Ordered closure of organization that documented Soviet-era crimes 3:11
(CNN Spanish) --
In the midst of the crisis between Russia and Ukraine and the latent threat of war, Russian President Vladimir Putin spoke on Monday about the history of the Soviet Union in a televised speech, in which he said that modern Ukraine "was created entirely by communist Russia."
"This process started almost immediately after the 1917 revolution. And it continued then, just before and after World War II," Putin said.
What is Putin looking for in Ukraine?
The conflict explained
What exactly was the Soviet Union and how does it relate to the crisis between Russia and Ukraine?
This Tuesday, Putin referred to the issue again in statements to the press: "After the fall of the Soviet Union, Russia recognized all the new geopolitical realities and, as you know, we are actively working to strengthen our cooperation with all the independent countries that have emerged in space. post-Soviet".
Russian communist revolutionary leader, Vladimir Lenin (1879 - 1924), delivering a speech before the Red Army heading to the front, during the Polish-Soviet War, at Sverdlov Square (now Theater Square), in Moscow, 5 de May 1920. (Credit: Keystone/Getty Images)
"We intend to work like this with all our neighbors, but with Ukraine the situation is different. This is because, unfortunately, the territory of this country is being used by third countries to create threats against the Russian Federation itself. That It's the only reason," he said.
Here's a look at the history of the USSR from its rise to its fall in 1991.
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Some basic facts about the Soviet Union
The Union of Soviet Socialist Republics was a communist state in Central and East Asia and Eastern Europe from 1922 to 1991.
It came to be made up of 15 Soviet socialist republics: Armenia, Azerbaijan, Belarus (now Belarus), Estonia, Georgia, Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Latvia, Lithuania, Moldova (now Moldova), Russia, Tajikistan, Turkmenistan, Ukraine, and Uzbekistan.
Its capital was Moscow, and the territory of the huge country amounted to about 22,400,000 kilometers, from the Baltic and Black Seas to the Pacific Ocean.
Chronology
1914 -
World War I begins, in which Russia fights alongside the Allies against the Central Powers led by Germany.
A soldier waves the flag of the Soviet Union in Berlin on April 30, 1945.
November 1917 -
The Bolshevik Revolution begins, after the Russian Revolution that had overthrown Tsar Nicholas II months earlier.
The newly formed government signs an armistice with Germany, ending Russian involvement in World War I, and will later lead to the formation of the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics (USSR, also known as the Soviet Union), a communist country.
1917-1920 -
After the Russian Revolution of 1917 and towards the end of World War I, Ukraine is briefly an independent nation after becoming part of the territory of Imperial Russia.
July 1918 -
Tsar Nicholas II and the royal family are executed by the Bolsheviks.
1922 -
Ukraine becomes part of the USSR.
January 21, 1924 -
Vladimir Lenin, founder and first leader of the USSR, dies.
He is replaced by the dictator Josef Stalin, who directs it until his death in 1953.
80 years of “Operation Barbarossa”: the Nazi invasion of the Soviet Union during World War II
1939-1945 -
The USSR fights against Nazi Germany along with the Allied powers during World War II.
Other allies are the United States, Great Britain, France and China.
In 1941 Germany invaded and occupied much of the Ukraine, which returned to Soviet control in 1944.
Yuri Gagari, Soviet cosmonaut and first man in space.
1955 -
The Warsaw Pact is organized, creating a military alliance of communist Eastern European nations, including the Soviet Union, Bulgaria, Czechoslovakia, East Germany, Hungary, Poland, and Romania.
October 4, 1957 -
The Soviet Union launches Sputnik I, the first artificial satellite, starting the "space race" between the Soviets and the United States.
April 12, 1961 -
Soviet cosmonaut Yuri Gagarin becomes the first human to go into space.
October 1962 -
Cuban Missile Crisis: During one of the most dangerous confrontations of the "Cold War" between the communist countries of the Eastern Bloc and the West, the Soviet Union installs nuclear missiles in Cuba capable of reaching most of United States.
US President John F. Kennedy orders a naval blockade of Cuba and, six days later, the Soviets agree to remove the missiles.
December 1979 -
The USSR invades Afghanistan.
The last troops leave in 1989.
March 11, 1985 -
Mikhail Gorbachev is elected General Secretary of the Communist Party.
During his tenure as leader of the USSR, he advocates political and social reforms called "perestroika" (restructuring) and "glasnost" (openness), and participates in a series of summits with US President Ronald Reagan.
In the months after the accident, a sarcophagus was built to cover Reactor 4 and contain the radioactive material.
However, it has deteriorated, resulting in radiation leaks (Daniel Berehulak/Getty Images)
April 26, 1986 -
Reactor 4 explodes at the Chernobyl nuclear power plant in the Ukraine, releasing large amounts of radiation into the atmosphere.
More than 30 people die, and countless others later die from radiation symptoms.
The government is evacuating some 135,000 people from the area, and the 19-mile exclusion zone around the plant remains uninhabitable.
June 1991 -
Boris Yeltsin is elected president of the Russian Republic, the largest of the Soviet republics, in the first democratic presidential elections in Russian history.
August 1991 -
Yeltsin helps put down a coup against Soviet President Gorbachev.
August 24, 1991 -
The Ukrainian parliament declares independence, pending a referendum held on December 1 with 90% approval.
Gorbachev and Reagan signed an arms control agreement in Washington in 1987. This came a few months after Reagan made his famous speech about the Berlin Wall, saying "Mr. Gorbachev, you tear down this wall!"
(Credit: Bettmann Archive/Getty Images)
December 19, 1991 -
Yeltsin issues a decree ordering the Russian government to seize the Kremlin from the USSR.
December 21, 1991 -
Eleven of the 12 Soviet republics sign an agreement to form the Commonwealth of Independent States.
December 25, 1991 -
Gorbachev resigns as president of the Soviet Union.
Yeltsin is now the leader of the new Russian state after the official dissolution of the Soviet Union.
USSR