The History of the Soviet Union begins with the Russian Revolution of 1917. The Bolsheviks, led by Vladimir Lenin, emerged as the main political force in the capital, though they had to fight a long and bloody civil war against monarchist forces. The Bolsheviks became known as the Communist Party, and their Red Army eventually won the civil war. Communism was implemented across the territories of the former Russian Empire. After Lenin's death from a stroke, Joseph Stalin seized power and implemented socialism in the USSR. World War II, known as "The Great Patriotic War" in the Soviet Union, devastated much of the USSR with about one out of every three World War II deaths being a citizen of the Soviet Union. After World War II, the Soviet Union's armies occupied eastern Europe, where Communist governments came to power into the Soviet bloc, while the United States kept its influence on western Europe where democratic governments were established. The Cold War ensued as the USSR and the United States struggled indirectly for influence around the world. The Soviet Union collapsed in 1991 when Boris Yeltsin seized power in the aftermath of a failed military coup that had attempted to topple reform-minded premier Mikhail Gorbachev. The history of Russia begins with that of the East Slavs, the ethnic group that eventually split into the Russians, Ukrainians, and Belarusians. ... The East Slavs are the ethnic group that evolved into the Russian, Ukrainian and Belarusian peoples. ... Kievan Rus′ was the early, mostly East Slavic [1] state dominated by the city of Kiev from about 880 to the middle of the 12th century. ... Volga Bulgaria or Volga-Kama Bolghar, is a historic state that existed between the 7th and 13th centuries around the confluence of the Volga and Kama rivers in what is now the Russian Federation. ... The Khazars were a Turkic semi-nomadic people from Central Asia who adopted Judaism. ... The Mongol Invasion of Russia was an invasion of the medieval state of Kievan Rus by a large army of nomadic Mongols, starting in 1223. ... The Golden Horde (Turkish: Altın Ordu) was a Turkic state established in parts of present-day Russia, Ukraine, and Kazakhstan after the break up of the Mongol Empire in the 1240s. ... Muscovy (Moscow principality (княжество Московское) to Grand Duchy of Moscow (Великое Княжество Московское) to Russian Tsardom (Царство Русское)) is a traditional Western name for the Russian state that existed from the 14th century to the late 17th century. ... Imperial Russia is the term used to cover the period of history from the expansion of Russia under Peter the Great, through the expansion of the Russian Empire from the Baltic Sea to the Pacific Ocean, to the deposal of Nicholas II of Russia, the last tsar, at the start... The Russian Revolution of 1905 was an empire-wide struggle of both anti-government and undirected violence. ... The Russian Revolution of 1917 was a series of political and social upheavals in Russia, involving first the overthrow of the tsarist autocracy, and then the overthrow of the liberal and moderate-socialist Provisional Government, resulting in the establishment of Soviet power under the control of the Bolshevik party. ... Combatants Red Army (Bolsheviks) White Army (Monarchists, SRs, Anti-Communists) Green Army (Peasants and Nationalists) Black Army (Anarchists) Commanders Leon Trotsky Mikhail Tukhachevsky Semyon Budyonny Lavr Kornilov, Alexander Kolchak, Anton Denikin, Pyotr Wrangel Alexander Antonov, Nikifor Grigoriev Nestor Makhno Strength 5,427,273 (peak) +1,000,000 Casualties 939,755... // At the fourteenth Congress of the Communist Party of the Soviet Union in December 1927, Stalin attacked the left by expelling Trotsky and his supporters from the party and then moving against the right by abandoning Lenins New Economic Policy which had been championed by Nikolai Bukharin and Alexei... // De-Stalinization and the Khrushchev era For further details, see Nikita Khrushchev After Stalin had died in March 1953, he was succeeded by Nikita Khrushchev as First Secretary of the Central Committee of the Communist Party and Georgi Malenkov as Premier of the Soviet Union. ... This is a history of the Soviet Union from 1985 to 1991. ... Joseph Stalin and Kliment Voroshilov depicted saluting a military parade in Red Square above the message Long Live the Worker-Peasant Red Army— a Dependable Sentinel of the Soviet Borders! The military history of the Soviet Union began in the days following the 1917 October Revolution that brought the Bolsheviks... in 1930 was when the first traces of humans where discovered by cochroaches. ... The Russian Revolution of 1917 was a series of political and social upheavals in Russia, involving first the overthrow of the tsarist autocracy, and then the overthrow of the liberal and moderate-socialist Provisional Government, resulting in the establishment of Soviet power under the control of the Bolshevik party. ... Bolshevik Party Meeting. ... Lenin redirects here. ... Combatants Red Army (Bolsheviks) White Army (Monarchists, SRs, Anti-Communists) Green Army (Peasants and Nationalists) Black Army (Anarchists) Commanders Leon Trotsky Mikhail Tukhachevsky Semyon Budyonny Lavr Kornilov, Alexander Kolchak, Anton Denikin, Pyotr Wrangel Alexander Antonov, Nikifor Grigoriev Nestor Makhno Strength 5,427,273 (peak) +1,000,000 Casualties 939,755... The White movement, whose military arm is known as the White Army (Белая Армия) or White Guard (Белая Гвардия, белогвардейцы) and whose members are known as Whites (Белые, or the derogatory Беляки) or White Russians (a term which has other meanings) comprised some of the Russian forces, both political and military, which opposed the Bolsheviks after the... The Communist Party of the Soviet Union (Russian: Коммунисти́ческая Па́ртия Сове́тского Сою́за = КПСС) was the name used by the successors of the Bolshevik faction of the Russian Social-Democratic Labour Party from 1952 to 1991, but the wording Communist Party was present in the partys name since 1918 when the Bolsheviks became the Russian... The Workers and Peasants Red Army (Russian: Рабоче-Крестьянская Красная Армия, Raboche-Krestyanskaya Krasnaya Armiya; RKKA or usually simply the Red Army) were the armed forces first organized by the Bolsheviks during the Russian Civil War in 1918 and that in 1922 became the army of the Soviet Union. ... Communism is an ideology that seeks to establish a classless, stateless social organization, based upon common ownership of the means of production. ... A stroke, also known as cerebrovascular accident (CVA),[1] is an acute neurological injury in which the blood supply to a part of the brain is interrupted. ... The examples and perspective in this article or section may not represent a worldwide view. ... Combatants Allied Powers: United Kingdom France Soviet Union United States Republic of China and others Axis Powers: Germany Italy Japan and others Commanders Winston Churchill Charles de Gaulle Joseph Stalin Franklin Roosevelt Chiang Kai-Shek Adolf Hitler Benito Mussolini Hideki Tojo Casualties Military dead: 17,000,000 Civilian dead: 33... Combatants Soviet Union1 Poland Germany1 Italy (to 1943) Romania Finland (to 1944) Hungary Commanders Aleksei Antonov Ivan Konev Rodion Malinovsky Kirill Meretskov Ivan Petrov Alexander Rodimtsev Konstantin Rokossovsky Pavel Rotmistrov Semyon Timoshenko Fyodor Tolbukhin Aleksandr Vasilevsky Nikolai Vatutin Kliment Voroshilov Andrei Yeremenko Matvei Zakharov Georgy Zhukov Fedor von Bock Ernst... Europe at its furthest extent, reaching to the Urals. ... A map of the Eastern Bloc. ... Democracy is a form of government under which the power to alter the laws and structures of government lies, ultimately, with the citizenry. ... For other uses, see Cold War (disambiguation). ... A sphere of influence (SOI) is an area or region over which an organization or state exerts some kind of indirect cultural, economic, military or political domination. ... This is a history of the Soviet Union from 1985 to 1991. ... 1991 (MCMXCI) was a common year starting on Tuesday of the Gregorian calendar. ... Yeltsin redirects here. ... During the Soviet Coup of 1991, also known as the August Putsch, Vodka Putsch or August Coup, a group of hardliners within the Soviet Communist party briefly deposed Soviet leader Mikhail Gorbachev and attempted to take control of the country. ... Poster showing Mikhail Gorbachev, with the slogan perestroika Perestroika ( , Russian: IPA: ) is the Russian term (which passed into English) for the economic reforms introduced in June 1987 by the Soviet leader Mikhail Gorbachev. ... Premier of the Soviet Union is the commonly used English term for the offices of Chairman of the Council of Peoples Commissars of the USSR (Председатель Совета Народных Комиссаров СССР; Predsedatel Soveta Narodnykh Komissarov SSSR) (1923-1946) and Chairman of the Council of Ministers of the USSR (Председатель Совета Министров СССР; Predsedatel Soveta Ministrov SSSR) (1946-1991), who... Mikhail Sergeyevich Gorbachyov ( , IPA: , commonly written as Mikhail Gorbachev; born March 2, 1931) was the last leader of the Soviet Union, serving from 1985 until its collapse in 1991. ...

The Russian Revolution

Main article: Russian Revolution of 1917

Left to right: Leon Trotsky, Vladimir Lenin, and Lev Kamenev.

During World War I, Czarist Russia experienced famine and economic collapse. The demoralized Russian Army suffered severe military setbacks, and many soldiers deserted the front lines. Dissatisfaction with the monarchy and its policy of continuing the war grew. Czar Nicholas II abdicated in February of 1917. The Russian Revolution of 1917 was a series of political and social upheavals in Russia, involving first the overthrow of the tsarist autocracy, and then the overthrow of the liberal and moderate-socialist Provisional Government, resulting in the establishment of Soviet power under the control of the Bolshevik party. ... Image File history File links 1919-Trotsky_Lenin_Kamenev-Party-Congress. ... Image File history File links 1919-Trotsky_Lenin_Kamenev-Party-Congress. ... Note: This page is very long. ... Lenin redirects here. ... Lev Borisovich Kamenev   (Russian: Лев Борисович Каменев, born Rosenfeld, Розенфельд) (July 18 [O.S. July 6] 1883 – August 25, 1936) was a Bolshevik revolutionary and a prominent Soviet politician. ... Combatants Allied Powers: Russian Empire France British Empire Italy United States Central Powers: Austria-Hungary German Empire Ottoman Empire Bulgaria Commanders Nicholas II Aleksei Brusilov Georges Clemenceau Joseph Joffre Ferdinand Foch Herbert Henry Asquith Douglas Haig John Jellicoe Victor Emmanuel III Luigi Cadorna Armando Diaz Woodrow Wilson John Pershing Franz... Tsar, (Bulgarian цар�, Russian царь; often spelled Czar or Tzar in English), was the title used for the autocratic rulers of the First and Second Bulgarian Empires since 913, in Serbia in the middle of the 14th century, and in Russia from 1547 to 1917. ... A famine is a social and economic crisis that is commonly accompanied by widespread malnutrition, starvation, epidemic and increased mortality. ... Nicholas II of Russia (May 18, 1868–July 17, 1918)[1] (Russian: , Nikolay II) was the last Emperor of Russia, King of Poland,[2] and Grand Duke of Finland. ... Year 1917 (MCMXVII) was a common year starting on Monday of the Gregorian calendar (see link for calendar) or a common year starting on Tuesday of the 13-day slower Julian calendar (see: 1917 Julian calendar). ...

A provisional government was installed, led first by Prince Georgy Yevgenyevich Lvov, then by Aleksandr Kerensky, but it maintained its commitment to the war. The provisional government failed to enact land reforms demanded by the peasantry, who accounted for over eighty percent of the population. The Russian Provisional Government was formed in Petrograd after the deterioration of the Russian Empire and the abdication of the Tsars. ... Georgy Yevgenyevich Lvov, Knyaz (Prince) (Russian: Георгий Евгеньевич Львов) (November 2, 1861-March 7, 1925) was a Russian statesman and the first post-imperial prime minister of Russia, in the Russian... Alexander Fyodorovich Kerensky ( Russian:Алекса́ндр Фёдорович Ке́ренский) ( April 22, 1881 ( May 2, New Style) - June 11, 1970) was the second prime minister of the... Categories: 1911 Britannica | Historical stubs | Feudalism ...

Within the military, mutiny and desertion were pervasive among conscripts; the intelligentsia was disaffected over the slow pace of reforms; poverty was worsening; and income disparities and inequality were growing while the provisional government grew more and more autocratic and appeared on the verge of succumbing to a military junta. Deserting soldiers returned to the cities and gave their weapons to angry socialist factory workers. Conditions in urban areas were fertile ground for revolution. The notion of an intellectual elite as a distinguished social stratum can be traced far back in history. ... A boy from an East Cipinang trash dump slum in Jakarta, Indonesia shows his find. ... General Augusto Pinochet (sitting) as head of the newly established military junta in Chile, September 1973. ...

During the revolution, the Cacahuates had adopted the popular slogans "all power to the Soviets!" and "land, peace, and bread!" Soviets were councils assembled locally within a city with delegates elected from the workers of the various factories and other businesses. Soviets were the bodies of direct popular democracy; although they held no official position of power in the provisional government, they exerted considerable influence over the hearts and minds of the working classes.

After the revolution, the party leadership devised a constitution that appeared to recognize the authority of the local Soviets. The highest legislative body was the Supreme Soviet. The highest executive body was the Politburo (see Organization of the Communist Party of the Soviet Union). The Supreme Soviet (Russian: , Verhovniy Sovet, literally the Supreme Council) comprised the highest legislative body in the Soviet Union in the interim of the sessions of the Congress of Soviets, and the only one with the power to pass constitutional amendments. ... The Politburo (in Russian: Политбюро), known as the Presidium from 1952 to 1966, functioned as the central policymaking and governing body of the Communist Party of the Soviet Union. ... General Secretary of the Communist Party of the Soviet Union Became synonymous with leader of the party under Stalin. ...

The first leader of the Soviet Union was Vladimir Lenin, who led the Bolshevik faction of Communists. Popular pressure induced Lenin to proclaim the Bolshevik seizure of power in October of 1917. One of the first acts of the "Communist" government, which practiced state capitalism in attempt to catapult the nation into socialism, was to withdraw from World War I. Following the peace Treaty of Brest-Litovsk, the Soviet Union turned over most of the area of Ukraine and Belarus to Germany. Lenin redirects here. ... Bolshevik Party Meeting. ... Communism is an ideology that seeks to establish a classless, stateless social organization, based upon common ownership of the means of production. ... Combatants Allied Powers: Russian Empire France British Empire Italy United States Central Powers: Austria-Hungary German Empire Ottoman Empire Bulgaria Commanders Nicholas II Aleksei Brusilov Georges Clemenceau Joseph Joffre Ferdinand Foch Herbert Henry Asquith Douglas Haig John Jellicoe Victor Emmanuel III Luigi Cadorna Armando Diaz Woodrow Wilson John Pershing Franz... The Treaty of Brest-Litovsk was a peace treaty signed on March 3, 1918, at Brest, formerly Brest-Litovsk, between Russia and the Central Powers, marking Russias exit from World War I. The treaty was practically obsolete before the end of the year but is significant as a chief...

The Russian Civil War

Main article: Russian Civil War

Immediately, however, the opponents of Bolshevism broke out in revolt, resulting in years of all-out civil war, which lasted until 1922. Known as the "Whites," these forces were on occasion aided by Western intervention. Allied armies made tentative efforts to support the Whites, but such support was mostly token; the Allied powers were highly divided on this subject. After the failed attempt at capturing Moscow, the White armies fell into retreat and by 1923 most active anti-Bolshevik armies in Russia were defeated. Over one million people left Russia in the wake of the civil war, forming the White emigration. Combatants Red Army (Bolsheviks) White Army (Monarchists, SRs, Anti-Communists) Green Army (Peasants and Nationalists) Black Army (Anarchists) Commanders Leon Trotsky Mikhail Tukhachevsky Semyon Budyonny Lavr Kornilov, Alexander Kolchak, Anton Denikin, Pyotr Wrangel Alexander Antonov, Nikifor Grigoriev Nestor Makhno Strength 5,427,273 (peak) +1,000,000 Casualties 939,755... Combatants Red Army (Bolsheviks) White Army (Monarchists, SRs, Anti-Communists) Green Army (Peasants and Nationalists) Black Army (Anarchists) Commanders Leon Trotsky Mikhail Tukhachevsky Semyon Budyonny Lavr Kornilov, Alexander Kolchak, Anton Denikin, Pyotr Wrangel Alexander Antonov, Nikifor Grigoriev Nestor Makhno Strength 5,427,273 (peak) +1,000,000 Casualties 939,755... Year 1922 (MCMXXII) was a common year starting on Sunday (link will display full calendar). ... The White movement, whose military arm is known as the White Army (Белая Армия) or White Guard (Белая Гвардия, белогвардейцы) and whose members are known as Whites (Белые, or the derogatory Беляки) or White Russians (a term which has other meanings) comprised some of the Russian forces, both political and military, which opposed the Bolsheviks after the... A White emigré (in Russian Beloemigrant, or Белоэмигрант) is a term used to describe a Russian who had left Russia in the wake of the Russian Revolution and Russian Civil War. ...

1919 poster, "Mount your horses, workers and peasants! The Red Cavalry is the pledge of victory."

The Bolsheviks, later the Communist Party of the Soviet Union (CPSU), initially enjoyed only a tenuous, precarious hold on power. They were also divided among their own party rank and file on tactics and some policy issues. Despite these problems, they quickly consolidated their hold on state power over progressively larger portions of the country, and enacted laws prohibiting any effective rival political party under the banner of "democratic centralism." Image File history File links Download high resolution version (1161x1607, 322 KB) Summary Russian Revolutionary Poster, Mount your horses, workers and peasants! The Red Cavalry is the guarantee of victory. ... Image File history File links Download high resolution version (1161x1607, 322 KB) Summary Russian Revolutionary Poster, Mount your horses, workers and peasants! The Red Cavalry is the guarantee of victory. ... Bolshevik Party Meeting. ... The Communist Party of the Soviet Union (Russian: Коммунисти́ческая Па́ртия Сове́тского Сою́за = КПСС) was the name used by the successors of the Bolshevik faction of the Russian Social-Democratic Labour Party from 1952 to 1991, but the wording Communist Party was present in the partys name since 1918 when the Bolsheviks became the Russian... // Political scientists have developed concepts of different ideal types of political parties in order to better compare them with each other. ... Democratic centralism is the name given to the principles of internal organization used by Leninist political parties, and the term is sometimes used as a synonym for any Leninist policy inside a political party. ...

Prior to the revolution, the Bolshevik doctrine of democratic centralism argued that only a tightly-knit and secretive organization could successfully overthrow the government; after the revolution, they argued that only such an organization could prevail against foreign and domestic enemies. Fighting the civil war would actually force the party to put these principles into practice.

Arguing that the revolution needed not a mere parliamentary organization but a party of action which would function as a scientific body of direction, a vanguard of activists, and a central control organ, Lenin banned factions within the party. He also argued that the party should be an elite body of professional revolutionaries dedicating their lives to the cause and carrying out their decisions with iron discipline, thus moving toward putting loyal party activists in charge of new and old political institutions, army units, factories, hospitals, universities, and food suppliers. Against this backdrop, the nomenklatura system would evolve and become standard practice. Vladimir Ilyich Lenin ( Russian: Влади́мир Ильи́ч Ле́нин  listen?), original surname Ulyanov (Улья́нов) ( April 22 (April 10 ( O.S.)), 1870 – January 21, 1924), was a... The nomenklatura were a small, élite subset of the general population of Party members in the Soviet Union, having more authority and claiming higher privileges as precisely the same kind of ruling class which Communist doctrine denounced in the Capitalist West. ...

In theory, this system was to be democratic since all leading party organs would be elected from below, but also centralized since lower bodies would be accountable to higher organizations. In practice, "democratic centralism" was centralist, with decisions of higher organs binding on lower ones, and the composition of lower bodies largely determined by the members of higher ones. Over time, party cadres would grow increasingly careerist and professional. Party membership required exams, special courses, special camps, schools, and nominations by three existing members.

In December 1917, the Cheka was founded as the Bolshevik's first internal security force. Later it changed names to GPU, OGPU, MVD, NKVD and finally KGB. These "secret police" were responsible for finding those viewed by the party as counter-revolutionary and expelling them from the party or bringing them to trial. On September 5, 1918 the Cheka was given responsibility for targeting remnants of the Tsarist regime, opposing parties of the left such as the Social Revolutionaries and other anti-Bolshevik groups such as the Cossacks, the policy of Red Terror. Said Felix Dzerzhinsky, first head of the Cheka, June, 1918 in the newspaper, New Life: "We represent in ourselves organized terror - this must be said very clearly - such terror is now very necessary in the conditions we are living through in a time of revolution," Year 1917 (MCMXVII) was a common year starting on Monday of the Gregorian calendar (see link for calendar) or a common year starting on Tuesday of the 13-day slower Julian calendar (see: 1917 Julian calendar). ... This article or section does not cite its references or sources. ... Categories: Russia-related stubs | Soviet and Russian intelligence agencies | Soviet repression structures and people ... Obedinennoe Gosudarstvennoe Politicheskoe Upravlenie (or OGPU) (Combined State Political Directorate, also translated as All Union State Political Board) was the name of the secret police in the Soviet Union in one of the stages of its development. ... Modern emblem of Russian MVD Russian Gendarme officers in the 1860s The Ministerstvo Vnutrennikh Del (MVD) (Министерство внутренних дел) was the Ministry of Internal Affairs in the imperial Russia, later USSR, and still bears the same name in the Russian Federation. ... The NKVD (Narodnyi Komissariat Vnutrennikh Del )(Russian: НКВД, Народный комиссариат внутренних дел) or Peoples Commisariat for Internal Affairs was a government department which handled a number of the Soviet Unions affairs of state. ... The KGB emblem and motto: The sword and the shield KGB (transliteration of КГБ) is the Russian-language abbreviation for Committee for State Security, (Russian: ; Komitet Gosudarstvennoy Bezopasnosti). ... // Secret police (sometimes political police) are a police organization which operates in secrecy for the national purpose of maintaining national security against internal threats to the state. ... September 5 is the 248th day of the year (249th in leap years). ... Year 1918 (MCMXVIII) was a common year starting on Tuesday of the Gregorian calendar (see link for calendar) or a common year starting on Wednesday of the Julian calendar. ... Socialist-Revolutionary election poster, 1917. ... Reply of the Zaporozhian Cossacks to Sultan Mehmed IV of Ottoman Empire. ... The Red Terror was a campaign of mass arrests and deportations targeted against counterrevolutionaries in Russia during the Russian Civil War. ... Felix Edmundovich Dzerzhinsky Felix Edmundovich Dzerzhinsky (Polish: Feliks Dzierżyński, Russian: Феликс Эдмундович Дзержинский, Belarusian: Фелікс Эдмундавіч Дзяржынскі; September 11, 1877 [O.S. August 30] –July 20, 1926) was a Polish Communist revolutionary, famous as the founder of the Bolshevik secret police, the Cheka, later known by many names during the history of the Soviet... This article or section does not cite its references or sources. ...

The Polish-Soviet War

Main article: Polish-Soviet War

The frontiers between Poland, which had established a shaky independent government following World War I, and the former Tsarist empire, were rendered chaotic by the repercussions of the Russian revolutions and civil war. Poland's Józef Piłsudski envisioned a new federation (Międzymorze), forming a Polish-led East European bloc to form a bulwark against Russia and Germany, while the RSFSR attempted to carry the revolution westward. When Piłsudski carried out a military thrust into Ukraine in 1920, he was met by a Red Army offensive that drove into Polish territory almost to Warsaw. However, Piłsudski halted the Soviet advance at the battle of Warsaw and resumed the offensive. The "Peace of Riga" signed in early 1921 split the territory of Belarus and Ukraine between Poland and Soviet Russia. Combatants Russian Soviet Federated Socialist Republic Second Polish Republic Commanders Mikhail Tukhachevsky Semyon Budyonny Joseph Stalin Józef PiÅ‚sudski Edward Rydz-ÅšmigÅ‚y Strength 950,000 including reserves 5 million 360,000 including reserves 738,000 Casualties Unknown, dead estimated at 100,000 - 150,000 Unknown, dead estimated at... Office Chief of State, Marshal of Poland Term of office from November 14, 1918 until December 9, 1922 Profession Statesman Political party none (see Sanacja for details), formerly PPS Spouse Maria PiÅ‚sudska Aleksandra PiÅ‚sudska Date of birth December 5, 1867 Place of birth Zułów, in todays... MiÄ™dzymorze (Myen-dzih-MOH-zheh): name for Józef PiÅ‚sudskis proposed federation of Poland, Lithuania, Belarus and Ukraine. ... State motto: Пролетарии всех стран, соединяйтесь! (Workers of the world, unite!) Official language None (Russian in practice) Capital Moscow Chairman of the Supreme... Kiev Offensive (1920) Conflict Polish-Bolshevik War Date April-June, 1920 Place Ukraine Result inconclusive The Kiev Offensive (or Kiev Operation) was an important military operation, carried out by Polish Army and allied Ukrainian forces during the Polish-Bolshevik War, from April 1920 to June of the same year. ... The Battle of Warsaw (sometimes referred to as the Miracle at the Vistula, Polish Cud nad WisÅ‚Ä…) was the decisive battle of the Polish-Soviet War, the war that began soon after the end of World War I in 1918 and lasted until the Treaty of Riga in 1921. ... Central and Eastern Europe after the Treaty of Riga See also Riga Peace Treaty for other treaties concluded in Riga. ...

Creation of the USSR

On December 29, 1922 the RSFSR, the Transcaucasian SFSR, and the Byelorussian and Ukrainian Soviet Socialist Republics signed a Treaty of Creation of the USSR forming the Soviet Union by a conference of the representatives, which was confirmed on December 30, 1922 by the 1st Congress of Soviets of the USSR. December 29 is the 363rd day of the year (364th in leap years) in the Gregorian Calendar, with 2 days remaining. ... Year 1922 (MCMXXII) was a common year starting on Sunday (link will display full calendar). ... The Transcaucasian Soviet Federated Socialist Republic was a short-lived (1922-1936) Soviet republic, consisting of Georgia, Armenia, and Azerbaijan, which were traditionally known as the Transcaucasian Republics in the Soviet Union. ... State motto: Belarusian: Пралетарыі ўсіх краін, яднайцеся! Translation: Workers of the world, unite! Capital Minsk Official language Belarusian, Polish, Russian and Yiddish (before WWII) Established In the USSR:  - Since  - Until January 1, 1919 December 30, 1922 August 25, 1991 Area  - Total  - Water (%) Ranked 6th in the USSR 207,600 km² negligible Population  - Total   - Density... Treaty of Creation of the USSR is a document that legalized the creation of a union of several Soviet republics in the form the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics. ... December 30 is the 364th day of the year (365th in leap years) in the Gregorian Calendar, with 1 day remaining. ... Year 1922 (MCMXXII) was a common year starting on Sunday (link will display full calendar). ... The Congress of Soviets was the supreme governing body of the Russian Soviet Federative Socialist Republic and the Soviet Union in two periods, from 1917 to 1936 and from 1989 to 1993. ...

The New Economic Policy

Main article: New Economic Policy

Silver Rubel 1924

Gold Chervonetz (1979)

During the Civil War (1917-1921), Lenin adopted War Communism, which entailed the breakup of the landed estates and the forcible seizure of agricultural surpluses. The Kronstadt rebellion signaled the growing unpopularity of War Communism in the countryside: in March 1921, at the end of the civil war, disillusioned sailors, primarily peasants who initially had been stalwart supporters of the Bolsheviks under the provisional government, revolted against the new regime. Although the Red Army, commanded by Leon Trotsky, crossed the ice over the frozen Baltic Sea and quickly crushed the rebellion, this sign of growing discontent forced the party under Lenin's direction to foster a broad alliance of the working class and peasantry (eighty percent of the population), although left factions of the party favored a regime solely representative of the interests of the revolutionary proletariat. Lenin consequently ended War Communism and instituted the New Economic Policy (NEP), in which the state allowed a limited market to exist. Small private businesses were allowed and restrictions on political activity were somewhat eased. This article or section does not cite its references or sources. ... Image File history File links Download high-resolution version (183x747, 273 KB) Rubel 1944 USSR File links The following pages on the English Wikipedia link to this file (pages on other projects are not listed): History of the Soviet Union New Economic Policy ... Image File history File links Download high-resolution version (183x747, 273 KB) Rubel 1944 USSR File links The following pages on the English Wikipedia link to this file (pages on other projects are not listed): History of the Soviet Union New Economic Policy ... Image File history File linksMetadata Download high-resolution version (1752x1743, 481 KB) Bildbeschreibung: Tscherwonetz Quelle: eigen Fotograf/Zeichner: Rene Adrian König Datum: 26. ... Image File history File linksMetadata Download high-resolution version (1752x1743, 481 KB) Bildbeschreibung: Tscherwonetz Quelle: eigen Fotograf/Zeichner: Rene Adrian König Datum: 26. ... War communism or wartime communism (1917-1921) was the harsh economic policy adopted by the Bolsheviks during the Russian Civil War with an aim to keep towns and the Red Army supplied with weapons and food in the conditions when all normal economical mechanisms and relations were being destroyed by... Landed property or landed estates is a real estate term that usually refers to a property that generates income for the owner without himself having to do the actual work at the estate. ... This article is about the events that took place in Russia, 1921. ... Year 1921 (MCMXXI) was a common year starting on Saturday (see link for full calendar). ... Combatants Red Army (Bolsheviks) White Army (Monarchists, SRs, Anti-Communists) Green Army (Peasants and Nationalists) Black Army (Anarchists) Commanders Leon Trotsky Mikhail Tukhachevsky Semyon Budyonny Lavr Kornilov, Alexander Kolchak, Anton Denikin, Pyotr Wrangel Alexander Antonov, Nikifor Grigoriev Nestor Makhno Strength 5,427,273 (peak) +1,000,000 Casualties 939,755... The Workers and Peasants Red Army (Russian: Рабоче-Крестьянская Красная Армия, Raboche-Krestyanskaya Krasnaya Armiya; RKKA or usually simply the Red Army) were the armed forces first organized by the Bolsheviks during the Russian Civil War in 1918 and that in 1922 became the army of the Soviet Union. ... Note: This page is very long. ... War communism or wartime communism (1917-1921) was the harsh economic policy adopted by the Bolsheviks during the Russian Civil War with an aim to keep towns and the Red Army supplied with weapons and food in the conditions when all normal economical mechanisms and relations were being destroyed by... This article or section does not cite its references or sources. ...

However, the key shift involved the status of agricultural surpluses. Rather than simply requisitioning agricultural surpluses in order to feed the urban population (the hallmark of War Communism), the NEP allowed peasants to sell their surplus yields on the open market. Meanwhile, the state still maintained state ownership of what Lenin deemed the "commanding heights" of the economy: heavy industry such as the coal, iron, and metallurgical sectors along with the banking and financial components of the economy. The "commanding heights" employed the majority of the workers in the urban areas. Under the NEP, such state industries would be largely free to make their own economic decisions. Coal Coal (IPA: ) is a fossil fuel extracted from the ground by underground mining or open-pit mining (surface mining). ... General Name, Symbol, Number iron, Fe, 26 Chemical series transition metals Group, Period, Block 8, 4, d Appearance lustrous metallic with a grayish tinge Atomic mass 55. ... Metallurgy is a domain of materials science and of materials engineering that studies the physical and chemical behavior of metallic elements and their mixtures, which are called alloys. ...

The Soviet NEP (1921-29) was essentially a period of "market socialism" similar to the Dengist reforms in Communist China after 1978 in that both foresaw a role for private entrepreneurs and limited markets based on trade and pricing rather than fully centralized planning. As an interesting aside, during the first meeting in the early 1980s between Deng Xiaoping and Armand Hammer, a U.S. industrialist and prominent investor in Lenin's Soviet Union, Deng pressed Hammer for as much information on the NEP as possible. 1978 (MCMLXXVIII) was a common year starting on Sunday. ... The 1980s refers to the years of 1980 to 1989. ... Deng Xiaoping   (Simplified Chinese: ; Traditional Chinese: ; pinyin: ; Wade-Giles: Teng Hsiao-ping; August 22, 1904–February 19, 1997) was a leader in the Communist Party of China (CCP). ... Dr. Armand Hammer Armand Hammer (May 21, 1898 – December 10, 1990) was an enigmatic Jewish-American industrialist and art collector. ... Motto: (Out Of Many, One) (traditional) In God We Trust (1956 to date) Anthem: The Star-Spangled Banner Capital Washington D.C. Largest city New York City None at federal level (English de facto) Government Federal constitutional republic  - President George Walker Bush (R)  - Vice President Dick Cheney (R) Independence from...

During the NEP period, agricultural yields not only recovered to the levels attained before the Bolshevik Revolution, but greatly improved. The break-up of the quasi-feudal landed estates of the Tsarist-era countryside gave peasants their greatest incentives ever to maximize production. Now able to sell their surpluses on the open market, peasant spending gave a boost to the manufacturing sectors in the urban areas. As a result of the NEP, and the breakup of the landed estates while the Communist Party was consolidating power between 1917-1921, the Soviet Union became the world's greatest producer of grain. Year 1917 (MCMXVII) was a common year starting on Monday of the Gregorian calendar (see link for calendar) or a common year starting on Tuesday of the 13-day slower Julian calendar (see: 1917 Julian calendar). ... Year 1921 (MCMXXI) was a common year starting on Saturday (see link for full calendar). ...

Agriculture, however, would recover from civil war more rapidly than heavy industry. Factories, badly damaged by civil war and capital depreciation, were far less productive. In addition, the organization of enterprises into trusts or syndicates representing one particular sector of the economy would contribute to imbalances between supply and demand associated with monopolies. Due to the lack of incentives brought by market competition, and with little or no state controls on their internal policies, trusts were likely to sell their products at higher prices.

The slower recovery of industry would pose some problems for the peasantry, who accounted for eighty percent of the population. Since agriculture was relatively more productive, relative price indexes for industrial goods were higher than those of agricultural products. The outcome of this was what Trotsky deemed the "scissors crisis" because of the scissors-like shape of the graph representing shifts in relative price indexes. Simply put, peasants would have to produce more grain to purchase consumer goods from the urban areas. As a result, some peasants withheld agricultural surpluses in anticipation of higher prices, thus contributing to mild shortages in the cities. This, of course, is speculative market behavior, which was frowned upon by many Communist Party cadres, who considered it to be exploitative of urban consumers.

In the meantime the party took constructive steps to offset the crisis, attempting to bring down prices for manufactured goods and stabilize inflation, by imposing price controls on key industrial goods and breaking-up the trusts in order to increase economic efficiency.

The death of Lenin and the fate of the NEP

Party factionalization

Since succession mechanisms had not been established in party procedure, Lenin's death in 1924 heightened fierce factional fighting in the party over the fate of the NEP. Year 1924 (MCMXXIV) was a leap year starting on Tuesday (link will display the full calendar). ...

The Left Opposition within the Party, led by Trotsky, had long opposed the NEP for various ideological and practical reasons (the market system was beginning to create negative results: inflation, unemployment, and the rise of a wealthy class). They used the "Scissors Crisis" to gain ideological capital over the moderate wing of the party (supportive of the NEP), led by Nikolai Ivanovich Bukharin. Initially, Stalin united with the Bukharinite faction of the Party to defeat Trotsky. But he eventually turned against the moderates who favored the NEP once Trotsky was exiled, in order to consolidate his control over the party and the state. The Left Opposition was a faction within the Communist Party of the Soviet Union during 1923-1927. ... An 1837 political cartoon about unemployment in the United States. ... The widening gap between industrial and agricultural prices. ... Nikolai Ivanovich Bukharin (Russian: Николай Иванович Бухарин), (October 9 (September 27 Old Style) 1888 - March 13, 1938) was a Bolshevik revolutionary and then a Soviet politician, and intellectual. ...

Stalin's consolidation of power

For more on the succession battle within the party, see Communist Party of the Soviet Union.

In order to devise a pretext for abandoning the NEP, Stalin moved to exploit the problems associated with the "Scissors Crisis." Moreover, he pointed to the rise of the Nepmen (small retailers profiting off the growing urban-rural trade) and Kulaks (the emerging upper-middle class of wealthy peasant farmers) under the NEP as new capitalistic classes. He also brought up the arguments used by his enemies in the Left Opposition, such as inflation and unemployment, as the evils of the market. The Communist Party of the Soviet Union (Russian: Коммунисти́ческая Па́ртия Сове́тского Сою́за = КПСС) was the name used by the successors of the Bolshevik faction of the Russian Social-Democratic Labour Party from 1952 to 1991, but the wording Communist Party was present in the partys name since 1918 when the Bolsheviks became the Russian... The collectivisation campaign in the USSR, 1930s. ...

Stalin shifted from side to side and eventually rid the party of both factions by forging a path of development that integrated the ideas of both camps. He adapted the "leftist" stance that opposed market agriculture because they wanted to produce the material basis for communism quickly, through a planned economy, despite unfavorable conditions. But he also endorsed the "rightist" faction's notion of "socialism in one country" which favored concentrating on internal development rather than exporting revolution. In that respect, he also favored extensive exports of grain and raw materials; the revenues from foreign exchange allowing the Soviet Union to import foreign technologies needed for industrial development. Socialism in One Country was a thesis put forward by Joseph Stalin in 1924 and further supported by Nikolai Bukharin that given the catastrophic failures of all communist revolutions in Europe from 1917-1921 except their own, rather than relying on the idea that an underdeveloped and agrarian country like...

Stalin first formed a troika with Zinoviev and Kamenev against Trotsky. Then, with Trotsky marginalised and removed from his position as People's Commissar of War and a member of the Politburo, Stalin joined with Bukharin against his former allies. Then, finally, he turned against the NEP, forcing Bukharin, its main proponent, into opposition and leaving Stalin as the dominant figure in the party and the country. Troika (Russian: тройка, meaning threesome) is a committee consisting of three members. ... Grigory Yevseevich Zinoviev (Григо́рий Евсе́евич Зино́вьев, real name Ovsel Gershon Aronov Radomyslsky (Радомысльский), also... Categories: People stubs | Old Bolsheviks | Soviet politicians | Exonerated Soviet death sentences | Russian Jews ... It has been suggested that this article or section be merged with: :Sovnarkom. ... Politburo is short for Political Bureau. ... Nikolai Ivanovich Bukharin ( Russian: Николай Иванович Бухарин), ( October 9 ( September 27 Old Style) 1888 – March 13, 1938) was a Bolshevik revolutionary and intellectual, and later a Soviet politician. ...

By then, Stalin had a reputation as a revolutionary, "devoted Bolshevik," and Lenin's "right hand man." Lenin had trusted Stalin, however; a mysterious letter all a sudden came to light by the Trotskyists claiming before his death Lenin had written it, often referred to as Lenin's Testament, warning against giving power to Stalin, calling him "rude," "intolerant," and "capricious." Stalin and his supporters had covered this letter up. Parts of it were leaked to members of the party but the full contents were not published until after Stalin's death in 1953. Lenins Testament is the name given to a document written by Vladimir Lenin in the last weeks of 1922 and the first week of 1923. ... 1953 (MCMLIII) was a common year starting on Thursday. ...