Republics of the Soviet Union

Republics of the Soviet Union, 1989

The Republics of the Soviet Union were, according to the Article 76 of the 1977 Soviet Constitution, sovereign Soviet Socialist states that had united with other Soviet Republics in the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics. Article 81 of the Constitution stated that "the sovereign rights of Union Republics shall be safeguarded by the USSR".^[1] According to the European Court of Human Rights,^[2] the governments of the Baltic countries,^[3][4] the United States,^[5] and the European Union,^[6] the three Soviet Baltic republics (Estonian SSR, Latvian SSR, and Lithuanian SSR) were occupied by the Soviet Union in 1940 under the provisions of the 1939 Molotov-Ribbentrop Pact. The Russian government and state officials, however, maintain that the Soviet annexation of the Baltic states was legitimate^[7] In the final decades of its existence, the Soviet Union consisted of fifteen Soviet Socialist Republics (SSR), often called simply Soviet Republics. Within the USSR they were also called union republics (Russian: союзные республики, soyuznye respubliki). All of them were considered to be socialist republics, and all of them, with the exception of Russian SFSR, had their own Communist parties, part of the Communist Party of the Soviet Union. All of the former Republics are now independent countries, with twelve of them (all except the Baltic states) being very loosely organized under the heading of the Commonwealth of Independent States.

Constitutionally, the Soviet Union was a federation. In accordance with Article 72 of the 1977 Constitution, 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 Union. In practice, the USSR was a highly centralised entity from its creation in 1922 until the mid-1980s when political forces unleashed by 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 (Councils) 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

A hall in Bishkek's Soviet-era Lenin Museum decked with the flags of Soviet Republics

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, whereas as Kazakhstan is by far the second largest in area. Armenia was the smallest in area, Estonia - in population.

Other Soviet republics

• An attempt to declare a 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 Białystok.
• 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 (now Ulan-Ude) before October 1920, and then Chita.
• The Abkhazian SSR existed between March 31, 1921 and February 19, 1931. From February 1922 onwards, it had confederal relations with the Georgian SSR through a special union treaty.^{[8] [9]}
• Abkhazia, 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.

Timeline

• 1922 - Georgian SSR, Abkhazian SSR, Armenian SSR and Azerbaijan SSR form Transcaucasian SFSR
• 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
• 1931 - Abkhazian SSR demoted to Abkhazian ASSR within Georgian 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 (known as Kresy) occupied, annexed and added to Byelorussian SSR and Ukrainian SSR.
• 1939 - Part of southeastern Finland occupied and formed into a nominally independent Finnish Democratic Republic (so-called Terijoki Government)
• 1940 - Finnish Democratic Republic annexed into USSR and merged with Karelian ASSR to form Karelo-Finnish SSR
• 1940 - Estonia, Latvia and Lithuania occupied, transformed into Estonian SSR, Latvian SSR, Lithuanian SSR, and annexed. ^[10]
• 1940 - Part of Ukraine's Moldavian ASSR made into Moldavian SSR along with territory annexed from Romania
• 1941 - Lithuania revolts and proclaims independence but is soon occupied by Germany. ^[11]
• 1944 - The Soviet Union annexes the Tuvinian People's Republic, which is then made a part of the Russian SFSR.
• 1944-1945 - Lithuania, Latvia, Estonia and parts of Finland 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 declares independence ^[12][13].
• 1991 - Soviet military attempt to crack down Lithuanian independence. ^[14]
• 1991 - Estonia and Latvia declare independence.
• 1991 - Union dissolves, rest of union republics become independent.

References

•  • e Republics of the Soviet Union
Eastern Europe	Byelorussian SSR  ·  Moldavian SSR  ·  Russian SFSR  ·  Ukrainian SSR
Central Asia	Kazakh SSR  ·  Kirgiz SSR  ·  Tajik SSR  ·  Turkmen SSR  ·  Uzbek SSR
Transcaucasia	Armenian SSR  ·  Azerbaijan SSR  ·  Georgian SSR
The Baltics	Estonian SSR  ·  Latvian SSR  ·  Lithuanian SSR
Short-lived Soviet Republics	Abkhazian SSR (1921-1931)  ·  Transcaucasian SFSR (1922-1936)  · Karelo-Finnish SSR (1940-1956)