The full name of the country that we used to refer to as Russia was the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics which was a confederation of separate states under a single unified government. Russia was just one of those states, but it was the power that unified all the rest.

When people talk about "Soviet Russia", they are referring to Russia during the communist era of 1922-1991, when the country went by the name of the USSR (see Randy's answer for explanation of this)... so it describes a time period in Russia's history, rather than a geographical area of Russia.

Russia under socialist rule from the Russian Revolution in 1917 until the 1922 formation of the USSR. It can also refer to the Russian SSR, a part of the USSR.

WAS would be the better word. A soviet was technically a communist committee that ran any of the 11 "republics" that were formed out of the old Czarist Russian Empire in 1917. The 11 soviets began as the chief communist cells in each of the principle regions/provinces. 3 more were added (by conquest) in 1939 - the Baltic States - and the last one - Moldova - was established in 1945, annexed from Romania. Mongolia was also a Soviet temporarily (I've forgotten the years). "Soviet Russia" refers to all these "republics" under totalitarian communist rule. Also known as the U.S.S.R. (in Russian: CCCP) or more popularly among Reaganites: "The Evil Empire". ORIGINAL 11 (1917-1924) Russia Belorus (White Russia) Ukraine Kazakistan Turkmenistan Uzbekistan Tajikistan Kyrgyzstan Georgia Armenia Azerbaijan BALTIC STATES (1939) Estonia Latvia Lithuania Moldova (1945) The Soviets (ruling comittees) were disolved with the fall of communism in 1990. Despite a shortlived attempt to maintain some semblance of unity between the republics (The Commonwealth of Independent States), by 1997 each had gone its own way with no pretense of unity or even association (beyond typical diplomatic ones) with the others.