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Soviet Union [USSR] Republic Level
In theory, the fifteen republics entered into a free and
voluntary union of sovereign states when they joined the Soviet
Union. The Constitution granted the republics the right to secede;
nonetheless, as of 1988 the republics had exercised very little
sovereignty. In 1989, however, the Lithuanian, Estonian, Moldavian,
and several other republics sought greater national autonomy
(see Soviet Union USSR - Manifestations of National Assertiveness
, ch. 4).
Legal Status
Long-standing practice has established three nonconstitutional
requirements for republic status. First, as stated by Stalin in
supervising the writing of the 1936 constitution, the republics had
to border on territory outside the Soviet Union, enabling them to
exercise their theoretical right to secede. All republics met this
requirement. Second, the national minority that gave its name to
the republic was supposed to make up a majority of its population
and to number more than 1 million people. In 1989 the Kazakhs,
however, did not constitute a majority of the Kazakh Republic's
population, constituting about 40 percent of the republic's
population of 16.5 million people. Third, republics were supposed
to have the potential to be economically viable states, should they
secede from the union.
Over the course of Soviet history, the Supreme Soviet has
created new union republics within the territory of the Soviet
Union. In 1922 the Soviet Union comprised four republics: the
Russian Soviet Federated Socialist Republic, the Ukrainian
Republic, the Belorussian Republic, and the Transcaucasian Soviet
Federated Socialist Republic. The Soviet government elevated
Turkmenia (also known as Turkmenistan) and Uzbekistan to republic
status in 1924, and Tadzhikistan split from the Uzbek Republic in
1929 to form a separate republic. Kazakhstan and Kirgizia became
republics in 1936. (Turkmenia, Uzbekistan, Kirgizia, and Kazakhstan
had been part of the Russian Republic.) In 1936 the Transcaucasian
Soviet Federated Socialist Republic split into the Armenian,
Azerbaydzhan, and Georgian republics.
As the Soviet Union gained territory, the Supreme Soviet
created new republics. Territory taken from Finland was joined in
March 1940 with the Karelian Autonomous Republic to form the
Karelo-Finnish Republic. (In 1956 this republic, which had never
had a majority of the nationality whose name it bore, was demoted
to the status of an autonomous republic and was renamed the
Karelian Autonomous Republic.) Moreover, in 1940 Lithuania, Latvia,
and Estonia were incorporated into the Soviet Union as republics.
Finally, in 1940 Bessarabia, taken from Romania, was joined with
the Romanian-speaking portion of the Moldavian Autonomous Republic
in the Ukrainian Republic to form the Moldavian Soviet Socialist
Republic.
Data as of May 1989
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