Abbreviation for Union of Soviet Socialist Republics (Russian СССР = SSSR) was a centrally governed, federal, one-party state whose territory stretched across Eastern Europe and the Caucasus to Central Asia and throughout Northern Asia. It was founded on 30 December 1922. In 1990, the area under vines was about 1.1 million hectares, of which about 16.5 million hectolitres of wine were produced. This made the USSR one of the top 5 wine-producing countries. There were excellent wines, for example in the Crimea (Ukraine) or in Georgia, but for the most part mass wines were produced for quick consumption. The national drink was and is vodka. Between 1985 and 1991, the Soviet Union underwent reforms and finally disintegrated; see the history under Russia. In all of the former 15 republics, viticulture and/or table grape cultivation was and still is practised. These are Armenia, Azerbaijan, Belarus, Estonia, Georgia, Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Latvia, Lithuania, Moldova, Russia, Tajikistan, Turkmenistan, Ukraine and Uzbekistan. Various successor states have joined together in the CIS organisation.
Map: CC BY-SA 3.0, Link - edited by Norbert F. J. Tischelmayer
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