The system lasted, in different forms, from the revolution late in 1917 to December 25, 1991, when the last Soviet president, Mikhail Gorbachev, formally signed a document dissolving the Soviet Union....

The system lasted, in different forms, from the revolution late in 1917 to December 25, 1991, when the last Soviet president, Mikhail Gorbachev, formally signed a document dissolving the Soviet Union. Many people would agree that some of the USSR’s principal features persisted well after that date, with new private banks supplanting the old Communist Party as media bosses.