The Union of Soviet Socialist Republics was a country that existed in Earth's 20th century, stretching across Europe and Asia. Known by the abbreviation USSR, as well as the shortened name "Soviet Union", the country was dissolved in the 1990s but again existed in some form by the later half of the 24th century. (VOY: "Future's End"; TNG: "The Naked Now" dedication plaque)
Government and Regions
The USSR was a communist nation and, between the 1950s and 1980s, a major rival of the United States of America. The USSR itself spanned across two continents and was comprised of several "socialist republics" such as Russia and Kazakhstan. Major cities included Moscow, Minsk, and Kiev. (TOS: "The Cage", "Wolf in the Fold"; VOY: "Future's End"; DS9: "What You Leave Behind")
The USSR also maintained a formidable intelligence agency, considered one of the best on Earth, known as the KGB. (DS9: "Our Man Bashir")
History
USSR in the 20th century
The Soviet Union was formed in 1917, after the Bolsheviks and their leader Vladimir Lenin gained power over the nation of Russia. (ENT: "Storm Front, Part II")
Josef Stalin was the ruler of the USSR during World War II. Although he was in a non-aggression pact with Adolf Hitler at the onset, the USSR was later invaded by Germany. Hitler was then forced to fight a two-front war in order to stave off the two superpowers, which he finally lost early in 1945. (TNG: "Manhunt"; ENT: "Storm Front, Part II")
Mikhail Gorbachev, as seen in the time stream together with George H.W. Bush, at a summit meeting toward the end of the Cold War
After the war, tensions between the United States of America and the USSR led to the Cold War. When Quark traveled back in time to 1947, he tried to play the Cold War rivals against one another, telling an American general that he would sell Ferengi technology to the Russians 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 would eventually be seen as a prelude to World War III, in particular after the Soviet Union tested its first H-bomb, which made headlines in US newspapers in the year 1953. (DS9: "Far Beyond the Stars")
In 1957, the USSR launched the first artificial satellite, the Sputnik probe. This turned the attention of the Vulcans on Humanity's development. (ENT: "Carbon Creek") Soviet space expansion would continue over the next several decades. In 1968, 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")
The USSR dissolved in 1991. (VOY: "Future's End") Among the last leaders were Leonid Brezhnev and Mikhail Gorbachev. (ENT: "Storm Front, Part II")
USSR in the 24th century
In the 2360s, on stardate 40291.7, the SS Tsiolkovsky was launched from the Baikonur Cosmodrome in the USSR. (TNG: "The Naked Now" dedication plaque)
Legacy
Maps of the Earth including the USSR were present on the library computer of the USS Enterprise in 2254. (TOS: "The Cage")
In the Julian Bashir, Secret Agent holoprogram, the Soviets were suspected by MI5 of being involved in the disappearance of three agents working for Great Britain in West Berlin. (DS9: "Change of Heart")
Alternate timelines
In an alternate timeline created during the Temporal Cold War, the USSR was never formed because of the mysterious assassination of Vladimir Lenin in 1916. 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")
Appendices
Background information
The starship VK Yuri Gagarin, the USS Enterprise-D shuttlepod Tereshkova, and the USS Voyager shuttlecraft Tereshkova were named after famous Soviet cosmonauts. According to the Star Trek Encyclopedia, the Soyuz-class was named after the Soyuz spacecraft of the Soviet space program. The Korolev class was named after the Soviet space pioneer Sergei Korolev.
- The real-world reason behind the USSR existing again in the 24th century is that no one foresaw the collapse of the Soviet Union during the making of "The Naked Now" in 1987. The 1988 novel Ghost Ship, the first TNG-novel also had the Enterprise-D encounter a strange creature that had attacked a Soviet aircraft carrier in 1995. The Soviet name for Saint Petersburg, Leningrad, was also mentioned in several Star Trek: The Original Series episodes and in the 1986 film Star Trek IV: The Voyage Home, suggesting that the USSR existed again already in the 23rd century.
- The USSR, and its antagonistic relationship with the US, were the original inspiration for the Klingon Empire and its relationship with the Federation. The fall of the USSR also served as inspiration for the events of the film Star Trek VI: The Undiscovered Country. (Captains' Logs: The Unauthorized Complete Trek Voyages, pp. 137-138)