Soviet Union

[soh-vee-it yoon-yuhn]

noun

1. 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). Moscow.

Soviet Union

noun

1. Also called: Russia.  Soviet Russia. Official name: Union of Soviet Socialist Republics.  USSR. 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

Soviet Union

1. 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.

Example Sentences

"Historically, this kind of cyber crime… has mostly been carried out by Russian-speaking criminals, based in Russia or other parts of the former Soviet Union", he explains.

From BBC

Herzog rejects the notion that propaganda of the kind that the former Soviet Union’s media outlets fobbed off as the truth is much different from the way liberal democracies present and digest the news now.

From Los Angeles Times

It succeeded, at the very least, in damping down the Cold War between the U.S. and the Soviet Union enough that it never escalated into civilization-ending apocalypse.

From Salon

It is a far different race from the original, against the Soviet Union, when U.S. astronauts inspired the world with a televised landing in 1969.

From Los Angeles Times

In the Soviet Union, jokes about Joseph Stalin or the Communist Party were treated as serious crimes against the state, warranting time in the gulag.

From Los Angeles Times