Soviet Union

Soviet Union

The Soviet Union as it was at the end of the Cold War.
"The Hammer and Sickle" or "The Red Banner". The National Flag of the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics
Basic Information
Full Name	Union of Soviet Socialist Republics
Type	Nation
Bibliographical Information
Capital	Moscow
FIFA Code	URS
IOC Code	URS
Video gaming in Soviet Union in video gaming

The Soviet Union (officially the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics or USSR) was a transcontinental Eurasian union of "sovereign states" (many were in fact nations under what was effectively an occupation) that existed from 1922 to 1991; after a series of failed reforms (or more accurately, a series of reforms that had yet to start working correctly), the constituent nations, one by one, each declared independence from the Soviet Union. On December 25, Mikhail Gorbachev officially resigned as President of the USSR, declaring the office extinct, and transferring all of its powers (including its nuclear weapons) to Boris Yeltsin. On the same day, the Supreme Soviet of the Russian SFSR adopted a statute to officially change Russia's legal name from "Russian Soviet Federative Socialist Republic" to "Russian Federation", to show that it was now indeed independent of the USSR and was no longer a communist state.

As a result of this series of events, Russia is officially treated as the successor state to the Soviet Union, and ultimately took its place at the United Nations, including the United Nations Security Council. On December 26, 1991, the Soviet Union's upper house, the Soviet of Republics, voted the Soviet Union out of existence.