Soviet Union Information sheet Hello   World The Soviet Union (USSR), which existed from 1922 to 1991, was the world’s first communist state and a massive superpower that spanned eleven time zones. Life for its citizens was defined by a planned economy where the state provided jobs, housing, and healthcare, but also by chronic shortages of consumer goods, restricted travel, and intense political surveillance. While the era saw rapid industrialisation and a celebrated space programme, it was also marked by periods of severe political repression and the "Iron Curtain" divide from the West. Its leadership followed a succession of distinct eras: it was founded by Vladimir Lenin, followed by the brutal totalitarian rule of Joseph Stalin, the Cold War confrontations of Nikita Khrushchev, and the era of stability (and later stagnation) under Leonid Brezhnev. Following the brief tenures of Yuri Andropov and Konstantin Chernenko, the final leader was Mikhail Gorbachev, whose reforms of glasnost (openness) and perestroika (restructuring) ultimately led to the union’s peaceful collapse.