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Description

Union of Soviet Socialist Republics (Soviet Union or Soviet Russia): Almost two and half times the size of the United States and comprising more than one-seventh of the world's land surface, the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics sprawls across two continents. Most of Russia is a vast plain reaching from the Pacific to its western boundaries. Its position in northern latitudes and the absence of protecting barriers result in an extreme climate with long, cold winters. Vladivostok, on the Pacific coast, and the ice closes the ports on the Arctic Ocean and Baltic Sea during the long winter months. Vladivostok, however, is kept open the year-round by ice-breakers. In no part of the land is the rainfall heavy, and there are frequent and widespread droughts, which bring hunger and starvation to its people.

From the Black Sea in the south to the Arctic Ocean, and from the Baltic Sea to the Ural Mountains, which divide Asiatic Russia from European Russia, is a vast lowland. To the east of the Urals in Siberia, two-thirds of which is a flat, unbroken plain. In the far north, the ground is frozen to a depth of over six hundred feet. This presents peculiar problems if the government is to succeed with plans to mine the ores found there and industrialize this northern region. Here in the tundra country, the moss, upon which the reindeer of the nomadic tribes feed, is often five feet thick. South of the tundra belt is a vast evergreen forest covering billions of acres, where green forest covering billions of acres, where lumbering and fur trapping are the chief occupations.

Soviet Russia's supply of minerals is so great and widely scattered that the extent of many of the deposits is still unknown. There are immense reserves of coal in both European and Asiatic Russia. Copper, platinum, iron, gold, manganese, and other minerals are found in the Urals. Some of the wealthiest petroleum deposits in the world are in the Baku region of the Caspian Sea and the Urals. Great strides have been made in industrial development, with the manufacture of iron and steel, machinery, textiles, and leather goods in the lead. Despite the climate, high-cost manufacturing, and difficulties of transportation, the USSR is a mostly self-sustaining country and had become increasingly important industrially.

The Soviet Union, the world’s largest country and one of the leading Superpowers, has in recent years been experiencing alternating success and setbacks. Its policy of détente, the peaceful co-existence with non-Communist nations, has raised more ideological dilemmas than its original supporters have imagined. Leonid Brezhnev, General Secretary of the Communist party, the only political body in the Soviet Union, has now been in power longer than any of his predecessors since Stalin. Brezhnev’s active in role in the 25th Congress of the Communist Party of the Soviet Union dispelled rumors of possible illness or lack of support in the Soviet power structure. The Congress, which met in February-March 1976, endorsed the leadership of Secretary Brezhnev. In June 1977 Brezhnev was elected presidents of the USSR and thus became the first leader in Soviet history to hold both the chief party and state post. In the last 1970, five-year plan, the Soviets had to lower their targets for economic growth. In effect this was an admission of failure in the previous five-year plan to reach anticipated goals.

For 1976-80 heavy industry will receive strong emphasis at the expense of consumer goods. There is to be a retrenchment in the expansion of agriculture. The harvest failure prior to 1976 plagued Soviet-planners hoping to achieve self-sufficiency in food needs. Foreign trade, once a small part of the Russian economy, is now of greater importance. Commerce with the West has reached an unprecedented level. Trade with United States was over $2.5 billion in 1977 in compared to $200 million in 1971. Purchases of much needed wheat in the United States and Canada have made substantial impact on world prices. Other western nations, Japan, Britain, West Germany have become involved with the USSR in trade pacts long-range projects that require large investments in plant technology and resource development. The Soviets have been funding their trade deficits with Western nations by selling gold or taking long-term loans. The position of the Soviet Union in International power struggles showed some gains and losses in the late-1970s. In Africa, the Marxist takeover of the former Portuguese colony of Angola and Ethiopia’s defeat of the Somalis in the Ogaden region were achieved with Cuban troops and Soviet material support. In Egypt a friendship pact with the Soviets was disavowed by President Sadat, but the Soviet presence in the Middle East affairs continued to loom large. Not unrelated is the expansion of the Soviet Navy with the addition of aircraft carriers and other surface ships to its already formidable submarine fleet.

Enmity between China and the USSR continues to divide the Communist world. The passing of Mao Tse-Tung did not lessen the hostility. In Eastern Europe, the Soviets could still count on the solidarity of the Communist nations except for Yugoslavia and Albania (Rumanian disenchantment is occasional). Overtures to Belgrade and Tirana for a return to the ideological fold proved unsuccessful. In Western Europe the Communist parties of several nations have declared their freedom to depart from the Standard of the Soviet line. In Italy and France, the question of National Communism has become especially critical with the strong showing of local Communists in recent elections. In Spain the local Communist Party leadership has disavowed Moscow. At this time of change the Kremlin has been unable to assert leadership in its own camp. Nor has the Kremlin achieved unity within its own national boundaries.

A minority voice, the dissident movement, still drew attention to the ills in Soviet society. For every proclamation of the need for détente and the free exchange of people and ideas, the Soviet leadership by its actions worked against the spirit of Détente. Dissidents are imprisoned or lose their jobs. Emigration, immigration, and internal movement are rigidly controlled. Brezhnev has denounced the Human rights appeals of US president Carter as interference in internal affairs of the Soviet Union and has tightened the pressure against all artistic and political expression that deviates from the party view.

This rigid authoritarian nature would however serve to undermine the Soviet Union, as greater exposure to the Capitalist world drew many party members to begin contemplating real change. The reform movement headed by Gorbachev, however, would bring about the end of the USSR as long-suppressed nationalism finally erupted onto the surface. The cost of financing and maintaining the USSR was not sufficient to prevent the other republics from exiting; this mixed with nascent Russian nationalism would be the death knell of the USSR and the collapse of the Communist Utopia envisioned by its founders and administrators.

Description

Union of Soviet Socialist Republics (Soviet Union or Soviet Russia): Almost two and half times the size of the United States and comprising more than one-seventh of the world's land surface, the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics sprawls across two continents. Most of Russia is a vast plain reaching from the Pacific to its western boundaries. Its position in northern latitudes and the absence of protecting barriers result in an extreme climate with long, cold winters. Vladivostok, on the Pacific coast, and the ice closes the ports on the Arctic Ocean and Baltic Sea during the long winter months. Vladivostok, however, is kept open the year-round by ice-breakers. In no part of the land is the rainfall heavy, and there are frequent and widespread droughts, which bring hunger and starvation to its people.

From the Black Sea in the south to the Arctic Ocean, and from the Baltic Sea to the Ural Mountains, which divide Asiatic Russia from European Russia, is a vast lowland. To the east of the Urals in Siberia, two-thirds of which is a flat, unbroken plain. In the far north, the ground is frozen to a depth of over six hundred feet. This presents peculiar problems if the government is to succeed with plans to mine the ores found there and industrialize this northern region. Here in the tundra country, the moss, upon which the reindeer of the nomadic tribes feed, is often five feet thick. South of the tundra belt is a vast evergreen forest covering billions of acres, where green forest covering billions of acres, where lumbering and fur trapping are the chief occupations.

Soviet Russia's supply of minerals is so great and widely scattered that the extent of many of the deposits is still unknown. There are immense reserves of coal in both European and Asiatic Russia. Copper, platinum, iron, gold, manganese, and other minerals are found in the Urals. Some of the wealthiest petroleum deposits in the world are in the Baku region of the Caspian Sea and the Urals. Great strides have been made in industrial development, with the manufacture of iron and steel, machinery, textiles, and leather goods in the lead. Despite the climate, high-cost manufacturing, and difficulties of transportation, the USSR is a mostly self-sustaining country and had become increasingly important industrially.

The Soviet Union, the world’s largest country and one of the leading Superpowers, has in recent years been experiencing alternating success and setbacks. Its policy of détente, the peaceful co-existence with non-Communist nations, has raised more ideological dilemmas than its original supporters have imagined. Leonid Brezhnev, General Secretary of the Communist party, the only political body in the Soviet Union, has now been in power longer than any of his predecessors since Stalin. Brezhnev’s active in role in the 25th Congress of the Communist Party of the Soviet Union dispelled rumors of possible illness or lack of support in the Soviet power structure. The Congress, which met in February-March 1976, endorsed the leadership of Secretary Brezhnev. In June 1977 Brezhnev was elected presidents of the USSR and thus became the first leader in Soviet history to hold both the chief party and state post. In the last 1970, five-year plan, the Soviets had to lower their targets for economic growth. In effect this was an admission of failure in the previous five-year plan to reach anticipated goals.

For 1976-80 heavy industry will receive strong emphasis at the expense of consumer goods. There is to be a retrenchment in the expansion of agriculture. The harvest failure prior to 1976 plagued Soviet-planners hoping to achieve self-sufficiency in food needs. Foreign trade, once a small part of the Russian economy, is now of greater importance. Commerce with the West has reached an unprecedented level. Trade with United States was over $2.5 billion in 1977 in compared to $200 million in 1971. Purchases of much needed wheat in the United States and Canada have made substantial impact on world prices. Other western nations, Japan, Britain, West Germany have become involved with the USSR in trade pacts long-range projects that require large investments in plant technology and resource development. The Soviets have been funding their trade deficits with Western nations by selling gold or taking long-term loans. The position of the Soviet Union in International power struggles showed some gains and losses in the late-1970s. In Africa, the Marxist takeover of the former Portuguese colony of Angola and Ethiopia’s defeat of the Somalis in the Ogaden region were achieved with Cuban troops and Soviet material support. In Egypt a friendship pact with the Soviets was disavowed by President Sadat, but the Soviet presence in the Middle East affairs continued to loom large. Not unrelated is the expansion of the Soviet Navy with the addition of aircraft carriers and other surface ships to its already formidable submarine fleet.

Enmity between China and the USSR continues to divide the Communist world. The passing of Mao Tse-Tung did not lessen the hostility. In Eastern Europe, the Soviets could still count on the solidarity of the Communist nations except for Yugoslavia and Albania (Rumanian disenchantment is occasional). Overtures to Belgrade and Tirana for a return to the ideological fold proved unsuccessful. In Western Europe the Communist parties of several nations have declared their freedom to depart from the Standard of the Soviet line. In Italy and France, the question of National Communism has become especially critical with the strong showing of local Communists in recent elections. In Spain the local Communist Party leadership has disavowed Moscow. At this time of change the Kremlin has been unable to assert leadership in its own camp. Nor has the Kremlin achieved unity within its own national boundaries.

A minority voice, the dissident movement, still drew attention to the ills in Soviet society. For every proclamation of the need for détente and the free exchange of people and ideas, the Soviet leadership by its actions worked against the spirit of Détente. Dissidents are imprisoned or lose their jobs. Emigration, immigration, and internal movement are rigidly controlled. Brezhnev has denounced the Human rights appeals of US president Carter as interference in internal affairs of the Soviet Union and has tightened the pressure against all artistic and political expression that deviates from the party view.

This rigid authoritarian nature would however serve to undermine the Soviet Union, as greater exposure to the Capitalist world drew many party members to begin contemplating real change. The reform movement headed by Gorbachev, however, would bring about the end of the USSR as long-suppressed nationalism finally erupted onto the surface. The cost of financing and maintaining the USSR was not sufficient to prevent the other republics from exiting; this mixed with nascent Russian nationalism would be the death knell of the USSR and the collapse of the Communist Utopia envisioned by its founders and administrators.