At its height, the USSR was the world’s biggest nation. The USSR occupied 11 of the world’s 24 time zones and had an area almost as large as North America, with 22,402,200 square kilometers (8,649,500 square miles).
The Soviet population peaked at 288 million in the late 1980s, making it the third-largest country on Earth.
Table of Contents
Soviet Union’s disintegration

A communist counterpart to the democratic and capitalistic United States, the USSR was an unquestioned superpower for most of its existence. It had a command economy based on the notions of collectivization and industrialization.
Social and political turmoil, especially between the country’s component states and the central government, would finally lead to its collapse.
During 1988-1991, the Soviet Union progressively disintegrated into the 15 post-Soviet states we know today (plus a few still-unrecognized ones). In December 1992, the USSR was formally abolished.
The Russian Federation, the biggest of the new countries, joined the UN and other international organizations.
Former USSR Countries:
Armenia | Azerbaijan | Belarus | Estonia |
Georgia | Kazakhstan | Kyrgyzstan | Latvia |
Lithuania | Moldova | Russia | Tajikistan |
Turkmenistan | Ukraine | Uzbekistan |
Modern-day Russian imperialism
With 15 ex-Soviet states, Russia’s ambition to reclaim its former territory has been constant for over three decades.
As soon as Russia invaded Ukraine in February 2022, practically every other country in the globe reacted with outrage (with China and Belarus being notable exceptions).
It wasn’t the first time this had happened. Russian forces were stationed in Chechnya between 1994 and 2009 to prevent the area from seceding; in 2014, Russia attacked and seized Ukraine’s Crimean peninsula.
During World War II, the Soviet Union
The Soviet Union was one of several nations that participated in World War II, but its participation was complex. A non-aggression agreement with Nazi Germany was formed in 1939, and the nation assisted in the German seizure of Poland.
As a result of Hitler’s treason against the Soviet Union in June 1941, the non-aggression agreement was broken. As a result, the Soviet Union sided with the Allies and joined their troops.
Also See: Failed States 2022
Allies finally overcame Germany, Japan, and the other Axis nations thanks to Russia’s tenacity in the face of heavy losses.
After the end of World War II, the Soviet Union established the Eastern Bloc and started the Cold War, an undeclared armaments competition against the United States, NATO, and other capitalist countries. Particular attention was paid to each nation’s nuclear weapons stockpile.
Country | Capital | Independence | Area | 2022 Population |
---|---|---|---|---|
Russia | Moscow | 12-December-1991 | 17098242 | 145805.9470 |
Ukraine | Kyiv | 24-August-1991 | 603500 | 43192.1220 |
Uzbekistan | Tashkent | 31-August-1991 | 447400 | 34382.0840 |
Kazakhstan | Nur-Sultan | 16-December-1991 | 2724900 | 19205.0430 |
Azerbaijan | Baku | 30-August-1991 | 86600 | 10300.2050 |
Tajikistan | Dushanbe | 09-September-1991 | 143100 | 9957.4640 |
Belarus | Minsk | 10-December-1991 | 207600 | 9432.8000 |
Kyrgyzstan | Bishkek | 31-August-1991 | 199951 | 6728.2710 |
Turkmenistan | Ashgabat | 27-October-1991 | 488100 | 6201.9430 |
Moldova | Chișinău | 27-August-1991 | 33846 | 4013.1710 |
Georgia | Tbilisi | 09-April-1991 | 69700 | 3968.7380 |
Armenia | Yerevan | 21-September-1991 | 29743 | 2971.9660 |
Lithuania | Vilnius | 11-March-1990 | 65300 | 2661.7080 |
Latvia | Riga | 04-May-1990 | 64559 | 1848.8370 |
Estonia | Tallinn | 08-May-1990 | 45227 | 1321.9100 |