finland, part of the Polish Kingdom and some other territories, but with Galicia, Transcarpathia, part of Prussia, Northern Bukovina, Southern Sakhalin and the Kuril Islands.

According to the Constitution of 1977, the USSR was proclaimed a single union multinational and socialist state.

After World War II, the USSR had land borders with Afghanistan, Hungary, Iran, China, North Korea (since September 9, 1948), Mongolia, Norway, Poland, Romania, Turkey, Finland, Czechoslovakia and only sea borders with the USA, Sweden and Japan.

Consisted of union republics (from 4 to 16 in different years), which, according to the Constitution, were sovereign states; Each union republic retained the right to freely secede from the Union. The Union Republic had the right to enter into relations with foreign states, conclude treaties with them and exchange diplomatic and consular representatives, participate in activities international organizations. Among the 50 founding countries of the UN, along with the USSR, there were also two of its union republics: the BSSR and the Ukrainian SSR.

Some of the republics included autonomous Soviet socialist republics (ASSR), territories, regions, autonomous regions (AO) and autonomous (until 1977 - national) okrugs.

After World War II, the USSR, along with the USA, was a superpower. The Soviet Union dominated the world socialist system and was also a permanent member of the UN Security Council.

The collapse of the USSR was characterized by an acute confrontation between representatives of the central union government and the newly elected local authorities (Supreme Councils, presidents of the union republics). In 1989-1990, all republican councils adopted declarations of state sovereignty, some of them - declarations of independence. On March 17, 1991, an All-Union referendum on the preservation of the USSR was held in 9 of the 15 republics of the USSR, in which two-thirds of citizens spoke in favor of preserving the renewed union. But central authorities failed to stabilize the situation. The failed coup d'état of the State Emergency Committee was followed by the official recognition of the independence of the Baltic republics. After the All-Ukrainian referendum on independence, where the majority of the population spoke in favor of the independence of Ukraine, the preservation of the USSR as public education became virtually impossible, as stated in Agreement establishing the Commonwealth of Independent States, signed on December 8, 1991 by the heads of three union republics - Yeltsin from the RSFSR (Russian Federation), Kravchuk from Ukraine (Ukrainian SSR) and Shushkevich from the Republic of Belarus (BSSR). The USSR officially ceased to exist on December 26, 1991. At the end of 1991, the Russian Federation was recognized as a continuation state USSR in international legal relations and took his place on the UN Security Council.

Geography of the USSR

With an area of ​​22,400,000 square kilometers, The Soviet Union was the largest state in the world. It occupied a sixth of the landmass and was comparable in size to North America. The European part made up a quarter of the country's territory and was its cultural and economic center. The Asian part (to the Pacific Ocean in the east and to the border with Afghanistan in the south) was much less populated. The length of the Soviet Union was more than 10,000 kilometers from east to west (across 11 time zones), and almost 7,200 kilometers from north to south. There were five climatic zones on the territory of the country.

The Soviet Union had the longest border in the world (more than 60,000 km). The Soviet Union also bordered the USA, Afghanistan, China, Czechoslovakia, Finland, Hungary, Iran, Mongolia, North Korea, Norway, Poland, Romania and Turkey (from 1945 to 1991).

The longest river in the Soviet Union was the Irtysh. Highest mountain: Communism Peak (7495 m, now Ismail Samani Peak) in Tajikistan. Also within the USSR there was the world's largest lake - the Caspian and the world's largest and deepest freshwater lake - Baikal.

History of the USSR

Education of the USSR (1922-1923)

On December 29, 1922, at a conference of delegations from the Congresses of Soviets of the RSFSR, Ukrainian SSR, BSSR and ZSFSR, the Treaty on the Formation of the USSR was signed. This document was approved on December 30, 1922 by the First All-Union Congress of the Soviets and signed by the heads of delegations. This date is considered the date of formation of the USSR, although the Council of People's Commissars of the USSR (Government) and the People's Commissariats (ministries) were created only on July 6, 1923.

Pre-war period (1923-1941)

Since the autumn of 1923, and especially after the death of V.I. Lenin, a sharp political struggle for power unfolded in the country's leadership. Authoritarian methods of leadership, used by I.V. Stalin to establish a regime of individual power, took hold.

From the mid-1920s, the New Economic Policy (NEP) began to be rolled back, and then forced industrialization and collectivization began; in 1932-1933 there was also a mass famine.

After a fierce factional struggle, by the end of the 1930s, Stalin's supporters completely subjugated the structures of the ruling party. A totalitarian, strictly centralized social system was created in the country.

In 1939, the Soviet-German treaties of 1939 were concluded (including the so-called Molotov-Ribbentrop Pact), dividing the spheres of influence in Europe, according to which a number of territories of Eastern Europe were defined as the sphere of the USSR. The territories designated in the agreements (with the exception of Finland) underwent changes in the fall of the same year and the following year. At the beginning of the Second World War in 1939, those that were at that time part of the Western Polish Republic were annexed to the USSR.

Ukraine and Western Belarus; this territorial change is regarded in different ways: both as a “return” and as an “annexation”. Already in October 1939, the city of Vilno, Belarusian SSR, was transferred to Lithuania, and part of Polesie to Ukraine.

In 1940, the USSR included Estonia, Latvia, Lithuania, Bessarabia (annexed by Romania in 1918 . Bessarabia within Romania) and Northern Bukovina, the Moldavian, Latvian, Lithuanian (including 3 regions of the BSSR, which became part of the Lithuanian SSR in 1940) and the Estonian SSR were created. The annexation of the Baltic states to the USSR is considered different sources How " voluntary accession" and as "annexation".

In 1939, the USSR offered Finland a non-aggression pact, but Finland refused. The Soviet-Finnish war (November 30, 1939 - March 12, 1940), launched by the USSR after the presentation of the ultimatum, dealt a blow to the international authority of the country (the USSR was expelled from the League of Nations). Due to the relatively large losses and unpreparedness of the Red Army, the protracted war was ended before the defeat of Finland; As a result, the Karelian Isthmus, Ladoga region, Salla with Kuolajärvi and West Side Rybachy Peninsula. On March 31, 1940, the Karelo-Finnish SSR was formed (with its capital in Petrozavodsk) from the Karelian Autonomous Soviet Socialist Republic and the territories transferred from Finland (except for the Rybachy Peninsula, which became part of Murmansk region).

USSR in World War II (1941-1945)

On June 22, 1941, Germany attacked the Soviet Union, violating the Non-Aggression Treaty between Germany and the Soviet Union. Soviet troops managed to stop his invasion by the end of autumn 1941 and launched a counteroffensive in December 1941, the defining event being the Battle of Moscow. However, during the summer-autumn of 1942, the enemy managed to advance to the Volga, capturing a huge part of the country's territory. From December 1942 to 1943, a radical turning point in the war occurred; the Battles of Stalingrad and Kursk became decisive. In the period from 1944 to May 1945, Soviet troops liberated the entire territory of the USSR occupied by Germany, as well as the countries of Eastern Europe, victoriously ending the war with the signing of the unconditional surrender Germany.

The war brought great damage to the entire population of the Soviet Union, led to the death of 26.6 million people, the liquidation of a huge number of the population in the territories occupied by Germany, the destruction of part of the industry - on the one hand; the creation of significant military-industrial potential in the eastern regions of the country, the revival of church and religious life in the country, the acquisition of significant territories, the victory over fascism - on the other.

In 1941-1945, a number of peoples were deported from their places of traditional residence. In 1944-1947 The USSR included:

• Tuvinskaya People's Republic, which received the status of an autonomous region within the RSFSR;
• The northern part of East Prussia, which became part of the RSFSR as Kaliningrad region;
• Transcarpathia (Transcarpathian region of the Ukrainian SSR);
• Pechenga, which became part of the Murmansk region;
• Southern Sakhalin and the Kuril Islands, which formed the South Sakhalin region as part of the Khabarovsk Territory of the RSFSR.

At the same time, the Bialystok region, parts of the Grodno and Brest regions of the BSSR, as well as parts of the Lvov and Drohobych regions of the Ukrainian SSR became part of Poland.

Post-war period (1945-1953)

After the victory in the war, the USSR economy was demilitarized and restored in areas affected by the occupation. By 1950, industrial production increased by 73% compared to pre-war. Agriculture recovered at a slower pace, with enormous difficulties, mistakes and miscalculations. Nevertheless, already in 1947 the food situation stabilized, cards for food and industrial goods were abolished, and a monetary reform was carried out, which made it possible to stabilize the financial situation.

In accordance with the decisions of the Yalta and Potsdam conferences, the USSR established control over the corresponding occupation zones in Germany and Austria in 1945-1949. In a number of countries in Eastern Europe, the establishment of communist regimes began, as a result of which a military-political bloc of states allied to the USSR was created (the socialist camp, the Warsaw Pact). Immediately after the end of the World War, a period of global political and ideological confrontation began between the USSR and other socialist countries, on the one hand, and Western countries, on the other, which in 1947 became known as the Cold War, accompanied by an arms race.

“Khrushchev Thaw” (1953-1964)

At the 20th Congress of the CPSU (1956), N. S. Khrushchev criticized the personality cult of J. V. Stalin. Rehabilitation of victims of repression has begun, more attention began to focus on improving the standard of living of the people, developing agriculture, housing construction, and light industry.

The political situation inside the country has become softer. Many members of the intelligentsia took Khrushchev's report as a call for glasnost; samizdat appeared, which was only allowed to expose the “cult of personality”; criticism of the CPSU and the existing system was still prohibited.

The concentration of scientific and production forces, material resources in certain areas of science and technology made it possible to achieve significant achievements: the world's first nuclear power plant was created (1954), the first artificial Earth satellite was launched (1957), the first manned spaceship with a pilot-cosmonaut (1961), etc.

In the foreign policy of this period, the USSR supported political regimes that were beneficial from the point of view of the country’s interests in different countries. In 1956, USSR troops took part in suppressing the uprising in Hungary. In 1962, disagreements between the USSR and the USA almost led to a nuclear war.

In 1960, a diplomatic conflict with China began, splitting the world communist movement.

"Stagnation" (1964-1985)

In 1964, Khrushchev was removed from power. Leonid Ilyich Brezhnev became the new first secretary of the CPSU Central Committee, in fact the head of state. The period of the 1970s-1980s was called in the sources of that time the era of developed socialism.

During Brezhnev's reign, new cities and towns, plants and factories, palaces of culture and stadiums were built in the country; Universities were created, new schools and hospitals were opened. The USSR has reached the forefront in space exploration, the development of aviation, nuclear energy, fundamental and applied sciences. Certain achievements were observed in education, medicine, the system social security. The work of famous cultural figures has gained worldwide fame and recognition. Soviet athletes achieved high results in the international arena. In 1980, the XXII Summer Olympics took place in Moscow.

At the same time, there was a decisive turn towards winding down the remnants of the thaw. With Brezhnev coming to power, state security agencies intensified the fight against dissent - the first sign of this was the Sinyavsky-Daniel trial. In 1968, the USSR army entered Czechoslovakia with the aim of suppressing the trend of political reforms. The resignation of A. T. Tvardovsky from the post of editor of the magazine “New World” at the beginning of 1970 was perceived as a sign of the final liquidation of the “thaw”.

In 1975, the Storozhevoy uprising took place - an armed manifestation of insubordination on the part of a group of Soviet military sailors on the large anti-submarine ship (BOD) of the USSR Navy, Storozhevoy. The leader of the uprising was the ship's political officer, captain of the 3rd rank Valery Sablin.

Since the early 1970s, Jewish emigration has been coming from the USSR. Many famous writers, actors, musicians, athletes, and scientists emigrated.

In the field of foreign policy, Brezhnev did a lot to achieve political détente in the 1970s. American-Soviet treaties on the limitation of strategic offensive weapons were concluded (although, in 1967, the accelerated installation of intercontinental missiles in underground silos began), which, however, were not supported by adequate confidence and control measures.

Thanks to some liberalization, a dissident movement emerged, and names such as Andrei Sakharov and Alexander Solzhenitsyn became famous. The ideas of the dissidents did not find support from the majority of the population of the USSR. Since 1965, the USSR provided military assistance to North Vietnam in the fight against the United States and South Vietnam, which lasted until 1973 and ended with the withdrawal of American troops and the unification of Vietnam. In 1968, the USSR army entered Czechoslovakia with the aim of suppressing the trend of political reforms. In 1979, the USSR introduced a limited military contingent into the DRA at the request of the Afghan government (see Afghan War (1979-1989)), which led to the end of détente and the resumption of the Cold War. From 1989 to 1994, Soviet troops were withdrawn from all controlled territories.

Perestroika (1985—1991)

In 1985, after the death of K.U. Chernenko, M.S. Gorbachev came to power in the country. In 1985-1986, Gorbachev pursued the so-called policy of accelerating socio-economic development, which consisted of recognizing individual shortcomings the existing system and attempts to correct them through several large administrative campaigns (the so-called “Acceleration”) - an anti-alcohol campaign, “the fight against unearned income,” the introduction of state acceptance. After the January plenum of 1987, the country's leadership began radical reforms. In fact, “perestroika”—a set of economic and political reforms—was declared a new state ideology. During perestroika (from the second half of 1989, after the first Congress of People's Deputies of the USSR), the political confrontation between the forces advocating the socialist path of development and parties, movements linking the future of the country with the organization of life on the principles of capitalism, as well as confrontation on issues of the future, sharply intensified the appearance of the Soviet Union, the relationship between the union and republican bodies of state power and administration. By the early 1990s, perestroika had reached a dead end. The authorities could no longer stop the approaching collapse of the USSR.

The USSR officially ceased to exist on December 26, 1991. In its place, a number of independent states were formed (currently - 19, 15 of which are members of the UN, 2 are partially recognized by UN member countries, and 2 are not recognized by any UN member country). As a result of the collapse of the USSR, the territory of Russia (the successor country of the USSR in terms of external assets and liabilities, and in the UN) decreased compared to the territory of the USSR by 24% (from 22.4 to 17 million km²), and the population decreased by 49% (from 290 to 148 million people) (while the territory of Russia has remained virtually unchanged compared to the territory of the RSFSR). The unified armed forces and the ruble zone disintegrated. A number of interethnic conflicts flare up on the territory of the USSR, the most acute of which is the Karabakh conflict; since 1988, mass pogroms of both Armenians and Azerbaijanis have occurred. In 1989, the Supreme Council of the Armenian SSR announced the accession Nagorno-Karabakh, Azerbaijan SSR begins blockade. In April 1991, a war actually began between the two Soviet republics.

Political system and ideology

Article 2 of the 1977 USSR Constitution declared: “ All power in the USSR belongs to the people. The people exercise state power through the Soviets 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.» Candidates from labor collectives, trade unions, youth organizations (VLKSM), amateur creative organizations and from the party (CPSU).

Before the proclamation of socialism in the USSR by the Constitution of 1936, the dictatorship of the proletariat and peasantry was officially proclaimed in the USSR. Article 3 of the 1936 Constitution stated: “All power in the USSR belongs to the working people of the city and countryside, represented by the Soviets of Working People’s Deputies.”

The Soviet political system rejected the principle of separation and independence of powers, placing the legislative branch above the executive and judicial branches. Formally, the source of law was only the decisions of the legislator, that is, the Supreme Soviet of the USSR (V.S. USSR), although actual practice diverged significantly from the constitutional provisions. Day-to-day lawmaking was carried out in practice by the Presidium of the Supreme Soviet of the USSR, which consisted of the Chairman, 15 Deputy Chairman, Secretary and 20 other members. The Supreme Soviet of the USSR, elected for 4 years, elected the Presidium of the Supreme Council of the USSR, formed the Council of Ministers of the USSR, elected judges of the Supreme Court of the USSR and appointed the Prosecutor General of the USSR.

Collective head of state in 1922-1937. There was the All-Union Congress of Soviets, and in the intervals between congresses there was its Presidium. In 1937-1989. The Supreme Soviet of the USSR was considered the collective head of state; in the intervals between sessions, the Presidium of the Supreme Soviet of the USSR was considered. In 1989-1990 the sole head of state was the Chairman of the Supreme Soviet of the USSR, in 1990-1991. - President of the USSR.

The actual power in the USSR belonged to the leadership of the CPSU [VKP (b)], which functioned in accordance with its internal charter. Unlike earlier constitutions, the 1977 Constitution for the first time reflected the actual role of the CPSU in government: “The leading and guiding force of Soviet society, the core of its political system, state and public organizations is the Communist Party of the Soviet Union.” (Article 6)

In the USSR, no ideology was legally declared state or dominant; but, due to the political monopoly of the Communist Party, the de facto ideology of the CPSU was Marxism-Leninism, which in the late USSR was called “socialist Marxist-Leninist ideology.” The political system of the USSR was considered as a “socialist state,” that is, as “the political part of the superstructure over the economic basis of socialism, a new type of state that replaced the bourgeois state as a result of the socialist revolution.” However, as Western researchers of Soviet society noted, in the late USSR Marxism in reality transformed into a nationalist and statistic ideology, while classical Marxism proclaimed the withering away of the state under socialism.

The only institutions that legally remained (but were often persecuted) as organized bearers of a fundamentally different ideology hostile to Marxism-Leninism were registered religious associations(religious societies and groups) ( For more details, see the section “Religion in the USSR” below).

Legal and judicial systems

Marxist-Leninist ideology in the USSR considered the state and law in general as a political part of the superstructure over the economic basis of society and emphasized the class nature of law, which was defined as “the will of the ruling class elevated to law.” A later modification of this interpretation of law read: “Right is the state will elevated to law.”

The “socialist law” (“the highest historical type of law”) that existed in the late (national) USSR was considered the will of the people elevated to law: it “for the first time in history establishes and actually guarantees truly democratic freedoms”

Soviet socialist law was considered by some researchers in the West as a variety of Roman law, but Soviet jurists insisted on its independent status, which was recognized by the world community in practice after the Second World War by the election of judges representing it to the International Court of Justice - in accordance with Article 9 of the Charter of the Court , providing for the representation of the main forms of civilization and legal systems.

The foundations of the judicial system of the USSR were laid before its establishment - in the RSFSR - by a number of decrees, the first of which was the Decree of the Council of People's Commissars "On the Court" of November 22, 1917 ( see article Decrees on court). The main link of the judicial system was proclaimed to be the “people's court” of a city or district (court of general jurisdiction), which was elected directly by citizens. The 1977 Constitution set out the basic principles for organizing the judicial system of the USSR in Chapter 20. Higher courts were elected by the respective Councils. The people's courts included a judge and people's assessors who took part in the consideration of civil and criminal cases (Article 154 of the 1977 Constitution).

The function of supreme supervision “over the accurate and uniform implementation of laws by all ministries, state committees and departments, enterprises, institutions and organizations, executive and administrative bodies local councils people's deputies, collective farms, cooperative and other public organizations, officials, as well as citizens" was entrusted to the General Prosecutor's Office (Chapter 21). The Constitution (Article 168) declared the independence of the prosecutor’s office from any local authorities authorities, although there is evidence that prosecutors were under direct operational control bodies of the NKVD.

Leaders of the USSR and their contribution to the development of the USSR

Legally, the head of state was considered: since 1922 - Chairman of the Presidium of the Central Executive Committee of the USSR, since 1938 - Chairman of the Presidium of the Supreme Soviet of the USSR, since 1989 - Chairman of the Supreme Soviet of the USSR, since 1990 - President of the USSR. The head of the government was the Chairman of the Council of People's Commissars, since 1946 - the Chairman of the Council of Ministers of the USSR, usually a member of the Politburo of the CPSU Central Committee.

Head of State

Head of the government

Chairmen of the All-Russian Central Executive Committee: L. B. Kamenev (from October 27 (November 9) 1917), Y. M. Sverdlov (from November 8 (November 21) 1917), M. I. Kalinin (from March 30, 1919). Chairmen of the Presidium of the Supreme Council (Presidium of the Central Executive Committee) of the USSR: M. I. Kalinin 1938-1946 N. M. Shvernik 1946-1953 K. E. Voroshilov 1953-1960 L. I. Brezhnev 1960-1964, first (general) secretary of the CPSU Central Committee in 1964-1982 A. I. Mikoyan 1964-1965 N.V. Podgorny 1965-1977 L. I. Brezhnev (1977-1982), first (general) secretary of the CPSU Central Committee in 1964-1982 Yu. V. Andropov (1983-1984), General Secretary of the CPSU Central Committee in 1982-1984 K. U. Chernenko (1984-1985), General Secretary of the CPSU Central Committee 1984-1985 A. A. Gromyko (1985-1988) M. S. Gorbachev (1985-1991), General Secretary of the CPSU Central Committee in 1985-1991. President of the USSR: M. S. Gorbachev March 15, 1990 - December 25, 1991.

V. I. Lenin (1922-1924) A. I. Rykov (1924-1930) V. M. Molotov (1930-1941) I. V. Stalin (1941-1953), General Secretary of the Central Committee of the All-Union Communist Party of Bolsheviks (CPSU) in 1922-1934 G. M. Malenkov (March 1953-1955) N. A. Bulganin (1955-1958) N. S. Khrushchev (1958-1964), first secretary of the CPSU Central Committee in 1953-1964 A. N. Kosygin (1964-1980) N. A. Tikhonov (1980-1985) N. I. Ryzhkov (1985-1991) Prime Minister of the USSR: V. S. Pavlov (1991) Chairman of the KOUNH of the USSR, MEK of the USSR: I. S. Silaev (1991)

There were eight actual leaders of the USSR throughout the history of its existence (including Georgy Malenkov): 4 chairmen of the Council of People's Commissars / Council of Ministers (Lenin, Stalin, Malenkov, Khrushchev) and 4 chairmen of the Presidium of the Supreme Council (Brezhnev, Andropov, Chernenko, Gorbachev). Gorbachev was also the only president of the USSR.

Starting with N.S. Khrushchev, the de facto head of state was the General (First) Secretary of the Central Committee of the CPSU (VKP (b)), usually also the chairman of the Presidium of the Supreme Soviet of the USSR.

Under Lenin, the treaty on the formation of the USSR laid the foundations of the state structure, enshrined in the first Constitution of the USSR. The founder of the USSR ruled the Soviet Union for just over a year - from December 1922 to January 1924, during a period of sharp deterioration in health.

During the reign of I.V. Stalin, collectivization and industrialization were carried out, the Stakhanov movement began, and the result of intra-factional struggle in the CPSU (b) in the 1930s was Stalin’s repressions (their peak was in 1937-1938). In 1936 it was adopted new Constitution USSR, which increased the number of union republics. Victory was won in the Great Patriotic War, new territories were annexed, and the world system of socialism was formed. After the joint defeat of Japan by the allies, a sharp deterioration in relations between the USSR and its allies in the anti-Hitler coalition began - the Cold War, the formal beginning of which is often associated with the Fulton speech of former British Prime Minister Winston Churchill on March 5, 1946. At the same time, a treaty of eternal friendship was signed with Finland. In 1949 the USSR became nuclear power. He was the first in the world to test a hydrogen bomb.

Under G.M. Malenkov, who took over the post of Chairman of the Council of Ministers of the USSR after Stalin’s death, an amnesty was held for prisoners for minor violations, the Doctors’ Case was closed, and the first rehabilitations of victims of political repression were carried out. In the field of agriculture: increasing purchase prices, reducing the tax burden. Under the personal supervision of Malenkov, the first industrial nuclear power plant in the world was launched in the USSR. In the field of economics, he proposed to remove the emphasis on heavy industry and move to the production of consumer goods, but after his resignation this idea was rejected.

N. S. Khrushchev condemned Stalin’s personality cult and carried out some democratization, called the Khrushchev Thaw. The slogan “catch up and overtake” was put forward, calling for it to quickly get ahead of capitalist countries (in particular the USA) in terms of economic development. The development of virgin lands continued. The USSR launched the first artificial satellite and put man into space, was the first to launch spacecraft towards the Moon, Venus and Mars, built a nuclear power plant and a peaceful ship with a nuclear reactor - the icebreaker "Lenin". During Khrushchev's reign, the Cold War reached its peak - the Cuban Missile Crisis. In 1961, the construction of communism until 1980 was announced. In agriculture, Khrushchev's policies (planting corn, dividing regional committees, fighting private farms) produced negative results. In 1964, Khrushchev was removed from his posts and sent to retirement.

The time of L.I. Brezhnev's leadership in the USSR was generally peaceful and culminated, according to the conclusion of Soviet theorists, with the construction of developed socialism, the formation of a nation-wide state and the formation of a new historical community - the Soviet people. These provisions were enshrined in the 1977 USSR Constitution. In 1979, Soviet troops entered Afghanistan. In 1980, the Moscow Olympics took place. The second half of L.I. Brezhnev's reign is called a period of stagnation.

Yu. V. Andropov, during his short leadership of the party and the state, was remembered, first of all, as a fighter for labor discipline; K. U. Chernenko, who replaced him, was seriously ill, and the leadership of the country under him was actually concentrated in the hands of his entourage, which sought to return to the “Brezhnev” order. A significant drop in world oil prices in 1986 caused a deterioration in the economic situation of the USSR. The leadership of the CPSU (Gorbachev, Yakovlev, etc.) decided to begin reform Soviet system, which went down in history as “Perestroika”. In 1989, Soviet troops were withdrawn from Afghanistan. The reforms of M. S. Gorbachev were an attempt to change the political system of the USSR within the framework of the economic theory of Marxism. Gorbachev somewhat weakened the yoke of censorship (policy of glasnost), allowed alternative elections, introduced a permanent Supreme Council, and took the first steps towards market economy. In 1990 he became the first president of the Soviet Union. In 1991 he resigned.

Economy of the USSR

By the early 1930s, most of the economy, all industry, and 99.9% of agriculture were state-owned or cooperative, which made it possible to use resources more rationally, distribute them fairly, and significantly improve working conditions compared to pre-Soviet ones. Economic development required a transition to a five-year form of economic planning. The industrialization of the USSR was carried out over several years. Turksib, the Novokuznetsk Metallurgical Plant, and new machine-building enterprises in the Urals were built.

By the beginning of the war, a significant part of production was in Siberia and Central Asia, this made it possible to effectively switch to a wartime mobilization regime. After the Great Patriotic War, the restoration of the USSR began, new sectors of the economy appeared: the rocket industry, electrical engineering, and new power plants appeared. A significant portion of the USSR economy was made up of military production.

Heavy industry predominated in industry. In 1986, in the total volume of industrial production, group “A” (production of means of production) accounted for 75.3%, group “B” (production of consumer goods) - 24.7%. Industries providing scientific and technological progress developed at an accelerated pace. During 1940-1986, the output of the electric power industry increased 41 times, mechanical engineering and metalworking - 105 times, chemical and petrochemical industries - 79 times.

About 64% of foreign trade turnover was accounted for by socialist countries, including 60% by CMEA member countries; over 22% - in developed capitalist countries (Germany, Finland, France, Italy, Japan, etc.); over 14% - in developing countries.

The composition of the economic regions of the USSR changed in accordance with the tasks of improving the management and planning of the national economy in order to accelerate the pace and increase the efficiency of social production. The plans of the 1st Five-Year Plan (1929-1932) were drawn up for 24 regions, the 2nd Five-Year Plan (1933-1937) - for 32 regions and the Northern zone, the 3rd (1938-1942) - for 9 regions and 10 union republics, at the same time, the regions and territories were grouped into 13 main economic regions, according to which planning for the development of the national economy was carried out in a territorial context. In 1963, a taxonomic grid was approved, refined in 1966, including 19 large economic regions and the Moldavian SSR.

Armed Forces of the USSR

Until February 1946, the USSR Armed Forces consisted of the Red Army (RKKA) and the Workers' and Peasants' Red Fleet. By May 1945, the number was 11,300,000 people. From February 25, 1946 until the beginning of 1992, the USSR Armed Forces were called the Soviet Army. The Soviet army included the Strategic Missile Forces, the Ground Forces, the Air Defense Forces, the Air Force and other formations, except for the Navy, the Border Troops of the KGB of the USSR, and the Internal Troops of the Ministry of Internal Affairs of the USSR. Throughout the history of the USSR Armed Forces, the position of Supreme Commander-in-Chief was introduced twice. The first time Joseph Stalin was appointed to it, the second time - Mikhail Gorbachev. The USSR Armed Forces consisted of five branches: Strategic Missile Forces (1960), Ground Forces (1946), Air Defense Forces (1948), Navy and Air Force(1946), and also included the rear of the USSR Armed Forces, headquarters and troops of the Civil Defense (CD) of the USSR, internal troops of the Ministry of Internal Affairs (MVD) of the USSR, border troops of the State Security Committee (KGB) of the USSR.

The highest state leadership in the field of defense of the country, on the basis of laws, was carried out by the highest bodies of state power and administration of the USSR, guided by the policies of the Communist Party of the Soviet Union (CPSU), directing the work of the entire state apparatus in such a way that when resolving any issues of governing the country, the interests of strengthening its defense capability must be taken into account : - Defense Council of the USSR (Council of Workers' and Peasants' Defense of the RSFSR), Supreme Soviet of the USSR (Article 73 and 108, Constitution of the USSR), Presidium of the Supreme Soviet of the USSR (Article 121, Constitution of the USSR), Council of Ministers of the USSR (Council of People's Commissars of the RSFSR) (Article 131, Constitution of the USSR).

The USSR Defense Council coordinated the activities of the bodies of the Soviet state in the field of strengthening defense and approval of the main directions of development of the USSR Armed Forces. The USSR Defense Council was headed by the General Secretary of the CPSU Central Committee, Chairman of the Presidium of the Supreme Soviet of the USSR.

Penal system and special services

1917—1954

In 1917, in connection with the threat of an anti-Bolshevik strike, the All-Russian Extraordinary Commission (VChK) was formed, headed by F. E. Dzerzhinsky. On February 6, 1922, the All-Russian Central Executive Committee of the RSFSR adopted a resolution on the abolition of the Cheka and the formation of the State Political Administration (GPU) under the People's Commissariat of Internal Affairs (NKVD) of the RSFSR. The Cheka troops were transformed into GPU troops. Thus, the management of the police and state security bodies was transferred to one department. After the formation of the USSR, the Presidium of the Central Executive Committee of the USSR on November 15, 1923 adopted a resolution on the creation of the United State Political Administration (OGPU) under the Council of People's Commissars of the USSR and approved the “Regulations on the OGPU of the USSR and its bodies.” Before this, the GPU of the union republics (where they were created) existed as independent structures, with a single union executive power. The People's Commissariat of Internal Affairs of the union republics was exempted from the functions of ensuring state security.

On May 9, 1924, the Presidium of the Central Executive Committee of the USSR adopted a resolution on expanding the rights of the OGPU in order to combat banditry, which provided for the operational subordination of the OGPU of the USSR and its local units of the police and criminal investigation agencies. On July 10, 1934, the Central Executive Committee of the USSR adopted a resolution “On the formation of the all-Union People's Commissariat of Internal Affairs of the USSR,” which included the OGPU of the USSR, renamed the Main Directorate of State Security (GUGB). The NKVD of the USSR carried out the Great Terror, the victims of which were hundreds of thousands of people. From 1934 to 1936 The NKVD was led by G. G. Yagoda. From 1936 to 1938 the NKVD was headed by N. I. Ezhov, from November 1938 to December 1945 the head of the NKVD was L. P. Beria.

On February 3, 1941, the NKVD of the USSR was divided into two independent bodies: the NKVD of the USSR and the People's Commissariat of State Security (NKGB) of the USSR. In July 1941, the NKGB of the USSR and the NKVD of the USSR were again merged into a single People's Commissariat - the NKVD of the USSR. The People's Commissar of State Security was V.N. Merkulov. In April 1943, the NKGB of the USSR was again separated from the NKVD. Most likely, the SMERSH GUKR was created on April 19, 1943. On March 15, 1946, the NKGB of the USSR was renamed the Ministry of State Security (MGB) of the USSR. In 1947, the Committee of Information (CI) was created under the Council of Ministers of the USSR, which in February 1949 was transformed into the CI under the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of the USSR. Then intelligence was again returned to the system of state security agencies - in January 1952, the First Main Directorate (PGU) of the USSR MGB was organized. On March 7, 1953, a decision was made to unite the Ministry of Internal Affairs (MVD) of the USSR and the MGB of the USSR into a single Ministry of Internal Affairs of the USSR.

Leaders of the Cheka-GPU-OGPU-NKVD-NKGB-MGB

• F. E. Dzerzhinsky
• V. R. Menzhinsky
• G. G. Yagoda
• N. I. Ezhov
• L. P. Beria
• V. N. Merkulov
• V. S. Abakumov
• S. D. Ignatiev
• S. N. Kruglov

1954—1992

On March 13, 1954, the State Security Committee (KGB) was created under the Council of Ministers of the USSR (since July 5, 1978 - the KGB of the USSR). The KGB system included state security agencies, border troops and government communications troops, military counterintelligence agencies, educational institutions and research institutions. In 1978, Yu. V. Andropov, as Chairman, achieved an increase in the status of the State Security Bodies and removal from the direct subordination of the Council of Ministers of the USSR. On March 20, 1991, it received the status of the central government body of the USSR, headed by the Minister of the USSR. Abolished on December 3, 1991.

Territorial division of the USSR

The total area of ​​the Soviet Union as of August 1991 was 22.4 million km2.
Initially, according to the Treaty on the Formation of the USSR (December 30, 1922), the USSR included:

• Russian Socialist Federative Soviet Republic,
• Ukrainian Socialist Soviet Republic,
• Belarusian Socialist Soviet Republic(until 1922 - Socialist Soviet Republic of Belarus, SSRB),
• Transcaucasian Socialist Federative Soviet Republic.

On May 13, 1925, the Uzbek SSR, separated on October 27, 1924 from the RSFSR, Bukhara SSR and Khorezm NSR, entered the USSR.

On December 5, 1929, the Tajik SSR, separated on October 16, 1929 from the Uzbek SSR, entered the USSR.

On December 5, 1936, the USSR included the Azerbaijani, Armenian and Georgian SSRs, which separated from the Transcaucasian SFSR. At the same time, the Kazakh and Kirghiz SSRs, which had left the RSFSR, became part of the USSR.

In 1940, the USSR included the Karelo-Finnish, Moldavian, Lithuanian, Latvian and Estonian SSRs.

In 1956, the Karelo-Finnish Autonomous Soviet Socialist Republic was transformed into the Karelian ASSR as part of the RSFSR.

On September 6, 1991, the State Council of the USSR recognized the secession of Lithuania, Latvia and Estonia from the USSR.

On December 25, 1991, USSR President M. S. Gorbachev resigned. Government structures The USSR self-destructed.

Administrative-territorial division of the USSR
	Territory, thousand km?	Population, thousand people (1966)	Population, thousand people (1989)	Number of cities	Number of towns	Administrative center
Uzbek SSR
Kazakh SSR
Georgian SSR
Azerbaijan SSR
Lithuanian SSR
Moldavian SSR
Latvian SSR
Kirghiz SSR
Tajik SSR
Armenian SSR
Turkmen SSR
Estonian SSR

The large republics, in turn, were divided into regions, the Autonomous Soviet Socialist Republic and the Autonomous Okrug. Latvian, Lithuanian, Estonian SSR (before 1952 and after 1953); Turkmen SSR (from 1963 to 1970) The Moldavian and Armenian SSR were divided only into districts.

The RSFSR also included territories, and the territories included autonomous regions (there were exceptions, for example, the Tuva Autonomous Okrug until 1961). The regions and territories of the RSFSR also included national okrugs (later called autonomous okrugs). There were also cities of republican subordination, the status of which was not specified in the constitutions (until 1977): in fact, they were separate entities, since their Councils had the corresponding powers.

Some union republics (RSFSR, Ukrainian SSR, Georgian SSR, Azerbaijan SSR, Uzbek SSR, Tajik SSR) included Autonomous Soviet Socialist Republics (ASSR) and autonomous regions.

All of the above administrative-territorial units were divided into districts and cities of regional, regional and republican subordination.

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 the territory of the 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.

The natural resources of 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 exercise state power through the Soviets 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 of People's Commissars: V.I. Lenin (1922 - 1924), I.V. Stalin (1924 - 1953), G.M. Malenkov (1953 - 1954), N.S. Khrushchev (1954-1962).
- Chairmen of the Presidium of the Supreme Council: L.I. Brezhnev (1962 - 1982), Yu.V. Andropov (1982-1983), K.U. Chernenko (1983 - 1985), M.S. Gorbachev (1985-1990).
- President of the USSR: M.S. Gorbachev (1990 - 1991).

According to the Treaty on the Formation of the USSR, signed on December 30, 1922, the new state included four formally independent republics - the RSFSR, the Ukrainian SSR, the Byelorussian SSR, the Transcaucasian Soviet Federative Socialist Republic (Georgia, Armenia, Azerbaijan);

In 1925, the Turkestan ASSR was separated from the RSFSR. On its territories and on the lands of the Bukhara and Khiva People's Soviet Republics the Uzbek SSR 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, the Kaliningrad region (East Prussia, separated from Germany) was annexed to the RSFSR, and the Transcarpathian region, voluntarily transferred by socialist Czechoslovakia, became part of the Ukrainian SSR.

In 1946, new territories became part of the RSFSR - 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 provided for the start of large-scale industrial construction (power plants, Dnieper hydroelectric power station, 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 was considered by the government as main source 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. On June 30, the State Defense Committee was created, headed 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 units of the people's militia. A partisan movement began behind enemy lines.

At the initial stage of the war, the Soviet army suffered defeat after defeat. The Baltic states, Belarus, 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, offensive operations began 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 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. On January 31, the main forces of the encircled 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, a battle took place on Kursk Bulge. 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 complete defeat fascist 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 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. Gradually weakened economic ties between republics and regions within the USSR.
2) The gradual destruction of the Soviet system on the ground. Significant weakening of the 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.

USSR map

Map of the USSR in Russian. CCCP is the largest state in the world from 1922 to 1991. The Union of Soviet Socialist Republics was the largest country in the world by area and occupied a sixth of the entire land surface. The USSR consisted of 15 republics and had an area of ​​22.4 million square kilometers. The length of the USSR border was more than 60 thousand kilometers.

Union of Soviet Socialist Republics (USSR)- the largest state of its time, whose history begins on December 30, 1922 and ends on December 26, 1991. It was the largest country in the world by area (22,402,200 sq. km.), with a population of 29,304,7571 people. The territory of the USSR occupied approximately 1/6 of the entire developed landmass of the planet. For almost 70 years, the Soviet Union was a powerful instrument of political and military influence on the world community.

The monetary unit of the USSR is the ruble, the state language is Russian, and the capital of the country is the city Moscow. The form of government, throughout the history of the state, was mainly one-party, and the head of the Soviet Union was the general secretary of the party. In fact, all real power was in the hands of the Secretary General.

The Soviet Union included such countries as: Russia, Belarus, Ukraine, Latvia, Estonia, Lithuania, Georgia, Azerbaijan, Armenia, Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Moldova, Tajikistan, Uzbekistan, Turkmenistan. The Union arose as a result of the actual unification of the RSFSR, the ZSFSR, the Belarusian and Ukrainian SSR. According to the Constitution, the Soviet Union was characterized as a multinational association of socialist republics, each of which had the right to freely secede from the Union.

After the protracted Second World War, the confident winner, the USSR, finally secured the status of a “superpower” and began to play one of the main, one might say, leading roles in multifaceted world politics. During the period of its existence, the Soviet Union made a huge contribution to world scientific progress in the field of medicine, astronautics, industry and the cultural and educational sectors.

The main occupation of the population of the Union was industry and agriculture. As for life and political situation in the country, then the Soviet Union can be characterized as a disciplined, development-oriented state, sometimes not even paying attention to the interests of ordinary citizens.

The collapse of the USSR occurred on December 26, 1991 as a result of a change in political power to autonomous okrugs Union, which entailed the adoption of declarations of secession from the Union of individual republics. For a long time, the central government of the USSR tried to change the situation, but after the declaration of the sovereignty of the Baltic countries, and the announcement of the results of the referendum on independence in the Ukrainian USSR, the Soviet Union finally collapsed, leaving behind an heir to political international rights - Russian Federation, which took the place of the Union in the UN.