5 Interesting Facts about the Soviet Union

1. 80% males born in the Soviet Union in 1923 did not survive World War II. - Source

2. During the Siege of Leningrad in WWII, 9 Soviet scientists died of starvation while protecting the world’s largest seed bank, refusing to eat what they saw as their country’s future. - Source

3. The Soviet Union did not admit that a reactor had exploded at Chernobyl until nearly three days after radiation from the disaster set off alarms at a nuclear plant in Sweden 1000 km away. - Source

4. The first animal launched into orbit, Laika, was found as a stray wandering the streets of Moscow. Soviet scientists assumed that such animals had already

learned to endure conditions of extreme cold and hunger. - Source

5. The physical document that dissolved the Soviet Union is missing as of February 7, 2013. - Source