Soviet Union (From Sea to Shining Sea)

The Soviet Union, officially the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics (USSR), is a federal sovereign socialist state in northern Eurasia established in 1922.

Nominally a union of multiple national Soviet republics, its government and economy were highly centralized. The country is a one-party state, governed by the Communist Party with Moscow as its capital in its largest republic, the Russian Soviet Federative Socialist Republic (Russian SFSR).

State and Government
The Soviet Union had its roots in the 1917 October Revolution, when the Bolsheviks, led by Vladimir Lenin, overthrew the Russian Provisional Government which had replaced the autocratic regime of Tsar Nicholas II during World War I. In 1922, after a civil war ending in the Bolsheviks' victory, the USSR was formed by a treaty which united the Russian, Transcaucasian, Ukrainian and Byelorussian republics. Following Lenin's death in 1924 and a brief power struggle, Joseph Stalin came to power in the mid-1920s. Stalin formalized the Communist Party's ideology of Marxism–Leninism and replaced the market economy (NEP) with a planned economy which led to a period of rapid industrialization and collectivization. During this period, rapid economic development resulted in dramatic improvements in the average standard of living, particularly in urban areas. Despite these improvements, major tragedies also occurred. In addition to drought, which was a primary factor in a long history of regularly occurring famines in the region, agricultural collectivization contributed to a major famine in 1932-33, causing millions of deaths. Political paranoia fermented, especially after the rise of the Nazis in Germany in 1933, culminating in the Great Purge, during which hundreds of thousands of persons accused of spying or sabotage were arrested and executed without trial.

State and Government
The 1936 Soviet Constitution redesigned the government of the Soviet Union. It nominally granted all manner of rights and freedoms, and spelled out a number of democratic procedures. In practice, by asserting the "leading role" of the Communist Party. It cemented the complete control of the party over the State and society.

The constitution repealed restrictions on voting and added universal direct suffrage and the right to work to rights guaranteed by the previous constitution. In addition, the constitution recognizes collective social and economic rights including the rights to work, rest and leisure, health protection, care in old age and sickness, housing, education and cultural benefits. The constitution also provides for the direct election of all government bodies and their reorganization into a single, uniform system.

Effectively there are three power hierarchies in the Soviet Union: the legislature represented by the Supreme Soviet of the Soviet Union, the government represented by the Council of Ministers, and the All-Union Communist Party (Bolsheviks), the only legal party and the final policymaker in the country.

The Communist Party maintains its dominance over the state mainly through its control over the system of appointments. All senior government officials and most deputies of the Supreme Soviet were members of the Party.

According to the Constitution of 1936 the Supreme Soviet is the highest state body of the Soviet Union. The Supreme Soviet elects a Presidium to wield its power between plenary sessions, ordinarily held twice a year, and appoint the Supreme Court, the Procurator General and the Council of People's Commissars, headed by the Chairman and managing an enormous bureaucracy responsible for the administration of the economy and society. State and party structures of the constituent republics largely emulate the structure of the central institutions, although the Russian SFSR, unlike the other constituent republics, has no republican branch of the Communist Party, being ruled directly by the union-wide party. Local authorities were organized likewise into party committees, local Soviets and executive committees. While the state system is nominally federal, the party is unitary.

The Supreme Court supervises the lower courts (People's Court) and applies the law as established by the constitution or as interpreted by the Supreme Soviet. The Constitutional Oversight Committee reviews the constitutionality of laws and acts. The Soviet Union uses the inquisitorial system of Roman law, where the judge, procurator, and defence attorney collaborate to establish the truth.

The state security police (the NKVD and its predecessor agencies) played an important role in Soviet politics. It was instrumental in the Great Purge, but was brought under strict party control after Stalin's death.