The Soviet Union—officially, the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics or USSR—was a global superpower from 1922 until its collapse in 1991. At its height, it was the largest country in the world, taking up one-sixth of the planet's land mass and holding nearly 300 million people from more than 100 nationalities.
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Atheism was long a central part of Soviet politics. One facet was an attempt to wipe out religious holidays, Christmas (and Santa) included. Ded Moroz, or Father Frost, is the Soviet version of Santa, who also travels by carriage and has a long white beard.
It's far enough north to have avoided the nomadic hordes who, for centuries, raided the European plain to its south—but it's just south enough to still farm the land. What's more, Moscow is protected by the huge taiga forests and is guarded by rare east-west rivers in a continent with mostly north-south ones.
The geopolitical rivalry between the United States and Soviet Union was considered “cold" because the two countries never directly engaged in military combat during the time period. This page from the Kennedy Presidential Library outlines the causes and major events of the early Cold War.
Decades of economic stagnation combined with rising costs from the nuclear arms race with the US brought the Soviet Union to a radical need for reform in the 1980s. Under eighth Soviet leader Mikhail Gorbachev, the Communist country sought to restructure its economy and open up its diplomacy to provide a jolt to the stultified country—but to no avail. Independence movements in its various republics quickly led to the toppling of the regime. Watch a quick overview here.
From a western perspective, Communism was the most dangerous idea of the 20th century, drawing the US into hot and cold wars in Vietnam, Korea, Cuba, and beyond. This multimedia timeline from the Washington Post explores the rise and fall of communist movements worldwide during the “Red Century.” Published to commemorate the 100th anniversary of the Russian Revolution, it features photographs of historical figures and milestone events, from the Tiananmen Square protests to Kim Jong Un.
Hitler unleashed Operation Barbarossa on June 22, 1941, underestimating Soviet resilience, Russian winter, and logistics. His overconfidence—rooted in early victories like France—turned this campaign into a strategic catastrophe, shifting the war’s momentum irreversibly—often cited as his greatest blunder.
After World War II, Germany and its capital of Berlin were split between four Allied powers and ultimately formed into two new countries: the Communist East Germany and the Democratic West Germany. This nine-minute video details the reunification of Germany, starting with the accidental fall of the Berlin Wall in 1989.
You’re probably familiar with how a market economy works through the forces of supply and demand, but if you’ve ever wondered how communist economics functioned, Investopedia has a good primer. It covers which countries historically employed such a model and why; how those states made economic decisions; and how even free-market societies like the US sometimes borrowed elements from command economies, such as price controls and rationing, in times of war or national emergency.
The "SNAFU" podcast, hosted by actor and comedian Ed Helms, explores some of the biggest blunders in history. Season one focuses on the 1983 NATO Able Archer military exercise, a war game that simulated nuclear attacks on the Soviet Union. The USSR mistook the exercise for a genuine threat and prepared its forces for war. Helms recounts this almost catastrophic event in world history with his signature humor.
In this media-rich timeline, RFE/RL—an American-backed media outlet founded during the Cold War to counteract Soviet propaganda—chronicles the main events leading to the collapse of the Soviet Union, beginning in 1985 with the election of Mikhail Gorbachev. Infographics detail memorable quotes and biographical data from the key figures in the transition from USSR to the Russian Federation.
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