Telephone numbers in the Soviet Union

Soviet Union telephone numbers

Location of the Soviet Union after World War II (dark green)
Location
Country	Soviet Union
Continent	Eurasia
Type	Open
NSN length	8~10
Typical format	various, see text
Access codes
Country calling code	+7
International call prefix	8~10
Trunk prefix	8

The telephone numbering plan of the USSR was a set of telephone area codes, numbers and dialing rules, which operated in the Soviet Union until the 1990s. After the collapse of the USSR, many newly independent republics implemented their own numbering plans. However, many of the principles of the Soviet numbering plan still remain. The former Soviet international code +7 is still retained by Russia and Kazakhstan.

The Soviet Union used a four-level open numbering plan. The long distance prefix was 8.

Emergency numbers in the USSR began with 0 and had two digits. When one called the emergency numbers, no tariff was charged. (However, in Moscow in the late 1980s calling emergency services from a payphone was not free, despite the declared free-of-charge numbers.)

In addition, in Moscow there was and continues to operate a toll-free telephone number 100 to get the current time. The free telephone service of the exact time is preserved in also other cities of Russia; for example in Kaliningrad this number is 060.

Basically, area codes were distributed geographically, so that neighboring regions usually had close area code numbers.

Area codes with 0 denotes the republics and Oblasts of the European part of the USSR. After the collapse of the Soviet Union, these codes in Russia, Belarus and Ukraine were preserved, with minor changes. Area codes in the Ukraine and Belarus later dropped initial 0. In Russia, in December 2005 the leading zero in the Oblastal area codes was replaced by a 4.