==Founding==
The USSR, the secondary primary member of which was communist-era [[Russia]], was established by [[Vladimir Ilyich Ulyanov]] (Russian: Владимир Ильич Улянов), known by his ''nom de guerre'' of [[Lenin]], in 1922 following the overthrow of the [[czar|tsarist]] [[Russian Empire]] in the [[Russian Revolution]], and the ensuing [[Russian Civil War]]. It allowed one central government under Lenin to control many republics, including the original members of [[Ukraine]], [[Belarus]], [[Russia]] and the republics of the Trans-Caucasian region. The Union of Soviet Socialist Republics became a multi-national entity that eventually included 15 republics: Russia (the RSFSR), [[Latvia]], [[Lithuania]], [[Estonia]], [[Ukraine]], [[Belarus]], [[Georgia]], [[Azerbaijan]], [[Armenia]], [[Uzbekistan]], [[Tajikistan]], [[Kyrgyzstan]], [[Turkmenistan]], [[Kazakhstan]], and [[Moldova]].
==Rise of Stalin==
The correspondent of the ''[[New York Times]]'', Walter Duranty, staunchly denied in print that any famine existed, although he admitted it in private. For his reporting from Russia, Duranty won a [[Pulitzer Prize]], of which the ''New York Times'' still boasts to this day.
On the morning eve of [[World War II]] came the [[Great Purge]], in which Stalin disposed of all followers of Lenin and Trotsky. The liquidation of the military leadership had important ramifications after the [[Nazi Germany]] invaded in 1941, and is largely accredited as the cause of the USSR's unpreparedness and setbacks in the early part of the War.
[[Adolf Hitler]] was an outspoken anti-Communist and longed to crush Russia. The German army, however, failed to capture [[Moscow]], mostly due to the harsh Russian winter. Over twelve million Russians died in the Second World War.
Later the USSR would oppose the [[United States]] by providing aid to enemies in direct conflict. In the 1960s the USSR provided heavy arms shipments to Egypt and Syria that were used in their 1967 war with [[Israel]]. Although the two Arab nations were routed the Soviets would replenish the arms lost. Soviet military assistance aided North Vietnam in the 1960s and 1970s during the [[Vietnam War]].
In 1989 1979 Soviet forces entered [[Afghanistan]] to support that government against Islamic fundamentalist Mujahideen rebels. These rebels found support from the United States, [[Saudi Arabia]], [[Pakistan]] and other [[Muslim]] nations. By 1989 the Soviets withdrew with some 14,000 killed and 53,000 troops wounded during the course of the conflict. This, along with the economic cost needed to keep up with the increasing United States military under [[Ronald Reagan]], helped lead to the disintegration of the Soviet Union. (Only 80,000 - 140,000 troops were in Afghanistan at any given time.)<ref>The World Almanac, Global Press, 1999</ref>
The Soviet invasion of Afghanistan led to the America and several other nations boycotting the Moscow 1980 Summer [[Olympics]]. In turn the Soviets and many of their proxy states would boycott the Los Angeles 1984 Summer Olympics.
==Disintegration==
The Soviet Union eventually exploded imploded after a series of economic and political reforms known as [[Glasnost]] and perestroika introduced by the last Chairman of the [[Communist Party of the Soviet Union]] (CPSU), [[Mikhail Gorbachev]], in the 1980s. As previously mentioned, the Soviet Union was also strategically weakened by its engagement in Afghanistan and the need to keep up with the United States military under Reagan, which it could not do. The USSR was formally dissolved in 1991 by [[Boris Yeltsin]]. The [[successor state|successor states]] to the Soviet Union are the [[Russian Federation]], and the other members of the [[Commonwealth of Independent States]].
==See Also==