Soviet Union
Official name Union of Soviet Socialist Republics . a former federal, highly centralized union that grew to sustain 15 constituent republics, spanning 11 time zones across Eurasia and comprising the larger part of the former Russian Empire: formed in 1922 and dissolved in 1991. 8,650,000 sq. mi. (22,402,200 sq. km). Capital: Moscow.
Words that may be confused with Soviet Union
- Russia, Soviet Union
Words Nearby Soviet Union
Dictionary.com Unabridged Based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2023
How to use Soviet Union in a sentence
If Kremlinology was the study of state propaganda in the former Soviet Union for clues about who is in and who is out, Manchinology is the new spycraft in the Senate.
The Outer Space Treaty was signed in 1967, with initial signatories being the US, UK, and the former Soviet Union.
The Game Has Changed: Why We Need New Rules for Space Exploration | Peter Cabral | March 3, 2021 | Singularity HubOnly the US and the former Soviet Union have ever brought lunar rocks back to Earth.
China’s Chang’e 5 mission has successfully landed on the moon | Neel Patel | December 1, 2020 | MIT Technology ReviewKyrgyzstan was the ninth-poorest country in the former Soviet Union and right now is the second-poorest country in Central Asia.
I don’t see this spreading elsewhere in the former Soviet Union or outside.
Unlike the Soviet Union at a certain period in history, the Russian economy does not hold a candle to that of the United States.
Not even after its parent company, the Soviet Union, took a dive in 1991.
What had seemed immutable and eternal (“With the Soviet Union forever”) turned out to be a fleeting episode.
In the last days of the Soviet Union, there was a going black market in burned-out light-bulbs.
At the height of the Soviet Union, the proletariat universally understood everything their government said was a work of fiction.
The Soviet Union had gained great initial success, usual with the side that got the war going.
Second Variety | Philip Kindred DickAgain, for the record, this is a name which was used for Oswald during his period of staying in the Soviet Union.
Warren Commission (7 of 26): Hearings Vol. VII (of 15) | The President's Commission on the Assassination of President KennedyBefore we get to this, how many cases of defections to the Soviet Union would you be investigating in the course of a fiscal year?
Warren Commission (5 of 26): Hearings Vol. V (of 15) | The President's Commission on the Assassination of President KennedyNot necessarily, not exclusively the Soviet Union, of course.
Warren Commission (5 of 26): Hearings Vol. V (of 15) | The President's Commission on the Assassination of President KennedyWe have no evidence that he was working for or on behalf of the Soviet Union at any time.
Warren Commission (5 of 26): Hearings Vol. V (of 15) | The President's Commission on the Assassination of President Kennedy
British Dictionary definitions for Soviet Union
a former federal republic in E Europe and central and N Asia: the revolution of 1917 achieved the overthrow of the Russian monarchy and the Soviet Union (the USSR) was established in 1922 as a Communist state. It was the largest country in the world, occupying a seventh of the total land surface. The collapse of Communist rule in 1991 was followed by declarations of independence by the constituent republics and the consequent break-up of the Soviet Union: Official name: Union of Soviet Socialist Republics Also called: Russia, Soviet Russia Abbreviation: USSR
Collins English Dictionary - Complete & Unabridged 2012 Digital Edition © William Collins Sons & Co. Ltd. 1979, 1986 © HarperCollins Publishers 1998, 2000, 2003, 2005, 2006, 2007, 2009, 2012
Cultural definitions for Soviet Union
Officially the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics (USSR), a nation formerly located in eastern Europe and northwestern Asia. Its capital and largest city was Moscow.
In 1917 the Bolsheviks, led by Lenin, seized the government of Russia, and in 1922 Russia merged with the Ukrainian, Belorussian, and Transcaucasian republics to form the USSR. Joseph Stalin emerged as the Soviet leader after Lenin's death in 1924. Under Stalin, the 1930s were marked by political repression and terror (see Stalin's Purge Trials). After the Nazi-Soviet Non-Aggression Pact of 1939, the Soviet Union added parts of Finland, Poland, and Romania to its territory and annexed the Baltic republics of Estonia, Latvia, and Lithuania. Invaded by Germany in 1941, the Soviet Union suffered vast losses but emerged from World War II on the winning side and soon became a nuclear superpower.
Postwar American-Soviet relations saw the start of the cold war, as the Soviet Union extended its control over the Eastern Bloc. The Cuban missile crisis was provoked by the buildup of Soviet missiles in Cuba.
In the 1970s the Soviet Union entered a period of détente with the United States. The reforms (glasnost and perestroika) introduced by Mikhail Gorbachev weakened the Communist party's control, which suffered a mortal blow when hard-liners tried unsuccessfully in 1991 to overthrow Gorbachev.
As Communist dominance faded, nationalism rose within the republics that made up the Soviet Union. The Baltic republics of Latvia, Estonia, and Lithuania, Armenia, Belarus, Georgia, Moldova, and various republics of the Caucasus Mountains — Azerbaijan, Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Tajikistan, Turkmenistan, and Uzbekistan — declared their independence. The Soviet Union was formally dissolved in 1991. A loose federation, known as the Commonwealth of Independent States and made up of some former Soviet republics, succeeded it, but the Commonwealth is not recognized as a nation. Russia took the former Soviet Union's seat on the Security Council of the United Nations.
The New Dictionary of Cultural Literacy, Third Edition Copyright © 2005 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. All rights reserved.
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