Soviet Union

The Soviet Union, officially the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics (USSR), is a socialist state spanning Europe and Asia. It is the largest state in the world by geography, spanning eleven time zones, and is widely considered one of the world's extant superpowers.

The Soviet Union emerged from the Russian Revolution of 1917, when the Bolsheviks under Vladimir Lenin established a socialist republic atop the former Russian Empire. Following the Second World War, during which the USSR bore the brunt of German hostilities in the largest and bloodiest theatre of war in history, the country emerged as the centrepiece of a group of states recognized as the Eastern Bloc.

Economic uncertainty in the years following the tenure of Joseph Stalin led to a series of economic reforms in the 1960s and '70s, introducing a gradual liberalization and monetization into the economy. The country endured an abortive coup in the 1990s in which four constituent states were permitted to transition to independence. The subsequent recovery entrenched the ongoing reforms and completed the USSR's transition to a socialist market economy.