During the Cold War, the USSR was the quintessential boogeyman, used by politicians the world over to pass legislation. Yet, even thirty years after its demise, we still know very little about the country. So, what are some cool facts about the Soviet Union?
Going from a backwater country ravaged by war in the early 1920’s, leaders like Vladimir Lenin and Joseph Stalin would soon turn the USSR into one of the world’s two main superpowers – alongside the US – leading to the Cold War.
Disclaimer: This article is for educational purposes only. It isn’t meant to glorify or demonize the USSR or communism as a whole, whilst they did do many things right, they also did just as many things wrong. Please, no political rhetoric.
15. Not That Equal
The whole premise of communism is that everybody should be equal. They should all have the same clothes, the same housing, the same access to education, regardless of what job they do, or the job that their parents do.
Whilst a noble idea in principle, it rarely works in reality.
In the USSR for example, the working classes lived in standard housing known as the Khrushchyovka, the elites that ran the country lived in sprawling palaces, being waited on hand and foot, living more like kings, rather than communists.
Whilst excusable – after all, they did run the largest country in the world with no days off – it didn’t end there.
The Soviet government were also inherently racist, designating racial minorities like Karachays, Chechens, Balkars, Tartars, Kalmyks and other minorities as “traitors”, even going as far to execute them.
Beyond their racism, Stalin (and later leaders like Brezhnev) also promoted anti-Semitic conspiracy theories, as well as calling them “rootless cosmopolitan” and blamed them for all of the problems in the USSR, much like the Nazis did.
So much for equality…
Despite these unequal policies, the USSR did actually do some things right. For starters they made it illegal to discriminate against people based on their race (eg. Russian, Uzbek, Ukrainian etc.) and gave women the same pay as men.
14. Largest Empire in History
When you think of the largest empires in history, you probably think of the British Empire, or the Mongol Empire, or maybe even the Imperial Russian Empire. Yet, very few of us think of the Soviet Empire…
Although not a traditional colonial empire per se, instead being more of a political one, the Soviet Empire as it was known, covered a land mass of 35 million square kilometers, or roughly 13.5 million square miles.
You see, during the Cold War, the USSR financed communist revolutions in several countries. When these countries then became communist, they would join what was known as the Soviet sphere of influence.
Essentially, this meant that the foreign policy of these newly communist countries revolved entirely around keeping the USSR on side. In doing so, they essentially became colonies of the USSR, providing the Soviets with everything of value their country produced.
In return, the Soviets promised to protect these countries militarily, as well as supplying them with Soviet-made equipment like tanks and aircraft. This essentially saw the Soviets become the colonizers.
13. The Bolsheviks Were Funded Through Bank Robberies
Funding a revolution, even a communist one, isn’t cheap.
Unlike other political ideologies, communism can’t really fundraise through traditional means (eg. getting businesses and wealthy people to donate to your cause) as obviously communism only spells doom for their profit margins and wealth.
Instead, the Bolsheviks chose to finance their revolution another way: through good old bank robberies.
Between 1900 and 1917, the Bolsheviks would plan and carry out a number of bank robberies across the Russian empire, which would give them both gold bullion and paper rouble notes, which were instrumental in paying for their revolution.
Indeed, one of the most famous Bolshevik bank robberies was the 1907 Tiflis Bank Robbery, led by none other than Joseph Stalin, the future dictator.
Besides just robbing banks, high-ranking Bolsheviks like Stalin would also organize a number of protection rackets against Russian mining companies, or other companies the Bolsheviks believed did more harm to their workers than good.
Through the proceeds of their bank robberies and protection rackets, the Bolsheviks were able to fund their role in the October Revolution of 1917, and the Russian Civil War that followed it.
12. First Country to Legalize Abortion
Today, abortion is a divisive topic to say the least. Although many countries have legalized it over the last few decades, it has been met with stiff opposition by many in these countries, citing religion, ethics, or just personal values as why abortion shouldn’t be legal.
Yet, it may surprise you to hear that the USSR was the first country to completely legalize all abortions. In 1920!
In the years prior to the October Revolution, abortions had been widespread in Russia. Most were carried out by actual doctors, or at least, people with enough medical training to perform them relatively safely.
However, as it was technically illegal at the time, these doctors would often rush the procedure, often successfully performing the operation, but would eventually end up killing the mother anyway.
Seeing this as a lost worker for the communist cause, Lenin chose to make all abortions entirely legal, regardless of circumstances. And guess what? It was entirely free! After all, they were communists…
Making it legal did not come without its own problems, as the USSR soon began to see a falling birth rate, with a record 400,000 abortions in 1926 alone. A record even by modern standards!
Seeing this as losing even more workers, abortion was criminalized in 1936, with those who performed abortions being sent to the gulags.
11. Wasn’t Officially Recognized Until The 1930’s
A common theme among countries that experience a violent revolution is that it often takes many years for the new government to be officially recognized by other countries.
This was also true for the Soviet Union.
Having seized power during the October Revolution of 1917, the Bolsheviks would fight an extremely bloody civil war with the White Russians, those who supported the Tsar.
Despite the White Russians having help from the other monarchies of Europe, the Bolshevik communists would come out on top in October 1922. Although it had pushed back anti-communist forces, those same forces refused to acknowledge their defeat.
Indeed, it would only be two years later, in 1924, when European powerhouses like the UK, France and Italy would officially recognize the USSR as a sovereign country, and begin diplomatic relations with them.
Interestingly, it would take the American until November 1933 to formally acknowledge that the Soviet Union was independent. No wonder Stalin didn’t like FDR!
10. Molotov-Ribbentrop Pact
In 1933, Adolf Hitler would come to power in Germany. From here, he would embark on a rapid, yet cautious, takeover of Europe, soon coming to control most of the German-speaking parts of Central and Eastern Europe by 1939.
However, the one German-speaking part of Eastern Europe that Germany didn’t control was Poland. More specifically, the western half of Poland that had several million German speakers as well as Polish ones.
Not wanting to invade, and risk starting a war with the Soviet Union, Hitler dispatched Joachim von Ribbentrop to Moscow. Here, he would meet with Vyacheslav Molotov, one of Stalin’s most trusted diplomats.
Revealing their intention to annex the western half of Poland, Ribbentrop offered Molotov the eastern half (which had many ethnic Russians in it) which he agreed, with the pair signing the Molotov-Ribbentrop Pact in August 1939.
Although heralded in Nazi Germany as the best alternative to war with the Soviets, many high-ranking communists in the USSR would oppose the alliance, claiming that Hitler would only betray them.
Despite not living long enough to see it (as they were sent to the gulags), history would prove them right!
9. Languages of The USSR
As one of the largest countries on earth, there hundreds of different nationalities, who spoke literally hundreds of different languages, spread throughout the country.
You see, during the time of Imperial Russia, the Tsars had hoped to quash the use of languages other than Russian in their country. Whilst effective in stopping revolutions, it made the people who spoke these languages incredibly angry.
People who’d later support Lenin’s rise to power.
Upon becoming the leader of Russia, Lenin would ensure that the newly formed Soviet Union would have no compulsory or state language that could divide them.
To that end, Lenin made sure that each of the 130 languages spoken in his new country were treated equal, with not a single one being treated as superior to the others.
Whilst a noble idea in principle, this made trade and diplomacy with the country quite difficult. After all, a fisherman in Tashkent may not speak the same language as a fur trader in Nizhny Novgorod, which understandably made doing trade with the Soviets incredibly difficult.
Seeing this, as well as the need for a common language to unite the country with, the Soviet leaders that came after Lenin, would promote Russian as the language of academia, commerce and government.
Although the number of Russian speakers in the USSR would skyrocket from the 1950’s onwards, the non-Russian languages spoken in the country would never go away, with them still being spoken today!
8. Largest Mass Deportation in History
For the most part, the Soviet government cared very little for the average non-Russian day-to-day. To them, they were just another group of useful people who could provide society with the various things that it needs to survive.
Yet for some, especially the various nomadic groups in the Caucuses and Asia, the Soviet government were very involved in their daily lives, surveilling them, mocking their cultures and making their languages illegal.
And this is how it was in the early days of Soviet rule – not too dissimilar from how the Tsars had treated them.
Eventually, however, the Soviet government became more antagonistic, even going as far to claim that they were traitors. By the end of things, they even began to “deport” these people from their ancestral homelands.
Instead of living on the Asian Steppe, the people who’d lived there for centuries undisturbed were suddenly moved to the chilly parts of Northern Russia. Or the people of the Caucuses, moved to the deepest depths of Siberia.
Officially, at least according to the Soviet Union, these deportations never happened. In reality though, they were devastating.
The deportations themselves killed at least 800,000 people at the lowest estimates, whilst their long-term impact almost wiped out millions more. And why, you may ask? To stop them from forming national identities and revolting against communist rule.
7. It Rebuilt Eastern Europe
Anyone who’s ever studied history will be able to tell you that WWII was the most destructive conflict in human history. Not only did it claim 80 million lives on both sides, but it totally destroyed most of Europe.
Fearing that these European countries would become communist if their countries were not rebuilt, General George C. Marshall managed to convince President Truman to provide $15 billion in aid to rebuild Western Europe, in what’s now known as the Marshall Plan.
Whilst unpopular with many in Congress at the time, the Marshall Plan helped rebuild Western Europe, and keep those countries as firm US allies. However, this spelled doom for the Soviets, who occupied most of Eastern Europe.
You see, fighting in Eastern Europe had been even more intense, leading to even more destruction. Wanting to rebuild their shattered nations, many Eastern European communist governments turned to the US for aid.
Not wanting to lose these valuable communist countries to western influences, the Soviets banned their satellite states from accepting American aid.
Instead, the Soviets would create their own version of the Marshall Plan – COMECON – which would help to fund the reconstruction of most of Eastern Europe.
6. They Didn’t Adopt Their Famous Flag Until 1955
When you think of the USSR’s flag, you probably think of the iconic yellow Soviet star as well as a yellow hammer and sickle on a red background, that’s been shown in history textbooks and movies for as long as you can remember.
Yet, they didn’t actually adopt it until 1955.
Prior to 1955, the Soviet flag still featured the iconic Soviet star as well the hammer and sickle, however, the hammer and sickle were far larger in proportion to the rest of the flag, with the sickle stretching around the hammer a little bit more.
Before that, the Soviet flag looked nothing like the flag that would eventually become synonymous with “communism”.
Instead, it featured the yellow hammer and sickle in front of a globe, with a red star on top of the globe. The globe was then surrounded by wheat, wrapped in a red ribbon with various Russian and Arabic phrases on them.
5. The Firsts in Space
The 1950’s saw what historians refer to as the Arms Race, where both the East and West attempted to produce more, bigger and better nuclear weapons than the other side, developing new planes, tanks and submarines to go with it.
As a part of the Arms Race, the Soviets would launch Sputnik I, the world’s first artificial satellite. Whilst designed to show that man could indeed put items into orbit, the Americans became incredibly scared, thus setting off the Space Race.
Whilst the Americans acknowledged the incredible feat the USSR had accomplished, then-President Dwight D. Eisenhower formed NASA with the intention of beating the Soviets at the very game they initiated.
However, on April 12 1961, Soviet cosmonaut, Yuri Gagarin, would become the first human to go into space, yet another achievement for the communist superpower.
In response, President Kennedy would make a promise to the American people that the US would place a man on the moon, which they did in 1969.
Despite this basically ending the Space Race, the USSR would continue to have a firm grip on space exploration, even continuing today, through Russia’s Roscosmos program!
4. First Supersonic Airliner
When you think of supersonic airliners you probably think of the world-famous Anglo-French Concorde, which first flew in March 1969. Despite being the most famous, the Concorde wasn’t actually the first supersonic airliner…
Instead, that was the Soviet-made Tupolev Tu-144, better known in the West as the “Concordski” due to its similarities to the Anglo-French Concorde.
During the 1950’s and 1960’s, jet engine technology progressed enormously, with aeronautical engineering being pushed to be “faster, farther, higher” centering around developing an airliner that could travel faster than the speed of sound, something previously only done by fighter jets.
By the late 1960’s, both the West (the British and French) and the East (the Soviets) not only had a design that worked on paper, but a working design. Wanting to beat the capitalist west, the Soviets poured billions into the project near the end.
What resulted was the Tu-144 prototype having its first flight in December 1968, three months before the Concorde’s first flight. Being the first country to have a supersonic airliner was huge for the USSR, who never let the west forget it!
Despite entering service a month before Concorde did, the Tu-144’s lack of reliability soon saw it be withdrawn from service in 1978, whilst Concorde was only withdrawn from service in October 2003, over 25 years later.
3. The American Billionaire VIP
As a communist country, the Soviet Union was incredibly hostile to the capitalist United States and American businessmen even more so.
Yet this didn’t stop many from trying.
In the early days of the USSR, American businessmen like Fred Koch and Henry Ford struck lucrative deals with the Soviets, only to have their Soviet subsidiaries nationalized in later decades.
Naturally, all American businessmen began to shy away from dealing with the Soviets. All except one anyway…
That was Russian-American CEO of Occidental Petroleum, Armand Hammer (the great-grandfather of actor Armie Hammer). Growing up as the son of a Russian communist in New York, Armand Hammer soon took over his father’s medical business after his father was sent to prison.
Spending most of the 1920’s in the Soviet Union, Armand became a close friend of Lenin’s, before eventually going back to the US in early 1930. Despite leaving the USSR, Armand would return semi-regularly, even as one of America’s richest men.
Despite this, Armand Hammer would serve as one of the closest advisers to both the Soviet Premier and the US President.
His private Boeing 727 was one of the few western aircraft that was always given permission to land at any airport in the Eastern bloc. Armand was also one of the few westerners to legally own an apartment in Moscow, within a stone’s throw of the Kremlin. And no, it wasn’t bugged.
2. KGB Coup
1991 was not a good year for the Soviet Union.
Over the preceding years, most of the USSR’s satellite states in Eastern Europe had seen their communist regimes fall, being replaced by US-friendly democratic (and most importantly, capitalist) governments.
Realizing that if communism was to survive, it needed to adapt, then-Soviet Premier, Mikhail Gorbachev, began enacting the policies of perestroika and glasnost, which aimed to modernize the communist behemoth.
Whilst necessary for the party to survive, it angered many of the more hardline communists in the Communist Party and especially in the KGB, the USSR’s feared intelligence agency (and secret police force).
Angered by his attempts at reform, several high-ranking KGB operatives staged a coup in 1991, similar to the one Napoleon had done in Paris centuries prior. Unlike Napoleon’s coup, however, the KGB’s would fail. Miserably.
In fact, it would be so unsuccessful that it would cause the Communist Party to collapse, and with it, the USSR as a whole (who collapsed only four months after the coup).
1. How to Get a Job
One of the key tenets of communism is that everyone who can work, should work. In a communist country like the Soviet Union, anyone without a disability (or having the status of being a married woman) was expected to find a job.
Those that didn’t, were often sent to the gulags. Or just shot.
Whilst how you got a job varied greatly depending on your qualifications (and the job you wanted to do) you often wouldn’t need to look far to find an employer that was looking to hire you.
Much like in the west, employers in the Soviet Union would place ads in the newspaper, on public transport, or on local bulletin boards. However, there was one key difference between how you got a job in the west, and how you got one in the east.
In the west, you’d be given an interview, where you had to justify why you should get the job. In the east, however, you simply rang up the employer and told them who you were and what your qualifications were. If they liked you, you got the job.
Which are your favorite facts about the Soviet Union? Tell me in the comments!