The Soviet Union achieved more in its first few decades than any other nation could ever even dream of replicating. The USSR originated in the baptism of fire that was the October Socialist Revolution. In this revolution, the exploited working class took state power and began administering the Dictatorship of the Proletariat under the leadership and guidance of the Bolshevik Party. The revolutionaries faced vociferous opposition from the dispossessed landowners and big bourgoisie and their supporters. Not to be out done by their Russian allies,16 countries such as the USA, Canada, Japan and Britain sent an expeditionary force to help the White Russians. The Bolsheviks successfully marshalled the support of the masses and the Red Army crushed the counter-revolutionaries. The young USSR achieved much in women’s emancipation. Women were given a right to vote, a right to education and the pay gap between men and women was abolished. Day care centres and créches were set up and provided to women to allow them to work without worrying about their children’s welfare. Women were also allowed play an equal part in the Red Army and in the protection of their country. The 5-year plans created a new era of industrial progress with industry growing by over 800% from Tsarist times during the first two 5-year plans. All this occurred at the same time the Capitalist countries were enduring the Great Depression! Magnificent feats of Socialist construction such as the Stalingrad grain factory and the industrial city of steel, Magnitogorsk showed the benefits of a planned economy. The Bolsheviks believed in cheap and effective transport for all citizens, with the construction of the Moscow Metro in 1931. Socialist architecture dominated the cities with beautiful buildings such as the Red Army Theatre, made in the shape of...