Despite its troubled infancy and the hardship faced during World War 2, in the second half of the 20th century the USSR became one of the world’s two superpowers. How did it manage this turn-around? What did its rise mean for its people and the rest of the world? And how did the young nation that shaped so much of the 20th century’s geopolitics eventually come crashing down?

This is the second in a special 2 part Short History of… the Soviet Union.

Written by Dan Smith. With thanks to historian and author Professor Sheila Fitzpatrick of the Australian Catholic University and the University of Sydney.

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