Soviet Union
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The Soviet Union, officially the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics, was a transcontinental country that spanned much of Eurasia from its formation in 1922 until its dissolution in 1991. It was the w
Landscape near Karabash, Chelyabinsk Oblast, an area that was previously covered with forests until acid rainfall from a nearby copper smelter killed all vegetation
One of the many impacts of the approach to the environment in the USSR and post-Soviet states is the Aral Sea. (See status in 1989 and 2014)
Military parade on the Red Square in Moscow, 7 November 1964
The Grand Kremlin Palace, the seat of the Supreme Soviet of the Soviet Union, 1982
Mikhail Gorbachev
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Mikhail Sergeyevich Gorbachev was a Soviet and Russian politician who was the last leader of the Soviet Union from 1985 until the country's dissolution in 1991. He served as General Secretary of the C
Soviet Union
…Crisis narrowly averted a global conflict. Under Leonid Brezhnev, prosperity shifted toward stagnation, although relations with the US eased. In 1985, Mikhail Gorbachev sought reform through his policies of glasnost and perestroika. In 1989, most Warsaw Pact countries overthrew their Soviet-backed regimes, effectively…
Gorbachev in 1987
Gorbachev and his Ukrainian maternal grandparents, late 1930s
Gorbachev on a visit to East Germany in 1966
Gorbachev (right) with his mentor Yuri Andropov in 1973