From 1922 till 1991, the Soviet Union, officially the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics (USSR), was a socialist state that covered Europe and Asia. It was in theory a federal union of different sovereign republics; but, till its closing years, its administration and economy were highly centralized.

The Bolsheviks, led by Vladimir Lenin, ousted the Provisional Federal government that had formerly toppled the Russian Empire's Romanov family in the October Revolution of 1917, bring to life the Soviet Union. They established the Russian Soviet Republic, the world's first socialist state with a constitution. Stress between the Bolshevik Red Army and some anti-Bolshevik forces across the previous Empire emerged into a civil war, with the White Guard being the most effective faction. The White Horror was a period of violent anti-communist repression by the White Defend Against the Bolsheviks and believed worker and peasant Bolsheviks. Through Red Horror, the Red Army extended and helped regional Bolsheviks in acquiring power, building soviets, and penalizing political challengers and defiant peasants. By 1922, the power balance had moved, and the Bolsheviks had thrived, unifying the Russian, Transcaucasian, Ukrainian, and Byelorussian republics to form the Soviet Union. After the civil war ended, Lenin's administration carried out The New Economic Policy, which led to a partial return of the free enterprise and personal property, and also a period of financial healing.

Joseph Stalin rose to power after Lenin's death in the year 1924. Within the Communist Party, Stalin got rid of any political resistance to his rule and developed a command economy. As a consequence, the nation went through a period of quick industrialization and pushed collectivization, which led to great financial development but also a manufactured starvation in the year 1932-- 1933 and the growth of the Gulag labor camp system.