Former federal State stretching over Europe and Asia, by very far the most extensive on the planet, with over 22.4 million km^². The USSR sprang up from the ‘Bolshevik’ (communist) Revolution of October 1917, under the leadership of Lenin, who changed fundamentally all the political, economic and social characteristics of an Imperial Russia run by the monarchy of the Tsars (1547-1917), whilst maintaining in Moscow’s orbit the non-Russian territories which had been conquered under the Empire (Central Asia, the Caucasus, etc.)

The USSR became a major power following the Second World War, notably thanks to the building up of its nuclear arsenal, to its scientific potential marked by its early success in the conquest of space, its demography (293 million inhabitants in 1991) and its political influence over  a section of the European Left (communist parties) and the developing countries.

Communist ideology in effect advocated the priority of a social progress in which all humans were equal, in a society ‘freed of any form of exploitation of man by man.’ These ideas found an obvious echo in the countries of the Third World and liberation movements fighting to emancipate themselves from the last vestiges of the colonial era, in the 1960s and 1070s.

Victorious over Nazi Germany at the side of the Western Europe countries and, above all, the United States, the USSR spread its influence after 1945 to the Central and Eastern European countries. The latter adopted, voluntarily or otherwise, a political, economic and social form of organisation comparable to that of the Soviet ‘model’: a central role for the Communist Party, the absence of democracy, a collectivisation of the majority of the means of production, a planned economy, etc. To that was added the creation of a military alliance, the Warsaw Pact, designed to act as a counterweight to the Western military alliance, the North Atlantic Treaty Organisation (NATO), which brought the countries of Western Europe together with the United States, Canada and Turkey.

The ingredients of the Cold War were thus in place from the end of the 1940s, when the USSR launched itself into a kind of competition for global leadership and challenged the United States for the ‘leadership role’ which seemed promised it, on a world level, since the end of the war. ‘East’ against ‘West’: the world little by little entered into a bipolar confrontation. The ‘East’ first of all: the USSR established itself as a partner in emancipation, the figurehead of peoples oppressed by the colonial powers. It aided, either directly or through intermediary allies, the liberation movements to challenge the metropolitan yoke and suggested that the young nations adopt a political, economic and social model comparable to its own. Then the ‘West’: following the United States, the Western European countries, Japan, Canada and Australia denounced ‘Soviet expansionism’ and championed a free market economy against ‘Communist totalitarianism,’ termed liberticide and incapable of satisfying the needs of the population.

From the 1950s to the 1980s the United States and the USSR embarked on a mammoth arms race which would earn them the epithet ‘superpowers.’ The two ‘giants’ would also set out on a race for global influence, in supporting their respective ‘camps’ in the conflicts which tore apart the Third World. The Korean War (1950-1953) and the second Vietnam War (1964-1975) are merely the most striking examples. Fortunately, the two superpowers would avoid, sometimes by a hair’s-breadth, engaging in a direct confrontation involving their nuclear arsenals. The reason for this avoidance is to be found in what is called the ‘Balance of Terror.’ Explanation: each of the two superpowers was equipped with a nuclear arsenal of such power and variety that a first nuclear strike on the part of one would have immediately triggered a blistering response by the other. Aware of this risk of ‘mutually assured destruction,’ the two capitals, Washington and Moscow, preferred not to lay themselves open to it.

The Balance of Terror came close to being disturbed when the American President, Ronald Reagan, announced his intention in 1983 to protect American territory from missile attacks, through a space based anti-missile shield, in the framework of a plan named ‘Strategic Defence Initiative (SDI),’ popularized through the term ‘Star Wars.’

The SDI tipped the Balance of Terror because it would have rendered United States territory inviolable to Soviet attack, whilst Soviet territory would have remained vulnerable to an American attack. The SDI project was abandoned in 1993, after the break up of the USSR.

But the SDI project was probably one of the factors which helped bring about the collapse of the Soviet Union, as it would have obliged Moscow to new considerable spending in the arms race, at a time when its economy, handicapped by a lowering of petrol prices, was no longer capable of sustaining it.
Amongst the other causes generally put forward to explain the collapse of the USSR, can be cited:
- the poor performance the economy, incapable of providing normally for the needs of the population
- the persistence of a heavy and inefficient bureaucratic system
- the weariness of the population, and above all the intellectuals, in the face of the absence of democracy, and an increase of dissident activity
- the desire of the satellite countries of Central and Eastern Europe to free themselves from the Soviet system, symbolised by the fall of the Berlin Wall in 1989
- the resurgence of identity and religious claims in a number of the USSR’s federated Republics.

Aware of the weaknesses of his country, the last President of Soviet Union, Mikhail Gorbachev, tried in vain to remedy them through an ambitious but belated programme of reforms, which goes by the two names glasnost (transparency) and perestroika (reconstruction, renewal).

The disintegration of the USSR, in December 1991, would give birth to no less than 15 new independent nations in Eastern Europe, Caucasia and Central Europe. The disappearance of one of the two superpowers brought to an end a ‘bipolar’ world and ushered in an era of great uncertainty, in reducing the predictability factors in international relations. The Russian Federation (143 million inhabitants, 17 million km²) succeeded the USSR, inheriting its strategic arsenal and its permanent seat on the United nations Security Council.

That which is ‘utopic’ is no-where, ‘uchronic’ is thus no-when. It is a fictional rewriting of history, starting at a definite point (e.g., suppose the Nazis had won the Second World War, what would be different?). This is also known as alternative history.

Electromagnetic radiation with a wavelength between that of visible light and that of X rays. It was discovered in 1801 by the German physicist, Johann Wilhelm Ritter. The range of UV is subdivided into UV-A (400-315 nm), UV-B (315-280 nm) and UV-C (280-100 nm). Ultraviolet rays subjected at too high a dose are harmful to health. They can cause skin cancers (melanoma), a premature ageing of the skin or burns (sunburn).

A rite which consists of anointing a person – with holy oil, or holy chrism – with a view to conferring a sacred character or attracting divine grace to him or her.

A uniliteral character represents a single consonantal phoneme. In the hieroglyphic system, it represents the simplest value, and is opposed to bilateral and trilateral signs that contain two or three consonantal phonemes.

The existence of important copper deposits in Katanga had been known for a long time following a preliminary scientific assessment by the Belgian geologist Jules Cornet during an expedition in 1891. However, at the time, Katanga was too isolated to consider industrial exploitation of the copper deposits that he identified despite their importance. 
The Union Minière of Haut-Katanga (UMHK - Miner Union of Upper Katanga) was founded on the 28 October 1906 by different players including the Société Générale de Belgique, which also became involved for the first time in the economy of the Congo. Even though the first ingot of copper was poured in 1911, it was around four years later in 1925 that industrial exploitation reached full capacity.

The UMHK employed a growing number of African workers: 8,500 in 1919, 17,200 in 1929. Such a considerable expansion in a lightly-populated province, led the company to carry out massive recruitment outside Katanga, in Rhodesia at first, then in other regions of the Congo. To facilitate recruitment and encourage its workers to sign longer-term contracts, the management of the Union Minière implemented a paternalistic policy from 1926 onwards.

On the 1 January 1967, the assets of the UMHK in the Congo (including its participation in companies established in the Congo) were nationalized. They were transferred by the Congolese government to a new registered Congolese company, the Gecomin (General Company of Congolese Minerals), which thereafter became known under the name of the Gecamines.

This was adopted by the United Nations General Assembly on December 10 1948. It declares the civil, political, economic, social and cultural rights of “all the members of the human family”. To commemorate its adoption, Human Rights Day is celebrated every year on December 10. 

Time scale based on an average solar day (rotation of the earth on its axis in relation to the sun). It is affected by irregularities and variations in the short term (depending notably on the distribution of the constitutive masses  of our planet, for instance) and slows down in the long term (the earth rotates more and more slowly on its axis).

The highest chronostratigraphic age of the Upper Devonian, stretching over a period of around 374.5 to 359.2 million years before the present.

A grey, hard metal, present in several minerals, where it is always accompanied by radium. It is a natural radioactive element. Chemical element (U). The world’s uranium reserves are spread pretty well across the planet. The largest are found in Australia (31%), in Kazakhstan (12%), in Canada (9%), in Russia (9%), in South Africa, in Namibia, in Niger and in Brazil (around 5% each), in the United States (4%), in China (3%), etc.

An exit conduit from the bladder enabling the flow of urine and the passage of sperm in men.

Emptying of urine from the bladder, made possible by the relaxation of the urinary sphincters.

The last round of international negotiations in the context of GATT between 1986 and 1994, leading to the creation of the WTO.

Or acquisitive prescription, rule in the Civil Code. Usucapion is a method of acquisition of property (often immovable) following prolonged peaceable and public possession. For example, if a person uses and maintains a parcel of land for a certain number of years without the owner making a claim, he can acquire it pursuant to this principle.