Marshal of the Soviet Union in 1947 by politician Nikolai Bulganin. Two Marshals were executed in postwar purges: Kulik in 1950 and Beria in 1953, following Stalin's death. Thereafter the rank was awarded only to professional soldiers, with the exception of Leonid Brezhnev, who made himself a Marshal in 1976, and Ustinov, who was prominent in the arms industry and was appointed Defence Minister in July 1976. The last Marshal of the Soviet Union was Dmitry Yazov, appointed in 1990, who was imprisoned after the failed coup against Mikhail Gorbachev in 1991. Marshal Sergei Akhromeev committed suicide in 1991 during the fall of the Soviet
Railway system of the Soviet Union the Ministry of Railways in the Soviet Union. After the dissolution of the Soviet Union, the Soviet Railways were split into fifteen different national railways belonging to the respective countries. However, after the end of Soviet Railways, rail transport in the former Soviet states greatly declined and have not recovered to their former efficiency to this day. Russian Railways is considered as the primary successor of Soviet Railways. Other successors inherited the Soviet infrastructure in Central Asia. Railway system of the Soviet Union The Soviet Railways (Russian: Cоветские железные дороги (CЖД)) was the state owned national railway system of the