Kabardino-Balkarian Autonomous Soviet Socialist Republic

Coat of arms of the Kabardino-Balkarian ASSR

Kabardino-Balkaria in southwest Russia

The Kabardino-Balkarian ASSR ( Russian Кабардино-Балкарская АССР ; Kabardino-Balkarian Autonomous Soviet Socialist Republic ) was an autonomous Soviet republic in the Russian Federal Soviet Socialist Republic (RSFSR) within the Soviet Union . The capital was Nalchik . The 12,500 square kilometer region lies on the north side of the Caucasus . It was inhabited by around 900,000 people in the late 1980s. The most important branch of the economy was the extraction of raw materials such as coal, iron, tungsten and lead.

The republic was formed with the 1936 Constitution on December 5, 1936. It goes back to the Kabardian Autonomous Oblast, which was formed on September 1, 1921 from the Kabardian Okrug of the Soviet Mountain Republic , which was expanded to the Kabardino-Balkarian Autonomous Oblast on January 16, 1922 of the Balkar Okrug of the Mountain Republic and from October 16, 1924 became part of the Krai North Caucasus was.

In April 1944, the Soviet authorities accused the Balkars of collaborating with the Germans. The Kabardino-Balkarian Autonomous Soviet Socialist Republic was renamed the Kabardino ASSR on April 8, 1944 . With the rehabilitation of the Balkars, the previous name came into use again on February 11, 1957. After the collapse of the Soviet Union in late 1991, the area became part of the Russian Federation on May 16, 1992 as the Republic of Kabardino-Balkaria .