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)

The state of tension which existed between the Soviet Union and capitalist Western nations such as the United States of America 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)

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) The Soviet Union was dissolved in the early 1990s. (AUDIO: Protect and Survive)