100 Years Since the Birth of the Soviet Union, in Pictures

It is the disintegration of the U.S.S.R. that President Vladimir V. Putin of Russia says he wants to remedy by waging war against Ukraine; it is the legacy of Moscow’s dominance that Ukrainians hope to free themselves of by defeating Moscow.

It was supposed to be “a voluntary association of peoples with equal rights,” one that would guarantee the “peaceful coexistence and fraternal cooperation of peoples” while serving as “a faithful bulwark against world capitalism.”

It was to be called the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics.

On Dec. 30, 1922, in a meeting at Moscow’s Bolshoi Theater of Communist delegates from Russia, Ukraine, Belarus and the Caucasus region, the Soviet Union was born.