Union republic

The 15 Soviet Union Republics until 1990/91

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

Lenin Museum Bishkek with the flags of the Union Republics

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

Name of the Union Republic	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:

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