Republics of the Soviet Union, 1989
The
Republics of the Soviet Union or the
Union Republics (,
soyuznye respubliki) of the Soviet Union were ethnically based administrative units that were subordinated directly to the
Government of the Soviet Union. Historically a highly centralized state, the
decentralization and
democratization reforms during the era of
Perestroika and
Glasnost conducted by
Mikhail Gorbachev led to the
Dissolution of the USSR.
According to the Article 76 of the
1977 Soviet Constitution, the sovereign Soviet socialist states united to become 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".
In the final decades of its existence, the
Soviet Union officially consisted of fifteen Soviet Socialist Republics (SSR). All of them were considered to be
socialist republics, and all of them, with the exception of the
Russian SFSR, had their own
Communist parties, part of the
Communist Party of the Soviet Union.
However, the Baltic countries,
Lithuania,
Latvia, and
Estonia, do not consider themselves to have ever been part of the USSR. They assert that their incorporation into the Soviet Union in 1940 (as the
Lithuanian SSR,
Latvian SSR, and
Estonian SSR) under the provisions of the 1939
Molotov-Ribbentrop Pact was illegal, and that they therefore remained independent countries under Soviet occupation. Their position is supported by the
European Court of Human Rights, the
United Nations Human Rights Council , the
United States,
and the
European Union,. In contrast, the
Russian government and state officials maintain that the Soviet annexation of the
Baltic states was legitimate.
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 provisions present in the 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.
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 within the
Russian Soviet Federative Socialist Republic.
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. Every republic of the Soviet Union also was awarded with the
Order of Lenin. Two (Ukraine and Belarus) were members of the
United Nations General Assembly.
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
Republics of the Soviet Union
Independent nations
Other Soviet republics
- Tuva was a country located between Mongolia and Russia, formally independent between 1911 and 1914, and then again between 1921 and 1944. In 1921 local Bolsheviks proclaimed the Tuvinian People's Republic, and in 1944 the country was annexed by Soviet Union, becoming a part of the Russian SFSR.
Timeline
- 1940 - Finnish Democratic Republic annexed into USSR and merged with Karelian ASSR to form Karelo-Finnish SSR
- 1944-1945 - Lithuania, Latvia, Estonia and parts of Finland re-occupied by Soviet Union.
- 1989 - Lithuania, Latvia, Azerbaijan: Sovereignty Declarations.
- 1991 - Estonia and Latvia declare reestablishment of the independent republics.
- 1991 - Union dissolves, rest of union republics become independent.
