Soviet Union

American  

[soh-vee-it yoon-yuhn] / ˈsoʊ vi ɪt ˈjun jən /

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.

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Soviet Union British  

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

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Soviet Union Cultural  

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.

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Example Sentences

See Examples For:

Soviet Union

Measles cases in the U.S. just set a depressing record, making 2026 the worst year for the disease since the Soviet Union collapsed.

From Slate ● Jul. 24, 2026

At the fall of the Soviet Union, the town had around 10,000 residents, supported by employment in a nearby uranium mine.

From Barron's ● Jul. 22, 2026

Kazaryan planted his orchard in 1991, after the collapse of the Soviet Union when farmland was distributed to private owners.

From Barron's ● Jul. 14, 2026

What was life like during the thaw in the Soviet Union?

From The Wall Street Journal ● Jul. 10, 2026

It was illegal to bring all this Western loot into the Soviet Union, but Penkovsky breezed through customs without a search—the goodies were for his bosses, and they made sure he wasn’t bothered.

From "Fallout: Spies, Superbombs, and the Ultimate Cold War Showdown" by Steve Sheinkin