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Official Name: Union of Socialist Soviet Republics
- Geography: largest country in the world, situated
between the Pripyat Marshes in the West
and the Pacific Ocean in the East.
Western 1/3rd of the country contains
major cities and industry. Eastern 2/3rd
is known as Siberia: difficult terrain
with an inhospitable climate. Borders
Finland, the Baltic States, Poland and Romania
in the West, Turkey, Persia and Afghanistan in the South and
China, Mongolia and Japan in the East.
- History: The USSR is the successor
state to Russia. In November 1917 the
communists took over the government and
after a bloody civil war managed to
control most of the country. The areas
not under their control became
independent states. Soviet diplomacy is
currently aimed at helping democratic governments to prevent
fascism from gaining power.
- Political system: communism
- Head of Government: Secretary-General
Joseph Stalin
- Head of State: President M.J. Kalinin
- Treaties: Non-aggression pacts
with Estonia, Latvia and Poland. Defense pact with France.
- Economic system: Plan-Economy
- Economy: large.
- Demography: medium birth rate.
Population of about 165 million.
- Morale: average.
- Armed forces: 1,545,000 men.
Reserves: almost 18 million men. Quality
of the army is poor. Navy is small but
has many coastal submarines. Huge
airforce of 10,000 planes with old
equipment and poorly trained pilots.
- Status: The USSR is one of the major
powers.
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