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Union of Soviet Socialist Republics

2012-12-04T20:59:14Z

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{{Country
|name =''Союз Советских Социалистических Республик Soyuz Sovetskikh Sotsialisticheskikh Respublik''
|map =Soviet union rel 1986.jpg
|flag =600px-Flag_of_the_Soviet_Union.svg.png
|arms =Coat of arms of the Soviet Union.svg.png
|capital =Moscow
|government =Communist
|language =Russian (de facto)
|area =8,649,538 sq. mi. (1991)
|pop =293,047,571 (1991)
|pop-basis =
}}
The '''Soviet Union''' (Russian: Советский Союз, ''Sovyetskiy Soyuz''), formally the '''Union of Soviet Socialist Republics''' (or '''USSR''') (Russian: Союз Советских Социалистических Республик, ''Soyuz Sovietskykh Sotsialisticheskykh Respublik'', abbreviated ''СССР'') existed 1917-1991, then broke into 15 separate countries, most notably [[Russia]]. It was the most powerful established [[socialist]] states in history, coming to power under [[Lenin]] in 1918 and killing millions of its peasants to establish a ruthless Communist dictatorship under [[Joseph Stalin]] in the 1930s. After cooperating with the USSR (1939-41), the Nazi Germans under [[Adolf Hitler]] invaded in a war to the death. The USSR defeated the Nazis in [[World War II]] (1941-45), and took control of most of Eastern Europe, turning formerly independent countries into Communist satellites. It was the primary antagonist of the United States during the [[Cold War]] (1947-1989); it then collapsed because of American pressure and its own internal economic and social failures. At its height the USSR covered one-sixth of the earth's land area, stretching from eastern Europe across north Asia to the Pacific Ocean.

==Geography==
[[File:Siberian cat.jpg|thumbnail|300px|The [[Siberia]]n [[cat]] is the national cat of [[Russia]].
 
 
(photo obtained from [http://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Bugsy_outside4.jpg Wikimedia commons], photographer: Jan Warner, see: [http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/3.0/deed.en license agreement])]]
Located in the middle and northern latitudes of the Northern Hemisphere, the Soviet Union's 22.4 million square kilometers included one-sixth of the earth's usable land area. Its western portion, more than half of all Europe, made up 25% of its area; this, however, was where 72% of the people lived and where most industrial and agricultural activities were concentrated. The largest region was the lightly populated [[Siberia]], a land between the Urals and the Pacific that for centuries was infamous as a place of exile, a land of endless expanses of snow and frigid temperatures.

Extending for over 60,000 kilometers, the Soviet border was the world's longest national frontier, sharing a common border with twelve countries, six on each continent. In Asia, its neighbors were the [[Democratic People's Republic of Korea]] (North Korea), [[China]], [[Mongolia]], [[Afghanistan]], [[Iran]], and [[Turkey]]; in [[Europe]], it bordered [[Romania]], [[Hungary]], [[Czechoslovakia]], [[Poland]], [[Norway]], and [[Finland]].

Approximately two-thirds of the frontier was bounded by water, forming the longest and, owing to its proximity to the North Pole, probably the most useless coastline of any country. Apart from Murmansk, which receives the warm currents of the Gulf Stream, the northern coast is locked in ice much of the year. The search for a warm water port was a central theme throughout Russian history.

A dozen seas, part of the water systems of three oceans--the Arctic, Atlantic, and Pacific--washed over Soviet shores.
*Size: Approximately 22,402,200 square kilometers (land area 22, 272,000 square kilometers); slightly less than 2.5 times size of United States.
*Location: Occupies eastern portion of European continent and northern portion of Asian continent. Most of country north of 50° north latitude.
*Topography: Vast steppe with low hills west of Ural Mountains; extensive coniferous forest and tundra in Siberia; deserts in Central Asia; mountains along southern boundaries.
*Climate: Generally temperate to Arctic continental. Winters vary from short and cold along Black Sea to long and frigid in Siberia. Summers vary from hot in southern deserts to cool along Arctic coast. Weather usually harsh and unpredictable. Generally dry with more than half of country receiving fewer than forty centimeters of rainfall per year, most of Soviet Central Asia northeastern Siberia receiving only half that amount.
*Land Boundaries: 19,933 kilometers total: Afghanistan 2,384 kilometers' China 7,520 kilometers; Czechoslovakia 98 kilometers; Democratic People's Republic of Korea (North Korea) 17 kilometers; Finland 1,313 kilometers, Hungary 135 kilometers; Iran 1,690 kilometers; Mongolia 3,441 kilometers; Norway 196 kilometers; Poland 1,215 kilometers; Romania 1,307 kilometers; and Turkey 617 kilometers.
*Water Boundaries: 42,777 kilometers washed by oceanic systems of Arctic, Atlantic, and Pacific.
*Land Use: 11 percent of land arable; 16 percent meadows and pasture; 41 percent forest and woodland; and 32 percent other, including tundra.
*Natural Resources: Oil, natural gas, coal, iron ore, timber, gold, manganese, lead, zinc, nickel, mercury, potash, phosphates, and most strategic minerals.

===Administrative-Political-Territorial Divisions===
The USSR was divided into fifteen union republics - the largest administrative and political units - officially known as Soviet republics or union republics. Theoretically they were independent countries; in practice they were controlled by the Kremlin. Nationality, size of the population, and location were the determinants for republic status. By far the largest and most important was the Russian Republic, containing about 51% of the population. In 1989 Russians made up over 51% of the Soviet population and were politically, economically and culturally the dominant nationality, there are more than 100 other nationality groups that make up Soviet society. Fourteen other major nationalities also have their own republics: in the European part are the [[Lithuania]]n, [[Latvia]]n, [[Estonia]]n, [[Belarus|Belarusian]], [[Ukraine|Ukrainian]], and [[Moldavia]]n republics; the [[Georgia (country)|Georgia]]n, [[Azerbaijan]], and [[Armenian]] republics occupy the Caucasus; and Soviet Central Asia is home to the [[Kazakhstan|Kazakh]], [[Uzbekistan|Uzbek]], [[Turkmenistan|Turkmen]], [[Kyrgyzstan|Kyrgyz]], and [[Tajikistan|Tajik]] republics.

The Soviet republics were subdivided into administrative subdivisions called autonomous republics, autonomous oblasts, autonomous okruga, kraia, or most often oblasts. These subdivisions made the country easier to manage and some served to recognize additional nationalities.

==People==
[[Image:Solzhenitsyn.jpg‎|thumb|150px|right|The [[Nobel Prize]] winning [[Russia|Russian]] author [[Aleksandr Solzhenitsyn]] was exiled from the Soviet Union due to his criticism of the Soviet government.]]
The official Soviet census of 1989 listed over 100 nationalities in the Soviet Union. Each had its own history, culture, and language. Each possessed its own sense of national identity and national consciousness. The position of each nationality in the Soviet Union depended to a large degree on its size, the percentage of the people using the national language as their first language, the degree of its integration into the Soviet society, and its territorial-administrative status. This position was also dependent on each nationality's share of membership in the [[Communist Party of the Soviet Union]] (CPSU), the number of students in higher institutions, the number of scientific workers, and the urbanization of each nationality.

The various nationalities differed greatly in size. On the one hand, the [[Russia]]ns, who constituted about 50.8 percent of the population, numbered about 145 million in 1989. On the other hand, half of the nationalities listed in the census together accounted for only 0.5 percent of the total population, most of them having fewer than 100,000 people. Twenty-two nationalities had more than 1 million people each. Fifteen of the major nationalities had their own union republics, which together comprised the federation known as the Soviet Union.

The nationalities having union republic status commanded more political and economic power than other nationalities and found it easier to maintain their own language and culture. In 1989 some nationalities formed an overwhelming majority within their own republics; one nationality (the Kazakhs), however, lacked even a majority. In addition to the fifteen union republics, individual nationalities had their own territorial units, such as autonomous republics, autonomous oblasts, and autonomous okruga. The remaining nationalities did not have territorial units of their own and in most cases only constituted minorities in the Russian Republic.

The nationalities that have had a significant political and economic impact on the Soviet Union include the fifteen nationalities that have their own union republics and the non-union republic nationalities that numbered at least 1 million people in 1989. They are the Slavic nationalities, the Baltic nationalities, the nationalities of the Caucasus, the Central Asian nationalities, and a few other nationalities.
*Population: 293,047,571 (1991 estimate). Average annual growth rate 0.9 percent. Density twelve persons per square kilometer; 75 percent of people lived west of Ural Mountains.
*Nationalities: 51 percent of population Russian, 15 percent Ukrainian, 6 percent Uzbek, nearly 4 percent Belorussian, and 24 percent about 100 other nationalities.
[[File:Bezhnoznik u stanka 15-1929.jpg|thumb|260px|A Soviet propaganda poster disseminated in the ''Bezbozhnik'' (''Atheist'') magazine depicting [[Jesus]] being dumped from a wheelbarrow by an industrial worker as well as a smashed church [[bell]]; the text advocates Industrialisation Day as an alternative replacement to the [[Christian]] Transfiguration Day. see: [[Militant atheism]] ]]
*Religions: Religious worship was authorized by Constitution, but Marxism-Leninism, the official ideology, was militantly [[Atheism|atheistic]] (see: [[Militant atheism]]). Reliable statistics are unavailable, but about 18 percent was Russian Orthodox; 17 percent Muslim; and nearly 7 percent Roman Catholic, Protestant, Armenian Orthodox, Georgian Orthodox, and Jewish combined. Officially, most of remainder was atheist.
*Languages: Russian was the official language. Over 200 other languages and dialects were spoken, often as the primary tongue; 18 languages were spoken by groups of more than 1 million each. About 75 percent of people spoke Slavic languages.
*Education: Highly centralized school system with standardized curriculum. Attendance was compulsory through eleventh grade. Strong emphasis on training for vocations selected by central authorities. Indoctrination in Marxist-Leninist ideology at all levels. Science and technology emphasized at secondary level and above. As of 1979 census, official literacy rate 99.8 percent for persons between nine and forty-nine years old. Over 5.3 million studied at universities and institutes, nearly 50 percent part time. All education free, and in many cases students received stipends.
*Health and Welfare: Medical care by government health institutions; free, but of poor quality for general public despite having the highest number of physicians and hospital beds per capita in world. Welfare and pension programs provided, albeit marginally, for substantial segments of population.

===Population===
Seven official censuses have been taken in the Soviet Union (1920, 1926, 1939, 1959, 1970, 1979, and 1989). Both the quality and the quantity of the data have varied: in 1972 seven volumes totaling 3,238 pages were published on the 1970 census. In contrast, the results of the 1979 census were published more than five years later in a single volume of 366 pages.

According to the census of 1989, on the day of the census, January 12, the population of the Soviet Union was estimated to be 286,717,000. This figure maintained the country's long-standing position as the world's third most populous country after China and India. In the intercensal period (1979-88), the population of the Soviet Union grew from 262.4 million to 286.7 million, a 9 percent increase.

During the 1970s and early 1980s, the Soviet Union experienced declining birth rates, increasing divorce rates, a trend toward smaller nuclear families, and increasing mobility and urbanization. Major problems associated with such factors as migration, tension among nationality groups, uneven fertility rates, and high infant and adult mortality became increasingly acute, and various social programs and incentives were introduced to deal with them.

===Religion===
Over one-third of the people in the Soviet Union, an officially [[Atheism|atheistic]] state, professed religious belief. [[Christianity]] and Islam had the most believers. Christians belonged to various churches: Orthodox, which had the largest number of followers; Catholic; and Baptist and various other Protestant sects. The majority of the Islamic faithful were Sunni. Judaism also had many followers. Other religions, which were practiced by a relatively small number of believers, included Buddhism, Lamaism, and shamanism, a religion based on primitive spiritualism.

The role of religion in the daily lives of Soviet citizens varied greatly. Because Islamic religious tenets and social values of Muslims are closely interrelated, religion appeared to have a greater influence on Muslims than on either Christians or other believers. Two-thirds of the Soviet population, however, had no religious beliefs. About half the people, including members of the CPSU and high-level government officials, professed atheism. For the majority of Soviet citizens, therefore, religion seemed irrelevant.

==Government==
[[File:200px-Coat of arms of the Soviet Union.svg.png|thumbnail|200px|Coat of arms of the Soviet Union]]
:''Main article: [[Soviet Union government]]''
The Soviet Union administered the country's economy and society through decisions made by the extremely authoritarian leading political institution in the country, the [[Communist Party of the Soviet Union]] (CPSU).

In the late 1980s, the government appeared to have many characteristics in common with Western, democratic political systems. For instance, a constitution established all organs of government and granted to citizens a series of political and civic rights. A legislative body, the Congress of People's Deputies, and its standing legislature, the Supreme Soviet, represented the principle of popular sovereignty. The Supreme Soviet, which had an elected chairman who functioned as head of state, oversaw the Council of Ministers, which acted as the executive branch of the government. The chairman of the Council of Ministers, whose selection was approved by the legislative branch, functioned as head of government. A constitutionally based judicial branch of government included a court system, headed by the Supreme Court, which was responsible for overseeing the observance of Soviet law by government bodies. According to the Constitution of 1977, the government had a federal structure, permitting the republics some authority over policy implementation and offering the national minorities the appearance of participation in the management of their own affairs.

In practice, however, the government differed markedly from Western systems. In the late 1980s, the CPSU performed many functions that governments of other countries usually perform. For example, the party decided on the policy alternatives that the government ultimately implemented. The government merely ratified the party's decisions to lend them an aura of legitimacy. The CPSU used a variety of mechanisms to ensure that the government adhered to its policies. The party, using its nomenklatura authority, placed its loyalists in leadership positions throughout the government, where they were subject to the norms of [[democratic centralism]]. Party bodies closely monitored the actions of government ministries, agencies, and legislative organs.

The content of the Soviet Constitution differed in many ways from typical Western constitutions. It generally described existing political relationships, as determined by the CPSU, rather than prescribing an ideal set of political relationships. The Constitution was long and detailed, giving technical specifications for individual organs of government. The Constitution included political statements, such as foreign policy goals, and provided a theoretical definition of the state within the ideological framework of Marxism-Leninism. The CPSU could radically change the constitution or remake it completely, as it has done several times in the past.

The Council of Ministers acted as the executive body of the government. Its most important duties lay in the administration of the economy. The council was thoroughly under the control of the CPSU, and its chairman - the prime minister - was always a member of the Politburo. The council, which in 1989 included more than 100 members, is too large and unwieldy to act as a unified executive body. The council's Presidium, made up of the leading economic administrators and led by the chairman, exercised dominant power within the Council of Ministers.

According to the Constitution, as amended in 1988, the highest legislative body in the Soviet Union was the Congress of People's Deputies, which convened for the first time in May 1989. The main tasks of the congress were the election of the standing legislature, the Supreme Soviet, and the election of the chairman of the Supreme Soviet, who acted as head of state. Theoretically, the Congress of People's Deputies and the Supreme Soviet wielded enormous legislative power. In practice, however, the Congress of People's Deputies met only a few days in 1989 to approve decisions made by the party, the Council of Ministers, and its own Supreme Soviet. The Supreme Soviet, the Presidium of the Supreme Soviet, the chairman of the Supreme Soviet, and the Council of Ministers had substantial authority to enact laws, decrees, resolutions, and orders binding on the population. The Congress of People's Deputies had the authority to ratify these decisions.

The government lacked an independent judiciary. The Supreme Court supervised the lower courts and applied the law, as established by the Constitution or as interpreted by the Supreme Soviet. The Constitutional Oversight Committee reviewed the constitutionality of laws and acts. The Soviet Union lacked an [[Adversary proceeding|adversary court procedure]]. Under Soviet law, which derived from Roman law, a procurator worked together with a judge and a defense attorney to ensure that civil and criminal trials uncovered the truth of the case, rather than protecting individual rights.

The Soviet Union was a federal state made up of fifteen republics joined together in a theoretically voluntary union. In turn, a series of territorial units made up the republics. The republics also contained jurisdictions intended to protect the interests of national minorities. The republics had their own constitutions, which, along with the all-union Constitution, provide the theoretical division of power in the Soviet Union. In 1989, however, the CPSU and the central government retained all significant authority, setting policies that were executed by republic, provincial (''oblast'', ''krai'', and autonomous subdivisions), and district (''raion'') governments.

==History==
:''Main article: [[History of the Soviet Union]]''
===Lenin===
The Soviet Union was established in December 1922 by the leaders of the Russian Communist Party (Bolshevik) on territory generally corresponding to that of the old Russian Empire. A spontaneous popular uprising in Petrograd overthrew the imperial government in March 1917, leading to the formation of the Provisional Government, which intended to establish democracy in Russia. At the same time, to ensure the rights of the working class, workers' councils (''soviets'') sprang up across the country. The Bolsheviks, led by Vladimir I. Lenin, agitated for socialist revolution in the soviets and on the streets, and they seized power from the Provisional Government in November 1917. Only after the ensuing Civil War (1918-21) and foreign intervention was the new communist government secure.

From its first years, government in the Soviet Union was based on the one-party rule of the Communists, as the Bolsheviks called themselves beginning March 1918. After unsuccessfully attempting to centralize the economy during the Civil War, the Soviet government permitted some private enterprise to coexist with nationalized industry in the 1920s. Debate over the future of the economy provided the background for Soviet leaders to contend for power in the years after Lenin's death in 1924. By gradually consolidating influence and isolating his rivals within the party, [[Joseph Stalin|Joseph V. Stalin]] became the sole leader of the Soviet Union by the end of the 1920s.

===Stalin===
[[Image:Stalin-140508 27880t.jpg|right|225px|thumb|[[Joseph Stalin]], the Premier of the Soviet Union from 6 May 1941 to 5 March 1953, founded the League of Militant Atheists, whose chief aim was to propagate [[militant atheism]] and eradicate [[religion]].<ref name=Hesemann-Strieber>{{cite book|author=Michael Hesemann, Whitley Strieber|title=The Fatima Secret|url=http://books.google.com/books?id=tx-BEpkJBq8C&pg=PT107&dq=Joseph+Stalin+militant+atheism&hl=en&ei=-DeRTpLrJoPi0QHo88wi&sa=X&oi=book_result&ct=result&resnum=4&ved=0CDkQ6AEwAzgK#v=onepage&q=Joseph%20Stalin%20militant%20atheism&f=false|quote=Lenin's death in 1924 was followed by the rise of Joseph Stalin, "the man of steel," who founded the "Union of Militant Atheists," whose chief aim was to spread [[atheism]] and eradicate religion. In the following years it devastated hundreds of churches, destroyed old icons and relics, and persecuted the clergy with unimaginable brutality.|publisher=Random House Digital, Inc.|date=2000|accessdate=09 October 2011}}</ref> See also: [[Atheism]] ]]
In 1928 [[Joseph Stalin]] introduced the First Five-Year Plan for building a socialist economy. In industry, the state assumed control over all existing enterprises and undertook an intensive program of industrialization; in agriculture, the state appropriated the peasants' property to establish collective farms. These sweeping economic innovations produced widespread misery, and millions of peasants perished during forced collectivization. Social upheaval continued in the mid-1930s when Stalin began a purge of the party; out of this purge grew a campaign of terror that led to the execution or imprisonment of untold millions of people from all walks of life. Yet despite this turmoil, the Soviet Union developed a powerful industrial economy in the years before World War II.

===World War II===
Stalin tried to divide up Eastern Europe with Germany by concluding the Nazi-Soviet Nonaggression Pact with Adolf Hitler in 1939. The USSR took over the Baltics (Latvia, Lithuania and Estonia) and the eastern half of Poland, while going to war with [Finland]]. Communists across the world ended their diatribes against fascism, while Stalin provided the German war machine with supplies of oil and grain. Europe was not big enough for two dictators, so in June 1941 Germany invaded the Soviet Union. The U.S. and Britain formed an alliance with Stalin to fight the Nazis, and poured in [[Lend Lease]] aid. After many humiliating defeats and the loss of three mission soldiers, the Red Army finally stopped the Nazi offensive at the Battle of Stalingrad in 1942-43 and then overran much of eastern Europe before Germany surrendered in 1945. Although severely ravaged in the war, the Soviet Union emerged from the conflict as one of the world's great powers.
===Cold War===
During the immediate postwar period, the Soviet Union first rebuilt and then expanded its economy, using resourcs stripped from defeated Germany. The Red Army imposed Communist political control over postwar Eastern Europe, except for Yugoslavia and Albania. The active Soviet foreign policy helped bring about the [[Cold War]], starting about 1947, which turned its wartime allies, Britain and the United States, into foes. Within the Soviet Union, repressive measures continued in force; Stalin apparently was about to launch a new purge when he died in 1953.
===Khrushchev===
[[File:Nikita Krushchev.jpg|thumb|200px|[[Nikita Khrushchev]] liked to threaten and bully, often using "brinkmanship" (the threat of nuclear weapons); ''Time'' Sept. 8, 1961]]

see: [[Nikita Khrushchev]]

After three years of a join leadership, [[Nikita Khrushchev]] seized power, denounced Stalin's use of terror and effectively reduced repressive controls over party and society. Khrushchev's reforms in agriculture and administration, however, were generally unproductive, and foreign policy toward China and the United States suffered reverses. Khrushchev's colleagues in the leadership removed him from power in 1964.

===Brezhnev ===
Following the ouster of Khrushchev, another period of rule by collective leadership ensued, which lasted until [[Leonid Brezhnev|Leonid I. Brezhnev]] established himself in the early 1970s as the preeminent figure in Soviet political life. Brezhnev presided over a period of détente with the West while at the same time building up Soviet military strength; the arms buildup contributed to the demise of [[détente]] in the late 1970s. Also contributing to the end of détente was the [[Soviet-Afghan War|Soviet invasion of Afghanistan]] in December 1979.

After some experimentation with economic reforms in the mid-1960s, the Soviet leadership reverted to established means of economic management. Industry showed slow but steady gains during the 1970s, while agricultural development continued to lag. In contrast to the revolutionary spirit that accompanied the birth of the Soviet Union, the prevailing mood of the Soviet leadership at the time of Brezhnev's death in 1982 was one of cautious conservatism and aversion to change. Brezhnev was succeeded by former KGB head Yuri Andropov.

===Reagan challenge===
Friction with the west continued in the 1980's, especially with the United States and its new president, [[Ronald Reagan]], who saw the Soviet Union for what it was and branded it an "evil empire," partially in response to the Afghanistan occupation. Reagan negotiated with West Germany to provide sites for the basing of Pershing II medium-range ballistic missiles, which was bitterly opposed by Moscow. A short period of confrontation existed between the two superpowers during the period of late-1983 through 1984, beginning with the tragic Soviet attack on a commercial airliner, [[Korean Airlines Flight 007]], over international waters near Sakhalin Island on September 1, 1983, and killing 269 civilians, including a sitting U.S. Congressman, [[Larry McDonald]]; this was followed by events within a military exercise known as Able Archer, in which a falling satellite was mistaken for an incoming ICBM and almost triggered a major war. Reagan's [[Strategic Defense Initiative]], a space-based missile defense system critics derisively dubbed "Star Wars" as well as his expansion of the United States military, also prompted a new, expensive arms race.

Andropov and his successor, Konstantin Chernenko, kept the communist system under Brezhnev intact, but upon Chernenko's death [[Mikhail Gorbachev]] became party chairman.

===Gorbachev and the end of Communism===
see [[Mikhail Gorbachev]]

A reformer, he introduced a series of economic and political reforms known as ''[[glasnost]]'' ("openess") and ''[[perestroika]]'' ("restructuring"), which began to creak open the doors of the Soviet's closed system. A failed attempt to reign in the three [[Baltic States]] in 1989 led to a domino-effect of [[Warsaw Pact]] countries abandoning communism; a coup attempt against Gorbachev in 1991 by hard-liners trying to keep their tattering empire ended within days. The USSR was formally dissolved on Christmas day 1991 by [[Boris Yeltsin]], freeing many from its tyranny. The main successor state to the Soviet Union is [[Russia]]; the effort to form a "Commonwealth of Independent States" went nowhere, and the 15 republics of the USSR are now independent states.

==See Also==
*[[Communist Party of the Soviet Union]]
*[[Soviet Union government]]
*[[Nazi Germany]]
*[[Korean Airlines Flight 007]]
*[[KAL 007: the Russian Federation support for a water landing]] The Soviet Staff and military communications evidence
*[[Soviet Officers of KAL 007 Shootdown]]
*[[KAL 007: Soviet stalk, shoot down, and rescue mission orders transcripts]]
*[[KAL 007: Timeline of Interception and Shootdown]]
*[[Anatoly Kornukov]]
*[[The Soviet/ U.S naval confrontation]]
*[[KAL 007 and the Soviet Top Secret Memos]]

==Bibliography==
===Surveys===
* Brzezinski, Zbigniew. ''Grand Failure: The Birth and Death of Communism in the Twentieth Century'' (1990)
* Ingram, Philip. ''Russia and the USSR, 1905-1991'' (1997) [http://www.amazon.com/Russia-1905-1991-Cambridge-History-Programme/dp/0521568676/ref=pd_bbs_sr_2?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1232394134&sr=8-2 excerpt and text search]
* Keep, John L. H. ''Last of the Empires: A History of the Soviet Union, 1945-1991'' (1996) [http://www.questia.com/read/25055927?title=Last%20of%20the%20Empires%3a%20A%20History%20of%20the%20Soviet%20Union%2c%201945-1991 online edition]
* McCauley, Martin. ''The Soviet Union: 1917-1991'' (1993) [http://www.questia.com/PM.qst?a=o&d=54365219 online edition]
* McCauley, Martin. ''Who's Who in Russia since 1900,'' (1997) [http://www.questia.com/read/103052094?title=Who's%20Who%20in%20Russia%20since%201900 online edition]
* Malia, Martin. ''Soviet Tragedy: A History of Socialism in Russia'' (1995) [http://www.amazon.com/Soviet-Tragedy-History-Socialism-Russia/dp/0684823136/ref=sr_1_2?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1232396454&sr=1-2 excerpt and text search]
* Nove, Alec. ''An Economic History of the USSR 1917-1991'' (3rd ed. 1993)
* Pipes, Richard. ''Communism: A History'' (2003), by a leading conservative
* Suny, Ronald Grigor. ''The Soviet Experiment: Russia, the USSR, and the Successor States.'' (1998) [http://www.questia.com/PM.qst?a=o&d=24265044# online edition]
===Lenin and Stalin===
* Bullock, Alan. ''Hitler and Stalin: Parallel Lives'' (1992), a double biography covering each man in separate but parallel chapters
* Lee, Stephen J. ''Stalin and the Soviet Union'' (1999) [http://www.questia.com/read/108215209?title=Stalin%20and%20the%20Soviet%20Union online edition]
* McCauley, Martin. ''Stalin and Stalinism'' (3rd ed 2003), 172pp
* Service, Robert. ''Stalin: A Biography'' (2004), along with Tucker the standard biography
* Service, Robert. ''Lenin: A Biography'' (2002)
* Tucker, Robert C. ''Stalin as Revolutionary, 1879-1929'' (1973); ''Stalin in Power: The Revolution from Above, 1929-1941.'' (1990) [http://www.questia.com/PM.qst?a=o&d=103246514 online edition] with Service, a standard biography; [http://www.historyebook.org/ online at ACLS e-books]
* Ulam, A. B. ''Stalin'' (1973), good older biography; replaced by Tucker and Service
* Wood, Alan. ''Stalin and Stalinism'', (2004), 105pp [http://www.questia.com/PM.qst?a=o&d=108863368 online edition]
===Peoples, society, culture===
* Cole, J. P. ''Geography of the Soviet Union'' (1984) [http://www.questia.com/read/7724372?title=Geography%20of%20the%20Soviet%20Union online edition]
* Davis, Nathaniel. ''A Long Walk to Church: A Contemporary History of Russian Orthodoxy'' (1995) [http://www.questia.com/read/30537968?title=A%20Long%20Walk%20to%20Church%3a%20A%20Contemporary%20History%20of%20Russian%20Orthodoxy online edition]
* Denber, Rachel. ''The Soviet Nationality Reader: The Disintegration in Context'' (1992) [http://www.questia.com/read/97474829?title=The%20Soviet%20Nationality%20Reader%3a%20The%20Disintegration%20in%20Context online edition]
* Lane, David. ''Soviet Society under Perestroika'' (1992) [http://www.questia.com/read/103443652?title=Soviet%20Society%20under%20Perestroika online edition]
* Lapidus, Gail Warshofsky. ''Women, Work, and Family in the Soviet Union'' (1982) [http://www.questia.com/read/106056669?title=Women%2c%20Work%2c%20and%20Family%20in%20the%20Soviet%20Union online edition]
* Lutz, Wolfgang Lutz, Sergei Scherbov, Andrei Volkov. ''Demographic Trends and Patterns in the Soviet Union before 1991'' (1994) [http://www.questia.com/read/103849492?title=Demographic%20Trends%20and%20Patterns%20in%20the%20Soviet%20Union%20before%201991 online edition]
* Wixman, Ronald. ''The Peoples of the USSR: An Ethnographic Handbook'' (1984) [http://www.questia.com/read/582240?title=The%20Peoples%20of%20the%20USSR%3a%20An%20Ethnographic%20Handbook online edition]

===1918-1939===
* Daniels, R. V., ed. ''The Stalin Revolution'' (1965)
* Davies, Sarah, and James Harris, eds. ''Stalin: A New History,'' (2006), 310pp, 14 specialized essays by scholars [http://www.amazon.com/Stalin-New-History-Sarah-Davies/dp/0521616530/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1201494353&sr=8-1 excerpt and text search]
* De Jonge, Alex. ''Stalin and the Shaping of the Soviet Union'' (1986)
* Fitzpatrick, Sheila, ed. ''Stalinism: New Directions,'' (1999), 396pp excerpts from many scholars on the impact of Stalinism on the people (little on Stalin himself) [http://www.questia.com/PM.qst?a=o&d=109468478 online edition]
* Hoffmann, David L. ed. ''Stalinism: The Essential Readings,'' (2002) essays by 12 scholars
* Pipes, Richard. ''A Concise History of the Russian Revolution'' (1996) [http://www.amazon.com/Concise-History-Russian-Revolution/dp/0679745440/ref=pd_bbs_sr_1?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1232393501&sr=8-1 excerpt and text search], by a leading conservative
* Tucker, Robert. ''Stalinism: Essays in Historical Interpretation'' (1998) [http://www.amazon.com/Stalinism-Historical-Interpretation-Robert-Tucker/dp/0765804832/ref=sr_1_12/103-4827826-5463040?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1193876953&sr=1-12 excerpt and text search]

===[[Gulag]] and Terror===
* Applebaum, Anne. ''Gulag: A History.'' 2003. 736 pp. [http://www.amazon.com/Gulag-History-ANNE-APPLEBAUM/dp/B0007NMYPY/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1201494284&sr=8-1 excerpt and text search]
* Conquest, Robert. ''The Great Terror: A Reassessment'' (1991) [http://www.questia.com/read/79044140?title=The%20Great%20Terror%3a%20A%20Reassessment online edition]
* Pohl, J. Otto. ''Ethnic Cleansing in the USSR, 1937-1949'' (1999) [http://www.questia.com/read/9465022?title=Ethnic%20Cleansing%20in%20the%20USSR%2c%201937-1949 online edition]
* Rosefielde, Steven. "Stalinism in Post-Communist Perspective: New Evidence on Killings, Forced Labour and Economic Growth in the 1930s" ''Europe-Asia Studies,'' Vol. 48, No. 6 (Sep., 1996), pp. 959-987 [http://links.jstor.org/sici?sici=0966-8136(199609)48%3A6%3C959%3ASIPPNE%3E2.0.CO%3B2-V in JSTOR]

===World War II===
* Brandon, Ray, and Wendy Lower, eds. ''The Shoah in Ukraine: History, Testimony, Memorialization.'' (2008). 378 pp. [http://www.h-net.org/reviews/showrev.php?id=24078 online review], on the Holocaust
* Broekmeyer, Marius. ''Stalin, the Russians, and Their War, 1941-1945.'' 2004. 315 pp.
* Overy, Richard. ''The Dictators: Hitler's Germany and Stalin's Russia.'' 2004. 448 pp. focus on 1930-45 [http://www.amazon.com/Dictators-Hitlers-Germany-Stalins-Russia/dp/B000FTCH5W/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1201494219&sr=8-1 excerpt and text search]
* Priestland, David. ''Stalinism and the Politics of Mobilization'' (2007) [http://www.amazon.com/Stalinism-Politics-Mobilization-David-Priestland/dp/0199245134/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1201494105&sr=8-1 excerpt and text search]
* Roberts, Geoffrey. ''Stalin's Wars: From World War to Cold War, 1939–1953'' (2006).

===Cold War===
* see [[Cold War]]
* Craig, Campbell, and Yuri Smirnov. ''Truman, Stalin, and the Bomb'' (2008)
* Gaddis, John. ''A New History of the Cold War'' (2006)
* Holloway, David. ''Stalin and the Bomb: The Soviet Union and Atomic Energy, 1939-1956'' (1996) [http://www.amazon.com/Stalin-Bomb-Soviet-Atomic-1939-1956/dp/0300066643/ref=pd_bbs_sr_1/103-4827826-5463040?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1193876689&sr=8-1 excerpt and text search]
* Mastny, Vojtech. ''The Cold War and Soviet Insecurity: The Stalin Years'' (1998) [http://www.questia.com/PM.qst?a=o&d=98422373 online edition] [http://www.historyebook.org/ online at ACLS e-books]
* Zubok, Vladislav M. ''A Failed Empire: The Soviet Union in the Cold War from Stalin to Gorbachev'' (2007) [http://www.amazon.com/Failed-Empire-Soviet-Gorbachev-History/dp/0807859583/ref=pd_bbs_sr_5?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1232393695&sr=8-5 excerpt and text search]
===Khruschev, Gorbachev===
* Brown, Archie. ''The Gorbachev Factor'' (1996) [http://www.questia.com/read/109878423?title=The%20Gorbachev%20Factor online edition]
* Dallin, Alexander, and Gail W. Lapidus. ''The Soviet System: From Crisis to Collapse'' (1995) [http://www.questia.com/read/100838053?title=The%20Soviet%20System%3a%20From%20Crisis%20to%20Collapse online edition]
* Matlock, Jack. ''Reagan and Gorbachev: How the Cold War Ended'' (2005), by leading conservative [http://www.amazon.com/Reagan-Gorbachev-How-Cold-Ended/dp/0812974891/ref=pd_bbs_sr_3?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1232393695&sr=8-3 excerpt and text search]
* Taubman, William. ''Khrushchev: The Man and His Era'' (2004) [http://www.amazon.com/Khrushchev-Man-His-William-Taubman/dp/0393324842/ref=pd_bbs_sr_1?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1232393626&sr=8-1 excerpt and text search]
* Zubok, Vladislav M. ''A Failed Empire: The Soviet Union in the Cold War from Stalin to Gorbachev'' (2007) [http://www.amazon.com/Failed-Empire-Soviet-Gorbachev-History/dp/0807859583/ref=pd_bbs_sr_5?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1232393695&sr=8-5 excerpt and text search]

==References==
<references/>

==External links==
*[http://lcweb2.loc.gov/frd/cs/sutoc.html Library of Congress detailed country study on the Soviet Union]
*[http://www.ibiblio.org/expo/soviet.exhibit/intro2.html The Soviet Union and the United States]
*State Defense Committee Decree No. 5859ss [http://www.loc.gov/exhibits/archives/l2tartar.html "On the Crimean Tatars"], The Kremlin, May 11, 1944.

[[category:Russian History]]
[[Category:Former Countries]]
[[Category:Warsaw Pact Members]]
[[Category:Communist States]]
[[Category:Cold War]]
[[Category:Totalitarianism]]

Gordon Brown

2012-12-04T20:57:53Z

NewcastleUnitedFC:

{{Prime Minister
|image=Gordon Brown.jpg
|seq=74
|term_start=June 27 2007
|term_end=May 11 2010
|previous=Tony Blair
|next=David Cameron
|party=Labour Party
|birth_date=February 20 1951 (aged 57)
|birth_place=Glasgow
|spouse=Sarah Brown
|religion=[[Church of Scotland]]
}}
'''Dr. James Gordon Brown''', generally known as '''Gordon Brown''', is the former [[Prime Minister]] of the [[United Kingdom]] and former leader of the British [[Labour Party]]. He succeeded [[Tony Blair]] in these positions in June 2007.

A Scottish [[Labour Party|Labour]] politician, Brown served as Britain's [[Chancellor of the Exchequer]] for ten years. His mutual enmity with former Prime Minister Blair was a consistent feature of British political life for a number of years.

In Britain, Brown is seen as being a more sombre, sober and serious figure in contrast to Tony Blair, who is regarded as charismatic and has at times been perceived as lightweight and as an overly "slick" media performer (not unlike [[Bill Clinton]]). This resonates with a stereotype that many English people have of Scottish people being humorless and dour. Brown's father was a Minister in the [[Presbyterianism|Presbyterian]] [[Church of Scotland]], and it is thought that Brown's religious beliefs have influenced his serious, sober style. On the negative side, some believe that he is insufficiently likeable and sunny to appeal to voters. He has also been criticized for secretiveness, control-freakery and an awkward personal style. However, his communication skills, especially reading from autocues and being interviewed under bright lights in television studios, may be adversely affected by the fact that his eyesight is extremely poor. He is blind in one eye and his vision in the other is weak, owing to a sporting injury sustained when he was a teenager.

Brown was one of the longest serving Chancellors in history, and took credit for the consistently healthy state of the British economy during his tenure - credit which many are reassessing in light of the current (as of October 2008) perilous condition of the British economy. He is a passionate advocate of reducing poverty in the [[Third World]]. He has made speeches in which he has praised the concept of "Britishness" and suggested that the British should display the British flag outside their houses, as many Americans do with the US flag. However, his patriotic convictions are expected to have consequences in foreign policy which are arguably negative: it is widely believed that he will be zealous in defending British interests (narrowly defined), but that he will neglect broader elements of Tony Blair's foreign policy such as support for the United States and the [[War on Terror]].

During Brown's tenure as Chancellor, the UK enjoyed sustained economic growth and generally positive reports from the [[International Monetary Fund]], although there were concerns at extreme inflationary pressures in the housing market. These concerns were more than borne out by the collapse in the housing market and credit crunch of 2007-2008.

Brown followed a generally redistributionary policy, increasing spending in the [[National Health Service]] and [[education]], and giving tax breaks to some poorer families whilst significantly increasing taxes on many others. His most significant achievement in the early days of the Labour Government was to grant fiscal independence to the Bank of England.

Just two days after the Brown ministry began, Islamic terrorists initiated several [[June 2007 UK terror attacks|attempted attacks]] against the UK, consisting of two car bombs in [[London]] on June 29 and a suicide-bomb attack at Glasgow International Airport on June 30.

By the Fall of 2008, Brown's premiership was increasingly seen as catastrophic by the country as a whole and his own party. Labour's opinion poll ratings dropped to historic lows, with widepread predictions of a Conservative landslide at the next General Election. The events of early October 2008, gained him new respect, though not necessarily popularity, as he exercised cool, firm international leadership in the midst of the banking crisis. Opinion polls show that Brown's popularity is significantly lower than that of his main opponent, [[David Cameron]], it is also alleged that he caused the "Credit crunch", the recession where the UK,supposedly owes more then HALF of their GDP, but local people say that no-one knows who we owe it to.

He has been married to Sarah since 2000. They have a daughter (deceased) and two sons.

==See also==

* [[British politics]]
* [[Labour Party]]

==References==

http://www.imf.org/external/country/GBR/index.htm

{{DEFAULTSORT:Brown, Gordon}}
[[Category:Presbyterians]]
[[Category:Scottish People|Brown, Gordon]]
[[Category:United Kingdom Prime Ministers|Brown, Gordon]]

Gordon Brown

2012-12-04T20:56:44Z

NewcastleUnitedFC:

{{Prime Minister
|image=Gordon Brown.jpg
|seq=74
|term_start=June 27 2007
|term_end=May 11 2010
|previous=Tony Blair
|next=David Cameron
|party=Labour Party
|birth_date=February 20 1951 (aged 57)
|birth_place=Glasgow
|spouse=Sarah Brown
|religion=[[Church of Scotland]]
}}
'''Dr. James Gordon Brown''', generally known as '''Gordon Brown''', is the former [[Prime Minister]] of the [[United Kingdom]] and former leader of the British [[Labour Party]]. He succeeded [[Tony Blair]] in these positions in June 2007.

A Scottish [[Labour Party|Labour]] politician, Brown served as Britain's [[Chancellor of the Exchequer]] for ten years. His mutual enmity with former Prime Minister Blair was a consistent feature of British political life for a number of years.

In Britain, Brown is seen as being a more sombre, sober and serious figure in contrast to Tony Blair, who is regarded as charismatic and has at times been perceived as lightweight and as an overly "slick" media performer (not unlike [[Bill Clinton]]). This resonates with a stereotype that many English people have of Scottish people being humorless and dour. Brown's father was a Minister in the [[Presbyterianism|Presbyterian]] [[Church of Scotland]], and it is thought that Brown's religious beliefs have influenced his serious, sober style. On the negative side, some believe that he is insufficiently likeable and sunny to appeal to voters. He has also been criticized for secretiveness, control-freakery and an awkward personal style. However, his communication skills, especially reading from autocues and being interviewed under bright lights in television studios, may be adversely affected by the fact that his eyesight is extremely poor. He is blind in one eye and his vision in the other is weak, owing to a sporting injury sustained when he was a teenager.

Brown was one of the longest serving Chancellors in history, and took credit for the consistently healthy state of the British economy during his tenure - credit which many are reassessing in light of the current (as of October 2008) perilous condition of the British economy. He is a passionate advocate of reducing poverty in the [[Third World]]. He has made speeches in which he has praised the concept of "Britishness" and suggested that the British should display the British flag outside their houses, as many Americans do with the US flag. However, his patriotic convictions are expected to have consequences in foreign policy which are arguably negative: it is widely believed that he will be zealous in defending British interests (narrowly defined), but that he will neglect broader elements of Tony Blair's foreign policy such as support for the United States and the [[War on Terror]].

During Brown's tenure as Chancellor, the UK enjoyed sustained economic growth and generally positive reports from the [[International Monetary Fund]], although there were concerns at extreme inflationary pressures in the housing market. These concerns were more than borne out by the collapse in the housing market and credit crunch of 2007-2008.

Brown followed a generally redistributionary policy, increasing spending in the [[National Health Service]] and [[education]], and giving tax breaks to some poorer families whilst significantly increasing taxes on many others. His most significant achievement in the early days of the Labour Government was to grant fiscal independence to the Bank of England.

Just two days after the Brown ministry began, Islamic terrorists initiated several [[June 2007 UK terror attacks|attempted attacks]] against the UK, consisting of two car bombs in [[London]] on June 29 and a suicide-bomb attack at Glasgow International Airport on June 30.

By the Fall of 2008, Brown's premiership was increasingly seen as catastrophic by the country as a whole and his own party. Labour's opinion poll ratings dropped to historic lows, with widepread predictions of a Conservative landslide at the next General Election. The events of early October 2008, gained him new respect, though not necessarily popularity, as he exercised cool, firm international leadership in the midst of the banking crisis. Opinion polls show that Brown's popularity is significantly lower than that of his main opponent, [[David Cameron]], it is also alleged that he caused the "Credit Crunch", the recession where the UK owes HALF of their GDP, but people say that no-one knows who we owe it to,

He has been married to Sarah since 2000. They have a daughter (deceased) and two sons.

==See also==

* [[British politics]]
* [[Labour Party]]

==References==

http://www.imf.org/external/country/GBR/index.htm

{{DEFAULTSORT:Brown, Gordon}}
[[Category:Presbyterians]]
[[Category:Scottish People|Brown, Gordon]]
[[Category:United Kingdom Prime Ministers|Brown, Gordon]]

Sunderland

2012-12-04T20:39:53Z

NewcastleUnitedFC:

'''Sunderland''' is a port city on the north-east coast of [[England]], formerly famous as a shipbuilding and coal exporting center, and now for the manufacture of motor vehicles for Nissan. The city's motto is ''Nil Desperandum Auspice Deo'' (Don't Despair, Trust In God.)<ref>[http://www.durhamfreemasons.org/sunderland4114/3_history.htm]</ref> The people of Sunderland are sometimes known as ''Mackems''.
There is a problem with rising prostitution, illegal drug trade, and porn industries.
Sunderland is home to a university, a Premier League football team, and the National Centre for Glass. This last is in recognition of Sunderland's long history of glass manufacture.

===Reference===
<references/>
[[Category:United Kingdom Cities and Towns]]

Sunderland

2012-12-04T20:39:18Z

NewcastleUnitedFC:

'''Sunderland''' is a port city on the north-east coast of [[England]], formerly famous as a shipbuilding and coal exporting center, and now for the manufacture of motor vehicles for Nissan. The city's motto is ''Nil Desperandum Auspice Deo'' (Don't Despair, Trust In God.)<ref>[http://www.durhamfreemasons.org/sunderland4114/3_history.htm]</ref> The people of Sunderland are sometimes known as ''Mackems''.
There is a problem with rising prostitution, illegal drug trade, and porn industry.
Sunderland is home to a university, a Premier League football team, and the National Centre for Glass. This last is in recognition of Sunderland's long history of glass manufacture.

===Reference===
<references/>
[[Category:United Kingdom Cities and Towns]]

British politics

2012-12-04T20:35:59Z

NewcastleUnitedFC: /* Labour */

'''British politics''' take place within the context of a democratic [[parliamentary]] system dominated by three major parties. Currently, there is a coalition government between the Conservative Party and the Liberal Democrats

The political culture of the UK tends to be more liberal than that of the United States, but less so than that of many other European nations. [[File:Brit-history.jpg|thumb|250px]]

==Institutions==
===Parliament===

''See also [[Parliament]]''

The cornerstone of the uncodified British [[constitution]] is ''Parliamentary supremacy'', or ''Parliamentary sovereignty''.

Britain is one of a small number of nations without a codified constitution, and the British legislature, ''Parliament'', is free to legislate however it pleases. In British law, the only authority higher than parliamentary legislation is the law of the [[European Union]], and Britain is subject to EU law only by virtue of the fact that Parliament has chosen to accept it.

Parliament consists of the Queen, the [[House of Lords]] and the [[House of Commons (UK)|House of Commons]]. The Queen today takes no part in active politics (the last time that a monarch refused to ratify a law passed by the Lords and Commons was in 1714). While the House of Lords is considered to be the more prestigious chamber, the Commons is dominant by virtue of the fact that its members are elected rather than appointed. The Lords can only delay rather than veto legislation, though the Commons rarely chooses to push through laws against the Lords' wishes (it has done so only five times since the Lords' absolute veto was removed in 1911).

Reform of the House of Lords is a current political issue in the UK. The House of Commons has resolved to make it more democratic, so that 80% or 100% of its members are elected rather than appointed.

===The Executive===

The British Government operates in the name of the Queen (or the "Crown"), but power lies in practice with the '''Prime Minister''' and his '''Cabinet'''. The British Prime Minister has one of the most powerful roles of any democratic head of government or head of state (though some, like the French President, have similar or more extensive powers).

Contrary to popular opinion, the British Prime Minister can be of any religion - for example, Iain Duncan-Smith, a Catholic, was made leader of the Conservative Party while in opposition which would have made him Prime Minister had the party won a general election at that time. In addition, [[Margaret Thatcher]] was a Methodist rather than an Anglican. Not many British political commentators make any mention of religion, and religion is not considered a major deciding factor in elections. The faith or denominations of party leaders is not well known.

The only relevant legislation that exists demands that the Monarch not be Catholic, and the Anglican coronation and automatic incumbency to the position of Supreme Governor of the Church of England ensure that the Sovereign is Anglican; however, the now defunct position of advising the monarch on ecclesiastical affairs could have fallen to any member of the cabinet. No legislation exists which regulates the religion of the Prime Minister or any other member of parliament.

== Devolution ==

{| class="wikitable"
|- bgcolor=cccccc
! Nation/Region || Legislature || Executive || Leader(s)
|-
| '''[[Scotland]]''' || [[Scottish Parliament]] || Scottish Government || First Minister
|-
| '''[[Wales]]''' || National Assembly for Wales || Welsh Assembly Government || First Minister
|-
| '''[[Northern Ireland]]''' || Northern Ireland Assembly || Northern Ireland Executive || First Minister and Deputy First Minister1
|-
| '''[[London|Greater London]]''' || London Assembly|| Mayor of London || Mayor of London
|}


1 Northern Ireland is a dyarchy in which both leaders are regarded as equal.


==Local government==

Each locality in the UK has its own '''local authority''': there are '''councils''' of various sorts, as well as a number of elected '''mayors''' (most notably in London, whose current mayor is the sometimes controversial Conservative politician [[Boris Johnson]]). The powers of local authorities have been seen as declining for many years, however one of the main aims of the new coalition government is to reverse this. Local authorities can pass 'bylaws', secondary delegated legislation that can regulate planning and other local areas.

It should be noted that most mayors in Britain are relatively powerless officials who serve as mere figureheads, in a similar way to the Monarch, as the power is with the local council, of which the mayor is the leader. However, a number of cities, such as London, have powerful mayors with a full executive role.

==Parties==

The British political spectrum has historically been dominated by the '''[[Labour Party]]''' on the left, the '''[[Conservative Party]]''' on the right, and the '''Liberal Party''' (now the [[Liberal Democrats]]) in the centre between them ("liberal" in British political terminology is often used to mean "centrist" or "moderate", rather than "left-wing"). In theory, these parties represent the three main political ideologies; liberal, conservative and socialist, but recently, there has been a perception that the main parties are crowding together on the centre ground. In the 1990s, Labour moved decisively away from the traditional left (angering many of its more traditionally-minded supporters), to the point where it was perceived by many as being less left-wing than the Liberal Democrats. Since the advent of [[David Cameron]] as its leader in 2005, the Conservative Party has moved away from the territory of the traditional right (in this case too, angering many of its more strongly conservative or [[Thatcherism|Thatcherite]] supporters).

===Labour===
see also [[Labour Party]]

The [[Labour Party]] is currently the main opposition party in the UK and is led by [[Ed Miliband]]. It is also the largest party in the Welsh legislature and the second-largest party in the Scottish Parliament.

Following its defeat by Margaret Thatcher's Conservatives in 1979, the Labour Party adopted a strongly left-wing, communistic program. Following a catastrophic defeat in the 1983 general election, more moderate politicians took charge of Labour and slowly moved it closer to the centre ground of British politics, a process started by [[Neil Kinnock]] in the mid-1980s and carried forward enthusiastically by [[Tony Blair]] after his election as leader in 1994. Many more traditional, left-wing Labour supporters see Tony Blair as an usurper whose policies are too right-wing for comfort. This has been the case in particular following the Iraq War.

Blair's policies were arguably a mixture of left (e.g. higher taxes, higher government spending, greater integration with the European Union, equal rights for gay people) and right (e.g. pro-market reforms in the public services, retention of Lady Thatcher's labour laws, support for the [[War on Terror]] and [[George W. Bush]]'s foreign policies). His successor [[Gordon Brown]], once a close ally of Blair, has spoken out against the idea of the party shifting back to the left. Gordon Brown and Tony Blair were both seen as modernists within the Labour Party before they were elected to power in 1997.

===Conservatives===
* Also See: [[Conservative Party]]
British conservatism has traditionally been a moderate, non-ideological creed: its heroes include such pragmatic figures as [[Edmund Burke]] in the eighteenth century and Sir [[Robert Peel]] and [[Benjamin Disraeli]] in the nineteenth century. These figures contrasted with contemporary conservatives from other European countries such as the French thinker [[Joseph de Maistre]], who were often strong, ideologically-minded supporters of absolute monarchy and Roman Catholicism.

The Conservative Party became more ideologically conservative during the leadership of [[Margaret Thatcher]] (1975-1990). Since Lady Thatcher resigned in 1990, the strongly conservative element within the party has been more or less eclipsed. It had some influence in the 1990s during the leadership of Sir John Major (1990-1997), but the current Conservative leader, [[David Cameron]], has moved decisively away from "Thatcherism". This has caused dismay to many Conservative activists. It is often argued that this move has greatly increased the popularity and [[electability]] of the Conservative Party; however Margaret Thatcher achieved three solid general election victories while Cameron has been forced to form a coalition with the leftist Liberal Democrats after failing to win an absolute majority.

===Liberal Democrats===

The Liberal Democrats (or "Lib Dems") were formed in 1988 by the merger of the old centrist Liberal Party with the centre-left Social Democratic Party (SDP). They have long advocated disestablishing the [[Church of England]], and their current leader is [[Nick Clegg]], who has publicly said he is "not an active believer" in God, but claims to be "open-minded" about religion, has married a Catholic and is bringing his children up as Catholics.<ref>''Nick Clegg is a believer in families, not God'' [http://www.timesonline.co.uk/tol/news/politics/article3076044.ece Times Online]</ref>

The Liberal Democrats are divided between a relatively left-wing faction (to which the former leaders Sir Menzies Campbell and Charles Kennedy belong), which has taken positions to the left of the Labour Party on a number of issues, and a more right-wing, pro-[[free market]] faction to which the present leader belongs (several of whose members contributed to a controversial collection of essays published in 2004 called ''The Orange Book''). Despite the range of view on economic issues, the party is consistently liberal, even libertarian, on social issues. The Liberal Democrats are strong advocates of anti-discrimination laws.

=== Scotland ===
The largest party in the [[Scottish Parliament]] is the '''[[Scottish National Party]]'''. Among other policies it advocates a greater level of independence for Scotland.

=== Wales ===
There is also a Welsh nationalist party, called '''Plaid Cymru''', or simply '''Plaid''', which currently in coalition with Labour has control of the [[Welsh Assembly]].

=== Northern Ireland ===
Northern Ireland has a number of political parties:
* '''[[Democratic Unionist Party]]''' - strongly Unionist
* '''[[Sinn Fein]]''' - strongly Irish-Nationalist ("Republican")
* '''[[Ulster Unionist Party]]''' - moderately Unionist
* '''[[Social Democratic and Labour Party]]''' - moderately Irish-Nationalist

===Minor parties===
There are several other minor British parties worthy of mention:
* The '''[[UK Independence Party]]''' advocates the withdrawal of Britain from the [[European Union]] and other more strongly conservative policies than those supported by the official Conservative Party.
* The '''[[Green Party (UK)|Green Party]]''' is a left-wing party that advocates major constraints on economic activity in order to prevent alleged anthropogenic global warming.
* '''[[RESPECT Party|Respect]]''' is a strongly far-left, socialist party led by the maverick ex-Labour politician [[George Galloway]].
* The '''[[British National Party]]''' is generally seen as an extreme [[national socialist]] or fascist party. It advocates the repatriation of non-white people from the UK to the countries of their or their families' origin.
*The [[Monster raving loony party|Monster Raving Loony Party]] is a 'joke' party, which however often receives significant numbers of [[protest vote]]s especially in high-profile [[by-election]]s (which may attract a large number, sometimes dozens, of other not entirely serious candidates).

==References==
<references/>
[[Category:British Politics]]
[[Category:British History]]