The Soviet Union was a charter member of the United Nations and one of five permanent members of the Security Council. Following the dissolution of the Soviet Union in 1991, its UN seat was transferred to the Russian Federation, the continuator state of the USSR (see Succession, continuity and legacy of the Soviet Union).
Role in the founding of the United Nations
The Soviet Union took an active role in the United Nations and other major international and regional organizations. At the behest of the United States, the Soviet Union took a role in the establishment of the United Nations in 1945. Soviet general secretary Joseph Stalin was initially hesitant to join the group, although Soviet delegates helped create the structure of the United Nations at the Tehran Conference and the Dumbarton Oaks Conference. US president Franklin D. Roosevelt actively worked to convince Stalin to join the UN.
At the Dumbarton Oaks Conference, the Soviet Union initially demanded that even procedural matters in the Security Council could be vetoed, meaning that the veto could block a topic from even being discussed or debated. At the Yalta Conference, the Soviet Union agreed that the veto would not apply to procedural matters.
There was initially a Western majority in the United Nations immediately after its creation. With the decolonization process, however, and as all newly independent states were accepted into the United Nations, many countries allied with the Soviet Union, as well as non-aligned countries, joined the organization.
thumb|The [[Ukrainian Soviet Socialist Republic|Ukrainian SSR (red) and Byelorussian SSR (green) within the Soviet Union in 1956–1991|left|260px]]
thumb|The [[Russian Soviet Federative Socialist Republic|Russian SFSR (red) within the Soviet Union in 1956–1991|left|260px]]
The USSR initially protested the membership of the Philippines and British India, whose independence was then largely theoretical. A demand by the Soviet Union that all then fifteen Soviet republics be recognized as member states in the UN was counter-demanded by the United States that all then 48 US states be similarly recognized. Ultimately, at the Yalta Conference a compromise was made in which two Soviet republics (Ukrainian SSR and Byelorussian SSR) were admitted as full members of the United Nations. As such, between 1945 and 1991, the Soviet Union was represented by three seats in the United Nations. This was supported by British Foreign Minister Anthony Eden so that, in return, British India would have its own seat in the United Nations, as it had in the League of Nations before it. Roosevelt agreed at Eden's insistence, despite the US State Department's objection.
Security Council and veto
The Soviet Union had cast its veto 109 times by 1973, out of a total 128 vetoes used by the council. For 75% of the vetoes cast by the Soviet Union, further actions were taken by United Nations.
The Russians believed strongly in the veto power, and insisted it be part of the United Nations Security Council. They voiced this option for the veto power to both the Security Council and the General Assembly. <!-- This quote had previously been cited from , but without attribution. I added the attribution to the Soviet representative. Since I didn't have access to the original source, I used a different source that contains the attribution but quotes the quote from another source. If you have access either to the original source or to the source cited in the current source, please update the reference accordingly. -->
Relationship with China
The debate over China's representation with the United Nations began in 1949. The Chinese Communist Party took over the country's mainland in the Chinese Civil War, while the Nationalists retreated to the island of Taiwan, which it had received from Japan following its surrender in 1945. The United Nations seat of China was held by the Nationalist government of the Republic of China and conflict quickly arose over which government should hold the China seat. The Soviet Union supported the Communist government of mainland China, leading to conflict with the West. The Security Council sided with the United States and deemed the Communist government of People's Republic of China (PRC) to be illegitimate and denied their delegation from entering the United Nations until 1971 when China's seat was transferred to the Communist government of PRC.
A major turning point in the Soviet Union relation occurred in January 1950, when Soviet representatives boycotted United Nations functions in protest over the occupation of the seat of China by the Republic of China. In the absence of the Soviet representatives, the United Nations Security Council was able to vote for the intervention of United Nations military forces in what would become the Korean War.
Relationship with the West
For many years, the West played a guiding role in United Nations deliberations, but by the 1960s many former colonies had been granted independence and had joined the United Nations. These states, which became the majority in the General Assembly and other bodies, were increasingly receptive to Soviet anti-imperialist appeals. By the 1970s, the United Nations deliberations had generally become increasingly hostile toward the West and toward the United States in particular, as evidenced by pro-Soviet and anti-American voting trends in the General Assembly.
During the Mikhail Gorbachev era, the Soviet Union made repeated suggestions for increasing United Nations involvement in the settlement of superpower and regional problems and conflicts. Though these proposals were not implemented, they constituted new initiatives in Soviet foreign policy and represented a break with the nature of past Soviet foreign policy. This lessened world tensions.]]
In the wake of the collapse of the Soviet Union, 11 Soviet republics—all except the Baltic states and Georgia—signed the Alma-Ata Protocol on 21 December 1991, establishing the Commonwealth of Independent States and declaring that the Soviet Union had ceased to exist. The Protocol provided that the Russian Federation would assume Soviet Union's United Nation membership, including its permanent seat on the United Nations Security Council. The resignation of Soviet president Gorbachev on 25 December 1991 and the dissolution of the Soviet of the Republics the following day formalized the end of the Soviet Union.
On 24 December 1991, the Soviet permanent representative to the United Nations Yuli Vorontsov delivered to the Secretary-General of the United Nations a letter from the Russian president Boris Yeltsin. The letter stated that the Soviet Union had ceased to exist, and that Russia would continue the Soviet Union's membership in the United Nations and maintain the full responsibility for all the rights and obligations of the Soviet Union under the United Nations Charter. The letter was circulated among the United Nations membership without any objection, and Russia formally took over the Soviet Union's seat in the United Nations General Assembly, in the Security Council and in other organs of the United Nations. The letter also confirmed the credentials of Soviet representatives to represent Russia, and Soviet representatives to the various United Nations agencies continued serving as Russian representatives without presenting new credentials. Ambassador Vorontsov continued serving as the first Permanent Representative of the Russian Federation to the United Nations.