SOVIET UNION

Pronunciation (US):

(GB):

IPA (US):

 Dictionary entry overview: What does Soviet Union mean? 

• SOVIET UNION (noun)
  The noun SOVIET UNION has 1 sense:

1. a former communist country in eastern Europe and northern Asia; established in 1922; included Russia and 14 other soviet socialist republics (Ukraine and Byelorussia and others); officially dissolved 31 December 1991

  Familiarity information: SOVIET UNION used as a noun is very rare.

 Dictionary entry details 

• SOVIET UNION (noun)

Sense 1

Meaning:

A former communist country in eastern Europe and northern Asia; established in 1922; included Russia and 14 other soviet socialist republics (Ukraine and Byelorussia and others); officially dissolved 31 December 1991

Classified under:

Nouns denoting spatial position

Synonyms:

Russia; Soviet Union; Union of Soviet Socialist Republics; USSR

Instance hypernyms:

country; land; state (the territory occupied by a nation)

Meronyms (parts of "Soviet Union"):

Soviet Socialist Republic (one of the states that formerly made up the former Union of Soviet Socialist Republics (1922-1991))

Russia; Russian Soviet Federated Socialist Republic; Soviet Russia (formerly the largest Soviet Socialist Republic in the USSR occupying eastern Europe and northern Asia)

Caspian; Caspian Sea (a large saltwater lake between Iran and Russia fed by the Volga River; the largest inland body of water in the world)

Domain member region:

svoboda ((Russia) freedom)

February Revolution; Russian Revolution (the revolution against the czarist government which led to the abdication of Nicholas II and the creation of a provisional government in March 1917)

balagan (a word for chaos or fiasco borrowed from modern Hebrew (where it is a loan word from Russian))

Isaac Stern; Stern (United States concert violinist (born in Russia in 1920))

tovarich; tovarisch (a comrade (especially in Russian communism))

steppe (extensive plain without trees (associated with eastern Russia and Siberia))

kolkhoz (a collective farm owned by the communist state)

kvass (fermented beverage resembling beer but made from rye or barley)

pirogi; piroshki; pirozhki (small fruit or meat turnover baked or fried)

razbliuto (the sentimental feeling you have about someone you once loved but no longer do)

Russian (the Slavic language that is the official language of Russia)

October Revolution; Russian Revolution (the coup d'etat by the Bolsheviks under Lenin in November 1917 that led to a period of civil war which ended in victory for the Bolsheviks in 1922)

Holonyms ("Soviet Union" is a part of...):

Eurasia (the land mass formed by the continents of Europe and Asia)

 Context examples 

He received the "Hero of the Soviet Union", the Soviet Union's highest honor, for his work.

(Cosmonaut Alexei Leonov dies at age 85, Wikinews)

The United States, the former Soviet Union and more recently China have sent spacecraft to the near side of the moon, but the latest Chinese landing is the first on the far side.

(Chinese Rover Making Tracks on Dark Side of the Moon, VOA)

A derivative of isoniazid, used to treat tuberculosis in the Soviet Union.

(Ftivazide, NCI Thesaurus)

Last year, Opportunity became the long-distance champion of all off-Earth vehicles when it topped the previous record set by the former Soviet Union's Lunokhod 2 moon rover.

(Opportunity Mars Rover Passes Marathon Distance, NASA)

Denotes a person having origins in any of the countries of Eastern Europe such as Czechoslovakia, Poland, Croatia, Hungary, Slovenia, Former Soviet Union, or Finland.

(Eastern European, NCI Thesaurus)

Leonov, also known as "cosmonaut No. 11", was part of the Soviet Union's original team of cosmonauts.

(Cosmonaut Alexei Leonov dies at age 85, Wikinews)

Leonov was famous for performing the first human spacewalk as part of the Soviet Union's Voskhod 2 mission.

(Cosmonaut Alexei Leonov dies at age 85, Wikinews)