Union of Soviet Socialist Republics

The Union of Soviet Socialist Republics, more popularly known as the Soviet Union or U.S.S.R was a nation state that existed on Earth during the 20th century, from 1917 until 1991. The Soviet Union stretched across the continents of Europe and Asia, and was comprised of a number of states - most notably Russia. It was ruled by the Communist Party of the Soviet Union and the KGB was its intelligence service. (DS9 episode Our Man Bashir).

The Soviet Union was formed in Russia in 1917 after a Bolshevik revolution and a civil war deposed the Tsar from power. The first leader of the Soviet Union was Vladimir Lenin. After Lenin's death in 1924, Josef Stalin eventually became the next leader of the U.S.S.R. Under Stalin's leadership the Soviet Union became a major political and economical power. Stalin's government initially signed a nonaggression pact with Nazi Germany, but later the Soviet Union fought on the side of the Allies during World War II.

After the Second World War, tensions between the United States and the Soviet Union began to increase. This led to a period later known as the Cold War on Earth. During this time the Soviet Union built communities based on those found in America in order to train spies to infiltrate the United States. (VOY episode In The Flesh).

In the late 1980s, Soviet leader Mikhail Gorbachev began a program called perestroika to reform the ailing Soviet Union, which by then had been driven to social and economic hardship due to extensive military spending. Perestroika was a Russian word meaning "restructuring", and was coupled with the term glasnost which could mean either "openness" or "publicity" by the Russian government. This program precipitated a liberalization of the Soviet Union - which was to include the elimination of corruption, simplification of bureaucracy, and production improvements. By 1991, hardliners in the Soviet government attempted to roll back the reforms by staging an attempted coup, which failed within a few days when the leaders of the coup were unable to consolidate power. After the coup was defeated, the Soviet Union was dissolved a short time later. (TOS novel Probe).