Natural resources: self-sufficient in oil, natural gas, coal, and strategic minerals (except bauxite, alumina, tantalum, tin, tungsten, fluorspar, and molybdenum), timber, gold, manganese, lead, zinc, nickel, mercury, potash, phosphates
Land use: 10% arable land; NEGL% permanent crops; 17% meadows and pastures; 41% forest and woodland; 32% other; includes 1% irrigated
Environment: despite size and diversity, small percentage of land is arable and much is too far north; some of most fertile land is water deficient or has insufficient growing season; many better climates have poor soils; hot, dry, desiccating sukhovey wind affects south; desertification; continuous permafrost over much of Siberia is a major impediment to development
Note: largest country in world, but unfavorably located in relation to major sea lanes of world
People
Population: 290,938,469 (July 1990),
growth rate 0.7% (1990)
Birth rate: 18 births/1,000 population (1990)
Death rate: 1 deaths/1,000 population (1990)
Net migration rate: migrants/1,000 population (1990)
Infant mortality rate: 24 deaths/1,000 live births (1990)
Life expectancy at birth: 65 years male, 74 years female (1990)
Total fertility rate: 2.4 children born/woman (1990)
Nationality: noun—Soviet(s); adjective—Soviet
Ethnic divisions: Russian 50.78%, Ukrainian 15.45%, Uzbek 5.84%, Byelorussian 3.51%, Kazakh 2.85%, Azerbaijan 2.38%, Armenian 1.62%, Tajik 1.48%, Georgian 1.39%, Moldavian 1.17%, Lithuanian 1.07%, Turkmen 0.95%, Kirghiz 0.89%, Latvian 0.51%, Estonian 0.36%, others 9.75%
Religion: 20% Russian Orthodox; 10% Muslim; 7% Protestant, Georgian Orthodox, Armenian Orthodox, and Roman Catholic; less than 1% Jewish; 60% atheist (est.)
Language: Russian (official); more than 200 languages and dialects (at least 18 with more than 1 million speakers); 75% Slavic group, 8% other Indo-European, 12% Altaic, 3% Uralian, 2% Caucasian
Literacy: 99%
Labor force: 152,300,000 civilians; 80% industry and other nonagricultural fields, 20% agriculture; shortage of skilled labor (1989)
Organized labor: 98% of workers are union members; all trade unions are organized within the All-Union Central Council of Trade Unions (AUCCTU) and conduct their work under guidance of the Communist party
Government
Long-form name: Union of Soviet Socialist
Republics; abbreviated USSR
Type: Communist state
Capital: Moscow
Administrative divisions: 1 soviet federative socialist republic* (sovetskaya federativnaya sotsialistcheskaya respublika) and 14 soviet socialist republics (sovetskiye sotsialisticheskiye respubliki, singular—sovetskaya sotsialisticheskaya respublika); Armenian Soviet Socialist Republic, Azerbaijan Soviet Socialist Republic, Byelorussian Soviet Socialist Republic, Estonian Soviet Socialist Republic, Georgian Soviet Socialist Republic, Kazakh Soviet Socialist Republic, Kirghiz Soviet Socialist Republic, Latvian Soviet Socialist Republic, Lithuanian Soviet Socialist Republic, Moldavian Soviet Socialist Republic, Russian Soviet Federative Socialist Republic*, Tajik Soviet Socialist Republic, Turkmen Soviet Socialist Republic, Ukrainian Soviet Socialist Republic, Uzbek Soviet Socialist Republic; note—the Russian Soviet Federative Socialist Republic is often abbreviated RSFSR and Soviet Socialist Republic is often abbreviated SSR
Independence: 1721 (Russian Empire proclaimed)
Constitution: 7 October 1977
Legal system: civil law system as modified by Communist legal theory; no judicial review of legislative acts; has not accepted compulsory ICJ jurisdiction
National holiday: Great October Socialist Revolution, 7-8 November (1917)
Executive branch: president
Legislative branch: the Congress of People's Deputies is the supreme organ of USSR state power and selects the bicameral USSR Supreme Soviet (Verkhovnyy Sovyet) which consists of two coequal houses—Council of the Union (Sovet Soyuza) and Council of Nationalities (Sovet Natsionalnostey)
Judicial branch: Supreme Court of the USSR
Leaders: Chief of State—President Mikhail Sergeyevich GORBACHEV (since 14 March 1990; General Secretary of the Central Committee of the Communist Party since 11 March 1985);
Head of Government—Chairman of the USSR Council of Ministers Nikolay Ivanovich RYZHKOV (since 28 September 1985)
Political parties and leaders: only party—Communist Party of the Soviet Union (CPSU), President Mikhail Sergeyevich Gorbachev, general secretary of the Central Committee of the CPSU; note the CPSU is the only party, but others are forming
Suffrage: universal at age 18
Elections: President—last held 14 March 1990 (next to be held NA 1995); results—Mikhail Sergeyevich Gorbachev was elected by the Congress of People's Deputies;
Congress of People's Deputies—last held 12 March 1990 (next to be held NA); results—CPSU is the only party; seats—(2,250 total) CPSU 1,931, non-CPSU 319; USSR Supreme Soviet—last held NA June 1989 (next to be held NA); results—CPSU is the only party; seats—(542 total) CPSU 475, non-CPSU 67;
Council of the Union—last held Spring 1989 (next to be held NA); results—CPSU is the only party; seats—(271 total) CPSU 239, non-CPSU 32;
Council of Nationalities—last held Spring 1989 (next to be held NA); results—CPSU is the only party; seats—(271 total) CPSU 236, non-CPSU 35
Communists: about 19 million party members
Other political or pressure groups: Komsomol, trade unions, and other organizations that facilitate Communist control; regional popular fronts, informal organizations, and nascent parties with varying attitudes toward the Communist Party establishment
Member of: CEMA, ESCAP, IAEA, IBEC, ICAC, ICAO, ICCO, ICES, ILO, ILZSG, IMO, INRO, INTERPOL, IPU, ISO, ITC, ITU, International Whaling Commission, IWC—International Wheat Council, UN, UNCTAD, UNESCO, UPU, Warsaw Pact, WFTU, WHO, WIPO, WMO, WTO
Diplomatic representation: Ambassador-designate Aleksandr BESSMERTNYKH; Chancery at 1125 16th Street NW, Washington DC 20036; telephone (202) 628-7551 or 8548; there is a Soviet Consulate General in San Francisco; US—Ambassador Jack F. MATLOCK, Jr.; Embassy at Ulitsa Chaykovskogo 19/21/23, Moscow (mailing address is APO New York 09862); telephone [7](096) 252-24-51 through 59; there is a US Consulate General in Leningrad
Flag: red with the yellow silhouette of a crossed hammer and sickle below a yellow-edged five-pointed red star in the upper hoist-side corner
Economy
Overview: The first five years of perestroyka (economic restructuring) have undermined the institutions and processes
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