Soviet Union

Environment

Landscape near Karabash, Chelyabinsk Oblast, an area that was previously covered with forests until acid rainfall from a nearby copper smelter killed all vegetation

One of the many impacts of the approach to the environment in the USSR and post-Soviet states is the Aral Sea. (Status in August 1964 and August 2026)^[19]

Neighbouring countries were aware of the high levels of pollution in the Soviet Union^[20][21] but after the dissolution of the Soviet Union it was discovered that its environmental problems were greater than what the Soviet authorities admitted.^[22] The Soviet Union was the world's second-largest producer of harmful emissions. In 1988, total emissions in the Soviet Union were about 79% of those in the United States. But since the Soviet GNP was only 54% of that of the United States, this means that the Soviet Union generated 1.5 times more pollution than the United States per unit of GNP.^[23]

The Chernobyl disaster in the Ukrainian SSR in 1986 was the first major accident at a civilian nuclear power plant.^{[24][25][26][27]} Unparalleled in the world, it resulted in a large number of radioactive isotopes being released into the atmosphere. Radioactive doses were scattered relatively far.^[28] Although long-term effects of the accident were unknown, 4,000 new cases of thyroid cancer which resulted from the accident's contamination were reported at the time of the accident, but this led to a relatively low number of deaths (WHO data, 2005).^[29] The disaster contributed to the socio-economic crises that resulted in the collapse of the Soviet Union.^[30][31][32] Another major radioactive accident that took place in the USSR was the Kyshtym disaster.^[33]

The Kola Peninsula was one of the places with major problems.^[34] Around the industrial cities of Monchegorsk and Norilsk, where nickel, for example, is mined, all forests have been destroyed by contamination, while the northern and other parts of Russia have been affected by emissions.^[35] During the 1990s, people in the West were also interested in the radioactive hazards of nuclear facilities, decommissioned nuclear submarines, and the processing of nuclear waste or spent nuclear fuel.^[36][37] It was also known in the early 1990s that the USSR had transported radioactive material to the Barents Sea and Kara Sea, which was later confirmed by the Russian parliament. The crash of the K-141 Kursk submarine in 2000 in the west further raised concerns.^[38] In the past, there were accidents involving submarines K-19, K-8, a K-129, K-27, K-219 and K-278 Komsomolets.^{[39][40][41][42]}

Communist Party

At the top of the Communist Party was the Central Committee, elected at Party Congresses and Conferences. In turn, the Central Committee voted for a Politburo (called the Presidium between 1952 and 1966), Secretariat and the general secretary (First Secretary from 1953 to 1966), the de facto highest office in the Soviet Union.^[44] Depending on the degree of power consolidation, it was either the Politburo as a collective body or the General Secretary, who always was one of the Politburo members, that effectively led the party and the country^[45] (except for the period of the highly personalized authority of Stalin, exercised directly through his position in the Council of Ministers rather than the Politburo after 1941).^[46] They were not controlled by the general party membership, as the key principle of the party organization was democratic centralism, demanding strict subordination to higher bodies, and elections went uncontested, endorsing the candidates proposed from above.^[47]

The Communist Party maintained its dominance over the state mainly through its control over the system of appointments. All senior government officials and most deputies of the Supreme Soviet were members of the CPSU. Of the party heads themselves, Stalin (1941–1953) and Khrushchev (1958–1964) were Premiers. Upon the forced retirement of Khrushchev, the party leader was prohibited from this kind of double membership,^[48] but the later General Secretaries for at least some part of their tenure occupied the mostly ceremonial position of Chairman of the Presidium of the Supreme Soviet, the nominal head of state. The institutions at lower levels were overseen and at times supplanted by primary party organizations.^[49]

However, in practice the degree of control the party was able to exercise over the state bureaucracy, particularly after the death of Stalin, was far from total, with the bureaucracy pursuing different interests that were at times in conflict with the party,^[50] nor was the party itself monolithic from top to bottom, although factions were officially banned.^[51]

Highest organ of state authority

The Supreme Soviet (successor of the Congress of Soviets) was nominally the highest organ of state authority for most of the Soviet history,^[52] at first acting as a rubber stamp institution, approving and implementing all decisions made by the party. However, its powers and functions were extended in the late 1950s, 1960s, and 1970s, including the creation of new state commissions and committees. It gained additional powers relating to the approval of the Five-Year Plans and the government budget.^[53] The Supreme Soviet elected a Presidium (successor of the Central Executive Committee) to wield its power between plenary sessions,^[54] ordinarily held twice a year, and appointed the Supreme Court,^[55] the Procurator General^[56] and the Council of Ministers (known before 1946 as the Council of People's Commissars), headed by the Chairman (Premier) and managing an enormous bureaucracy responsible for the administration of the economy and society.^[54] State and party structures of the constituent republics largely emulated the structure of the central institutions, although the Russian SFSR, unlike the other constituent republics, for most of its history had no republican branch of the CPSU, being ruled directly by the union-wide party until 1990. Local authorities were organized likewise into party committees, local Soviets and executive committees. While the state was a de jure federation with a nominally federal constitution, the party was de facto centralised and unitary.^[57][58]

The state security police (the KGB and its predecessor agencies) played an important role in Soviet politics. It was instrumental in the Red Terror and Great Purge,^[59] but was brought under strict party control after Stalin's death. Under Yuri Andropov, the KGB engaged in the suppression of political dissent and maintained an extensive network of informers, reasserting itself as a political actor to some extent independent of the party-state structure,^[60] culminating in the anti-corruption campaign targeting high-ranking party officials in the late 1970s and early 1980s.^[61]

Unified power and reform

The constitution, which was promulgated in 1924, 1936 and 1977, did not limit state power.^[62] No separation of powers existed in the Soviet Union, as the state system was based on the unified state power of the highest organ of state authority, that is, the All-Union Supreme Soviet which worked under the party's leadership.^[63] The system was governed less by statute than by informal conventions, and no settled mechanism of leadership succession existed. Bitter and at times deadly power struggles took place in the Politburo after the deaths of Lenin^[64] and Stalin,^[65] as well as after Khrushchev's dismissal,^[66] itself due to a decision by both the Politburo and the Central Committee.^[67] All leaders of the Communist Party before Gorbachev died in office, except Georgy Malenkov^[68] and Khrushchev, who were both dismissed from the party leadership amid internal struggle within the party.^[67]

Between 1988 and 1990, facing considerable opposition, Mikhail Gorbachev enacted reforms shifting power away from the highest bodies of the party and making the Supreme Soviet less dependent on them. The Congress of People's Deputies was established, the majority of whose members were directly elected in competitive elections held in March 1989, the first in Soviet history. The Congress now elected the Supreme Soviet, which became a full-time parliament, and much stronger than before. For the first time since the 1920s, it refused to rubber stamp proposals from the party and Council of Ministers.^[69] In 1990, Gorbachev introduced and assumed the position of the President of the Soviet Union, concentrated power in his executive office, independent of the party, and subordinated the government,^[70] now renamed the Cabinet of Ministers of the USSR, to himself.^[71]

Tensions grew between the Union-wide authorities under Gorbachev, reformists led in Russia by Boris Yeltsin and controlling the newly elected Supreme Soviet of the Russian SFSR, and communist hardliners. On 19–21 August 1991, a group of hardliners staged a coup attempt. The coup failed, and the State Council of the Soviet Union became the highest organ of state power 'in the period of transition'.^[72] Gorbachev resigned as General Secretary, only remaining President for the final months of the existence of the USSR.^[73]

Judicial system

The judiciary was not independent of the supreme state organ of power, and the Supreme Court as the supreme judicial organ supervised the lower courts (People's Court) and applied the law as established by the constitution or as interpreted by the Supreme Soviet. The Constitutional Oversight Committee reviewed the constitutionality of laws and acts. The Soviet Union used the inquisitorial system of Roman law, where the judge, procurator, and defence attorney collaborate to "establish the truth".^[74]

Human rights

Human rights in the Soviet Union were severely limited. The Soviet Union was a totalitarian state from 1927 until 1953^{[75][76][77][78]} and a one-party state until 1990.^[79] Freedom of speech was suppressed and dissent was punished. Independent political activities were not tolerated, whether these involved participation in free labour unions, private corporations, independent churches or opposition political parties. The freedom of movement within and especially outside the country was limited. The state restricted rights of citizens to private property.

Foreign relations

During his rule, Stalin always made the final policy decisions. Otherwise, Soviet foreign policy was set by the commission on the Foreign Policy of the Central Committee of the Communist Party of the Soviet Union, or by the party's highest body the Politburo. Operations were handled by the separate Ministry of Foreign Affairs. It was known as the People's Commissariat for Foreign Affairs (or Narkomindel), until 1946. The most influential spokesmen were Georgy Chicherin, Maxim Litvinov, Vyacheslav Molotov, Andrey Vyshinsky, and Andrei Gromyko. Intellectuals were based in the Moscow State Institute of International Relations.^[94]

• Comintern (1919–1943), or Communist International, was an international communist organization based in the Kremlin that advocated world communism. The Comintern intended to 'struggle by all available means, including armed force, for the overthrow of the international bourgeoisie and the creation of an international Soviet republic as a transition stage to the complete abolition of the state'.^[95] It was abolished as a conciliatory measure toward Britain and the United States.^[96]
• Comecon, the Council for Mutual Economic Assistance (Russian: Совет Экономической Взаимопомощи, Sovet Ekonomicheskoy Vzaimopomoshchi, СЭВ, SEV) was an economic organization from 1949 to 1991 under Soviet control that comprised the countries of the Eastern Bloc along with several communist states elsewhere in the world. Moscow was concerned about the Marshall Plan, and Comecon was meant to prevent countries in the Soviets' sphere of influence from moving towards that of the Americans and Southeast Asia. Comecon was the Eastern Bloc's reply to the formation in Western Europe of the Organization for European Economic Co-Operation (OEEC),^[97][98]
• The Warsaw Pact was a collective defence alliance formed in 1955 among the USSR and its satellite states in Eastern Europe during the Cold War.^[99][100] The Warsaw Pact was the military complement to the Comecon, the regional economic organization for the socialist states of Central and Eastern Europe. The Warsaw Pact was created in reaction to the integration of West Germany into NATO.^[101][99] Although nominally a "defensive" alliance, the Pact's primary function was to safeguard the Soviet Union's hegemony over its Eastern European satellites, with the Pact's only direct military actions having been the invasions of its own member states to keep them from breaking away.^{[102][99][103]}
• The Cominform (1947–1956), informally the Communist Information Bureau and officially the Information Bureau of the Communist and Workers' Parties, was the first official agency of the international Marxist-Leninist movement since the dissolution of the Comintern in 1943. Its role was to coordinate actions between Marxist-Leninist parties under Soviet direction. Stalin used it to order Western European communist parties to abandon their exclusively parliamentarian line and instead concentrate on politically impeding the operations of the Marshall Plan, the U.S. program of rebuilding Europe after the war and developing its economy.^[104] It also coordinated international aid to Marxist-Leninist insurgents during the Greek Civil War in 1947–1949.^[105] It expelled Yugoslavia in 1948 after Josip Broz Tito insisted on an independent program. Its newspaper, For a Lasting Peace, for a People's Democracy!, promoted Stalin's positions. The Cominform's concentration on Europe meant a deemphasis on world revolution in Soviet foreign policy. By enunciating a uniform ideology, it allowed the constituent parties to focus on personalities rather than issues.^[106]

Early policies (1919–1939)

Further information: International relations (1919–1939) § Soviet Union

The Marxist-Leninist leadership of the Soviet Union intensely debated foreign policy issues and changed directions several times. Even after Stalin assumed dictatorial control in the late 1920s, there were debates, and he frequently changed positions.^[107]

During the country's early period, it was assumed that Communist revolutions would break out soon in every major industrial country, and it was the Russian responsibility to assist them. The Comintern was the weapon of choice. A few revolutions did break out, but they were quickly suppressed (the longest lasting one was in Hungary)—the Hungarian Soviet Republic—lasted only from 21 March 1919 to 1 August 1919. The Russian Bolsheviks were in no position to give any help.

By 1921, Lenin, Trotsky, and Stalin realized that capitalism had stabilized itself in Europe and there would not be any widespread revolutions anytime soon. It became the duty of the Russian Bolsheviks to protect what they had in Russia, and avoid military confrontations that might destroy their bridgehead. Russia was now a pariah state, along with Germany. The two came to terms in 1922 with the Treaty of Rapallo that settled long-standing grievances. At the same time, the two countries secretly set up training programs for the illegal German army and air force operations at hidden camps in the USSR.^[108]

Moscow eventually stopped threatening other states, and instead worked to open peaceful relationships in terms of trade, and diplomatic recognition. The United Kingdom dismissed the warnings of Winston Churchill and a few others about a continuing Marxist-Leninist threat, and opened trade relations and de facto diplomatic recognition in 1922. There was hope for a settlement of the pre-war Tsarist debts, but it was repeatedly postponed. Formal recognition came when the new Labour Party came to power in 1924.^[109] All the other countries followed suit in opening trade relations. Henry Ford opened large-scale business relations with the Soviets in the late 1920s, hoping that it would lead to long-term peace. Finally, in 1933, the United States officially recognized the USSR, a decision backed by the public opinion and especially by US business interests that expected an opening of a new profitable market.^[110]

In the late 1920s and early 1930s, Stalin ordered Marxist-Leninist parties across the world to strongly oppose non-Marxist political parties, labour unions or other organizations on the left, which they labelled social fascists. In the usage of the Soviet Union, and of the Comintern and its affiliated parties in this period, the epithet fascist was used to describe capitalist society in general and virtually any anti-Soviet or anti-Stalinist activity or opinion.^[111] Stalin reversed himself in 1934 with the Popular Front program that called on all Marxist parties to join with all anti-Fascist political, labour, and organizational forces that were opposed to fascism, especially of the Nazi variety.^[112][113]

The rapid growth of power in Nazi Germany encouraged both Paris and Moscow to form a military alliance, and the Franco-Soviet Treaty of Mutual Assistance was signed in May 1935. A firm believer in collective security, Stalin's foreign minister Maxim Litvinov worked very hard to form a closer relationship with France and Britain.^[114]

In 1939, half a year after the Munich Agreement, the USSR attempted to form an anti-Nazi alliance with France and Britain.^[115] Adolf Hitler proposed a better deal, which would give the USSR control over much of Eastern Europe through the Molotov–Ribbentrop Pact. In September, Germany invaded Poland, and the USSR also invaded later that month, resulting in the partition of Poland. In response, Britain and France declared war on Germany, marking the beginning of World War II.^[116]

Administrative divisions

Constitutionally, the USSR was a federation of constituent Union Republics, which were either unitary states, such as Ukraine or Byelorussia (SSRs), or federations, such as Russia or Transcaucasia (SFSRs),^[43] all four being the founding republics who signed the Treaty on the Creation of the USSR in December 1922. In 1924, during the national delimitation in Central Asia, Uzbekistan and Turkmenistan were formed from parts of Russia's Turkestan ASSR and two Soviet dependencies, the Khorezm and Bukharan PSPs. In 1929, Tajikistan was split off from the Uzbekistan SSR. With the constitution of 1936, the Transcaucasian SFSR was dissolved, resulting in its constituent republics of Armenia, Georgia and Azerbaijan being elevated to Union Republics, while Kazakhstan and Kirghizia were split off from the Russian SFSR, resulting in the same status.^[119] In August 1940, Moldavia was formed from parts of Ukraine and Soviet-occupied Bessarabia, and Ukrainian SSR. Estonia, Latvia and Lithuania were also annexed by the Soviet Union and turned into SSRs, which was not recognized by most of the international community and was considered an illegal occupation. After the Soviet invasion of Finland, the Karelo-Finnish SSR was formed on annexed territory as a Union Republic in March 1940 and then incorporated into Russia as the Karelian ASSR in 1956. Between July 1956 and September 1991, there were 15 union republics (see map below).^[120]

Republic		Map of the Union Republics between 1956 and 1991
1	Russian SFSR
2	Ukrainian SSR
3	Byelorussian SSR
4	Uzbek SSR
5	Kazakh SSR
6	Georgian SSR
7	Azerbaijan SSR
8	Lithuanian SSR
9	Moldavian SSR
10	Latvian SSR
11	Kirghiz SSR
12	Tajik SSR
13	Armenian SSR
14	Turkmen SSR
15	Estonian SSR

Weapons of mass destruction

By the end of the Cold War, the Soviet Armed Forces maintained the world's largest arsenals of nuclear, chemical, and biological weapons. As dissolution seemed imminent, the United States initiated the Nunn–Lugar Cooperative Threat Reduction program to dismantle much of this Soviet infrastructure and secure its personnel and materials.^[126]

The Soviet Union had the largest nuclear weapons arsenal ever, peaking at over 40,000 warheads in 1986.^[127] The country was the second to develop nuclear weapons, conducting its first test RDS-1 in 1949, four years after the US Trinity test.^[128] Its primary nuclear testing sites were Semipalatinsk, Novaya Zemlya, and Kapustin Yar.^[129] By 1991, it deployed over 10,000 strategic nuclear weapons in its nuclear triad: Strategic Rocket Forces' silo-based and road-mobile intercontinental ballistic missiles, the Soviet Navy's submarine-launched ballistic missiles, and Long Range Aviation's Tu-95MS and Tu-160 bombers. Another 11,000 tactical nuclear weapons were assigned to land and naval tactical aircraft, missiles, nuclear artillery, and anti-submarine weapons.^[130]

The Soviet chemical weapons program became the largest in world history.^[131] Russia in 1993 declared 39,967 tons of chemical weapons.^[132] The program produced Novichok, VR, sarin, and soman nerve agents, as well as lewisite, mustard, and phosgene, and others.^[133][134] By comparison, 27,770 metric tons were declared for the United States chemical weapons program in 1997.^[132] By the time of the Soviet Union's dissolution in 1991, its research institute, GosNIIOKhT, employed around 6,000 people across Russia and Uzbekistan.^[135][136] Novichok agents were designed to be undetectable and unprotectable by NATO equipment, safer to handle, and circumvent the forthcoming Chemical Weapons Convention list of controlled precursors.^{[137][138][139]}

The Soviet biological weapons program was the world's largest, longest, and most sophisticated biological warfare project.^[140] It weaponized and stockpiled the biological agents that cause anthrax, plague, tularemia, smallpox, botulism and others.^[141] Genetic engineering improved agent stability and antibiotic resistance.^[142] A civilian cover organization named Biopreparat operated 40 to 50 military-purposed biological research facilities. An anti-agriculture program, Ekologiya, targeted crops and livestock.^[143] The program employed a peak of 65,000 people and annually produced, for example, 100 tons of smallpox. The Sverdlovsk anthrax leak, which led to at least 68 deaths, began to reveal the extent of the program,^[144] continued by defectors including Ken Alibek and Vladimir Pasechnik.^[145]

Energy

The need for fuel declined in the Soviet Union from the 1970s to the 1980s,^[167] both per ruble of gross social product [ru] and per ruble of industrial product. The decline was very rapid between 1965 and 1970, then slowed between 1970 and 1975. From 1975 to 1980, the decline continued at an even slower rate, with fuel requirements per ruble of gross social product decreasing by only 2.6%.^[168] David Wilson, a historian, believed that the gas industry would account for 40% of Soviet fuel production by the end of the century. His theory did not come to fruition because of the USSR's collapse.^[169] According to Wilson, the Soviet Union was, in theory, well-positioned to avoid an energy crisis and could have sustained economic growth rates of 2–2.5% during the 1990s, supported by its energy resources.^[170] However, the energy sector faced many difficulties, among them the country's high military expenditure and hostile relations with the First World.^[171]

In 1991, the Soviet Union had a pipeline network of 82,000 kilometres (51,000 mi) for crude oil and another 206,500 kilometres (128,300 mi) for natural gas.^[172] Petroleum and petroleum-based products, natural gas, metals, wood, agricultural products, and a variety of manufactured goods, primarily machinery, arms and military equipment, were exported.^[173] In the 1970s and 1980s, the USSR heavily relied on fossil fuel exports to earn hard currency.^[151] At its peak in 1988, it was the largest producer and second-largest exporter of crude oil, surpassed only by Saudi Arabia.^[174]

Science and technology

The Soviet Union placed great emphasis on science and technology.^[175][176] Lenin believed the USSR would never overtake the developed world if it remained as technologically backward as it was upon its founding. Soviet authorities proved their commitment to Lenin's belief by developing massive networks and research and development organizations. In the early 1960s, 40% of chemistry PhDs in the Soviet Union were attained by women, compared with only 5% in the United States.^[177] By 1989, Soviet scientists were among the world's best-trained specialists in several areas, such as energy physics, selected areas of medicine, mathematics, welding, space technology, and military technologies. However, due to rigid state planning and bureaucracy, the Soviets remained far behind the First World in chemistry, biology, and computer science. Under Stalin, the Soviet government persecuted geneticists in favour of Lysenkoism, a pseudoscience rejected by the scientific community in the Soviet Union and abroad but supported by Stalin's inner circles. Implemented in the USSR and China, it resulted in reduced crop yields and is widely believed to have contributed to the Great Chinese Famine.^[178] In the 1980s, the Soviet Union had more scientists and engineers relative to the world's population than any other major country, owing to strong levels of state support.^[179] Some of its most remarkable technological achievements, such as launching the world's first space satellite, were achieved through military research.^[154]

Under the Reagan administration, Project Socrates determined that the Soviet Union addressed the acquisition of science and technology in a manner radically different to the United States. The US prioritized indigenous research and development in both the public and private sectors. In contrast, the USSR placed greater emphasis on acquiring foreign technology, which it did through both covert and overt means. However, centralized state planning kept Soviet technological development greatly inflexible. This was exploited by the US to undermine the strength of the Soviet Union and thus foster its reform.^{[180][181][182]}

Space program

At the end of the 1950s, the USSR constructed the first satellite—Sputnik 1, which marked the beginning of the Space Race—a competition to achieve superior spaceflight capability with the United States.^[183] This was followed by other successful satellites, most notably Sputnik 5, where test dogs were sent to space. On 12 April 1961, the USSR launched Vostok 1, which carried Yuri Gagarin, making him the first human to ever be launched into space and complete a space journey.^[184] The first plans for space shuttles and orbital stations were drawn up in Soviet design offices, but personal disputes between designers and management prevented their development.

In terms of the Luna program, the USSR only had automated spacecraft launches with no crewed spacecraft. The N1—a Super heavy-lift launch vehicle intended to match the American Saturn V for a Soviet crewed moon landing—failed all four of its test launches, and the 'Moon' part of Space Race was won by the Americans. The Soviet public's reaction to the American moon-landing was mixed. The Soviet government limited the release of information about it, which affected the reaction. A portion of the populace did not give it attention, and another portion was angered.^[185][186]

In the 1970s, specific proposals for the design of a space shuttle emerged, but shortcomings, especially in the electronics industry (rapid overheating of electronics), postponed it till the end of the 1980s. The first shuttle, the Buran, flew in 1988, but without a human crew. Another, Ptichka, endured prolonged construction and was canceled in 1991. For their launch into space, there is today an unused superpower rocket, Energia, which is the most powerful in the world.^[187]

In the late 1980s, the Soviet Union built the Mir orbital station. It was built on the construction of Salyut stations and its only role was civilian-grade research tasks.^[188][189] Mir was the only orbital station in operation from 1986 to 1998. Gradually, other modules were added to it, including American modules. However, the station deteriorated rapidly after a fire on board and was deorbited in 2001, burning up in the Earth's atmosphere.^[188]

Transport

Transport was a vital component of the country's economy. The economic centralization of the late 1920s and 1930s led to the development of infrastructure on a massive scale, most notably the establishment of Aeroflot, an aviation enterprise.^[190] The country had a wide variety of modes of transport by land, water and air.^[172] However, due to inadequate maintenance, much of the road, water and Soviet civil aviation transport were outdated and technologically backward compared to the First World.^[191]

Soviet rail transport was the largest and most intensively used in the world;^[191] it was also better developed than most of its Western counterparts.^[192] By the late 1970s and early 1980s, Soviet economists were calling for the construction of more roads to alleviate some of the burdens from the railways and to improve the Soviet government budget.^[193] The street network and automotive industry^[194] remained underdeveloped,^[195] and dirt roads were common outside major cities.^[196] Soviet maintenance projects proved unable to take care of even the few roads the country had. By the early-to-mid-1980s, the Soviet authorities tried to solve the road problem by ordering the construction of new ones.^[196] Meanwhile, the automobile industry was growing at a faster rate than road construction.^[197] The underdeveloped road network led to a growing demand for public transport.^[198]

Despite improvements, several aspects of the transport sector were still^[when?] riddled with problems due to outdated infrastructure, lack of investment, corruption and bad decision-making. Soviet authorities were unable to meet the growing demand for transport infrastructure and services.^[199]

The Soviet merchant navy was one of the largest in the world.^[172]

Urbanism

The Soviet Union imposed heavy controls on city growth, preventing some cities from reaching their full potential while promoting others.^[211][212]

For the entirety of the Soviet Union's existence, the most populous cities were Moscow and Leningrad (both in Russian SFSR), with the third far place taken by Kiev (Ukrainian SSR). At the USSR's inception, the fourth and fifth most populous cities were Kharkov (Ukrainian SSR) and Baku (Azerbaijan SSR), but, by the end of the century, Tashkent (Uzbek SSR), which had assumed the position of capital of Soviet Central Asia, had risen to fourth place. Minsk (Byelorussian SSR) saw rapid growth during the 20th century, rising from the 32nd most populous in the union to the 7th.^{[212][213][214]}

Women and fertility

Under Lenin, the state made explicit commitments to promote the equality of men and women. Many early Russian feminists and ordinary Russian working women actively participated in the Revolution, and many more were affected by the events of that period and the new policies. Beginning in October 1918, Lenin's government liberalized divorce and abortion laws, decriminalized homosexuality (re-criminalized in 1932), permitted cohabitation, and ushered in a host of reforms.^[215] However, without birth control, the new system produced many broken marriages, as well as countless out-of-wedlock children.^[216] The epidemic of divorces and extramarital affairs created social hardships when Soviet leaders wanted people to concentrate their efforts on growing the economy. Giving women control over their fertility also led to a precipitous decline in the birth rate, perceived as a threat to their country's military power. By 1936, Stalin reversed most of the liberal laws, ushering in a pronatalist era that lasted for decades.^[217]

By 1917, Russia became the first great power to grant women the right to vote.^[218] After heavy casualties in World Wars I and II, women outnumbered men in Russia by a 4:3 ratio;^[219] this contributed to the larger role women played in Russian society compared to other great powers at the time.

LGBTQ rights

The Soviet Union repressed homosexuality. Even during the period when homosexuality was officially legal after the abolition of the Tsarist penal code criminalising it, Soviet courts attempted to repress non-traditional forms of sexuality, which were widely viewed by Russian revolutionaries as a form of capitalist decadence despite more liberal views on homosexuality from Soviet academic sexologists. After Stalin's consolidation of power, homosexuality became officially recriminalised in 1934.^[220] The increased homophobia during this time interval was driven by the economic demands of the First Five-Year Plan, as well as the NKVD's view of homosexuals as "socially harmful elements", although even during this heightened period of repression, a clandestine homosexual subculture was able to persist.^[221] Homosexuality remained a criminal offence throughout the remainder of the Soviet Union's existence.^[220]

Education

Anatoly Lunacharsky became the first People's Commissar for Education of Soviet Russia. In the beginning, the Soviet authorities placed great emphasis on the elimination of illiteracy. All left-handed children were forced to write with their right hand in the Soviet school system.^{[222][223][224][225]} Literate people were automatically hired as teachers.^{[citation needed]} For a short period, quality was sacrificed for quantity. By 1940, Stalin could announce that illiteracy had been eliminated. Throughout the 1930s, social mobility rose sharply, which has been attributed to reforms in education.^[226] In the aftermath of World War II, the country's educational system expanded dramatically, which had a tremendous effect. In the 1960s, nearly all children had access to education, the only exception being those living in remote areas. Nikita Khrushchev tried to make education more accessible, making it clear to children that education was closely linked to the needs of society. Education also became important in giving rise to the New Man.^[227] Citizens directly entering the workforce had the constitutional right to a job and to free vocational training.

The education system was highly centralized and universally accessible to all citizens, with affirmative action for applicants from nations associated with cultural backwardness. However, as part of a general antisemitic policy, an unofficial Jewish quota was applied^[when?] in the leading institutions of higher education by subjecting Jewish applicants to harsher entrance examinations.^{[228][229][230][231]} The Brezhnev era also introduced a rule that required all university applicants to present a reference from the local Komsomol party secretary.^[232] According to statistics from 1986, the number of higher education students per the population of 10,000 was 181 for the USSR, compared to 517 for the US.^[233]

Nationalities and ethnic groups

The Soviet Union was an ethnically diverse country, with more than 100 distinct ethnic groups. The total population of the country was estimated at 293 million in 1991. According to a 1990 estimate, the majority of the population were Russians (50.78%), followed by Ukrainians (15.45%) and Uzbeks (5.84%).^[234] Overall, in 1989 the ethnic demography of the country showed that 69.8% was East Slavic, 17.5% was Turkic, 1.6% were Armenians, 1.6% were Balts, 1.5% were Uralic, 1.5% were Tajik, 1.4% were Georgian, 1.2% were Moldovan, and 4.1% were of other various ethnic groups.^[235]

All citizens of the USSR had their own ethnic affiliation. The ethnicity of a person was chosen at the age of sixteen by the child's parents.^[236] If the parents did not agree, the child was automatically assigned the ethnicity of the father. Partly due to Soviet policies, some of the smaller minority ethnic groups were considered part of larger ones, such as the Mingrelians of Georgia, who were classified with the linguistically related Georgians.^[237] Some ethnic groups voluntarily assimilated, while others were brought in by force. Those who refused to assimilate would be mistreated and ostracized. Some ethnic groups suffered more than others, however some groups would be afforded better treatment than others. A person's quality of life was heavily influenced by their ethnicity. When the Bolsheviks first took power, they wanted to make it seem as if the ethnicities were equal. However, in most cases, Russians were generally preferred over other ethnicities.^[238] Russians, Belarusians, and Ukrainians, who were all East Slavic and Orthodox, shared close cultural, ethnic, and religious ties, while other groups did not. With multiple nationalities living in the same territory, ethnic antagonisms developed over the years.^{[239][neutrality is disputed]}

Members of various ethnicities participated in legislative bodies. Organs of power like the Politburo, the Secretariat of the Central Committee etc., were formally ethnically neutral, but in reality, ethnic Russians were overrepresented, although there were also non-Russian leaders in the Soviet leadership, such as Joseph Stalin, Grigory Zinoviev, Nikolai Podgorny, or Andrei Gromyko. During the Soviet era, a significant number of ethnic Russians and Ukrainians migrated to other Soviet republics, and many of them settled there. According to the last census in 1989, the Russian 'diaspora' in the Soviet republics had reached 25 million.^[240]

• 
  Ethnographic map of the USSR, 1930
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  European Union of Soviet Socialist Republics (USSR) Ethnic Groups, before 1939
• 
  Ethnographic map of the Soviet Union, 1941
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  Ethnic composition of the Soviet Union in 1949
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  Ethnographic map of the Soviet Union, 1970
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  Map of the ethnic groups living in USSR, 1970
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  Ethnic Groups in the Soviet Union, 1979
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  Comparative Soviet Nationalities by Republic, 1989

Health

In 1917, before the revolution, health conditions were significantly behind those of developed countries. As Lenin later noted, "Either the lice will defeat socialism, or socialism will defeat the lice".^[241] The Soviet health care system was conceived by the People's Commissariat for Health in 1918. Under the Semashko model, health care was to be controlled by the state and would be provided to its citizens free of charge, a revolutionary concept at the time. Article 42 of the 1977 Soviet Constitution gave all citizens the right to health protection and free access to any health institutions in the USSR. Before Leonid Brezhnev became general secretary, the Soviet healthcare system was held in high esteem by many foreign specialists. This changed, however, from Brezhnev's accession and Mikhail Gorbachev's tenure as leader, during which the health care system was heavily criticized for many basic faults, such as the quality of service and the unevenness in its provision.^[242] Minister of Health Yevgeniy Chazov, during the 19th Congress of the Communist Party of the Soviet Union, while highlighting such successes as having the most doctors and hospitals in the world, recognized the system's areas for improvement and felt that billions of rubles were squandered.^[243]

After the revolution, life expectancy for all age groups went up. These improvements continued into the 1960s when statistics indicated that the life expectancy briefly surpassed that of the United States;^[244] life expectancy started to decline in the 1970s, possibly because of alcohol abuse.^[245] At the same time, infant mortality began to rise. After 1974, the government stopped publishing statistics on the matter. This trend can be partly explained by the number of pregnancies rising drastically in the Asian part of the country where infant mortality was the highest while declining markedly in the more developed European part of the Soviet Union.^[246]

Language

Under Lenin, the government gave small language groups their own writing systems.^[249] The development of these writing systems was highly successful, even though some flaws were detected. During the later days of the USSR, countries with the same multilingual situation implemented similar policies. A serious problem when creating these writing systems was that the languages differed dialectally greatly from each other.^[250] When a language had been given a writing system and appeared in a notable publication, it would attain 'official language' status. There were many minority languages which never received their own writing system; therefore, their speakers were forced to have a second language.^[251] There are examples where the government retreated from this policy, most notably under Stalin where education was discontinued in languages that were not widespread. In 1938, Stalin mandated all schools to teach Soviet schoolchildren the Russian language. It did not stop children from getting an education in their native language (the language they grew up speaking), but they would also be required to learn how to speak the Russian language. Stalin saw this as necessary from a military perspective, because it would be easier for everyone to communicate. Despite only being mandated in 1938, children of different ethnicities were already being enrolled in schools teaching Russian beforehand because knowing the Russian language would open up a lot of opportunities for a person. Whether it expanded the person's ability to socialize or gave the person a chance to contribute to the multiethnic goals of the Soviet Union, many people saw the benefit of learning Russian.^[252] While other languages were spoken, Russian became the lingua franca of the USSR. During World War II, some minority languages were banned, and their speakers accused of collaborating with the enemy.^[253]

As the most widely spoken of the Soviet Union's many languages, Russian de facto functioned as an official language, as the 'language of interethnic communication' (Russian: язык межнационального общения), but only assumed the de jure status as the official national language in 1990.^[254]

Religion

Christianity and Islam had the highest number of adherents among the religious citizens.^[255] Eastern Christianity predominated among Christians, with Russia's traditional Russian Orthodox Church being the largest Christian denomination. About 90% of the Soviet Union's Muslims were Sunnis, with Shias being concentrated in the Azerbaijan SSR.^[255] Smaller groups included Roman Catholics, Jews, Buddhists, and a variety of Protestant denominations (especially Baptists and Lutherans).^[255]

Religious influence had been strong in the Russian Empire. The Russian Orthodox Church enjoyed a privileged status as the church of the monarchy and took part in carrying out official state functions.^[256] The immediate period following the establishment of the Soviet state included a struggle against the Orthodox Church, which the revolutionaries considered an ally of the former ruling classes.^[257]

In Soviet law, the 'freedom to hold religious services' was constitutionally guaranteed, although the ruling Communist Party regarded religion as incompatible with the Marxist spirit of scientific materialism.^[257] In practice, the Soviet system subscribed to a narrow interpretation of this right, and in fact used a range of official measures to discourage religion and curb the activities of religious groups.^[257]

The 1918 Council of People's Commissars decree establishing the Russian SFSR as a secular state also decreed that 'the teaching of religion in all [places] where subjects of general instruction are taught, is forbidden. Citizens may teach and may be taught religion privately.'^[258] Among further restrictions, those adopted in 1929 included express prohibitions on a range of church activities, including meetings for organized Bible study.^[257] Both Christian and non-Christian establishments were shut down by the thousands in the 1920s and 1930s. By 1940, as many as 90% of the churches, synagogues, and mosques that had been operating in 1917 were closed; the majority of them were demolished or re-purposed for state needs with little concern for their historic and cultural value.^[259]

More than 85,000 Orthodox priests were shot in 1937 alone.^[260] Only a twelfth of the Russian Orthodox Church's priests were left functioning in their parishes by 1941.^[261] In the period between 1927 and 1940, the number of Orthodox Churches in Russia fell from 29,584 to less than 500 (1.7%).^[262]

The Soviet Union was officially a secular state,^[263][264] but a 'government-sponsored program of forced conversion to atheism' was conducted under the doctrine of state atheism.^{[265][266][267]} The government targeted religions based on state interests, and while most organized religions were never outlawed, religious property was confiscated, believers were harassed, and religion was ridiculed while atheism was propagated in schools.^[268] In 1925, the government founded the League of Militant Atheists to intensify the propaganda campaign.^[269] Accordingly, although personal expressions of religious faith were not explicitly banned, a strong sense of social stigma was imposed on them by the formal structures and mass media, and it was generally considered unacceptable for members of certain professions (teachers, state bureaucrats, soldiers) to be openly religious. While persecution accelerated following Stalin's rise to power, a revival of Orthodoxy was fostered by the government during World War II and the Soviet authorities sought to control the Russian Orthodox Church rather than liquidate it. During the first five years of Soviet power, the Bolsheviks executed 28 Russian Orthodox bishops and over 1,200 Russian Orthodox priests. Many others were imprisoned or exiled. Believers were harassed and persecuted. Most seminaries were closed, and the publication of most religious material was prohibited. By 1941, only 500 churches remained open out of about 54,000 in existence before World War I.^{[citation needed]}

Convinced that religious anti-Sovietism had become a thing of the past, and with the looming threat of war, the Stalin administration began shifting to a more moderate religion policy in the late 1930s.^[270] Soviet religious establishments overwhelmingly rallied to support the war effort during World War II. Amid other accommodations to religious faith after the German invasion, churches were reopened. Radio Moscow began broadcasting a religious hour, and a historic meeting between Stalin and Orthodox Church leader Patriarch Sergius of Moscow was held in 1943. Stalin had the support of the majority of the religious people in the USSR even through the late 1980s.^[270] The general tendency of this period was an increase in religious activity among believers of all faiths.^[271]

Under Nikita Khrushchev, the state leadership clashed with the churches in 1958–1964, a period when atheism was emphasized in the educational curriculum, and numerous state publications promoted atheistic views.^[270] During this period, the number of churches fell from 20,000 to 10,000 from 1959 to 1965, and the number of synagogues dropped from 500 to 97.^[272] The number of working mosques also declined, falling from 1,500 to 500 within a decade.^[272]

Religious institutions remained monitored by the Soviet government, but churches, synagogues, temples, and mosques were all given more leeway in the Brezhnev era.^[273] Official relations between the Orthodox Church and the government again warmed to the point that the Brezhnev government twice honored Orthodox Patriarch Alexy I with the Order of the Red Banner of Labour.^[274] A poll conducted by Soviet authorities in 1982 recorded 20% of the Soviet population as 'active religious believers.'^[275]

In the former Soviet republics

In some post-Soviet republics, there is a more negative view of the USSR, although there is no unanimity on the matter.^[334] In large part due to the Holodomor, ethnic Ukrainians have a negative view of the Soviet Union.^[335] Russian-speaking Ukrainians of Ukraine's southern and eastern regions have a more positive view of the USSR. In some countries with internal conflict, there is also nostalgia for the USSR, especially for refugees of the post-Soviet conflicts who have been forced to flee their homes and have been displaced. The many Russian enclaves in the former USSR republics such as Transnistria have in a general a positive remembrance of it.^[336]

For China

As its counterpart as a powerful communist state, the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) has continually placed an emphasis on understanding the Soviet Union and its collapse as lessons for itself. In 2011, the CCP completed a study focusing on four reasons for the Soviet collapse. First, Gorbachev's rapid pursuit of democracy which undermined the centrality of the Communist Party. Second, rapid privatization of state-owned enterprises. Third, the end of the ideological monopoly of the Communist Party, leading to historical nihilism and attacks on socialism. Fourth, the West's promotion of a peaceful evolution, cultivating a pro-West "fifth column" in Soviet society.^[337]

A 2023 Center for Strategic and International Studies report argued modern Chinese scholarship's attributes the Soviet collapse primarily to its concept of historical nihilism, equated to the penetration of Western ideas into society. In December 1989, then-leader Jiang Zemin first attributed both the fall of communism in Eastern Europe and the Tiananmen Square protests to historical nihilism. A second current in Chinese writing are from Sovietologists who argue the Communist Party of the Soviet Union's institutions and policies was more responsible for collapse than its ideology. Despite Xi Jinping's focus on the historical nihilism current, he stated in 2021 "the Soviet Communist Party separated itself from the people and became a privileged bureaucratic group". The report also noted that between 1960 and 1980, China's state propaganda chose to publish "gray-cover books" (Chinese: 灰皮书, romanized: huī pí shū), a large range of socialist and anti-socialist foreign literature criticizing the Soviet system. These included Leon Trotsky's The Revolution Betrayed and Stalin, works of Eduard Bernstein and Karl Kautsky, Milovan Djilas' The New Class, and Friedrich Hayek's The Road to Serfdom. The report suggested these publications influenced interest in the Soviet failures among Chinese leaders Xi, Jiang, and Deng Xiaoping.^[338]

For the political left

For the political right

Both liberals and neoconservatives in the United States celebrated the dissolution of the Soviet Union. Ideas such as Francis Fukuyama's end of history and Charles Krauthammer's unipolar moment gained prominence to describe the victory of Western liberal democracy. At the same time, both sides of the political spectrum in the US criticized the George H. W. Bush administration for its comparative cautiousness and political support of Gorbachev over more pro-democracy and nationalist forces in the Soviet Union.^[358]