AlthoughRussia competed from 1900 through 1912 at the Olympics, it did not return after World War I. After the Bolshevik Revolution, the Soviet Union (formally the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics, or USSR) did not attend the Olympics for 40 years. In fact, the Soviet Union was absent from international sports, instead choosing to compete in separate socialist events, which also attracted participation from other nations.

After World War II, the Soviet Union competed in the European Championships in track & field athletics in 1946. The National Olympic Committee was formed on 23 April 1951 and recognized by the International Olympic Committee (IOC) on 7 May of the same year, at the IOC session in Vienna. The Soviet Union participated for the first time at the Olympic Games at Helsinki 1952. It made its inaugural Olympic Winter Games appearance at Cortina d’Ampezzo 1956. It competed at every Olympics from 1956-1988, with the exception of the 1984 Los Angeles Olympics. In 1992, most of its constituent republics competed as theUnified Team (EUN).

After returning to the Olympics, the Soviet Union was a dominant force in almost all Olympic sports. It was the second nation to win more than 1,000 Olympic medals (after theUnited States), winning a grand total of 1,204 medals (including 473 gold).

All of its top medal winners competed in gymnastics, withLarysa Latynina winning 18 Olympic medals (and nine golds), which is the most of any female athlete in Olympic history. The top male Soviet Olympian was also a gymnast:Nikolay Andrianov won 15 medals and seven golds from 1972-1980. Four other Soviet athletes won 10 or more medals at the Olympics, all in gymnastics:Boris Shakhlin,Viktor Chukarin,Polina Astakhova andAleksandr Dityatin.

Of the more than 1,000 medals won by the Soviet Union during its history, 194 of them (and 78 golds) were achieved at the Winter Olympics. They particularly excelled in cross-country skiing (68 medals and 25 gold) and in speed skating (60 medals and 24 gold).

Cross-country skiersRaisa Smetanina andGalina Kulakova led the Soviet Winter Olympians with more medals, with nine medals (three gold) and eight medals (four gold), respectively. The gold medal count was led by speedskaterLidiya Skoblikova, with a total of six medals, all gold.

The Soviet Union was disbanded in late 1991, after the August Revolution. It no longer competes as a single nation at the Olympics, as its 15 former republics now compete as independent nations, but the central core of the former nation has still competed at the Olympics as Russia, although because of doping scandals in the 2010s, its athletes have only been allowed to compete as Olympic Athletes from Russia or as the Russian Olympic Committee since 2016.

In 1955 the Olympic Committee of the USSR was awarded with theCount Alberto Bonacossa Trophy.