Establishment of the Soviet Union
- Soviet Union (USSR, CCCP) was a socialist state between 1922 and 1991, and governed as a single party state by a communist party.
- The soviet union was very involved in the Russian Revolution in 1917 and wanted to get rid of the imperial autocracy.
- The Bolsheviks led by Vladimir Lenin overthrew the Provincial government.
- The Russian Socialist Federative Soviet Republic was formed and the Russian Civil War began.
- The Red Army entered former Russian Empire territories and helped the communists gain power.
- The Bolsheviks were victorious in 1922, and the Soviet Union was formed by combining the Russian, Transcaucasian, Ukrainian, and Byelorussian republics.
- Soon after Lenin’s death, Joseph Stalin came into power and committed the state to the Marxism-Leninism ideology and started a centrally planned economy.
- The country underwent rapid industrialization and collectivization which allowed for their war effort in WWII.
Ebb & Flow of Liberal Economics
During this time the government embraced a very left wing approach to economics, embracing the ideas of Vladimir Lenin. The government controlled every aspect of the economy, this was also a time of heavy industrialization, run through government owned and funded operations. However, in 1921 the new economic policy was introduced which allowed for some private enterprise, creating a slightly more free market economy.