Russia Warning: You are not logged in. Your IP address will be publicly visible if you make any edits. If you log in or create an account, your edits will be attributed to your username, along with other benefits.Anti-spam check. Do not fill this in! ====Command economy and Soviet society==== On 30 December 1922, Lenin and his aides [[Treaty on the Creation of the USSR|formed]] the [[Soviet Union]], by joining the [[Russian Soviet Federative Socialist Republic|Russian SFSR]] into a single state with the [[Byelorussian Soviet Socialist Republic|Byelorussian]], [[Transcaucasian Socialist Federative Soviet Republic|Transcaucasian]], and [[Ukrainian Soviet Socialist Republic|Ukrainian]] republics.<ref>{{cite journal |last=Szporluk |first=Roman |title=Nationalities and the Russian Problem in the U.S.S.R.: an Historical Outline |jstor=24356607 |publisher=Journal of International Affairs Editorial Board |journal=[[Journal of International Affairs]] |volume=27 |number=1 |pages=22–40 |year=1973}}</ref> Eventually internal border changes and annexations during World War II created a union of [[republics of the Soviet Union|15 republics]]; the largest in size and population being the Russian SFSR, which dominated the union politically, culturally, and economically.<ref>{{cite journal |last=Brzezinski |first=Zbigniew |title=The Soviet Union: World Power of a New Type |jstor=1174124 |doi=10.2307/1174124 |volume=35 |number=3 |year=1984 |pages=147–159 |journal=Proceedings of the Academy of Political Science |publisher=[[The Academy of Political Science]]}}</ref> Following [[Death and state funeral of Vladimir Lenin|Lenin's death]] in 1924, a [[List of Troikas in the Soviet Union|troika]] was designated to take charge. Eventually [[Joseph Stalin]], the [[General Secretary of the Communist Party of the Soviet Union|General Secretary of the Communist Party]], managed to suppress all opposition factions and consolidate power in his hands to become the country's dictator by the 1930s.<ref>{{cite journal |last=Glassman |first=Leo M. |title=Stalin's Rise to Power |date=April 1931 |pages=73–77 |publisher=[[University of California Press]] |jstor=45336496 |journal=[[Current History]] |volume=34 |number=1|doi=10.1525/curh.1931.34.1.73 |s2cid=248843930 }}</ref> [[Leon Trotsky]], the main proponent of [[world revolution]], was exiled from the Soviet Union in 1929,<ref>{{cite journal |last=Getty |first=J Arch. |title=Trotsky in Exile: The Founding of the Fourth International |jstor=151989 |pages=24–35 |publisher=[[Taylor & Francis]] |volume=38 |number=1 |date=January 1986 |journal=Soviet Studies (Europe-Asia Studies)}}</ref> and Stalin's idea of [[Socialism in One Country]] became the official line.<ref>{{cite web |url=https://kar.kent.ac.uk/47659/1/Socialism%20in%20One%20Country%20Redacted.pdf |title=Socialism in One Country: A Study of Pragmatism and Ideology in the Soviet 1920s |publisher=[[University of Kent]] |last=Bensley |first=Michael |year=2014 |access-date=26 June 2021 |archive-date=26 June 2021 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20210626142120/https://kar.kent.ac.uk/47659/1/Socialism%20in%20One%20Country%20Redacted.pdf |url-status=live }}</ref> The continued internal struggle in the Bolshevik party culminated in the [[Great Purge]].<ref>{{cite journal |last=Kuromiya |first=Hirosaki |title=Accounting for the Great Terror |jstor=41051345 |publisher=[[Franz Steiner Verlag]] |journal=Jahrbücher für Geschichte Osteuropas |year=2005 |pages=86–101 |volume=53 |number=1}}</ref> Summary: Please note that all contributions to Christianpedia may be edited, altered, or removed by other contributors. If you do not want your writing to be edited mercilessly, then do not submit it here. You are also promising us that you wrote this yourself, or copied it from a public domain or similar free resource (see Christianpedia:Copyrights for details). Do not submit copyrighted work without permission! Cancel Editing help (opens in new window) Discuss this page