Russia fielded the largest army in WW I, but the vast majority of them were conscripts, untrained and poorly equipped, more hateful towards their aristocratic commanding officers, who often held much more lavish accommodations, than the enemy. Russian peasants suffered too, with food shortages plaguing the country, while the Tsar’s loyalists lived large. By the end of the war, the people rebelled – and the military took their side. The revolution of 1917 brought into power a new kind of people’s government, ruled by the workers and the peasants themselves.

On this day, December 30, in 1922, out of the ashes of the Russian Revolution of 1917, a new nation arose, the Soviet Union (USSR), comprising of not only Russia but also Belorussia, Ukraine, and the Transcaucasian Federation (what later became Georgia, Azerbaijan and Armenia.)

In principle the government was democratic, with an executive branch, the Central Executive Committee, beholden to to a lawmaking body, Council of People’s Commissars. Members of government would be elected in local soviets – councils – that would meet in national congresses. What it actually became after Stalin’s alterations were completely was rule by fiat, with closely-knit group in the government deciding on every major step.