Union republic
A union republic is a republic that belongs to a union ( confederation or federal state ). The word was mostly used for the last fifteen republics of the Soviet Union .
The Union Republics of the Soviet Union
The originally four, now sixteen and finally fifteen Soviet republics (from Russian совет "council") had - unlike the US states , which the communist rulers liked to emphasize - de jure the right to leave the union. In chap. 8 / Art. 72 of the Soviet constitution of 1977 said:
"Every Union republic retains the right to withdraw freely from the USSR ."
However, the constitutional context made it clear that a unilateral “free” declaration of intent to leave was not possible. This was only possible in agreement with the Union or the Union Republics, but ultimately dependent on the policy of the leadership in Moscow . In the course of Gorbachev's reforms of “ perestroika ” and “ glasnost ”, the procedure envisaged for an exit was finally defined by a Union law in 1990, which none of the Union republics that declared themselves independent in 1991 adhered to. The Soviet Union collapsed .
Each Union republic had its own constitution and its own capital. Moscow had a special supraregional capital status within the entire Soviet Union and only in second place as the capital of the Russian Socialist Federative Soviet Republic (RSFSR). The central government institutions of the Soviet Union, with their headquarters in Moscow, had actually ( de facto ) taken over all important powers; their political decisions had to be accepted and carried out by the Soviet republics.
Union republics since 1956
map | flag | Name of the Union Republic | today's flag | today's state | Official language | founding |
---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
Armenian SSR Հայկական ՍՍՀ |
Republic of Armenia Հայաստանի Հանրապետություն |
officially none; de facto Armenian and Russian |
1922 | |||
Azerbaijani SSR Азәрбајҹан ССР |
Republic of Azerbaijan Azərbaycan Respublikası 2 |
officially none; de facto Azeri and Russian |
1922 | |||
Estonian SSR Eesti NSV |
Republic of Estonia Eesti Vabariik |
officially none; de facto Estonian and Russian |
1940 | |||
Georgian SSR საქართველოს სსრ |
Georgia საქართველო |
Georgian and Russian |
1936 | |||
Kazakh SSR Қазақ КСР |
Republic of Kazakhstan Қазақстан Республикасы |
officially none; de facto Kazakh and Russian |
1925 | |||
Kyrgyz SSR Кыргыз ССР |
Kyrgyz Republic Кыргыз Республикасы |
officially none; de facto Kyrgyz and Russian |
1926 | |||
Latvian SSR Latvijas PSR |
Republic of Latvia Latvijas Republika |
officially none; de facto Latvian and Russian |
1940 | |||
Lithuanian SSR Lietuvos TSR |
Republic of Lithuania Lietuvos Respublika |
officially none; de facto Lithuanian and Russian |
1940 | |||
Moldovan SSR РСС Молдовеняскэ RSS Moldovenească 2 |
Republic of Moldova Republica Moldova |
officially none; de facto Romanian and Russian |
1940 | |||
Russian SFSR Российская СФСР |
Russian Federation * Российская Федерация |
Russian | 1922 | |||
Tajik SSR РСС Тоҷикистон |
Republic of Tajikistan Ҷумҳурии Тоҷикистон |
officially none; de facto Tajik and Russian |
1929 | |||
Turkmen SSR Түркменистан ССР |
Republic of Turkmenistan Turkmenistan Jumhuriyäti 2 |
officially none; de facto Turkmen and Russian |
1925 | |||
Ukrainian SSR Українська РСР |
Republic of Ukraine Україна Республіка |
officially none; de facto preferring Russian to Ukrainian 1 |
1922 | |||
Uzbek SSR Ўзбекистон ССР |
Republic of Uzbekistan Oʻzbekiston Respublikasi 2 |
officially none; de facto Uzbek and Russian |
1925 | |||
Belarusian SSR Беларуская ССР |
Republic of Belarus Рэспубліка Беларусь |
Belarusian and Russian |
1922 |
*) The Russian Federation has been the bearer of the rights and obligations of the former RSFSR and successor to the Soviet Union since 1991 .
1) With the constitution of the Ukrainian SSR of April 20, 1978, the Ukrainian language (de jure) became the official language of the USSR. Russian was given the status of a lingua franca .
2) The current state name is not always identical to that of the Union republic. After state independence , the Cyrillic alphabet was abolished and replaced by the Latin one in some of the former Union republics . In Moldovan , this change in the written language was implemented as early as 1989.
Other Union Republics until 1956
In the history of the Soviet Union there were at times other Union republics:
map | flag | Name of the Union Republic | Capital | Duration | Official language |
---|---|---|---|---|---|
Karelo-Finnish SSR Карело-Финская ССР incorporated into the RSFSR as the Karelian ASSR |
Petrozavodsk | 1940-1956 | Finnish, Russian | ||
Transcaucasian SFSR Закавказская СФСР in the Armenian SSR , Azerbaijan SSR and Georgian SSR split |
Tbilisi | 1922-1936 | Armenian , Azerbaijani, Georgian, Russian | ||
SSR Abkhazia ССР Абхазия in 1922 into the Transcaucasian SFSR, integrated into the Georgian SSR as ASSR in 1931/36 |
Sukhumi | 1921–1922 / 31 | Abkhazian, Russian | ||
The Khorezmian SSR Хорезмская ССР is divided into the newly emerging Uzbek and Turkmen SSR and the Karakalpak AO |
Khiva | 1923-1925 | Chagatai , Dari | ||
SSR Bukhara Бухарская ССР divided into the newly emerging entities of the Uzbek and Turkmen SSR |
Bukhara | 1924 | Chagatai, Tajik |
Other Soviet republics
The republics founded by the Soviets were not union republics in the strict sense of the word:
map | flag | Name of the republic | Capital | Duration | Official language |
---|---|---|---|---|---|
Far Eastern Republic Дальневосточная Республика ДВР |
Chita | 1922 | Russian | ||
Tuvan People's Republic in 1944 was Tuva an autonomous region or an autonomous Soviet Socialist Republic downgraded |
Kyzyl | 1926-1944 | Tuvinian |
See also
Web links
- The constitution (Basic Law) of the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics of October 7, 1977 ( Archive ( Memento of March 8, 2010 in the Internet Archive ))
Individual evidence
- ↑ Constitution (Basic Law) of the USSR, October 7, 1977 (PDF; 112 kB)
- ↑ Art. 73 paras. 2 and 3 Constitution of the Ukrainian Soviet Socialist Republic of April 20, 1978
- ↑ Munzinger Archive, Internationales Handbuch-Zeitarchiv 15/94, Georgia, p. 3.