Union of Soviet Republics

Part of the country series of articles.

TRAVEL ADVISORY: EXERCISE HEIGHTENED CAUTION

PARSTATE advises that Soviet law varies between constituent soviets, and offensive speech and customs may be strictly penalised. It is important for travellers to familiarise themselves with local laws before arrival. The Commonwealth has no ability to interfere in legal proceedings.

Union of Soviet Republics
Federal Union of Soviet Republics
Capital	Odessa
Languages	Russian, Ukrainian, and many regional languages
Population	382 million

The Union of Soviet Republics (Soviet Union) is a federal state spanning much of Eurasia, established in Russia during a bloody civil war and expanded several times since to form a union of socialist countries. It has a pluralistic socialist tradition formed during the overthrow of the bolshevik movement during the civil war, after a peasant rebellion against grain requisitioning quickly developed into a broader coalition of Red, Green and Black Army factions. Its capital reflects this pluralism and also its political contradictions, located in Odessa far away from the heart of Russian power in Moscow.

The country is governed in a federal fashion through constituent soviets, or councils, that vary significantly in political character. Some are orthodox socialist republics; many others retain agrarian or even anarchist traditions descending from their traditional armies. Some have very little socialist character at all and rely heavily on a form of state-centralism and direct economic management. Nonetheless, all are governed from Odessa by the “supreme soviet,” which holds total authority over defence, economic planning and foreign policy. The economy is centrally planned and administed by enthusiastic technocrats, who use photoelectric computers to micromanage every aspect of economic life (plus some others). Secession is an endless concern for the Soviets, and a vast and opaque internal security apparatus is always watching for separatists and revisionists.