Soviet Union

The Soviet Union or U.S.S.R was a grouping of countries which existed on Earth during the 20th century. Russia was part of the U.S.S.R. and, as such, the Russian language was extensively spoken by its peoples.

History
The Russian Revolution of 1917 replaced Russia's monarchy with a communist government. The October Revolution, which took place on 7 November 1917, was a part of the larger revolution and was noted for being particularly bloody. (PROSE: History 101)

Its leader was the General Secretary of the Communist Party of the Soviet Union. During its existence, the position was held by Joseph Stalin, Nikita Khrushchev, Konstantin Chernenko and Mikhail Gorbachev, among others. (PROSE: History 101, Who Killed Kennedy; AUDIO: Protect and Survive)

The symbol of the Soviet Union was the hammer and sickle. (COMIC: Target Practice)

During World War II, the Soviet Union was allied with the United States of America, the United Kingdom, France and other nations against Nazi Germany. (AUDIO: Resistance; TV: The Curse of Fenric, Victory of the Daleks)

The post-Second World War state of tension which existed between the Soviet Union and capitalist Western nations such as the United States and the United Kingdom was known as the Cold War. (PROSE: First Frontier, Endgame; TV: Dreamland, Cold War; AUDIO: Threshold, Protect and Survive) This led to an arms race which saw mass stockpiling of nuclear weapons by all concerned. (TV: Cold War; AUDIO: Protect and Survive) The Cold War remained tense in 1983. (TV: Cold War) However, it had ended by 1993. (PROSE: Goth Opera)

The Soviet Union also had an extensive space program. It oversaw the production and launch of Sputnik, Earth's first artificial satellite. (AUDIO: Unregenerate!) Several humans were also sent into space as part of the program; they were termed "cosmonauts." (PROSE: The Mind Extractors) During the 1960s, Yuri Gagarin and Valentina Tereshkova, the first person and first woman in space respectively as far as the majority of humanity was concerned, were among them. (AUDIO: Thin Ice)

After her detection from the Soviet Union to the United Kingdom in 1958, the Czechoslovakian scientist Dr. Nadia Červenka provided the Sen-Gen Facility with a neuro-chemical hallucinogen developed using a yellow fungus which was discovered in the Tunguska crater. It was believed to be extraterrestial in origin. (AUDIO: Artificial Intelligence)

In November 1963, a Soviet spy ring was operating in London. A spy who went by the alias of Miles Barrington Smythe was working with an MI6 double agent. (TV: The Cambridge Spy)

The Seventh Doctor and Ace attended the ceremony held in honour of the 50th anniversary of the October Revolution in Red Square in Moscow on 7 November 1967. The Doctor explained to Ace that the celebration of the October Revolution was held in November as Russia was still using the Julian calendar, which was eleven days behind the Gregorian calendar, in 1917. (AUDIO: Thin Ice)

Soon after UNIT was formed, they used a Russian rocket to destroy the Cybermen's invasion fleet. (TV: The Invasion)

In the 1970s, four Soviet cosmonauts had their minds extracted by an alien Extractor. (PROSE: The Mind Extractors)

Also in the 1970s, a Soviet spy attempted to talk the Third Doctor into defecting, but was unsuccessful. (COMIC: Target Practice)

Several years later, the British and Soviet branches of UNIT worked together against the Waro threat. (PROSE: The Devil Goblins from Neptune)

In response to the Luron invasion of Earth in 1979, the Soviet Union placed its entire nuclear weapons' arsenal at UNIT's disposal. (AUDIO: The Valley of Death)

In 1983, the Soviet submarine, the Firebird, discovered the Ice Warrior, Skaldak, frozen in ice beneath the North Pole. (TV: Cold War)

On 8 May 1984, the Soviet Union announced that it was boycotting the Olympic Games which were to be held in Los Angeles later that year. (AUDIO: The Reaping)

On 26 April 1986, the nuclear reactor at Chernobyl underwent a meltdown. (COMIC: Black Destiny) The Soviet Union was dissolved in the early 1990s. (AUDIO: Protect and Survive)

Alternative timelines

 * In an alternative timeline in which Nazi Germany won World War II as a result of the Seventh Doctor and Ace accidentally leaving laser technology in Colditz Castle in October 1944, the Nazi scientists were able to refine uranium and create nuclear weapons. They subsequently bombed Moscow, forcing the surrender of the Soviet Union and winning the war for Germany. (AUDIO: Klein's Story)
 * In an alternative timeline created by the Elder Gods in the hope of destroying Earth, World War III broke out on 9 November 1989 between the Soviet Union on the one hand and the United States and its allies, including the United Kingdom, on the other hand. Given that nuclear weapons were used by both sides, hundreds of millions of people were killed in the conflict. This timeline was ultimately negated by the Seventh Doctor. (AUDIO: Protect and Survive)

Behind the scenes
To describe events throughout the second half of the 20th century, the names "Russia" and "Soviet Union" are often used interchangeably, but are in fact separate. Although the biggest by far, Russia was only one of several republics that formed the Union.

In the real world, the Soviet Union was created in 1922 and dissolved in 1991.