Answer:
The Soviet Union was the most powerful Communist country that ever existed. The European part of the Soviet Union was about a fourth of the size of the whole country, but almost 80% of its citizens lived there. The Asian part stretched across Siberia to the Pacific Ocean and south to the Himalayas. Not only did the USSR send the first human into space, their prolific space programme sent the first animal into orbit too. Before Yuri Gagarin entered the atmosphere, the State needed to test the effects of atmospheric pressure, so the first real pioneer of space was a street mongrel called Laika. Amazingly, this all happened under a communist government.
