Background:
Repeated devastating defeats of the Russian army in World War I led
to widespread rioting in the major cities of the Russian Empire and
to the overthrow in 1917 of the 300-year old Romanov Dynasty. The
Communists under Vladimir LENIN seized power soon after and formed
the USSR. The brutal rule of Josef STALIN (1928-53) strengthened
Russian dominance of the Soviet Union at a cost of tens of millions
of lives. The Soviet economy and society stagnated in the following
decades until General Secretary Mikhail GORBACHEV (1985-91)
introduced glasnost (openness) and perestroika (restructuring) in an
attempt to modernize Communism, but his initiatives inadvertently
released forces that by December 1991 splintered the USSR into 15
independent republics. Since then, Russia has struggled in its
efforts to build a democratic political system and market economy to
replace the strict social, political, and economic controls of the
Communist period. A determined guerrilla conflict still plagues
Russia in Chechnya.