Soviet Union

State · 1922–1991 · Capital: Moscow

The Soviet Union, officially the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics (USSR), was a transcontinental country that spanned much of Eurasia from its formation in 1922 until its dissolution in 1991; with Moscow as its capital, it was the world's third-most populous country and the largest by area. It grew out of the October Revolution of 1917, and following the Bolshevik victory in the Russian Civil War, the Russian SFSR and its subordinate republics were merged into the Soviet Union in 1922. The world's flagship communist state, it was governed by the Communist Party under Marxism-Leninism through soviet councils, with a centrally planned economy. In World War II it played a decisive role in defeating the Axis powers as part of the Allies, suffering around 27 million casualties, the most deaths of any country in the war; during the Cold War it emerged as a superpower competing with the United States for geopolitical dominance until its dissolution in 1991.