1986 Edition

Agriculture

principal food crops — grain (especially wheat), potatoes; main industrial crops — sugar beets, cotton, sunflowers, and flax; degree of self-sufficiency depends on fluctuations in crop yields, particularly grain; large grain importer over past decade

Aid

economic — total extended to non-Communist less developed countries (1954-84), $30 billion

Branches

executive — USSR Council of Ministers, legislative — USSR Supreme Soviet, judicial — Supreme Court of USSR

Ground Forces, Navy, Air Defense Forces, Air Forces, Strategic Rocket Forces

Capital

Moscow

Coastline

46,670 km (incl. Sakhalin) People

Communists

over 18 million party members

Crude steel

174 million metric ton capacity as of 1 January 1985; 154.2 million metric tons produced in 1984, 560 kg per capita

Elections

to Supreme Soviet every five years; 1,500 seats in 1984; 71.5% held by party members

Electric power

316,000,000 kW capacity (1985); 1,540 billion kWh produced (1985), 5,549 kWh per capita

Ethnic divisions

52% Russian, 16% Ukrainian, 32% among over 100 other ethnic groups, according to 1979 census

Exports

$91.492 billion (f.o.b., 1984); petroleum and petroleum products, natural gas, metals, wood, agricultural products, and a wide variety of manufactured goods (primarily capital goods and arms)

Fishing

catch 10.6 million metric tons (1984); exports 452,755 metric tons (1983), imports 371,237 metric tons (1984); exports exclude canned fish, canned crab, and caviar

Freight carried

rail — 3,909 million metric tons, 3.64 trillion metric ton/km (1984); highways — 25.9 billion metric tons, 477 billion metric ton/km (1984); waterway — 619 million metric tons, 265 billion metric ton/km, excluding Caspian Sea (1984)

GNP

$1,957.6 billion (1984, in 1984 geometric mean prices), $7,120 per capita; in 1984 percentage shares were — 53% consumption, 30% investment, 17% government and other, including defense (based on 1970 GNP in rubles at adjusted factor cost); average annual growth rate of real GNP (1971-84), 3.0%, average annual growth rate (1976-84), 2.6%, (1984) 2.5%

Government leaders

Mikhail Sergeyevich GORBACHEV, General Secretary of the Central Committee of the Communist Party (since 11 March 1985); Nikolay Ivanovich RYZHKOV, Chairman of the USSR Council of Ministers (since 28 September 1985); Andrey Andreyevich GROMYKO, President of the Soviet Union (since 2 July 1985)

Highways

1,516,700 km total; 439,000 km asphalt, concrete, stone block; 354,000 km asphalt treated, gravel, crushed stone; 723,700 km earth (1984)

Imports

$80,352 billion (f.o.b., 1984); grain and other agricultural products, machinery and equipment, steel products (including large diameter pipe), consumer manufactures

Infant mortality rate

27.9/1,000(1982)

Inland waterways

136,700km navigable, exclusive of Caspian Sea (1984)

Labor force

civilian 148 million (midyear 1984), 20% agriculture, 80% industry and other nonagricultural fields; unemployed not reported; shortage of skilled labor reported Government

Land boundaries

20,619 km Water

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

Legal system

civil law system as modified by Communist legal theory; revised constitution adopted 1977; no judicial review of legislative acts; legal education at 18 universities and 4 law institutes; has not accepted compulsory ICJ jurisdiction

Life expectancy

men 64, women 74

Limits of territorial waters (claimed)

12 nm (200 nm exclusive economic zone)

Literacy

99%

Major industries

diversified, highly developed capital goods industries; consumer goods industries comparatively less developed

Major trade partners

$171.8 billion (1984 total turnover); trade 58% with Communist countries, 29% with industrialized West, and 13% with less developed countries

Member of

CEMA, ESCAP, Geneva Disarmament Conference, IAEA, IBEC, ICAC, ICAO, ICCAT, ICCO, ICES, ILO, IMO, International Lead and Zinc Study Group, INRO, IPU, ISO, ITC, ITU, IWC— International Whaling Commission, IWC — International Wheat Council, UN, UNESCO, UPU, Warsaw Pact, WFTU, WHO, WIPO, WMO, WTO Economy

Military manpower

males 15-49, 68,559,000; 55,173,000 fit for military service; 2,096,000 reach military age (17) annually

Monetary conversion rate

official, 0.743 ruble=US$l (1983 average) Communications

National holiday

October Revolution Day, 7 November

Nationality

noun — Soviet(s); adjective — Soviet

Natural resources

fossil fuels, hydroelectric power, timber, manganese, lead, zinc, nickel, mercury, potash, phosphates

NOTE

The US Government does .not recognize the incorporation of the Baltic States Estonia, Latvia, and Lithuania into the Soviet Union. Land 22,402,200 km2; nearly two and one-half times the size of the US; 35.5% forest, 16.7% pasture and hay, 10. 1 % cultivated, 37.7% other

Official name

Union of Soviet Socialist Republics

Other political or pressure groups

Komsomol, trade unions, and other organizations that facilitate Communist control

Pipelines

78,300 km crude oil and refined products; 165,000 km natural gas (1984)

Political party

Communist Party of the Soviet Union (CPSU) only party permitted

Political subdivisions

15 union republics, consisting of 20 autonomous republics, 6 krays, 123 oblasts, 8 autonomous oblasts, and 10 autonomous okrugs

Population

279,904,000 (July 1986), average annual growth rate 0.9%

Ports

53 major (most important — Leningrad, Riga, Tallinn, Kaliningrad, Liepaja, Ventspils, Murmansk, Arkhangel'sk, Odessa, Novorossiysk, Il'ichevsk, Nikolayev, Sevastopol', Vladivostok, Nakhodka); over 180 selected minor; 58 major inland ports (some of the more important — Astrakhan', Baku, Gor'kiy, Kazan, Khabarovsk, Krasnoyarsk, Kuybyshev, Moscow, Rostov, Volgograd, Kiev (1984) Defense Forces

Railroads

144,100 km total; 142,967 km 1.524-meter broad gauge; 1,833 km mostly 0.750-meter narrow gauge; 113,315 km broad-gauge single track; 47,900 km electrified; does not include industrial lines (1984)

Religion

18% Russian Orthodox; 9% Muslim; 3% Jewish, Protestant, Georgian Orthodox, or Roman Catholic; population is 70% atheist

Shortages

fertilizer, pesticides, feed, natural rubber, bauxite and alumina, tantalum, tin, tungsten, fluorspar, molybdenum, and finished steel products

Suffrage

universal over age 18; direct, equal

Type

Communist state

Voting strength

(1984 election) 184,006,350 persons over 18; allegedly 99.95% voted