Scope Notes: Former territory of the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics. After 1992, it is only used for a limited number of studies which discuss the former territory as a whole. Also see Commonwealth of Independent States and Baltic region; or see individual countries which were former constituent republics: Armenia, Azerbaijan, Belarus, Estonia, Georgian Republic, Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Latvia, Lithuania, Moldova, Russian Federation, Tajikistan, Turkmenia, Ukraine, and Uzbekistan.