_#_Literacy: 98% (male 99%, female 97%) age 15 and over can read and write (1989)
_#_Labor force: 152,300,000 civilians; industry and other nonagricultural fields 80%, agriculture 20%; shortage of skilled labor (1989)
_#_Organized labor: the vast majority of workers are union members; official unions are organized within the General Confederation of Trade Unions (GCTU) and still operate within general guidelines set up by the CPSU and Soviet Government; a large number of independent trade unions have been formed since President Gorbachev came to power; most are locally or regionally based and represent workers from one enterprise or a group of enterprises; there are a few independent unions that claim a nationwide following, the most prominent of which is Independent Miners Trade Union set up by the country's coal miners
_*Government #_Long-form name: Union of Soviet Socialist Republics; abbreviated USSR
_#_Type: in transition to multiparty federal system
_#_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, Belorussian (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, Russian Soviet Federative Socialist Republic*, Soviet Socialist Republic of Moldova, Tajik Soviet Socialist Republic, Turkmen Soviet Socialist Republic, Ukrainian Soviet Socialist Republic, Uzbek Soviet Socialist Republic; note—Russian Soviet Federative Socialist Republic is often abbreviated RSFSR and Soviet Socialist Republic is often abbreviated SSR; the parliaments in Armenia, Azerbaijan, Estonia, Georgia, Latvia, and Lithuania have removed the words Soviet Socialist from the names of their republics, but the central government has not recognized those changes; the parliament in Kirghiziya changed the name Kirghiz Soviet Socialist Republic to Republic of Kyrgyzstan, but the central government has not recognized that change
_#_Independence: 30 December 1922 (Union of Soviet Socialist Republics established)
_#_Constitution: 7 October 1977
_#_Legal system: civil law system as modified by Communist legal theory; no judicial review of legislative acts; has not accepted compulsory ICJ jurisdiction