Union of Soviet Socialist Republics

Union of Soviet Socialist Republics

TheUnion of Soviet Socialist Republics was acountry that existed inEarth's20th century, stretching acrossEurope andAsia. Known by the abbreviationUSSR, as well as the shortened name of "Soviet Union", the country was dissolved in the1990s, but existed in some form by the later half of the24th century. (VOY: "Future's End";TNG: "The Naked Now"dedication plaque) Along with theUnited States of America, the USSR was involved in mankind's earliest space exploration.

Government and regions[]

The USSR was acommunistcountry and, between the1950s and1980s, a major rival of theUnited States of America. The USSR itself spanned across two continents and was comprised of a number of "soviet republics" such asRussia. Major cities includedMoscow,Minsk, andKiev. (TOS: "The Cage", "Wolf in the Fold";VOY: "Future's End";DS9: "What You Leave Behind")

The USSR also maintained a formidableintelligence agency, considered one of the best on Earth, known as theKGB. (DS9: "Our Man Bashir")

History[]

The Soviet Union was formed in1917, after theBolsheviks and their leaderVladimir Lenin gained power over the nation ofRussia. (ENT: "Storm Front, Part II")

Joseph Stalin was thedictator of the USSR duringWorld War II. Although the USSR maintained the Molotov-Ribbentrop Pact withAdolf Hitler at the onsetinvasion ofPoland, it was later invaded byGermany. Hitler was then forced to fight a two-front war in order to stave off the two superpowers, which he finally lost early in1945. (TNG: "Manhunt";ENT: "Storm Front, Part II")

In analternate timeline created during theTemporal Cold War, the USSR was never formed because of the mysteriousassassination of Vladimir Lenin in1916. Russia still suffered an invasion from Germany in the 1940s, although Germany was able to easily capture Moscow since the alternate Russia "wasn't a threat" as compared to its USSR counterpart. (ENT: "Storm Front, Part II")

After thewar, tensions between theUnited States of America and the USSR led to theCold War. WhenQuark traveled back in time to1947, he tried to play the Cold War rivals against one another, telling the American generalDenning that he would sellFerengi technology to the Soviets if the United States did not buy it first. (DS9: "Little Green Men") During the Cold War, the Soviet Union built villages similar to American villages to train operatives to infiltrate the United States. (VOY: "In the Flesh") The Cold War was eventually seen as a prelude toWorld War III, in particular after the Soviet Union tested its firstH-bomb, which made headlines in USnewspapers in the year1953. (DS9: "Far Beyond the Stars")

OnOctober 4,1957, the USSR launched the firstartificial satellite, theSputnik probe. This turned the attention of theVulcans on Humanity's development. (ENT: "Carbon Creek") Soviet space expansion continued over the next several decades. In1968, as part of the nuclear arms race,nuclear warhead platforms were launched into orbit by all the major powers on Earth. The sabotage and subsequent detonation of the US suborbital warhead eventually led to a stronger international agreement to ban such weapons. (TOS: "Assignment: Earth")

This relative time period was used in the plot for the24th centuryholoprogram,Julian Bashir, Secret Agent, in which the Soviets were suspected byMI5 of being involved in the disappearance of three agents working forGreat Britain inWest Berlin. (DS9: "Change of Heart")

The USSR dissolved in1991. (VOY: "Future's End") Among the last leaders wereLeonid Brezhnev andMikhail Gorbachev, the latter of whom met with American PresidentGeorge H.W. Bush. (ENT: "Storm Front, Part II")

Maps of the Earth including the USSR were present on thelibrary computer of theUSSEnterprise in2254. (TOS: "The Cage")

In the2360s, onstardate40291.7, theSSTsiolkovsky was launched from theBaikonur Cosmodrome in an entity called the "USSR". (TNG: "The Naked Now"dedication plaque)

Cities[]

Appendices[]

Background information[]

The starshipVKYuri Gagarin, theUSSEnterprise-DshuttlepodTereshkova, and theUSSVoyagershuttlecraftTereshkova were named after famous Soviet cosmonauts. According to theStar Trek Encyclopedia, theSoyuz-class was named after the Soyuz spacecraft of the Soviet space program. TheKorolev-class was named after the Soviet space pioneerSergei Korolev.

The real-world reason behind the "USSR" being written on the dedication plaque is that no one foresaw the fall of the Soviet Union during the making of "The Naked Now" in1987. The1988 novelGhost Ship, the first TNG novel, also had theEnterprise-D encounter a strange creature that had attacked a Soviet aircraft carrier in1995. The Soviet name for Saint Petersburg,Leningrad, was also mentioned in severalStar Trek: The Original Series episodes and in the1986 filmStar Trek IV: The Voyage Home, suggesting that the USSR existed again already in the23rd century.

Pavel Chekov serves as a representative of the Soviet Union in TOS. His frequent references to Leningrad andcomically erroneous claims can be seen as a satire of the Soviet Union's isolation from the western bloc in the mid-20th century when TOS was filmed.

The USSR, and its antagonistic relationship with the US, were the original inspiration for theKlingon Empire and its relationship with the Federation. The end of the USSR also served as inspiration for the events of the filmStar Trek VI: The Undiscovered Country, during which many Soviet Republics had declared independence from the Union. (Captains' Logs: The Unauthorized Complete Trek Voyages, pp. 137-138)

External links[]

• Union of Soviet Socialist Republics atMemory Beta, the wiki for licensedStar Trek works
• Union of Soviet Socialist Republics atWikipedia