Republics of the Soviet Union
In its final decades of its existence, the
Soviet Union consisted of 15 Soviet Socialist Republics , often called simply Soviet republics. Within the USSR they were also called union republics. All of them were socialist republics, and all of them, with the exception of
Russia had their own Communist parties. They are all independent countries now; 12 of them are very loosely organized under the heading
Commonwealth of Independent States.
Constitutionally, the Soviet Union was a
federation. In accordance with article 72 of the Soviet constitution adopted in 1977, each republic retained the right to secede from the USSR.
Encyclopedia
In its final decades of its existence, the
Soviet Union consisted of 15
Soviet Socialist Republics , often called simply
Soviet republics. Within the USSR they were also called
union republics. All of them were socialist republics, and all of them, with the exception of
Russia had their own Communist parties. They are all independent countries now; 12 of them are very loosely organized under the heading
Commonwealth of Independent States.
Constitutionally, the Soviet Union was a
federation. In accordance with article 72 of the Soviet constitution adopted in 1977, each republic retained the right to secede from the USSR. Throughout the
Cold War, this right was widely considered to be meaningless, however Article 72 was used in December 1991 to effectively dissolve the Soviet Union, when
Russia,
Ukraine, and
Belarus seceded from the USSR.
In practice, the USSR was a highly centralised entity from its creation in 1922 until the mid-
1980s when political forces unleashed reforms undertaken by
Mikhail Gorbachev resulted in the loosening of central control and
its ultimate collapse. Under the constitution adopted in 1936 and modified along the way until October 1977, the political foundation of the
Soviet Union was formed by the Soviets of People's Deputies. These existed at all levels of the administrative hierarchy, with the Soviet Union as a whole under the nominal control of the Supreme Soviet of the USSR, located in
Moscow.
Along with the state administrative hierarchy, there existed a parallel structure of party organizations, which allowed the Politburo to exercise large amounts of control over the republics. State administrative organs took direction from the parallel party organs, and appointments of all party and state officials required approval of the central organs of the party. General practice in the republics outside of Russia was that the head of state in a republic was a local official while the party general secretary was from outside the republic.
Each republic had its own unique set of state symbols: a
flag, a
coat of arms, and, with the exception of the Russian SFSR, an anthem.
The Republics and the Collapse of the Soviet Union
The republics played an important role in the
collapse of the Soviet Union. Under
Mikhail Gorbachev, glasnost and
perestroika were intended to revive the Soviet Union. However, they had a number of effects which caused the power of the republics to increase. First, political liberalization allowed the governments within the republics to gain legitimacy by invoking democracy, nationalism or a combination of both. In addition, liberalization led to fractures within the party hierarchy which reduced Soviet control over the republics. Finally, perestroika allowed the governments of the republics to control economic assets in their republics and withhold funds from the central government.
Throughout the late 1980s, the Soviet government attempted to find a new structure which would reflect the increasing power of the republics. These efforts proved unsuccessful, and in 1991 the Soviet Union collapsed as the republic governments seceded. The republics then all became independent states, with the post-Soviet governments in most cases consisting largely of the government personnel of the former Soviet republics.
Soviet Union in its final state
Sorted by region
In area, Russia is the largest of the fifiteen Soviet Republics as well as the most populated. The next largest in population, are, in order: Ukraine, Uzbekistan and Kazakhstan.
Other Soviet republics
- Armenia, Azerbaijan, and Georgia were from 1922 until 1936 organized in the Transcaucasian SFSR.
- The Karelo-Finnish SSR existed between March 31, 1940 and July 16, 1956.
- Under the threat of intervention, the formally independent Far Eastern Republic was carved out of Russian territory to become a buffer state on April 6, 1920, and was again merged with Russia on November 15, 1922. Its capital was Verkhneudinsk before October 1920, and then Chita.
- An attempt to declare the Polish Soviet Socialist Republic was made during the Soviet assault in the Polish-Soviet War of 1919–1922, by the Polish Provisional Revolutionary Committee headed by Julian Marchlewski in Bialystok.
Timeline
- 1922 - Soviet Union formed from Russian SFSR, Transcaucasian SFSR, Ukrainian SSR, Byelorussian SSR
- 1924 - Uzbek SSR and Turkmen SSR are formed from the Turkestan ASSR in the Russian SFSR.
- 1929 - Tajik SSR split from Uzbek SSR
- 1936 - in compliance with 1936 Soviet Constitution Kazakh ASSR and Kyrgyz ASSR were split from RSFSR and transformed into Kazakh SSR and Kyrgyz SSR
- 1936 - Transcaucasian SFSR split into Georgian SSR, Armenian SSR and Azerbaijan SSR.
- 1939 - Part of Poland annexed and added to Byelorussian SSR and Ukrainian SSR.
- 1940 - Estonia, Latvia and Lithuania conquered, transformed into Estonian SSR, Latvian SSR, Lithuanian SSR.
- 1940 - Karelo-Finnish SSR created from Karelian ASSR in Russia
- 1940 - Part of Ukraine's Moldavan ASSR made into Moldavian SSR along with territory annexed from Romania
- 1941 - Lithuania revolts and proclaims independence but is soon occupied by Germany.
- 1944 - The Soviet Union annexes the Tuvinian People's Republic, which is then made a part of the Russian SFSR.
- 1944 - Lithuania, Latvia and Estonia re-occupied by Soviet Union.
- 1944 - repressions to Caucasus and Crimea peoples, deportations, all AO and ASSR reorganized
- 1945 - Part of East Prussia annexed from Germany and added to Russian SFSR as the Kaliningrad oblast exclave
- 1945 - Crimea ASSR transformed to Crimea Oblast, remaining in RSFSR
- 1945 - Kuril islands and the southern part of Sakhalin added to Russian SFSR from Japan
- 1945 - Carpathian Ruthenia ceded by Czechoslovakia and integrated into the Ukrainian SSR
- 1954 - Crimea transferred from Russian SFSR to Ukrainian SSR
- 1956 - Karelo-Finnish SSR became the Karelian ASSR in Russia again
- 1990 - Lithuania and Latvia declare independence .
- 1991 - Soviet military attempt to crackdown Lithuanian independence.
- 1991 - Estonia declares independence.
References
