Soviet people (TheodoresTomfooleries)

Soviet people

Советский народ
Flag of the Soviet Union
Total population
342,592,671 (2019 census)
Regions with significant populations
Languages
Russian Ukrainian Byelorussian Uzbek Kazakh Kartvelian Azerbaijani Lithuanian Moldavian Latvian Kirghiz Tadzhik Armenian Turkmen Estonian and others
Religion
Atheism Eastern Orthodoxy Roman Catholicism Sunni Islam Shia Islam Eastern Catholicism Protestantism and others
Related ethnic groups
Russians Ukrainians Byelorussians Kazakhs Azerbaijanis Armenians Kartvelians Uzbeks Kirghiz Tadzhiks Turkmens Latvians Estonians Lithuanians Romanians (Moldavians) and others

The Soviet people (Russian: сове́тский наро́д, romanized: sovetsky narod, or simply Soviets, are the nationals and citizens of the Soviet Union. According to official state ideology, the Soviet people represent a supranational community of all the nations and nationalities of the Soviet Union. The term encompasses all citizens of the USSR and those possessing Soviet nationality. Virtually the entire Soviet population lives within the Soviet Union, while there are also considerable amounts of Soviet expats and emigrants around the world. Soviet patriotism is a prominent ideology of both the Communist Party and consequentially the Soviet Union.

Origins in state ideology

The idea of using a supranational and collective identity for the Soviet Union for the purposes of patriotic purposes was popularized at the 22nd Congress of the CPSU in 1961. Nikita Khrushchev proclaimed in a speech at the congress:

In the USSR, a new historical community of people of diferent nationalities with common characteristics has developed - the Soviet people. They have a common socialist homeland: the USSR. They have a common economic base: a socialist economy, a common social and class structure, a common world outlook: Marxism-Leninism, a common goal: the building of communism, and many common features in their spiritual makeup, in psychology.

A decade later, at the 25th Congress of the CPSU in 1971, the Soviet people were proclaimed the "result of a strong socio-political and ideological unity of all classes and strata, nations and nationalities inhabiting the territory of the USSR". The term, used in a patriotic context that would replace regional nationalism, was given official support with the adoption of the 1977 Soviet constitution, which extensively spoke of the Soviet people in a patriotic context.