The Soviet Union finally collapsed in 1991 when Boris Yeltsin seized power in the aftermath of a failed coup that had attempted to topple reform-minded Gorbachev. Historiography Bibliography. Bibliography of the Russian Revolution and Civil War; Bibliography of Stalinism and the Soviet Union; Bibliography of the post-Stalinist Soviet Union

Soviet Empire is a political term which is used in Sovietology to describe the actions and power of the Soviet Union, with an emphasis on its dominant role in other countries.. In the wider sense, the term refers to the country's foreign policy during the Cold War, which has been characterized as imperialist: the nations which were part of the Soviet Empire were nominally independent …

In the 1950s, the de-Stalinisation of the Soviet Union was ideological bad news for the People's Republic of China because Soviet and Russian interpretations and applications of Leninism and orthodox Marxism contradicted the Sinified Marxism–Leninism of Mao Zedong—his Chinese adaptations of Stalinist interpretation and praxis for ...

The collapse of the Soviet Union, 1985-1991 (Routledge, 2016). Matlock, Jr. Jack F., Autopsy on an Empire: The American Ambassador's Account of the Collapse of the Soviet Union, Random House, 1995, ISBN 0-679-41376-6; Oberdorfer, Don. From the Cold War to a New Era: The United States and the Soviet Union, 1983-1991 (2nd ed. Johns Hopkins UP, 1998).

Lazar Moiseyevich Kaganovich, also Kahanovich (Russian: Ла́зарь Моисе́евич Кагано́вич, romanized: Lázar' Moiséyevich Kaganóvich; 22 November [O.S. 10 November] 1893 – 25 July 1991), was a Soviet politician and administrator, and one of the main associates of Joseph Stalin.He was one of several associates who helped Stalin to seize power, demonstrating ...

The Soviet Union, officially the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics (USSR), was a transcontinental country that spanned much of Eurasia from 1922 to 1991. A flagship communist state , it was nominally a federal union of fifteen national republics ; [q] in practice, both its government and its economy were highly centralized until its final years.

The 1907 Tiflis bank robbery, also known as the Erivansky Square expropriation, was an armed robbery on 26 June 1907 in the city of Tiflis in the Tiflis Governorate in the Caucasus Viceroyalty of the Russian Empire (now Georgia's capital, Tbilisi). A bank cash shipment was stolen by Bolsheviks to fund their revolutionary activities. The robbers attacked a bank stagecoach, and …

During its 69-year history, the Soviet Union usually had a de facto leader who would not necessarily be head of state but would lead while holding an office such as premier or general secretary.Under the 1977 Constitution, the chairman of the Council of Ministers, or premier, was the head of government and the chairman of the Presidium of the Supreme Soviet was the …

Dissolution of the Soviet Union into fifteen independent states; Establishment of the Commonwealth of Independent States between eleven independent states; Several separatist movements in the former autonomies prove successful, most either fail to combat the militaries of their respective republics or agree to rejoin them peacefully; Numerous military conflicts and …

Under the leadership of Vladimir Lenin (1870–1924) and Leon Trotsky (1879–1940), the Bolshevik communists established the Soviet state on 7 November [O.S. 25 October] 1917. It happened immediately after the October Revolution, when the interim Russian Provisional Government, most recently led by opposing democratic socialist Alexander Kerensky (1881–1970), which …

George Frost Kennan (February 16, 1904 – March 17, 2005) was an American diplomat and historian. He was best known as an advocate of a policy of containment of Soviet expansion during the Cold War.He lectured widely and wrote scholarly histories of the relations between the USSR and the United States. He was also one of the group of foreign policy elders known as …

World War II was the deadliest military conflict in history.An estimated total of 70–85 million people perished, or about 3% of the 2.3 billion (est.) people on Earth in 1940. Deaths directly caused by the war (including military and civilian fatalities) are estimated at 50–56 million, with an additional estimated 19–28 million deaths from war-related disease and famine.

Socialism is a left-wing economic philosophy and movement encompassing a range of economic systems characterized by the dominance of social ownership of the means of production as opposed to private ownership. As a term, it describes the economic, political and social theories and movements associated with the implementation of such systems. Social ownership can be …

Nikita Sergeyevich Khrushchev (15 April [O.S. 3 April] 1894 – 11 September 1971) was the First Secretary of the Communist Party of the Soviet Union from 1953 to 1964 and chairman of the country's Council of Ministers from 1958 to 1964. During his rule, Khrushchev stunned the communist world with his denunciation of Stalin's crimes, and embarked on a policy of de …