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Soviet Era
The history of the Soviet Union (USSR) (1922–91) began with the ideals of the Russian Bolshevik Revolution and ended in dissolution amidst economic collapse and political disintegration. Established in 1922 following the Russian Civil War, the Soviet Union quickly became a one-party state under the Communist Party. Its early years under Lenin were marked by the implementation of socialist policies and the New Economic Policy (NEP), which allowed for market-oriented reforms. The rise of Joseph Stalin in the late 1920s ushered in an era of intense centralization and totalitarianism. Stalin's rule was characterized by the forced collectivization of agriculture, rapid industrialization, and the Great Purge, which eliminated perceived enemies of the state. The Soviet Union played a crucial role in the Allied victory in World War II, but at a tremendous human cost, with millions of Soviet citizens perishing in the conflict. The Soviet Union emerged as one of the world's two s ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Space Race
The Space Race (, ) was a 20th-century competition between the Cold War rivals, the United States and the Soviet Union, to achieve superior spaceflight capability. It had its origins in the ballistic missile-based nuclear arms race between the two nations following World War II and the onset of the Cold War. The technological advantage demonstrated by spaceflight achievement was seen as necessary for national security, particularly in regard to intercontinental ballistic missile and Reconnaissance satellite, satellite reconnaissance capability, but also became part of the cultural symbolism and ideology of the time. The Space Race brought pioneering launches of artificial satellites, robotic landers to the Moon, Venus, and Mars, and human spaceflight in low Earth orbit and ultimately to the Moon. Public interest in space travel originated in the 1951 publication of a Soviet youth magazine and was promptly picked up by US magazines. The competition began on July 30, 1955, when ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Russian Federation
Russia, or the Russian Federation, is a country spanning Eastern Europe and North Asia. It is the list of countries and dependencies by area, largest country in the world, and extends across Time in Russia, eleven time zones, sharing Borders of Russia, land borders with fourteen countries. Russia is the List of European countries by population, most populous country in Europe and the List of countries and dependencies by population, ninth-most populous country in the world. It is a Urbanization by sovereign state, highly urbanised country, with sixteen of its urban areas having more than 1 million inhabitants. Moscow, the List of metropolitan areas in Europe, most populous metropolitan area in Europe, is the capital and List of cities and towns in Russia by population, largest city of Russia, while Saint Petersburg is its second-largest city and Society and culture in Saint Petersburg, cultural centre. Human settlement on the territory of modern Russia dates back to the ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
1991 Soviet Coup D'état Attempt
The 1991 Soviet coup attempt, also known as the August Coup, was a failed attempt by hardliners of the Communist Party of the Soviet Union (CPSU) to Coup d'état, forcibly seize control of the country from Mikhail Gorbachev, who was President of the Soviet Union, Soviet President and General Secretary of the CPSU at the time. The coup leaders consisted of top military and civilian officials, including Vice President Gennady Yanayev, who together formed the State Committee on the State of Emergency (). They opposed Gorbachev's Perestroika, reform program, were angry at the Revolutions of 1989, loss of control over Eastern European states and fearful of the New Union Treaty, which was on the verge of being signed by the Soviet Union (USSR). The treaty was to decentralize much of the Government of the Soviet Union, central Soviet government's power and distribute it among its Republics of the Soviet Union, fifteen republics; Boris Yeltsin's demand for more autonomy to the republics ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Republics Of The Soviet Union
In the Soviet Union, a Union Republic () or unofficially a Republic of the USSR was a Federated state, constituent federated political entity with a List of forms of government, system of government called a Soviet republic (system of government), Soviet republic, which was officially defined in the 1977 Constitution of the Soviet Union, 1977 constitution as "a sovereign state, sovereign Soviet socialist state which has united with the other Soviet republics to form the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics" and whose sovereignty is limited by membership in the Union. As a result of its status as a sovereign state, the Union Republic de jure had the right to enter into relations with foreign states, conclude treaties with them and exchange diplomatic and consular representatives and participate in the activities of international organizations (including membership in international organizations). The Union Republics were perceived as National delimitation in the Soviet Union, nat ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Perestroika
''Perestroika'' ( ; rus, перестройка, r=perestrojka, p=pʲɪrʲɪˈstrojkə, a=ru-perestroika.ogg, links=no) was a political reform movement within the Communist Party of the Soviet Union (CPSU) during the late 1980s, widely associated with CPSU general secretary Mikhail Gorbachev and his '' glasnost'' (meaning "transparency") policy reform. The literal meaning of ''perestroika'' is "restructuring," referring to the restructuring of the political economy of the Soviet Union in an attempt to end the Era of Stagnation. ''Perestroika'' allowed more independent actions from various ministries and introduced many market-like reforms. The purported goal of ''perestroika'' was not to end the planned economy, but rather to make socialism work more efficiently to better meet the needs of Soviet citizens by adopting elements of liberal economics. The process of implementing ''perestroika'' added to existing shortage and created political, social, and economic tensions wi ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Glasnost
''Glasnost'' ( ; , ) is a concept relating to openness and transparency. It has several general and specific meanings, including a policy of maximum openness in the activities of state institutions and freedom of information and the inadmissibility of hushing up problems. In Russian, the word ''glasnost'' has long been used to mean 'openness' and 'transparency'. In the mid-1980s, it was popularised by Mikhail Gorbachev as a political slogan for increased government transparency in the Soviet Union within the framework of ''perestroika'', and the word came to be used in English in the latter meaning. Historical usage In the Russian Empire of the late-19th century, the term was used in its direct meanings of "openness" and "publicity" and applied to politics and the judicial system. Some reforms were introduced permitting attendance of the press and the public at trials. After some liberalization under Alexander II of Russia, the openness of trials started to be restricted ag ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Mikhail Gorbachev
Mikhail Sergeyevich Gorbachev (2 March 1931 – 30 August 2022) was a Soviet and Russian politician who served as the last leader of the Soviet Union from 1985 to dissolution of the Soviet Union, the country's dissolution in 1991. He served as General Secretary of the Communist Party of the Soviet Union from 1985 and additionally as head of state beginning in 1988, as Chairman of the Presidium of the Supreme Soviet from 1988 to 1989, Chairman of the Supreme Soviet from 1989 to 1990 and the president of the Soviet Union from 1990 to 1991. Ideologically, Gorbachev initially adhered to Marxism–Leninism but moved towards social democracy by the early 1990s. Gorbachev was born in Privolnoye, Stavropol Krai, Privolnoye, North Caucasus Krai, to a poor peasant family of Russian and Ukrainian heritage. Growing up under the rule of Joseph Stalin, in his youth he operated combine harvesters on a Collective farming, collective farm before joining the Communist Party of the Soviet Union, ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Gerontocracy
A gerontocracy is a form of rule in which an entity is ruled by leaders who are substantially older than most of the adult population. In many political structures, power within the ruling class accumulates with age, making the oldest individuals the holders of the most power. Those holding the most power may not be in formal leadership positions, but often dominate those who are. In a simplified definition, a gerontocracy is a society where leadership is reserved for elders. Background Although the idea of the elderly holding power exists in many cultures, the gerontocracy has its western roots in ancient Greece. Plato stated that "it is for the elder man to rule and for the younger to submit". An example of the ancient Greek gerontocracy can be seen in the city-state of Sparta, which was ruled by a Gerousia, a council made up of members who were at least 60 years old and who served for life. In political systems China Between 1982 and 1992, the Central Advisory Commission's ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Era Of Stagnation
The "Era of Stagnation" (, or ) is a term coined by Mikhail Gorbachev in order to describe the negative way in which he viewed the economic, political, and social policies of the Soviet Union that began during the rule of Leonid Brezhnev (1964–1982) and continued under Yuri Andropov (1982–1984) and Konstantin Chernenko (1984–1985). It is sometimes called the "Brezhnevian Stagnation" in English. Terminology During the period of Brezhnev's leadership, the term "Era of Stagnation" was not used. Instead in Soviet ideology the term "period of developed socialism" () was used for the period that started in 1967. This Soviet concept was officially declared at the 24th Congress of the Communist Party of the Soviet Union in 1971. It stemmed from the failure of Khrushchev's promise in 1961 of reaching communism in 20 years and was a replacement for the concept "period of the extensive construction of communism" (). It was in the 1980s that the Soviet leader Mikhail Gorbache ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Leonid Brezhnev
Leonid Ilyich Brezhnev (19 December 190610 November 1982) was a Soviet politician who served as the General Secretary of the Communist Party of the Soviet Union from 1964 until Death and state funeral of Leonid Brezhnev, his death in 1982 as well as the fourth List of heads of state of the Soviet Union, chairman of the Presidium of the Supreme Soviet (head of state) from 1960 to 1964 and again from 1977 to 1982. His 18-year term as General Secretary was second only to Joseph Stalin's in duration. Brezhnev was born to a working-class family in Kamianske, Kamenskoye (now Kamianske, Ukraine) within the Yekaterinoslav Governorate of the Russian Empire. After the results of the October Revolution were finalized with the creation of the Soviet Union, Brezhnev joined the Communist party's youth league in 1923 before becoming an official party member in 1929. When Operation Barbarossa, Nazi Germany invaded the Soviet Union in June 1941, he joined the Red Army as a Political commissar, ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Khrushchev Thaw
The Khrushchev Thaw (, or simply ''ottepel'')William Taubman, Khrushchev: The Man and His Era, London: Free Press, 2004 is the period from the mid-1950s to the mid-1960s when Political repression in the Soviet Union, repression and Censorship in the Soviet Union, censorship in the Soviet Union were relaxed due to Nikita Khrushchev's policies of de-Stalinization and peaceful coexistence with other nations. The term was coined after Ilya Ehrenburg's 1954 novel ''The Thaw (Ehrenburg novel), The Thaw ''("Оттепель"), sensational for its time. The Thaw became possible after the Death and state funeral of Joseph Stalin, death of Joseph Stalin in 1953. General Secretary of the Communist Party of the Soviet Union, First Secretary Khrushchev denounced former General Secretary Stalin in the On the Cult of Personality and Its Consequences, "Secret Speech" at the 20th Congress of the Communist Party of the Soviet Union, 20th Congress of the Communist Party, then ousted the Stalinism, S ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
