Union of the Soviet socialist republics

Geography of the USSR

During its existence, the USSR was the widest country that the world ever knew (22 402.200 km ²), except possible for the Mongolian Empire to its apogee (approximately 30.000.000 km ²). It was also one of the most varied countries, with more than 100 nationalities (ethnos groups) listed on its territory, an about sixty languages and 5 religions.

The total population was estimated at 288 million in 1990 (known as Soviet populates). Today the Russia - having succeeded the USSR - remains always the widest country of the world and remains a very diverse country, managing hundreds of minorities, including Moslem women such as the Tatare S, and many other nonRussian ethnos groups.

Territorial division of the USSR

Between 1954 and 1991 the Soviet Union was made up of 15 Socialist Republics Soviet (RSS) :

RSS of Arménie
RSS of Azerbaïdjan
RSS of Bielorussia
RSS of Estonia
RSS of Georgia
RSS of the Kazakhstan
RSS of Kirghizstan
RSS of Latvia
RSS of Lithuania
RSS of Moldavie
RSFS of Russia (RSFSR)
RSS of Tadjikistan
RSS of the Turkménistan
RSS of Ukraine
RSS of Ouzbékistan

Each republic federate, in its turn, was divided into areas ( Oblast ), except for the RSS of Latvia, of Lithuania, of Estonia, of Moldavie and Arménie which had a unit structure. The RSFSR laid out, moreover, of the “countries” ( Kraï ) which were divided into autonomous regions, as well as autonomous districts belonging to the oblasts and of the kraïs. Certain federate republics (Russia, Georgia, Azerbaïdjan, Ouzbékistan and Tadjikistan) also had in their structure of the autonomous republics, with certain degree of car-governorship.

Evolution of the population of the USSR

(According to the official figures)

1913: 159.000.000 (Russian Empire)

1928: 150.000.000

1940: 194.000.000

1950: 180.000.000

1960: 214.000.000

1970: 242.000.000

1979: 264.000.000

History of the USSR

See also: History of Russia.

The Russian Revolution and the interval wars

Revolutions with the civil war (1917-1921)

As of the 19th century, the Russia tsarist knows a revolutionary agitation which is worsening after a revolution repressed of 1905 and the Russian defeat within the framework of the Guerre Russo-Japanese woman. The popular discontent culminates beginning 1917 following the shortages caused by the First World War and leads to the fall of the imperial government and the abdication of Nicolas II in March 1917 following the Révolution of February.

The new democratic coalition government prolonged the dissatisfaction with the popular masses by maintaining engagement Russian in the war. The party Bolshevik S, Marxist revolutionary party carried out by Lénine, majority in the bodies policy workmen and peasants known as Soviet S, reversed the provisional government at the time of a revolution on October 25th (according to old the Calendrier Julien) or on November 7th 1917) known as Révolution of October. The slogan of the revolution which carried the adhesion of the popular masses was simple and percussion: “Factories with the workmen, grounds with the peasants, peaces with the people! ”, which meant nationalizations and armistice. Thus, the young republic Bolshevik decided to leave the First World War by concluding a peace separated with the Germany. An armistice signed in December 1917 leads to the Traité of Brest-Litovsk in March 1918 which devoted in practice the defeat of Russia which yielded to the winner the major part of the Ukraine, the Bielorussia, the Baltic States and the Poland (the majority of the yielded territories will be recovered after the German defeat, except the Baltic States and the Poland). Russia lost 3,6 there; % its territory and 26 % of its population. She loses also 32 % of its agricultural production, 23 % of its industrial production and 75 % of its coal reserves.

In addition, the industrial private property was removed and the factories and the banks, nationalized. In the place, a property of state was founded on the near total of the means of production, except agricultural. Lénine also cancelled Russian engagements on the debentures contracted by the government tsarist to finance the war.

The young Soviet socialist republic of Russia (RSFSR) created by the Constitution of 1918 functioned according to a federal principle, whose principle of governorship was the democratic Centralisme. The legislative power was exerted by the Congresses panrusse Soviet S, which elected the central Executive committee panrusse, as well out of legislative matter as executive. It was thus at the Executive committee to control the Conseil of the police chiefs of the people, which, with Lénine at his head, were responsible for the government of the RSFSR. The appearance of the democracy does not remain with a more thorough analysis: cored and controlled completely by the Bolsheviks, the Congress of the Soviets, its Executive committee and thus the Council of the Police chiefs of the People, were with the hands of Lénine and his/her comrades.

The capacity of State became much more strict because of the civil war combined with the open intervention of the Western states which made rage until in 1921.

The Communism of war (1918-1921)

To face the problems arising from the Civil war and the military offensive of foreign countries (Germany, England, France), and in order to ensure the provisioning of the cities and the army, Lénine issues the “Communism of war”, whose essential measurements are:

Nationalization of industries and the trade
planned Production in a way centralized by the government
Strict discipline for the workers (the strikers could be shot)
obligatory Travail of the peasants
Interdiction of the private company
Réquisition of the agricultural production beyond the vital minimum for the peasants
Rationnement and centralization of the distribution of food

The elements of dictatorship of the proletariat are also set up at that time:

Creation of the Red Army : recruited initially on the basis of voluntariate, then by conscription
Installation of an political police and emergency courts, charged stopping and with judging the enemies of the mode and the “white” (in favor of monarchy)
the Communist party becomes little by little sole party
the Censure of the press and of the radio, which fall into the hands from the party
IIIe Internationale (or Komintern) becomes the instrument of the world revolution. The foreign Communist parties must adhere to the 21 conditions of membership. Revolutions of 1919 in Germany and Hungary, as well as the strikes in the majority of the European countries make think of Soviet who the Revolution becomes world. But the crushing of the Spartakiste S and Bela Kun puts an end to these hopes.

Thanks to the Communism of war, Lénine and the Communist party manage to be maintained with the capacity. They gain the civil war and the danger of a monarchical restoration is isolated. The civil war, the total embargo issued by the western powers on the Soviet Russia and the policy of expropriation of goods of the peasants in order to nourish the soldiers of the Red Army causes an enormous famine with its million deaths, especially in Ukraine (1922).

The political police

The survival of the State depended much on a monitoring of its citizens by the political police. As of 1917, the Tcheka was founded (it will take then various names, GPU (Guépéou), OGPU, MVD, NKVD ( Narodnyi Komissariat Vnutrennih LED ), and finally the KGB in 1953) the political police was charged to liquidate the capitalist “lice” and other “agents” with expeditious methods. It was also in charge of the tracking of the dissidents, their expulsion of the party and their judgment for counter-revolutionaries activities.

Birth of a State (1921-1924)

Birth of the USSR

The Union of the Soviet socialist republics (the USSR) was born on December 22nd 1922, date of the signature of the Treaty of Union between RSFSR, the Soviet federative socialist Republic transcaucasienne and the Belorusse and Ukrainian socialist Soviet republics. This treaty is ratified on December 30th, 1922 by the first congress of the Soviets of the USSR. A constitution was written in 1924; the union gathered several federal republics from which the borders were made up according to a demographic distribution corresponding to “people” in his Soviet definition. The USSR was thus a Federal state in which each republic was equal in rights. In the facts, PCUS (and at the beginning RSDRP ) and Tchéka (the secret police) these republics supervise narrowly whose first secretaries of the PC were appointed by Moscow.

Soviets

The Communist party of the Soviet Union (PCUS) quickly became the only legal party. The country was theoretically controlled by Soviet S elected democratically at the regional and local level. Nevertheless, in practice, each level of government was directed by the corresponding branch of the Communist party.

The NEP (1921-1929)

After the Civil war (1921), the country is in a humane and economic situation disastrous. The Famine prevails (5 million dead), in particular in Ukraine, and the peasants raise themselves sporadically against the requisitions. This dissatisfaction became worrying extensive in March 1921 with the Révolte of Kronstadt, pionnière city of the revolution, sheltering the admiralty and the naval forces of the the Baltic defendant Saint-Pétersbourg. Conscious that repression, so hard is it, is not enough to stop the movement, Lénine then decided to soften the policy of the mode, and implements a Nouvelle economic policy (NEP), economic liberalization giving right a limited private property, in particular with the farmers. The requisitions are thus replaced by a tax relatively low in kind.

To explain the passage to the NEP, Lénine stated that “we are not civilized enough to be able to pass directly to socialism, although we have the political premises of them”. , referring to the fact that Russia was still a primarily agrarian company with a still weak industrial base and thus did not correspond to the criteria allowing socialism such as defines by Marx. The NEP was to also reassure the capitalist Western countries. The NEP reaches the results anticipated while making it possible the economy to be raised of the disastrous consequences of the war. The crawling famine disappeared virtually and the country class grew rich. The easy peasants are called the Koulak S ; in the agglomerations, the nepmen constitute a rich middle-class.

Although it was presented like a temporary measure, the NEP was extremely criticized by an important fringe of the party Bolshevik. Many members saw the NEP like a treason with the socialist principles and as fast as possible wanted a return to a completely planned economy. It seems that with its death Lénine at least considered that the NEP should be maintained, all it never did not fix, nor even evoked, the date of its stop. Thus, with the approach of its succession, the oppositions within Politburo crystallized around the NEP.

Succession of Lénine (1922-1929)

As of 1922, the health of Lénine declines following brain attacks, consequences of an attack of which it was victim in 1918. The fight for its succession will lead to the accession with the supreme capacity of Stalin, having belonged to the first circle of members to the party (entered in 1904), although Lénine did not appreciate it much any more, declaring even in his “will” (March 1923) which it was necessary to dislocate of these functions this man “too brutal”.

The rise of Stalin begins with his nomination with the station-springboard from general secretary from the party the April 3rd 1922, conciliating function obtained thanks to its obliteration (few standpoint), its relations of long time, its devotion, and its honesty with the Party.

Vis-a-vis him it meets quickly the opposition of Leon Trotsky, founder charismatic of the Red Army , having acquired as of 1902 the regard of Lénine but also adherent late with the party Bolshevik (1917) having been near to the Menchevik S. Whereas Trostky early developed divergent doctrines of that of Lénine and hesitated to be opposed to him, Stalin was always presented in the form of a honest servant of the large revolutionist having never contradicted it.

For évincer of the Trotsky government, Stalin joins in 1923, of living of Lénine, with Lev Kamenev, having also adhered to him in 1905, and with Grigori Zinoviev, top-ranking executive of the Komintern, close friend of Lénine since 1905 convinced to be his legitimate successor and having also proposed a time to him alliance with the menchéviks.

In 1926, after the death of Lénine in 1924, Zinoviev and Kamenev decide to break with Stalin to approach Trotski with which they share common doctrines: export of the world gasoline revolution and abandonment of the NEP. This “troika of pure” forms the left opposition in Stalin, who reacts tactiquement by approaching - without deep conviction - right-wing opposition favorable to the NEP and a realization socialism initially on the Russian ground then outside (Boukharine, Alexeï Rykov and Mikhaïl Tomsky).

It is pressed on this right wing to exclude from the Party in 1927 its three large opponents of the left wing. November 17th, 1928, once ensured that the partisans of the left opposition were reduced to silence (by exclusion, the force, imprisonment, the exile), it is turned over against Boukharine, Rykov, and Tomsky which it excludes from the political office and dislocates their respective functions of president of the Comintern, chief of the government, and directing Profintern.

Stalin, alone main on board, consequently does not hesitate to adopt the measurement-headlight preached by the old left opposition become impotent: the abandonment of the NEP. This reorientation is accompanied by a relegitimisation of frontage. Thus, in 1928, Kamenev are restored, it goes from there in the same way for Zinoviev in 1929, but Trotsky, always popular, is expelled the same year. Kamenev and Zinoviev were finally carried out on August 5th 1936, Boukharine and Rykov in March 1938, and Trotsky assassinated on August 21st 1940 in its exile in Mexico.

After having succeeded in politically eliminating (then physically) any opposition within the party, Stalin became the leading supreme one of the Soviet Union of 1927 with 1953, year of his death. From the political point of view, it was one period of totalitarian Dictature .

Economic collectivization and Planning (as from 1929)

Abandonment of the NEP

Stalin immediately did not forge his doctrines about NEP. Undoubtedly it is exact to say that its changes of opinion held more political tactic than of the doctrines, which enabled him to get rid of the ones and others.
Ultimately, the “richness” of Nepmen and the Kulaks led it to regard them as a new capitalist class made responsible for the increase in unemployment and inflation.
Stalin ends up forging doctrines which excluded the market economy all while concentrating on economic development and industrialist from the country.

The collectivization of the campaigns and the dekoulakisation

As from 1929, Stalin decides to remove the private property in the campaigns: the cattle, the tools, the grounds must be shared. The means of agricultural production are gathered in the Kolkhoze S or Sovkhoze s.

This forced collectivization causes resistances: rather than to give their herds, the peasants cut down them to consume them immediately. Vis-a-vis these riots, Stalin grants to a each kolkhoz small holding.

The Koulak S must be eliminated as a class. Between 1929 and 1935 more than two million peasants are off-set and several million dies of hunger, especially in Ukraine and in the south of Russia ( to see: Holodomor ). Their goods are confiscated.

The planning of the economy

It was a question of envisaging the economic activities according to five-year plans and which laid down the obligatory objectives of production. These five-year plans gave the priority to heavy industries by leaving side industries of consumption.

The industrialization of the USSR

Russia of the beginning of the 20th century was a new economic power and in rise, but still very rural and agricultural. Stalin wanted to develop heavy industry and to make of the USSR a major economic power.

The means used are those of a planned economy and centralized and a totalitarian political organization:

quotas extremely hard to fill: the minors worked from 16 to 6 p.m. per day,

hard sanctions in the event of nonrealization of the quotas, being able to go until the charge of treason,

use of the free labor of the prisoners of the Gulag S. They build stoppings (on the Dniepr), of the channels (between the the Baltic and the sea Blanche; channel Moscow - the Volga; channel the Volga - Gift). The towns of Vorkouta, Norilsk, Komsomolsk, Bratsk, Balkhach and Magadan are built by the prisoners.

creation of Combine S industrialists in Ukraine, in the the Ural and in Siberia.

sanctions against “the bad” workmen: introduction of the working booklet as of 1938 which entered the delays and the absences.

According to certain estimates, 127.000 workers paid of their life the installation of the first five-year plan (of 1928 to 1932). In addition, the priority allowance of the resources to industry, forced cereal exports to finance importations of goods of equipment, combined with the reduction in the agricultural productivity, caused new famines: the famine of 1932-1933, the last great famine European, causes nearly 6 million deaths. The five-year plan “was however buckled” officially in 4 years. From 1928 to 1932, the production of coal had doubled, that of steel had triplet.

Assessment of the economic policy in 1939

In ten years, the USSR achieved a remarkable jump from the industrialization point of view to the detriment of the insufficient production of and poor standard of living consumer goods of the population. Following the second five-year plan, the production of steel climbed to 18 million tons, that of coal to 128 million tons. Before its interruption by the war, the third plan had made it possible to reach 18 million tons of steel and 150 million tons of coal. Some estimate that without this forced industrialization, the outcome of the Second world war would have been different.

Dictatorship of Stalin (1929-1953) and his worship of the personality

Stalin set up a totalitarian system on which it reigned as a despot absolute and resting on two pillars: the Propaganda, implementing a true worship of the personality (it was called the “small father of the people” - the expression “small father” being of a former use and commun run in Russia, in particular used by the serfs towards their lord) and repression, resting in particular on NKVD, very powerful political police.
According to certain estimates, between 1921 and 1954, 3,7 million people were condemned for crimes bidonnés “counter-revolutionaries”; among them, 600.000 were condemned to death, 2,4 million imprisoned or envoys in camps of work (the Gulag S), and 800.000 condemned to the expatriation. The high framing of the Red Army was not more saved (Toukhatchevsky business) and undergoes a purification which was to weaken the USSR during the beginning of the Second world war.

See the detailed articles Stalinism, History of the USSR under Stalin

The Second world war - the patriotic Great War

Industrialization with forced march contributed to the victory of the USSR over Germany during the Second world war (known, in Soviet Union and Russia, like the “patriotic Great War”). The Red Army succeeds in stopping the advance in the East of the armies of the Reich, in particular thanks to the victory of Stalingrad August 1942 - February 1943.

Let us announce simply the principal phases of the “Patriotic Great War”. Initially overflowed and surprised by the shock of the German attack of June 22nd, 1941, the Red Army loses men, materials and lets the Wehrmacht occupy of immense territories in a few months (Baltic States, Bielorussia, Ukraine). For much the war seems gained by Germany at the beginning of autumn 41. However several factors will stop Net the German offensive and will allow the first Soviet counter-offensive. Initially, and in spite of appearances, the German attack is expensive Wehrmacht. At the beginning of December it already lost as many men as at the time of all the preceding campaigns. Moreover, its material (tanks, etc) is not replaced easily so that progressively its best divisions weaken. Its equipment is not adapted to the war in Russia: its trucks are enlisent in mud as of October, its engines are sensitive cold, the men are not equipped to face the winter, etc… Enfin it underestimated the Red Army which is begun again very quickly in spite of the first testing months. So that in December 41 the Germans are unable to take Moscow and undergo a counter-offensive obliging them to move back several hundreds of kilometers, counter-offensive which however becomes exhausted and stops in spring 42. Certain historians even estimate that the true one turning of the war in the East goes back to December 41. However the German army remains relatively strong, the Red Army did not deploy all its power yet. The stake for Hitler will be then to finish the war in the East as fast as possible, before the Red Army cannot definitively reverse the power struggle. It is the stake of the countryside of 1942 with two objectives: to conquer the the Caucasus and to join Rommel in the Middle East; to push back the Soviets beyond the Volga and to take Moscow with reverse. The first months of the offensive seem favorable to Hitler. However the plan leads to a situation strategically bad for the Germans: they divide their forces into two groups (a group for the the Caucasus, for Stalingrad on the the Volga) and in fact create two military groups unable in the long term to gain their objectives. They are stopped Nets in the Caucasus, stopped in Stalingrad in which a street fighting begins. Enlisée in Stalingrad the armed Life is encircled by a Soviet attack at the end of 42. A long seat starts for this army which crossed remainder of Wehrmacht crumbles little by little famished, refrigerated, subjected to an increasingly strong pressure of the Soviets. January 31st, 43 Von Paulus goes, marking the beginning of a Soviet counter-offensive which, in spite of the interlude of the Bataille of Koursk (July 43), will stop only with Berlin in April 45. Though the Soviet Union received important helps out of weapons and material of the the United States, its production of weaponry was more important than that of the Germany because of important increase in the industrial production between the two wars. During the German invasion, many industries will be transferred to the East from the the Ural.

The pact germano-Soviet and the release of the war

In order to ensure the Soviet influence on Eastern Europe, Stalin concludes, on August 23rd, 1939, the Pacte Molotov-Ribbentrop with the Nazi Germany. It was about a non-aggression pact which contained an appendix secret allotting Is Poland, the Latvia, the Estonia, Bessarabia and the Finland in the Soviet Union, while the West of Poland and the Lithuania were allotted to the Germany.
Germany invades Poland on September 1st, the Soviet Union according to the 17. Finland having rejected the territorial claims of the USSR, this one tries to invade Finland on November 30th: it is the beginning of the Guerre of Winter. The countryside was difficult, but by a peace signed in Moscow on March 12th, 1940, the USSR obtained the annexation of the Karelia. Following the release of this war, the USSR had been expelled of the Société of the Nations on December 14th, 1939.

Barbarossa operation

June 22nd, 1941, Germany broke the non-aggression pact and tackled the Soviet Union, Stalin having refused to pay attention to the warning statements of its agents and Churchill which was indicated thanks to the breaking of the code of the machine “ Enigma ” which quantified the German military communications. The invasion Nazi took the USSR by surprised and in a state of relative unpreparedness. Certain historians estimate that the Grandes Purgings years 1936-1938, during which 40.000 officers would have been imprisoned or liquidated, are not foreign with the first difficulties of the Red Army . The troops of Reich reached the surroundings of Moscow in December 1941, but had reached their maximum extension, of the troops having to go to consolidate the southern side of the attack.

The turning of the war

The turning of the countryside was the Bataille of Stalingrad in 1942 and 1943: the Red Army gained the victory after having lost a million men. It had consequently taken again the initiative, especially after the Bataille of Koursk in July 1943, and started to regain ground on the German army. In April 1945, the Red Army penetrates in Berlin; April 30th Adolf Hitler commits suicide; May 2nd, the red flag floats on the Reichstag and the unconditional surrender is signed the May 8th.

Impact and continuations of the war

The USSR supported the essence of the effort of war on the European theater of operations until the Allies open a second face in Europe following the unloading in Sicily, in 1943, and in Normandy in 1944. At the end of the war, one estimates that approximately 20 Soviet million and half had lost the life there, among whom 12 million civilians. Is added to that of the important material destruction, having caused a reduction in 25 % of GDP.

This explains perhaps partially the attitude of Soviet after the war, determined to punish the people having collaborated with Germany and to occupy of important territories. Million Lithuanians, Latvians, Géorgiens, Ukrainians and other ethnic minorities was massively off-set in Gulag S in Siberia, or in zones moved back to limit their contacts with the West.

During and after the war, the negotiations between the Allies led to the installation of two zones of influence, according to the agreements of Yalta and Potsdam.

The Soviet Union set up modes known as of “People's democracies” in the Central European countries (including in the part of Germany under its control), in which it established Communist governments which were devoted for him. The line border separating this unit from country, of Western Europe affiliated with the the United States, was named “Iron curtain”, which constitutes one of the elements at the origin of the Cold war.

After war

The cold war

Since 1945 and almost until its fall, the Soviet Union will be opposed to the the United States in what one will call the Cold war, each protagonist trying to increase his sphere of influence to the detriment of the other, and often of the countries concernés.
The USSR had joined together, in all Is Europe, a whole of satellite countries (Czechoslovakia, German Democratic republic, Hungary, Poland, Romania, Bulgaria, Albania). These countries were gathered within the Warsaw Pact. The United States had formed, with Canada and Western Europe, the Organization of the treaty of the North Atlantic (NATO).
In addition to Europe, the USSR and the United States were opposed, often by interposed “liberation movements”, in various places of the world, in particular in South America and Africa.

Succession of Stalin (Khrouchtchev)

After the death of Stalin in March 1953, Nikita Khrouchtchev became first secretary of the Central committee of the Party while Gueorgui Malenkov becomes Prime Minister. Beria, the chief of the NKVD, which could claim with the succession is stopped in June 1953 and carried out little time afterwards, in December 1953. The new direction of the country declared an amnesty for certain categories of prisoners and somewhat slackened the yoke which enclosed public freedoms.

Khrouchtchev consolidated little by little its personal capacity and during the 20 {{E}} congress of the Communist party, it pronounced, on February 25th, 1956, a speech on “the worship of the personality and its consequences” during which it denounced the worship of the personality maintained by Stalin as well as the dictatorship that it had subjected the USSR and the crimes of this period.

The impact of this speech was immense and destroyed the legitimacy of Stalinist which were still opposite for him. Followed of new measurements of democratization of the public life, the release of dissidents, and the installation of an economy more favorable to the consumer goods compared to the preceding five-year plans.

The same year, the Soviet troops repressed in blood the Hungarian Révolution: from 25.000 to 50.000 Hungarians and 7.000 soldiers of the Soviet Army lost the life, while nearly 250.000 Hungarians left the country. This event was, for the Western opinion favorable to the Soviet Union and Communism, a first shock serious.

Khrouchtchev still had to defend in May 1957 against carried out the Stalinist ones. Thus, the Stalinist old guard, consisted of Kaganovich, Molotov, Malenkov and Shepilov, tries to dislocate its functions Nikita Krouchtchev. With the assistance of the “hero of the patriotic Great War” and Minister for Zhukov defense, Krouchtchev manages to thwart their plan by presenting them like a splinter group. It will be all three put at the round of applause of the USSR, but sign of times they will not be eliminated following lawsuits with the manufactured evidence, as it was of setting of the time of Stalin. Khrouchtchev became finally Prime Minister on March 27th, 1958. It is a great turning in the history of the Soviet Union. Indeed, the victory of this “splinter group” would have allowed the maintenance until the beginning of the year 1990 with the head of the Soviet Union of an intransigent line prohibiting any looseness of the vice of the State on the people.

The 10 years period which followed confirmed this new tendency: the political power had taken the step on pure and simple coercion, the party taking again the role first compared to the secret police and with the army.

During this period, also, the USSR confirmed its place of super power and defied the United States, often on their own ground. Cuba, socialist country supported by the USSR, became the center of this opposition at the time of the Crise of the missiles of Cuba in October 1962.

In 1957, Soviet sent in space the first artificial satellite, Sputnik and the first living being in space, Laïka. In 1961, Youri Gagarine, was the first man in space, and in 1963, Valentina Terechkova the first woman.

Undoubtedly partially because of the business of the missiles and a too unfavourable policy with will nomenklatura, Khrouchtchev was deposited at a meeting of the Central committee of the Party on October 13rd, 1964.

Politico-economic stagnation under Brejnev.

Following the departure of Khrouchtchev, Brejnev becomes first secretary of the party, Alexeï Kossyguine Prime Minister and Anastase Mikoyan Head of the State, quickly replaced by Nikolaï Podgorny (one speaks then about the “troika” to designate these three characters holders of the capacity of State; but Brejnev will not be long in concentrating the essence of reality of it). Under Brejnev, the Soviet mode hardens again. The political police (the KGB), directed by Iouri Andropov, finds most of the capacity which she had enjoyed under Stalin. However, Andropov will not imitate repressive excesses of this time. One of the most serious crises of the time of Brejnev was that of the Printemps of Prague in 1968, when the attempts of the Czechoslovakia to introduce a “socialism with human face” are finally repressed by the Soviet Army, without however excesses of the repression of the Hungarian revolution.

On the international plan, the government of Brejnev was marked by a certain relaxation of the tension with the United States, in particular the signature of treaties of limitation of the weapons and the Traité of Helsinki.

In December 1979, Brejnev intervened in Afghanistan to support the Communist regime in place. This event put a brake application at the relaxation, causing an embargo by the United States, a shortage of supply of armaments to the Moujahideen S and the boycott of the Moscow Olympic Games in 1980.

In March 1982, Brejnev made an heart attack which decreased it considerably. As from this moment, it fulfilled only partially its functions until its in November death.

Perestroika and glasnost: Mikhaïl Gorbatchev and the fall of the Union

After the rapid succession of Iouri Andropov (1982-1984) and of Konstantin Tchernenko (1984-1985), Mikhaïl Gorbatchev, a young person and energetic directing 53 years, became first secretary of the Party. Noting the deliquescence of the country and his economy, Gorbatchev first of all tries to leave his country the dead end which becomes the cold war. Indeed, Ronald Reagan had launched a massive rearmament of the United States by directing its research and its investments towards types of armament to very high technological value, thus involving the USSR, under penalty of obsolescence, in a fast race which it could only lose considering its technological delay and its economy in serious attack. Gorbatchev thus initiated with Reagan a series of initiatives which led to an unquestionable relaxation and the signature of agreements of disarmament. Gorbatchev obtained the Nobel Prize of Peace for these efforts in 1990. This time was marked by the fall of the Berlin Wall.

To get rid of this external constraint was however not sufficient, and without giving up the central dogma of socialism, Gorbatchev launched the Glasnost (“transparency”, policy of free information) and the Perestroïka (“reorganization”, new industrial relations policy and economic), with three main objectives:

To make the economy more powerful by adopting the private property;
To democratize the political system by supporting political pluralism;
To limit the armament which costs too much to the budget.

Whereas all the political prisoners held by the government are released, the “glasnost” is also marked by the return of freedom of expression: one sees humorists caricaturing Gorbatchev. He seeks by there an intermediate way between the “traditionalists” attached to the mode (the Nomenklatura) and the “reformists”, such Boris Ieltsine which reproaches him the slowness of the reforms. However it was too late, and Gorbatchev does not succeed in correcting the faults which mined the state since decades. But the economic problems are badly solved. The privatization of the large companies is done for the benefit privileged people of “will nomenklatura”. Inflation develops: the “glasnost” is a failure.

The March 26th 1989, Gorbatchev creates a new legislative Parliament: the Congress of the deputies of the people of which the two-thirds are members elected by the vote for all, with secret bulletin, on multiple candidatures. The first legislative elections show the failure of the candidates of Gorbatchev and the emergence of the reformers and the nationalists. Its government appears too moderate for reformers, in favor of a liberal economy, and too reformer for those which wish a return to Communism.

In June 1990, Boris Eltsine, President of the Supreme Soviet of the Fédération of Russia declared the sovereignty of Russia and resigned of the Communist party. In August 1991, a putsch carried out by members of the government opposed to the reforms showed with which point the position of Gorbatchev had weakened. The plot failed partly thanks to the intervention of Boris Eltsine, which confirmed of this fact its position of leader of the reformists.

During the autumn 1991, while the constituent republics of the USSR proclaimed, one after the other, their independence without Gorbatchev having the possibility of being opposed to it by the force, the Russian government took little by little the ascending one, taking again the functions before provided by the Union. Thus, Gorbatchev while being president of the Soviet Union lost quickly taken. It was said at the time the Soviet Union limited itself to the walls of the the Kremlin. In November 1991, the Russian president Boris Eltsine published a decree which prohibited the Communist party of Soviet Union on the territory of the Federation of Russia. December 8th, 1991, the chiefs of the Russia, the Ukraine and the Bielorussia published a declaration according to which the Soviet Union dissolved and was replaced by the Communauté of the independent States (CEI).

Gorbatchev was still president, but without country, its capacity did not mean anything any more. December 25th, 1991, Gorbatchev gave his resignation as a president of the Soviet Union. The next day, the Soviet Union was officially dissolved.

The Community of the independent States

The the Community of the independent States, created in December 1991, has like members the following republics: Arménie, Azerbaïdjan, Bielorussia, Kazakhstan, Kirghizstan, Moldavie, Ouzbékistan, Russia, Tadjikistan, Turkménistan, Ukraine and Georgia.

It is about a union whose project resembles that of the European Union without this one having much advanced.

Political system

The USSR was a Federal state, based on the democratic Centralisme gathering fifteen Soviet republics. The political system, very arranged hierarchically, rested in right on the Council of Ministers ( Sovet ministrov ), supposed to hold the executive power, and the Parliament (Supreme Soviet, Verkhovny Sovet ) supposed to hold the legislative power.

In practice, the separation of the capacities was not respected, because only one political party was authorized, the Communist party of the USSR (PCUS), which in fact concentrated all the capacities and controlled the State, all senior officials being in the higher rows of the Party. This organization made the singularity of the Soviet Union. The Party was supposed to exert the Dictatorship of the proletariat such as the Marxisme-léninisme had conceived it. In theory, the Party was opened with any citizen who “does not exploit the work of the others, accepts the program and the rules of the Party, works in an organization of the Party and supports all his decisions”, however adhesion with the party long, was accompanied by multiple investigations, and finally élitiste. Thus, in the years 1980,6 % of the 265 million inhabitants were members of the PCUS, which was far from conferring the so much posted representativeness of the people. This one counted some 200.000 civils servant full-time, the apparatchiki , the “men of the apparatus”.

The structure of the Party doubled the structure of the State: so on each level there were official bodies which seemed to exert the power, these bodies were controlled by PCUS, and thus by its person in charge on each level, which took his orders of the higher level, until arriving to the general secretary of the Party, posts returned by the most important Stalin of all the Soviet Union.

At the top of the State were thus located the Supreme Soviet, with its executive body, the Præsidium, as well as the Supreme court and the Prosecutor of the Soviet Union. These three magistratures being in theory under the control of the two legislative rooms. The Council of Ministers supervises a quantity of commissions and services, of which the number and attributions change with intervals, but which are bodies more important than the ministries for the Republics.

With top of Party, General secretary, whose title is modest but the capacity much larger than that of the President of Praesidium of the Supreme Soviet of the Soviet Union whose title is purely honorary, and larger than that of the President of the Council of Ministers (Prime Minister) of the USSR. Below him, by order of decreasing authority the Politburo, the Secretariat and the Central committee come. Below still the Congress PCUS, then the Central committees, the Secretariats and the provincial Conferences represent the following level. A lower degree come the Committees, Secrétariats and Conferences of district. Lastly, constituting the base of the pyramid, the secretariats, offices and local cells.

The Party determined the policy to follow that the State was to carry out. The task of the civils servant of the government consisted in applying the decisions of the Party, i.e. Politburo and Central committee. This method had an advantage: contrary to what occurred to Occident, those which make the policy are thus discharged from the works of routine. Nikita Khrouchtchev was the first Soviet chief to cumulate the titles of the First secretary of the PCUS and that of the president of the Council of Ministers of the USSR. As for Léonid Brejnev, he was at the same time First secretary (since 1966, general secretary) of PCUS and chair of Praesidium of the Supreme Soviet of the USSR (of 1960 to 1964 and 1977 to 1982). In 1990, Gorbatchev will be the first and the Soviet last dirigant to take the position of president of the the USSR.

Economy

Economic assessment - the dead end of the planned economy

The inter-war period and after war was periods of growth economic important that some allot, for a good portion, with the marriage of planning and forced labor.

Between 1913 and 1989, the income per capita is multiplied in Russia by 4,6, against 3,3 in Great Britain, 3,8 in the USA, 5,1 in France or 5,4 in Germany.

When the growth slows down about the years 1960, that was regarded as a provisional phenomenon. The persons in charge of planning had been unable to expect the economic problems, and the concept even of planned economy did not seem to be able to function within the framework of an economy modern and changing, especially when the administration of planning is entrusted to a sclerosed Bureaucratie and a Nomenklatura more attached to its privileges than with the service of the State.

The Complexe militaro-industrialist represented a gigantic share of industry. The marshal Nikolaï Orgakov had published, starting from 1979, a series of articles, in the press of the Communist party, which explained in an alarmist way, that American had one and even two generations in advance in electronics and data processing, and without possibility of being able to catch up with them.

Technological assessment: some major achievements with the service of national prestige

Military forces

Nationalities in the USSR

Demography

At the time of the post-war period, the population knew a major reduction in the mortality, which however stopped as of the Années 1970.

Towards the end of the period, there exists moreover a notable difference between a Russian and Ukrainian population with weak growth, and “alien” people (mainly Turkish-speaking) with strong birthrate.

The socialist USSR and principles

The difficulty of the question is related to the fact that the term “Socialisme” could describe very diverse movements and often in opposition on what constitutes “true” socialism. In the final analysis, the question of the relationship between the USSR and socialism depend on the way in which one defines socialism. Among those which claim Socialisme, there exist three visions of the USSR:

for the Stalinist , it was a “State Socialiste”;
for Trotsky and the majority of the trotskystes, as from 1927 it was a “degenerated working State”;
for the Communist democratic, the Luxembourgistes, the Situationnistes, the anarchistic, the bordiguists and some trotskystes (Natalia Sedova, Grandizo Provided, Tony Cliff…), it was a “Capitalisme of State”: i.e. it was about a capitalist economy with a single exploitor, bureaucracy of State.

To explain the fact that the USSR would have turned the back on the principles of the Socialisme, of the elements are advanced:

Russia had never known true democratic experiments.
the diversion of the concept of dictatorship of the proletariat: Leon Blum declares in December 1920 that “the situation in Russia, it is not dictatorship of the proletariat, but the dictatorship on the proletariat”; Hermann Gorter writes with Lénine in March 1921 “you wanted the dictatorship of the party, i.e. of some chiefs”.
the absence of “socialist” revolutions in other countries of Europe and world, condemning the USSR to insulation.
the weak development of Russia in 1917, in particular the weakness of the Proletariat.
context of the first years, with the civil war and the military attacks come from other countries.
the prohibition of the democratic debate in Russia by the Bolsheviks. Rosa Luxemburg estimated in September 1918 that “without an unlimited freedom of the press, without an absolute freedom of meeting and association, the domination of the broad popular masses is inconceivable”.
the authoritarianism of the Bolsheviks and the Leninism.

Contrary, certain intellectuals such Alexandre Zinoviev affirmed that Soviet reality was the consequence of the principles of the Socialisme in its official Marxist form. According to such a vision, the centralization of the economy having for necessary corollary that of the capacity, the worship of Stalin would not be whereas the extreme example and the logical consequence of the concentration of the capacity, monopolized successively by only one party (1917), then by only one current within the party (1921), finally by only one man. Not without irony, Zinoviev, being based on a Marxist analysis of the Soviet company, reaffirms the idea of the “preserving” Communists Stalinist then brejnéviens, according to which the USSR of Stalin with Brejnev does not represent the perversion of the socialist principles but their result.

Codes

The Soviet Union has as codes:

KNOWN, according to the international Code list of the number plates;
.su (always of use), according to the List of Internet TLD (Signal level domain);
the USSR, according to the Code list country of the CIO, uncommon code now;
??? , according to the standard ISO 3166-1 (code list country), uncommon code now.

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