From the USSR to Postcommunist Russia

Abstract

The Soviet system was established in the belief that it represented the shape of the future. In the event, it lasted only 74 years (1917-91). In that time, however, it shaped the twentieth century in two main ways. As an ideological challenge to capitalist societies, it reflected the belief that socialism was a superior form of social organisation; and as a state, it came to represent a geopolitical challenge to Western dominance of the international system, a challenge that after the Second World War was formalised in the conventions of the Cold War. For good or ill, the character of the twentieth century was stamped by the Soviet challenge; its existence largely coincided with what has been called ‘the short twentieth century’ (Hobsbawm, 1994) from 1914 to 1991. Having played the major part in the defeat of Nazi Germany and raising the Soviet flag over Berlin in May 1945, in the post-war years the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics became first a regional power, establishing its dominance in Eastern Europe, and then became one of the two global superpowers. Like the United States of America, it was able to project its power worldwide; and also like the USA, it sought to do this in the name of a universal ideology.