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