Republics of the Soviet Union

Chapter 8 of the 1977 Soviet Constitution is titled as the "Soviet Union is a union state". Article 70 stated that the union was founded on principles "socialist federalism" as a result of free self-determination of nation and volunteer association of equal in rights soviet socialist republics. Article 71 listed all of 15 union republics that united into the Soviet Union.

According to Article 76 of the 1977 Soviet Constitution, a Union Republic was a sovereign Soviet socialist state that had united with other Soviet Republics in the USSR. Article 78 of the Constitution stated that the territory of the union republic cannot be changed without its agreement. Article 81 of the Constitution stated that "the sovereign rights of Union Republics shall be safeguarded by the USSR".[2]

In the final decades of its existence, the Soviet Union officially consisted of fifteen Soviet Socialist Republics (SSRs). All of them, with the exception of the Russian Federation (until 1990), had their own local party chapters of the All-Union Communist Party.

Outside the territory of the Russian Federation, the republics were constituted mostly in lands that had formerly belonged to the Russian Empire and had been acquired by it between the 1700 Great Northern War and the Anglo-Russian Convention of 1907.

In 1944, amendments to the All-Union Constitution allowed for separate branches of the Red Army for each Soviet Republic. They also allowed for Republic-level commissariats for foreign affairs and defense, allowing them to be recognized as de jure independent states in international law. This allowed for two Soviet Republics, Ukraine and Byelorussia, (as well as the USSR as a whole) to join the United Nations General Assembly as founding members in 1945.[3][4][5]

All of the former Republics of the Union are now independent countries, with ten of them (all except the Baltic states, Georgia and Ukraine) being very loosely organized under the heading of the Commonwealth of Independent States. The Baltic states assert that their incorporation into the Soviet Union in 1940 (as the Lithuanian, Latvian, and Estonian SSRs) under the provisions of the 1939 Molotov–Ribbentrop Pact was illegal, and that they therefore remained independent countries under Soviet occupation.[6][7] Their position is supported by the European Union,[8] the European Court of Human Rights,[9] the United Nations Human Rights Council[10] and the United States.[11] In contrast, the Russian government and state officials maintain that the Soviet annexation of the Baltic states was legitimate.[12]

Constitutionally, the Soviet Union was a federation. In accordance with provisions present in its Constitution (versions adopted in 1924, 1936 and 1977), each republic retained the right to secede from the USSR. Throughout the Cold War, this right was widely considered to be meaningless; however, the corresponding Article 72 of the 1977 Constitution was used in December 1991 to effectively dissolve the Soviet Union, when Russia, Ukraine, and Belarus seceded from the Union. Although the Union was created under an initial ideological appearance of forming a supranational union, it never de facto functioned as one; an example of the ambiguity is that the Ukrainian Soviet Socialist Republic in the 1930s officially had its own foreign minister, but that office did not exercise any true sovereignty apart from that of the union. The Constitution of the Soviet Union in its various iterations defined the union as a federation with the right of the republics to secede. This constitutional status led to the possibility of the parade of sovereignties once the republic with de facto (albeit not de jure) dominance over the other republics, the Russian one, developed a prevailing political notion asserting that it would be better off if it seceded. The de facto dominance of the Russian republic is the reason that various historians (for example, Dmitri Volkogonov and others) have asserted that the union was a unitary state in fact albeit it not in law.[13]^{: 71, 483}[14]

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 dissolution. 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 former "countries" and other regions brought into the union referred to as soviets during their time as republics[15] and with the Soviet Union as a whole under the nominal control of the Supreme Soviet of the USSR, located in Moscow within the Russian SFSR.

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.

Each republic had its own unique set of state symbols: a flag, a coat of arms, and, with the exception of Russia until 1990, an anthem. Every republic of the Soviet Union also was awarded with the Order of Lenin.

• 
  A hall in Bishkek's Soviet-era Lenin Museum decorated with the flags of Soviet Republics
• 
  Poster of the unity of the Soviet republics in the late 1930s. All republics, except Russia, are shown with their respective traditional clothes.
• 
  Poster of the unity of the Soviet republics in the late 1940s. Note that the map also points out the Karelo-Finnish SSR capital, Petrozavodsk.

Map of the Union Republics from 1956 to 1991, as numbered by the Soviet Constitution: 1. Russia, 2. Ukraine, 3. Belarus, 4. Uzbekistan, 5. Kazakhstan, 6. Georgia, 7. Azerbaijan, 8. Lithuania, 9. Moldavia, 10. Latvia, 11. Kyrgyzstan, 12. Tajikistan, 13. Armenia, 14. Turkmenistan, 15. Estonia

The number of the union republics of the USSR varied from 4 to 16. From 1956 until its dissolution in 1991, the Soviet Union consisted of 15 Soviet Socialist Republics. (In 1956, the Karelo-Finnish Soviet Socialist Republic, created in 1940, was absorbed into the Russian Soviet Federative Socialist Republic.) Rather than listing the republics in alphabetical order, the republics were listed in constitutional order, which, particularly by the last decades of the Soviet Union, did not correspond to order either by population or economic power.

Emblem	Name	Flag	Capital	Official languages	Established	Joined	Sovereignty	Independence	Population (1989)	Pop. %	Area (km2) (1991)	Area %	Post-Soviet and de facto states	No.
	Armenian Soviet Socialist Republic		Yerevan	Armenian, Russian	2 December 1920	30 December 1922	23 August 1990	21 September 1991	3,287,700	1.15	29,800	0.13	Armenia	13
	Azerbaijan Soviet Socialist Republic		Baku	Azerbaijani, Russian	28 April 1920	30 December 1922	23 September 1989	18 October 1991	7,037,900	2.45	86,600	0.39	Azerbaijan	7
	Byelorussian Soviet Socialist Republic		Minsk	Byelorussian, Russian	31 July 1920	30 December 1922	27 July 1990	25 August 1991	10,151,806	3.54	207,600	0.93	Belarus	3
	Estonian Soviet Socialist Republic[lower-alpha 1]		Tallinn	Estonian, Russian	21 July 1940[lower-alpha 2]	6 August 1940	16 November 1988	20 August 1991	1,565,662	0.55	45,226	0.20	Estonia	15
	Georgian Soviet Socialist Republic		Tbilisi	Georgian, Russian	25 February 1921	30 December 1922	18 November 1989	9 April 1991	5,400,841	1.88	69,700	0.31	Georgia  Abkhazia  South Ossetia	6
	Kazakh Soviet Socialist Republic		Alma-Ata	Kazakh, Russian	5 December 1936		25 October 1990	16 December 1991	16,711,900	5.83	2,717,300	12.24	Kazakhstan	5
	Kirghiz Soviet Socialist Republic		Frunze	Kirghiz, Russian	5 December 1936		15 December 1990	31 August 1991	4,257,800	1.48	198,500	0.89	Kyrgyzstan	11
	Latvian Soviet Socialist Republic[lower-alpha 1]		Riga	Latvian, Russian	21 July 1940[lower-alpha 2]	5 August 1940	28 July 1989	21 August 1991	2,666,567	0.93	64,589	0.29	Latvia	10
	Lithuanian Soviet Socialist Republic[lower-alpha 1]		Vilnius	Lithuanian, Russian	21 July 1940[lower-alpha 2]	3 August 1940	18 May 1989	11 March 1990	3,689,779	1.29	65,200	0.29	Lithuania	8
	Moldavian Soviet Socialist Republic		Kishinev	Moldavian, Russian	2 August 1940		23 June 1990	27 August 1991	4,337,600	1.51	33,843	0.15	Moldova  Transnistria	9
	Russian Soviet Federative Socialist Republic		Moscow	Russian	7 November 1917	30 December 1922	12 June 1990	12 December 1991	147,386,000	51.40	17,075,400	76.62	Russia	1
	Tajik Soviet Socialist Republic		Dushanbe	Tajik, Russian	5 December 1929		24 August 1990	9 September 1991	5,112,000	1.78	143,100	0.64	Tajikistan	12
	Turkmen Soviet Socialist Republic		Ashkhabad	Turkmen, Russian	13 May 1925		27 August 1990	27 October 1991	3,522,700	1.23	488,100	2.19	Turkmenistan	14
	Ukrainian Soviet Socialist Republic		Kiev	Ukrainian, Russian	10 March 1919	30 December 1922	16 July 1990	24 August 1991	51,706,746	18.03	603,700	2.71	Ukraine Russia	2
	Uzbek Soviet Socialist Republic		Tashkent	Uzbek, Russian	5 December 1924		20 June 1990	31 August 1991	19,906,000	6.94	447,400	2.01	Uzbekistan	4

Temporary Union Republics of the Soviet Union

Emblem	Name	Flag	Capital	Titular nationality	Years of membership	Population	Area (km2)	Soviet successor
	Bukharan People's Soviet Republic		Bukhara	Uzbeks, Tajiks, Turkmens	1920–1925	2,000,000	182,193	Uzbek SSR  Tajik SSR  Turkmen SSR
	Karelo-Finnish Soviet Socialist Republic		Petrozavodsk	Karelians, Finns	1940–1956	651,300 (1959)	172,400	Russian SFSR ( Karelian ASSR)
	Khorezm People's Soviet Republic		Khiva	Uzbeks, Turkmens	1920–1925	800,000	62,200	Turkmen SSR  Uzbek SSR
	Transcaucasian Socialist Federative Soviet Republic		Tiflis	Azerbaijanis, Armenians, Georgians	1922–1936	5,861,600 (1926)	186,100	Armenian SSR  Azerbaijan SSR  Georgian SSR
	Latvian Socialist Soviet Republic		Riga (1918-1919), Daugavpils (1919-1920)	Latvians	1918-1920	1,727,000 (1920)	64,589	Independent  Latvia (1920),  Latvian SSR (Post WW2)
	Lithuanian Soviet Socialist Republic (1918–1919)		Vilnius	Lithuanians	1918-1919	2,108,000 (1919)		Socialist Soviet Republic of Lithuania and Belorussia
	Socialist Soviet Republic of Lithuania and Belorussia		Vilnius, Minsk	Lithuanians, Belarusians	1919-1920	Roughly 13,695,000 (1914 1919)		Independent  Latvia,  Belarusian SSR
N/A	Commune of the Working People of Estonia		Narva	Estonians	1918-1919	1,107,059 (1914 1919)	45,339	Independent  Estonia,  Estonian SSR (Post WW2)

Republics not recognized by the Soviet Union

Main article: Parade of sovereignties

Emblem	Name	Flag	Capital	Official languages	Independence from SSR declared	Independence from USSR declared	Population	Area (km2)	Post-Soviet states
	Pridnestrovian Moldavian Soviet Socialist Republic		Tiraspol	Russian, Ukrainian, Moldovan	2 September 1990	25 August 1991	680,000 (1989)	4,163 (1989)	Transnistria  Moldova

Other non-union Soviet republics

Emblem	Name	Flag	Capital	Created	Defunct	Successor states	Modern states
	Far Eastern Republic		Verkhneudinsk Chita	1920	1922	Russian SFSR	Russia
	Tuvan People's Republic		Kyzyl	1921	1944	Russian SFSR ( Tuvan ASSR)

The Turkestan Soviet Federative Republic was proclaimed in 1918 but did not survive to the founding of the USSR, becoming the short-lived Turkestan Autonomous Soviet Socialist Republic of the RSFSR. The Crimean Soviet Socialist Republic (Soviet Socialist Republic of Taurida) was also proclaimed in 1918, but did not become a union republic and was made into an autonomous republic of the RSFSR, although the Crimean Tatars had a relative majority until the 1930s or 1940s according to censuses. When the Tuvan People's Republic joined the Soviet Union in 1944, it did not become a union republic, and was instead established as an autonomous republic of the RSFSR.

The leader of the People's Republic of Bulgaria, Todor Zhivkov, suggested in the early 1960s that the country should become a union republic, but the offer was rejected.[19][20][21] During the Soviet–Afghan War, the Soviet Union proposed to annex Northern Afghanistan as its 16th union republic in what was to become the Afghan Soviet Socialist Republic.[22]

Several of the Union Republics themselves, most notably Russia, were further subdivided into Autonomous Soviet Socialist Republics (ASSRs). Though administratively part of their respective Union Republics, ASSRs were also established based on ethnic/cultural lines.

According to the constitution of the USSR, in case of a union republic voting on leaving the Soviet Union, autonomous republics, autonomous oblasts and autonomous okrugs had the right, by means of a referendum, to independently resolve whether they will stay in the USSR or leave with the seceding union republic, as well as to raise the issue of their state-legal status.[23]>

Emblem	Name	Flag	Years of membership	Capital	Official languages	Area (km2)	Soviet Socialist Republic	Post-Soviet subjects
	Abkhaz Autonomous Soviet Socialist Republic		1931–1992	Sukhumi	Abkhazian, Georgian, Russian	8,600	Georgian SSR	Abkhazia
	Adjar Autonomous Soviet Socialist Republic		1921–1990	Batumi	Georgian, Russian	2,880	Georgian SSR	Adjara
	Bashkir Autonomous Soviet Socialist Republic		1919–1991	Ufa	Bashkir, Russian	143,600	Russian SFSR	Bashkortostan
	Buryat Autonomous Soviet Socialist Republic		1923–1990	Ulan-Ude	Buryat, Russian	69,857	Russian SFSR	Buryatia
	Checheno-Ingush Autonomous Soviet Socialist Republic		1936–1944 1957–1991	Grozny	Chechen, Ingush, Russian	19,300	Russian SFSR	Chechnya  Ingushetia
	Chuvash Autonomous Soviet Socialist Republic		1925–1992	Cheboksary	Chuvash, Russian	18,300	Russian SFSR	Chuvashia
	Dagestan Autonomous Soviet Socialist Republic		1921–1991	Makhachkala	Aghul, Avar, Azerbaijani, Chechen, Kumyk, Lezgian, Lak, Nogai, Tabasaran, Tat, Russian	50,300	Russian SFSR	Dagestan
	Gorno-Altai Autonomous Soviet Socialist Republic[note 1]		1990–1991	Gorno-Altaysk	Altai, Russian	92,600	Russian SFSR	Altai Republic
	Kabardino-Balkarian Autonomous Soviet Socialist Republic		1936–1944 1957–1991	Nalchik	Kabardian, Karachay-Balkar, Russian	12,500	Russian SFSR	Kabardino-Balkaria
	Kalmyk Autonomous Soviet Socialist Republic		1935–1943 1958–1991	Elista	Kalmyk Oirat, Russian	76,100	Russian SFSR	Kalmykia
	Karakalpak Autonomous Soviet Socialist Republic		1932–1991	Nukus	Karakalpak (1956-1980s), Russian	165,000	Uzbek SSR	Karakalpakstan
	Karelian Autonomous Soviet Socialist Republic		1923–1940 1956–1991	Petrozavodsk	Finnish (1956-1980s), Russian	147,000	Russian SFSR	Karelia
	Komi Autonomous Soviet Socialist Republic		1936–1990	Syktyvkar	Komi, Russian	415,900	Russian SFSR	Komi Republic
	Mari Autonomous Soviet Socialist Republic		1936–1990	Yoshkar-Ola	Mari (Meadow and Hill variants), Russian	23,200	Russian SFSR	Mari El
	Mordovian Autonomous Soviet Socialist Republic		1934–1990	Saransk	Erzya, Moksha, Russian	26,200	Russian SFSR	Mordovia
	Nakhichevan Autonomous Soviet Socialist Republic		1921–1990	Nakhichevan	Azerbaijani, Russian	5,500	Azerbaijan SSR	Nakhchivan
	North Ossetian Autonomous Soviet Socialist Republic		1936–1993	Ordzhonikidze	Ossetian, Russian	8,000	Russian SFSR	North Ossetia
	Tatar Autonomous Soviet Socialist Republic		1920–1990	Kazan	Tatar, Russian	68,000	Russian SFSR	Tatarstan
	Tuvan Autonomous Soviet Socialist Republic		1961–1992	Kyzyl	Tuvan, Russian	170,500	Russian SFSR	Tuva
	Udmurt Autonomous Soviet Socialist Republic		1934–1990	Izhevsk	Udmurt, Russian	42,100	Russian SFSR	Udmurtia
	Yakut Autonomous Soviet Socialist Republic		1922–1991	Yakutsk	Yakut, Russian	3,083,523	Russian SFSR	Sakha Republic

Former Autonomous Soviet Socialist Republics of the Soviet Union

Emblem	Name	Flag	Capital	Titular nationality	Years of membership	Population	Area (km2)	Soviet Socialist Republic	Post-Soviet states
	Crimean Autonomous Soviet Socialist Republic		Simferopol	Crimean Tatars Russians	1921–1945 1991–1992	1,126,000 (1939)	26,860	Russian SFSR  Ukrainian SSR	Ukraine  Russia
	Kabardin Autonomous Soviet Socialist Republic		Nalchik	Kabardians	1944–1957	420,115 (1959)	12,470	Russian SFSR	Russia
	Kirghiz Autonomous Socialist Soviet Republic		Alma-Ata	Kazakhs	1920–1925	6,503,000 (1926)	2,960,000	Russian SFSR	Kazakhstan  Uzbekistan  Russia
	Kazakh Autonomous Socialist Soviet Republic				1925–1936
	Kirghiz Autonomous Socialist Soviet Republic		Frunze	Kyrgyz	1926–1936	993,000 (1926)	196,129	Russian SFSR	Kyrgyzstan
	Moldavian Autonomous Soviet Socialist Republic		Tiraspol	Moldovans	1924–1940	599,150 (1939)	8,288	Ukrainian SSR	Transnistria  Moldova  Ukraine
	Mountain Autonomous Soviet Socialist Republic		Vladikavkaz	Balkars, Chechens, Ingush, Kabardians, Karachays, Ossetians, Terek Cossacks	1921–1924	1,286,000 (1921)	74,000	Russian SFSR	Russia
	Tajik Autonomous Soviet Socialist Republic		Dushanbe	Tajiks	1924–1929	740,000 (1924)		Uzbek SSR	Tajikistan
	Turkestan Autonomous Soviet Socialist Republic		Tashkent	Uzbeks, Kazakhs, Kyrgyz, Tajiks, Turkmens	1918–1924	5,221,963 (1920)		Russian SFSR	Kazakhstan  Uzbekistan  Turkmenistan  Tajikistan  Kyrgyzstan
	Volga German Autonomous Soviet Socialist Republic		Engels	Soviet Germans	1923–1941	606,532 (1939)	27,400	Russian SFSR	Russia

Starting in the late 1980s, under the rule of Mikhail Gorbachev, the Soviet government undertook a program of political reforms (glasnost and perestroika) intended to liberalise and revitalise the Union. These measures, however, had a number of unintended political and social effects. Political liberalisation allowed the governments of the union republics to openly invoke the principles of democracy and nationalism to gain legitimacy. In addition, the loosening of political restrictions led to fractures within the Communist Party which resulted in a reduced ability to govern the Union effectively. The rise of nationalist and right-wing movements, notably led by Boris Yeltsin in Russia, in the previously homogeneous political system undermined the Union's foundations. With the central role of the Communist Party removed from the constitution, the Party lost its control over the State machinery and was banned from operating after an attempted coup d'état.

Throughout this period of turmoil, the Soviet government attempted to find a new structure that would reflect the increased authority of the republics. Some autonomous republics, like Tatarstan, Checheno-Ingushetia, Abkhazia, South Ossetia, Crimea, Transnistria, Gagauzia sought the union statute in the New Union Treaty. Efforts to found a Union of Sovereign States, however, proved unsuccessful and the republics began to secede from the Union. By 6 September 1991, the Soviet Union's State Council recognized the independence of Estonia, Latvia and Lithuania bringing the number of union republics down to 12. On 8 December 1991, the remaining leaders of the republics signed the Belavezha Accords which agreed that the USSR would be dissolved and replaced with a Commonwealth of Independent States. On 25 December, President Gorbachev announced his resignation and turned all executive powers over to Yeltsin. The next day the Council of Republics voted to dissolve the Union. Since then, the republics have been governed independently with some reconstituting themselves as liberal parliamentary republics and others, particularly in Central Asia, devolving into highly autocratic states under the leadership of the old Party elite.

• Flags of the Soviet Republics
• Emblems of the Soviet Republics
• Commonwealth of Independent States
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• National delimitation in the Soviet Union
• Bavarian Soviet Republic
• Hungarian Soviet Republic
• Slovak Soviet Republic
• Limerick Soviet
• Paris Commune
• Provisional Polish Revolutionary Committee (Polish SSR)
• Republics of Russia
• Federal subjects of Russia
• Post-Soviet states (former Soviet Republics)

• Bibliography of the Russian Revolution and Civil War
• Bibliography of Stalinism and the Soviet Union
• Bibliography of the Post Stalinist Soviet Union