Union of Soviet Socialist Republics
Politically the USSR was divided (from 1940 to 1991) into 15 constituent or union republics— Armenia , Azerbaijan , Belorussia (see Belarus ), Estonia , Georgia , Kazakhstan , Kirghizia (see Kyrgyzstan ), Latvia , Lithuania , Moldavia (see Moldova ), Russia , Tadzhikistan (see Tajikistan ), Turkmenistan , Ukraine , and Uzbekistan —ostensibly joined in a federal union, but until the final year or so of the USSR's existence the republics had little real power. Russia, officially the Russian Soviet Federal Socialist Republic (RSFSR), was only one of the constituent republics, but the terms
USSR, and the
Soviet Union were often used interchangeably.
Sections in this article:
- The Khrushchev Era
- The Brezhnev Era
- The Stalin Era
- The Gorbachev Era
- Early Years
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