Union of Soviet Socialist Republics
Introduction
Politically the USSR was divided (from 1940 to 1991) into 15 constituent or union republics—Armenia, Azerbaijan, Belorussia (see Belarus), Estonia, Georgia, Kazakhstan, Kirghizia (see Kyrgyzstan), Latvia, Lithuania, Moldavia (see Moldova), Russia, Tadzhikistan (see Tajikistan), Turkmenistan, Ukraine, and Uzbekistan—ostensibly joined in a federal union, but until the final year or so of the USSR's existence the republics had little real power. Russia, officially the Russian Soviet Federal Socialist Republic (RSFSR), was only one of the constituent republics, but the terms Russia,
the USSR,
and the Soviet Union
were often used interchangeably.
Sections in this article:
- Introduction
- Early Years
- The Stalin Era
- The Khrushchev Era
- The Brezhnev Era
- The Gorbachev Era
- Bibliography
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