Republics of the Soviet Union

State · 1920–1921 CE · at its largest around 1920 CE

Born amid civil war, famine and foreign intervention, these early Soviet republics in Russia, Ukraine, Belarus and the Caucasus lived under War Communism and the Red Terror. They were also a laboratory of radical ideas, from avant-garde art to experiments in ending private property.

On its lands while it lasted

Khanate of Khiva (1511–1920 CE): Uzbek state in Khwarazm with its capital at Khiva, which became a Russian protectorate in 1873.
Vladimir Lenin (1870 CE – 1924 CE): Russian revolutionary who led the Bolsheviks to power in 1917 and headed the Soviet government until his death. He founded Marxism–Leninism.
Joseph Stalin (1878 CE – 1953 CE): Georgian-born dictator of the Soviet Union from the late 1920s until his death. He drove forced industrialisation and collectivisation, led the country to victory in World War II, and oversaw mass repression.
Mustafa Kemal Atatürk (1881 CE – 1938 CE): Founder and first president of the Republic of Turkey, who led the War of Independence and carried out sweeping secularizing and westernizing reforms.
Tokyo City (1889–1943 CE): Capital of Empire of Japan (1889–1943).
Mao Zedong (1893 CE – 1976 CE): Communist revolutionary who founded the People's Republic of China and led it until his death.
Zhou Enlai (1898 CE – 1976 CE): First premier of the People's Republic of China, serving from 1949 until his death.
Hirohito (1901 CE – 1989 CE): Emperor of Japan from 1926 to 1989.
Deng Xiaoping (1904 CE – 1997 CE): Paramount leader of China from 1978 who launched market reforms and opening to the world.
Akira Kurosawa (1910 CE – 1998 CE): Film director of Rashomon and Seven Samurai.
Kim Il Sung (1912 CE – 1994 CE): Founding leader of North Korea from 1948 until his death.
Basmachi movement (c. 1916–1934 CE): Armed resistance in Central Asia, centred on the Fergana Valley, against Russian and then Soviet rule.
Russian Revolution (1917–1923 CE): The February Revolution of 1917 in Petrograd ended the rule of the tsars, and the October Revolution brought Lenin’s Bolsheviks to power. After a civil war they founded the Soviet Union in 1922.
Russian Civil War (1917–1922 CE): A war between the Bolshevik Red Army and a range of White and other opponents that followed the October Revolution. The Bolsheviks won and founded the Soviet Union in 1922.
Park Chung Hee (1917 CE – 1979 CE): Military ruler of South Korea (1961–1979) whose export-led policies drove rapid industrialisation.