2. Countries of the former U.S.S.R.
Armenia Russia
Azerbaijan Tajikistan
Belarus Turkmenistan
Estonia Ukraine
Georgia
Uzbekistan
Kazakhstan
Kyrgyzstan
Latvia
Lithuania
Moldova
3. U.S.S.R.- Statistics
Location: Northern Eurasia, stretching from
the Eastern half of Europe to the Eastern part of
Asia.
Capital: Moscow
Official name: Union of Soviet Socialist Republics;
abbreviated as U.S.S.R. or USSR; informal names
Soviet Union and Russia.
Official language: Russian
Established: Saturday, December 30, 1922
Dissolved: Thursday, December 26, 1991
4. U.S.S.R. - Leaders
Leader: Native country:
Vladimir Lenin (1917-1922) Russia
Joseph Stalin (1922-1953) Georgia
Nikita Khrushchev (1953- Ukraine
1964)
Leonid Brezhnev (1964- Ukraine
1982)
Yuri Andropov (1982-1984)
Russia
Constantine Chernenko
Russia
(1984-1985)
Russia
Mikhail Gorbachev (1985-
1991)
5. U.S.S.R. – Satellite nations
Country Year of Russian invasion
Yugoslavia 1943
Poland 1944
Albania 1946
Bulgaria 1946
Hungary 1947
Romania 1947
Czechoslovakia 1948
East Germany 1949
6. Timeline of events
1917: February and October (dated November 1936-1938: Stalin arrests and kills the country’s
in Russian Calendar) revolutions lead to peasants, marking the Great Purge.
overthrow of Czar Nicholas II and victory for 1938: Germany de facto annexes Austria.
Vladimir Lenin’s Bolsheviks. 1939: Non-aggression pact with Hitler and
1918-1924: Civil War following Russia’s dismemberment of Poland; WWII
withdrawal from WWI. commences.
1919: Treaty of Versailles is 1940: Occupation of the Baltic nations.
signed, dismembering the German Empire. 1941: Third five-year plan is disrupted by Axis
1920: Treaty of Trianon is invasion; the U.S.S.R. joins the Allied powers.
signed, dismembering the Kingdom of Japan attacks Pearl Harbor; the United States
Hungary. enters the war.
1922: U.S.S.R. established and recognized. 1942-1943: Battle of Stalingrad leads to first
Benito Mussolini seizes power in Italy. victory against the Germans.
1924: Lenin dies and is succeeded by Joseph
Stalin.
1928-1932: First five-year plan.
1933-1937: Second five-year plan.
1933: Adolf Hitler rises to power in Germany.
7. Timeline of Events – cont.
1943: Tehran Conference. 1953: Stalin dies and is succeeded
1944: The Allies stage an invasion by Nikita Khrushchev, who
in Normandy and drive German formally denounces his legacy.
forces away. 1956: Khrushchev denounces
1945: Yalta Stalinism in his speech to the
Conference, Occupation, Battle, a Congress of the CPSU. Anti-
nd Fall of Berlin, and victory Communist Revolutions in
against Germany. Japan Hungary and Poland are crushed.
surrenders. 1957: Sputnik 1 is launched into
1946: Stalin predicts the triumph space.
of Communism. 1958: Hungarian Anti-Communist
1948: Berlin blockade. leader Imre Nagy is hanged for
1949: The U.S.S.R., United treason.
States, France, and Great Britain 1959: Fidel Castro seizes power in
create West and East Germany. Cuba. Khrushchev meets with
1950-1953: Korean War. Eisenhower.
8. Timeline of Events – cont.
1961: Stalingrad is renamed back 1968: The Prague Spring in
to Volgograd. Bay of Pigs invasion. Czechoslovakia is crushed by the
Khrushchev meets with Kennedy Warsaw Pact.
in Vienna. Construction of the 1969: The US accomplishes their
Berlin Wall begins. goal of going to the moon.
1962: Cuban Missile Crisis. 1972: Nixon makes his first visit to
1963: Kennedy announces U.S. China. First meeting between
alliance with West Germany while Nixon and Brezhnev.
giving his prominent ‘’Ich bin ein 1973: The US withdraws from
Berliner’’ speech in West Berlin. Vietnam.
1964: Khrushchev removed and 1974: Nixon resigns and Gerald R.
replaced by Leonid Ilyich Ford becomes president. SALT I
Brezhnev. Treaty is signed in Vladivostok.
1967: Six-Day War.
9. Timeline of Events – cont.
1976: Brezhnev is awarded the Hero 1984: Andropov dies; Konstantin
of the Soviet Union on his 70th Chernenko takes his place. The
birthday. Soviet Union boycotts the Summer
1979: Brezhnev and Jimmy Carter Olympics in Los Angeles.
meet in Vienna to sign the SALT II 1985: Chernenko dies and is
Treaty. The Soviet Union invades replaced by Mikhail Gorbachev, who
Afghanistan. begins initiating reforms to allow
1980: The US boycotts the Summer freedom for the Eastern Bloc
Olympics in Moscow. nations.
1982: Brezhnev dies; Yuri Andropov 1986: The Challenger explodes on its
replaces him. way into space. Chernobyl suffers a
major nuclear leak.
10. Timeline of Events – cont.
1987: Reagan delivers his famous ‘’Tear Down This Wall’’ speech in West Berlin;
Socialism continues to decline and draws nearer to its end.
1988: Russian troops withdraw from Afghanistan, ending the nine-year war.
1989: Hungarian Communist leader János Kádár dies of cancer a year after
resigning as the dictator of Hungary. The Berlin Wall is torn down. Romanian
Communist leader Nicolae Ceauşescu and his wife are indicted for crimes
against the state and are executed by a firing squad following his bloody 24-
year rule as dictator of Romania.
1990: Gorbachev elected President of the Soviet Union. East and West
Germany join to reunify Germany.
1991: Gorbachev kidnapped after coup in August. After being released, he
resigns. Each republic declares its independence, and the U.S.S.R. ceases to
exist after nearly 70 years. The Russian Federation is recognized as the legal
successor to the extinct state.
12. Neighboring countries of the former U.S.S.R.
Afghanistan (Tajikistan, Turkmenistan, Uzbekistan)
China (Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Russia, Tajikistan)
Czechoslovakia (Ukraine)
Finland (Russia)
Hungary (Ukraine)
Iran (Armenia, Azerbaijan, Turkmenistan)
Mongolia (Russia)
North Korea (Russia)
Poland (Belarus, Lithuania, Ukraine)
Romania (Moldova, Ukraine)
Turkey (Armenia, Azerbaijan, Georgia)
13. Effects of the collapse of the U.S.S.R.
Russian lost status as co-official language in every post-
Soviet republic, save for Belarus, Kazakhstan, and
Kyrgyzstan.
Russian lost its importance in the republics that refused to
allow it to remain co-official following the demise of the
U.S.S.R.
Russian troops were withdrawn from the former satellite
nations, ending Russia’s dominance over those nations.
The aged state’s secret police, KGB, was dissolved.
The United States was left as the world’s biggest
superpower, ending the Cold War.
16. New organizations
Organization Current members
Commonwealth of Independent Armenia, Azerbaijan, Belarus, K
States (CIS) azakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Moldova
, Russia, Tajikistan, Turkmenista
n, and Uzbekistan.
17. Membership in other organizations
North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO): Only three
nations of the former U.S.S.R., Estonia, Latvia, and
Lithuania, are members of NATO. Georgia is currently
seeking membership in NATO while other republics of the
former U.S.S.R. do not wish to join the organization.
European Union (EU): Estonia, Latvia, and Lithuania are
also the only three post-Soviet states that are members of
the European Union. Georgia is looking at membership in
the EU while Ukraine is looking at becoming a candidate.
United Nations (UN): As UN-recognized nations, all 15 of
the former states of the U.S.S.R. are members of the UN.
18. Capital cities
Country: Capital city:
Armenia Yerevan
Azerbaijan Baku
Belarus Minsk
Estonia Tallinn
Georgia Tbilisi
Kazakhstan Astana
Kyrgyzstan Bishkek
Latvia Riga
Lithuania Vilnius
Moldova Chişinău
19. Capital cities – cont.
Country: Capital city:
Russia Moscow
Tajikistan Dushanbe
Turkmenistan Ashgabat
Ukraine Kyiv
Uzbekistan Tashkent
20. Religion in the former U.S.S.R.
The religions with the most followers were Christianity and
Islam, although most people of the U.S.S.R. gave up their
religious beliefs in accordance with government law.
The religion with the least followers was Judaism; many
Soviet Jews left the U.S.S.R. to find refuge in countries like
Israel and the US because of the strong anti-Semitic ways
of the Soviet government. Today, Israel is home to many
Russian Jews; Russian is the most widely spoken unofficial
language in Israel, followed by English.
21. Vehicles from the former U.S.S.R.
Lada
Lada Riva
Lada-Samara
Lada 110
VAZ-2101
Moskvitch
Volga
Kamaz