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[[Image:Yuri Gagarin Russia.jpg|right|Yuri Gagarin Russia.]]

[[Image:Yuri Gagarin Russia.jpg|right|Yuri Gagarin Russia.]]

First among its political figures was Lenin, leader of the Bolshevik Party and head of the first Soviet Government, who died in 1924.  

First among its political figures was Lenin, leader of the Bolshevik Party and head of the first Soviet Government, who died in 1924.  

=+Stalin==

==Stalin==

In the late 1920s, [[Josef Stalin]] emerged as General Secretary of the [[Communist Party of the Soviet Union]] (CPSU) amidst intra-party rivalries; he maintained complete control over Soviet domestic and international policy until his death in 1953. In the 1930s, Stalin oversaw the forced collectivization of tens of millions of its citizens in state agricultural and industrial enterprises. Millions died in the process. Millions more died in political purges, the vast penal and labor system, and in state-created [[famine]]s. Initially allied to [[Nazi Germany]], which resulted in significant territorial additions on its western border, the U.S.S.R. was attacked by [[the Axis]] on June 22, 1941. Twenty million Soviet citizens died during [[World War II]] in the successful effort to defeat the Axis, in addition to over two million Soviet Jews who perished in [[the Holocaust]]. After the war, the U.S.S.R. became one of the Permanent Members of the [[UN Security Council]]. In 1949, the U.S.S.R. developed its own nuclear arsenal.  

In the late 1920s, [[Josef Stalin]] emerged as General Secretary of the [[Communist Party of the Soviet Union]] (CPSU) amidst intra-party rivalries; he maintained complete control over Soviet domestic and international policy until his death in 1953. In the 1930s, Stalin oversaw the forced collectivization of tens of millions of its citizens in state agricultural and industrial enterprises. Millions died in the process. Millions more died in political purges, the vast penal and labor system, and in state-created [[famine]]s. Initially allied to [[Nazi Germany]], which resulted in significant territorial additions on its western border, the U.S.S.R. was attacked by [[the Axis]] on June 22, 1941. Twenty million Soviet citizens died during [[World War II]] in the successful effort to defeat the Axis, in addition to over two million Soviet Jews who perished in [[the Holocaust]]. After the war, the U.S.S.R. became one of the Permanent Members of the [[UN Security Council]]. In 1949, the U.S.S.R. developed its own nuclear arsenal.  

==After Stalin==

==After Stalin==