| HAMMERANDSICKLE | Crossed emblem of the former Soviet Union or of communism (6,3,6) |
| OBLAST | Type of administrative region of the former Soviet Union (6) |
| KGB | The intelligence and internal security agency of the former Soviet Union (1,1,1) |
| TASS | Official news agency of the former Soviet Union (4) |
| POLITBURO | Principal policy-making body of the former Soviet Union (9) |
| RSFSR | Largest div. of the former Soviet Union |
| RUBLE | Monetary unit of the former Soviet Union |
| PERESTROIKA | The policy of reconstructing the economy in the former Soviet Union under the leadership of Mikhail Gorbachev (11) |
| ARAL | ___ Sea (environmentally-destroyed lake in the former Soviet Union whose Wikipedia page is written in the past tense; 50 years ago it was the fourth-largest lake in the world) |
| SAMIZDAT | In the former Soviet Union, the secret distribution of banned writings (8) |
| TBILISI | The capital of the former Soviet state of Georgia |
| GLASNOST | The policy of public accountability and frankness adopted in the former Soviet Union under Mikhail Gorbachev (8) |
| APPARAT | The Communist Party organisation in the former Soviet Union and other states (7) |
| SCUD | Surface-to-surface missiles of a kind made in the former Soviet Union (4) |
| GULAG | Network of forced labour camps in the former Soviet Union (5) |
| COMMISSAR | Head of a government department in the former Soviet Union, known as minister since 1946 (9) |
| ARTEL | Worker cooperative in Russia and the former Soviet Union, often made up of peasants living as a commune (5) |
| USSR | The former Soviet Union (1,1,1,1) |
| COSMONAUTS | Astronauts from the former Soviet Union (10) |
| BAIKONUR | Cosmodrome in the former Soviet Union - "abour kin" anagram |
