Ethnic divisions: Russian 50.78%, Ukrainian 15.45%, Uzbek 5.84%,
Byelorussian 3.51%, Kazakh 2.85%, Azerbaijan 2.38%, Armenian 1.62%,
Tajik 1.48%, Georgian 1.39%, Moldavian 1.17%, Lithuanian 1.07%,
Turkmen 0.95%, Kirghiz 0.89%, Latvian 0.51%, Estonian 0.36%, others 9.75%
Religion: 20% Russian Orthodox; 10% Muslim; 7% Protestant, Georgian Orthodox, Armenian Orthodox, and Roman Catholic; less than 1% Jewish; 60% atheist (est.)
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
Literacy: 99%
Labor force: 152,300,000 civilians; 80% industry and other nonagricultural fields, 20% agriculture; shortage of skilled labor (1989)
Organized labor: 98% of workers are union members; all trade unions are organized within the All-Union Central Council of Trade Unions (AUCCTU) and conduct their work under guidance of the Communist party
- Government
Long-form name: Union of Soviet Socialist Republics; 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