Soviet Union

Proper noun

the Soviet Union

1. (historical) A former transcontinental country in Europe and Asia (1922–1991), now split into Russia and fourteen other countries. Official name: Union of Soviet Socialist Republics.
   • In the Baltic states of Estonia, Latvia, and Lithuania, three of the Soviet Union's fifteen constituent republics, last year's most dangerous fantasies have been sanctioned by the government itself. From Moscow has come the admission that yes, after all, the Soviet Union occupied these nations by...1989 May, Priit J. Vesilind, “The Baltic: Arena of Power”, in National Geographic, volume 175, number 5, page 604
   • Hence the famous February 9th 1946 speech at the Bolshoi Theatre, where Stalin announced that the Soviet Union was returning to its pre-war emphasis on industrialization, war-preparedness, and the inevitability of conflict between capitalism and Communism, and made explicit what was already...2005, Tony Judt, “The Impossible Settlement”, in Postwar: A history of Europe since 1945, London: Vintage Books, published 2010, →ISBN

   Synonyms:

   USSR, CCCP, SSSR, SU, Russia

2. (historical, informal) The Russian Soviet Federative Socialist Republic.