Russian Soviet Federative Socialist Republic

Soviet republic from 1917 to 1991

"Soviet Russia" redirects here. For the federation of national republics as a whole, see Soviet Union. For other uses, see Soviet Russia (disambiguation).

Russian Soviet Federative Socialist Republic

Российская Советская Федеративная Социалистическая Республика (Russian)
Rossiyskaya Sovetskaya Federativnaya Sotsialisticheskaya Respublika

1917–1991

Flag:

* Top: 1918–1937
* Bottom: 1954–1991

Emblem (1978‍-‍1991)

Anthem: «Патриотическая песня»
("The Patriotic Song"; 1990–1991)

The Russian SFSR in 1922

The Russian SFSR in 1924

The Russian SFSR in 1929

The Russian SFSR in 1936

The Russian SFSR in 1940

The Russian SFSR from 1956-1991

The Russian SFSR (red) within the Soviet Union (red and white)

Status|

* Sovereign state (1917‍-‍1922)
* Union Republic of the Soviet Union (1922‍-‍1991)
* Union Republic of the Soviet Union with priority of republican legislation (1990‍-‍1991)

Capital|

* Petrograd (1917‍-‍1918)
* Moscow (1918‍-‍1991)

Largest city| Moscow
Official languages| Russian
Recognised languages| See Languages of Russia
Religion

* Secular state (de jure)
* State atheism (de facto)
* Russian Orthodoxy (majority)

Demonym(s)| Russian
Government|

* Federal parliamentary soviet socialist directorial republic (1917‍-‍1990)[1][a]
* Federal multi-party republic (1990‍-‍1991)

Head of state|

• 1917 (first)

| Lev Kamenev

• 1990–1991 (last)

| Boris Yeltsin
Head of government|

• 1917–1924 (first)

| Vladimir Lenin

• 1990–1991

| Ivan Silayev

• 1991 (last)

| Boris Yeltsin
Legislature|

* Congress of Soviets (1917‍-‍1938)
* Supreme Soviet (1938‍-‍1990)
* Congress of People's Deputies (1990‍-‍1991)

History|

• October Revolution

| 7 November 1917

• Russian Civil War

| 1917–1922

• Soviet republic proclaimed

| 25 January 1918

• USSR created

| 30 December 1922

• Crimea transferred to Ukrainian SSR

| 19 February 1954

• State sovereignty

| 12 June 1990

• Belovezh Accords

| 12 December 1991

• Russian SFSR renamed into the Russian Federation

| 25 December 1991

• Dissolution of the Soviet Union

| 26 December 1991

• End of the Soviet political system

| 25 December 1993
Area
1956[citation needed]| 17,125,200 km2 (6,612,100 sq mi)
Population

• 1989[citation needed]

| 147,386,000
Currency| Soviet ruble (SUR)
Time zone| (UTC +2 to +12)
Calling code| +7
ISO 3166 code| RU
Internet TLD| .su

Preceded by | Succeeded by

|

|  | 1918:
Russian Republic

|

| 1920:
Russian State
| 1922:
Far Eastern Republic
| 1923:
Priamurye Government
| 1944:
Tuva
| 1956:
Karelo-Finnish SSR
| 1922:
Soviet Union |

|

1925:
Turkmen SSR |
1940:
Karelo-Finnish SSR |
1991:
Russian Federation |

The Russian Soviet Federative Socialist Republic[b] (Russian SFSR or RSFSR), previously known as the Russian Socialist Federative Soviet Republic and the Russian Soviet Republic,[4] and unofficially as Soviet Russia,[5] was a socialist state from 1917 to 1922, and afterwards the largest and most populous constituent republic of the Soviet Union (USSR) from 1922 to 1991, until becoming a sovereign part of the Soviet Union with priority of Russian laws over Union-level legislation in 1990 and 1991, the last two years of the existence of the USSR.[6] The Russian SFSR was composed of sixteen smaller constituent units of autonomous republics, five autonomous oblasts, ten autonomous okrugs, six krais and forty oblasts.[6] Russians formed the largest ethnic group. The capital of the Russian SFSR and the USSR as a whole was Moscow and the other major urban centers included Leningrad (Petrograd until 1924), Stalingrad (Volgograd after 1961), Novosibirsk, Sverdlovsk, Gorky and Kuybyshev.

On 7 November 1917 (O.S. 25 October), as a result of the October Revolution, the Russian Soviet Republic was proclaimed as a sovereign state and the world's first constitutionally socialist state guided by communist ideology. The first constitution was adopted in 1918. In 1922, the Russian SFSR signed a treaty officially creating the USSR. On 12 June 1990, the Congress of People's Deputies adopted the Declaration of State Sovereignty. On 12 June 1991, Boris Yeltsin, supported by the Democratic Russia pro-reform movement, was elected the first and only President of the RSFSR, a post that would later become the Presidency of the Russian Federation. The August 1991 Soviet coup d'état attempt in Moscow with the temporary brief internment of President Mikhail Gorbachev destabilised the Soviet Union. Following these events, Gorbachev lost all his remaining power, with Yeltsin superseding him as the pre-eminent figure in the country. On 8 December 1991, the heads of Russia, Ukraine and Belarus signed the Belovezha Accords declaring dissolution of the USSR and established the Commonwealth of Independent States (CIS) as a loose replacement confederation. On 12 December, the agreement was ratified by the Supreme Soviet (the parliament of the Russian SFSR); therefore the Russian SFSR had renounced the Treaty on the Creation of the USSR and de facto declared Russia's independence from the USSR itself and the ties with the other Soviet republics.

On 25 December 1991, following the resignation of Gorbachev as President of the Soviet Union, the Russian SFSR was renamed the Russian Federation.[c] The next day, the USSR was self-dissolved by the Soviet of the Republics on 26 December, which by that time was the only functioning parliamentary chamber of the All-Union Supreme Soviet. After the dissolution, Russia took full responsibility for all the rights and obligations of the USSR under the Charter of the United Nations, including the financial obligations. As such, Russia assumed the Soviet Union's UN membership and permanent membership on the Security Council, nuclear stockpile and the control over the armed forces; Soviet embassies abroad became Russian embassies.[7]

The 1978 constitution of the Russian SFSR was amended several times to reflect the transition to democracy, private property and market economy. The new Russian constitution, coming into effect on 25 December 1993 after a constitutional crisis, completely abolished the Soviet form of government and replaced it with a semi-presidential system. The economy of Russia became heavily industrialized, accounting for about two-thirds of the electricity produced in the USSR. By 1961, it was the third largest producer of petroleum due to new discoveries in the Volga-Urals region[8] and Siberia.[9] In 1974, there were 475 institutes of higher education in the republic providing education in 47 languages to some 23,941,000 students. A network of territorially organized public-health services provided health care.[6] The economy began to be liberalized starting in 1985 under Gorbachev's "perestroika" restructuring policies, including the introduction of non-state owned enterprises (e.g. cooperatives).

## Nomenclature

[edit]

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Under the leadership of Vladimir Lenin (1870–1924) and Leon Trotsky (1879–1940), the Bolsheviks established the Soviet state on 7 November [O.S. 25 October] 1917\. This happened immediately after the October Revolution toppled the interim Russian Provisional Government (most recently led by opposing democratic socialist Alexander Kerensky (1881–1970)) which had governed the new Russian Republic after the abdication of the Russian Empire government of the Romanov imperial dynasty of Tsar Nicholas II the previous March (Old Style: February). The October Revolution was thus the second of the two Russian Revolutions of the turbulent year of 1917. Initially, the new Soviet state did not have an official name and was not recognized by neighboring countries for five months.

Anti-Bolsheviks soon suggested new names, however. By 1919 they had coined the mocking label Sovdepia (Russian: Совдепия) for the nascent state of the Soviets of Workers' and Peasants' Deputies.[10] Speakers of colloquial English coined the term "Bololand"[11] to refer to the land of the Bolos (a term identified from 1919 onwards with the Bolsheviks).[12]

On 25 January 1918 the third meeting of the All-Russian Congress of Soviets proclaimed the establishment of the Russian Soviet Republic.[13][14][4] In July 1918, the Fifth All–Russian Congress of Soviets adopted both the new name, Russian Socialist Federative Soviet Republic (RSFSR), and the Constitution of the Russian SFSR.[15][better source needed]

Internationally, the Russian SFSR was recognized as an independent state in 1920 only by its bordering neighbors (Estonia, Finland, Latvia and Lithuania) in the Treaty of Tartu and by the short-lived Irish Republic of 1919–1922 in Ireland.[16]

On 30 December 1922, with the treaty on the creation of the Soviet Union, Russia (the RSFSR), alongside the Transcaucasian SFSR, the Ukrainian SSR and the Byelorussian SSR, formed the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics. The final Soviet name for the constituent republic, the Russian Soviet Federative Socialist Republic, was adopted in the later Soviet Constitution of 1936. By that time, Soviet Russia had gained roughly the same borders of the old Tsardom of Russia before the Great Northern War of 1700 to 1721.

On 25 December 1991, during the collapse of the Soviet Union, which concluded on the next day, the RSFSR's official name was changed to the Russian Federation, which it remains to this day.[17] This name and "Russia" were specified as the official state names on 21 April 1992, in an amendment to the then existing Constitution of 1978, and were retained as such in the subsequent 1993 Constitution of Russia.

## Geography

[edit]

At a total of about 17,125,200 km (6,612,100 sq mi), the Russian SFSR was the largest of the fifteen Soviet republics, with its southerly neighbor, the Kazakh SSR, being second.

The international borders of the RSFSR touched Poland on the west; Norway and Finland on the northwest; and to its southeast in eastern Asia were the Democratic People's Republic of Korea (North Korea), Mongolian People's Republic (now Mongolia) and the People's Republic of China (China, formerly the Republic of China; 1912–1949). Within the Soviet Union, the RSFSR bordered the Slavic states: Ukrainian SSR (now Ukraine), Byelorussian SSR (now Belarus), the Baltic states: Estonian SSR (now Estonia), Latvian SSR (now Latvia) and Lithuanian SSR (now Lithuania, included into USSR in 1940) to its west and the Azerbaijan SSR (now Azerbaijan), Georgian SSR (now Georgia), and Kazakh SSR (now Kazakhstan) to the south.[6]

Roughly 70% of the area in the RSFSR consisted of broad plains, with mountainous tundra regions mainly concentrated in the east of Siberia with Central Asia and East Asia. The area is rich in mineral resources, including petroleum, natural gas, and iron ore.[18]

## History

[edit]

Eastern Bloc

Republics of the USSR

* Armenia
* Azerbaijan
* Byelorussia
* Estonia
* Georgia
* Kazakhstan
* Karelia-Finland (1940–1956)
* Kirghizia
* Latvia
* Lithuania
* Moldavia
* Russia
* Tajikistan
* Turkmenia
* Transcaucasia (1922–1936)
* Ukraine
* Uzbekistan

Allied and satellite states

* Afghanistan (1978–1989)
* Albania (until 1961)
* Angola
* Benin
* Bulgaria
* China (until 1961)
* Congo
* Cuba
* Czechoslovakia
* East Germany (until 1989)
* Ethiopia
* Grenada (1979–1983)
* Hungary
* Kampuchea
* Laos
* Mongolia
* Mozambique
* North Korea
* Poland (until 1989)
* Romania (until 1989)
* Somalia (until 1977)
* South Yemen
* Vietnam (North Vietnam, PRG)
* Yugoslavia (until 1948)

Related organizations

* Warsaw Pact
* Comecon
* Cominform
* World Federation of Trade Unions
* World Federation of Democratic Youth

Opposition

|  Anti-Soviet partisans

* Albania
* Bulgaria
* Croatia
* Poland
* Romania
* Serbia
* Ukraine

Guerrilla war in the Baltic states

* Soviet occupation
* Estonia
* Latvia
* Lithuania
* Operation Jungle

Protests and uprisings

* Poland 1944–1989
* Poznań 1956
* 1980–89
* Plzeň 1953
* East Germany 1953
* Georgia 1956
* Hungary 1956
* Novocherkassk 1962
* Prague 1968
* Invasion
* Moscow
* Czechoslovakia 1976–1990
* Romania 1977
* Kazakhstan 1986
* Brașov 1987
* Tbilisi 1989
* Ukraine 1989–1991
* Baku 1990
* Lithuania 1991
* Riga 1991

Dissent

* Soviet
* Poland
* East Germany
* to Hong Kong
* North Korea

Cold War events

* Marshall Plan
* Czechoslovak coup
* Tito–Stalin split
* Berlin Blockade
* Korean War
* Secret Speech
* Sino-Soviet split
* Albanian–Soviet split
* De-satellization of the Socialist Republic of Romania
* Berlin Wall
* Cuban Missile Crisis
* Vietnam War
* Cuban intervention in Angola
* Afghan War
* 1980 Moscow Olympics
* 1984 Los Angeles Olympics
* Gulf War

Fall

* Singing Revolution
* Polish Round Table Agreement
* Revolutions of 1989
* Fall of the Berlin Wall
* January Events
* Barricades in Latvia
* Breakup of Yugoslavia
* Yugoslav Wars
* End of the Soviet Union
* Post-Soviet conflicts
* Fall of communism in Albania
* Dissolution of Czechoslovakia

* v
* t
* e

Part of a series on the

History of Russia

Periods

Prehistory • Antiquity • Early Slavs |  Rus' people|  pre-9th century

|

Rus' Khaganate|
Arthania|
Garðaríki|

* * *

879–1240: Ancient Rus'

* Rurik • Baptism of Rus' • Russkaya Pravda

Novgorod Land|  882–1136

|

Principality of Polotsk|  987–1397
Principality of Chernigov|  988–1402
Rostov-Suzdal|  1093–1157
full list...|

* * *

1240–1480: Feudal Rus'

* Council of Liubech • Council of Uvetichi • Mongol conquest • Battle of Kulikovo

Novgorod Republic|  1136–1478

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Vladimir-Suzdal|  1157–1331
Principality of Moscow|  1263–1547
full list...|

* * *

1480–1917: Tsarist Russia

* Great Stand on the Ugra River • Time of
Troubles • Zemsky Sobor • Treaty of Nystad • Petrovian reforms • 1812 Patriotic War • Decembrist Revolt • Emancipation reform • Russo-Japanese War • 1905 Revolution • October Manifesto • Second Patriotic War

Tsardom of Russia|  1547–1721

|

Russian Empire|  1721–1917
Russian America|  1799–1867
Grand Duchy of Finland|  1809–1917
Congress Poland|  1867–1915
Russian Manchuria|  1900–1905
Uryankhay Krai|  1914–1921

* * *

1917–1923: Russian Revolution

* February Revolution • Provisional Government • Dvoyevlastiye • July Days • Kornilov affair • Directorate • Constituent Assembly (election) • Bolshevik Coup • Civil War • White Guard • Red Army • Soviet-Polish War • Priamurye
Govt. • War Communism • USSR • Emigrants

Russian Republic|  1917–1918

|

General Secretariat of Ukraine|  1917–1918
Russian SFSR|  1917–1922
Ukrainian SSR|  1919–1922
Byelorussian SSR|  1920–1922
Transcaucasian SFSR|  1922–1922
Russian State|  1918–1920
Provisional Priamurye Govt.|  1921–1923
full list...|

* * *

1923–1991: Soviet Era

* NEP • Cultural revolution • Korenization • Stalinism • Collectivization • Industrialization • GULAG • Great Purge • Great Patriotic War • Cold War • Warsaw Pact • Comecon • Crimea
transfer • Era of Stagnation • Afghan War • Perestroika • Chernobyl disaster • Karabakh
War • Parade of sovereignties (War of Laws)

Soviet Union|  1922–1991

|

Russian SFSR|  1922–1991
Karelo-Finnish SSR| 1940–1956
full list...|
Tannu Tuva| 1921–1944

* * *

since 1991: Modern Russia

* August Coup • Belavezha Accords • Alma-Ata
Protocol • USSR dissolution • CIS • "Near
abroad" • Constitutional crisis • Privatization • CSTO • Chechen wars (1st • 2nd) • Oligarchy • Putinism • Five-Days War • Presidential terms
amendments • Eurasian Economic Union • Annexation of Crimea • War in Donbas • 2020 amendments • Invasion of Ukraine (Prelude • Mass emigration • Debt default • Sanctions • Mobilization • 2022 annexation)

Russian Federation|  1991–present

|

Republic of Tatarstan|  1994–present
Chechen Republic|  2000–present
Republic of CrimeaA|  2014–present
Donetsk People's RepublicAB|  2022–present
Luhansk People's RepublicAB|  2022–present
Kherson OblastAB|  2022–present
Zaporizhzhia OblastAB|  2022–present
full list...

^A Not internationally recognized.
^B Not fully controlled. |

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Russia portal

* v
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### Early years (1917–1920)

[edit]

Vladimir Lenin, founder of the Soviet Union and the leader of the Bolshevik party.

Leon Trotsky, founder of the Red Army and a key figure in the October Revolution.

The Soviet government first came to power on 7 November 1917, immediately after the interim Russian Provisional Government headed by Alexander Kerensky, which governed the Russian Republic, was overthrown in the October Revolution, the second of the two Russian Revolutions. The state it governed, which did not have an official name, would be unrecognized by neighboring countries for another five months. The initial stage of the October Revolution which involved the assault on Petrograd occurred largely without any human casualties.[19][20][21]

On 18 January 1918, the newly elected Constituent Assembly issued a decree, proclaiming Russia a democratic federal republic under the name "Russian Democratic Federal Republic". However, the Bolsheviks dissolved the Assembly on the following day and declared its decrees null and void.[22] Conversely, the Bolsheviks also reserved a number of vacant seats in the Soviets and Central Executive for the opposition parties in proportion to their vote share at the Congress.[23] At the same time, a number of prominent members of the Left Socialist Revolutionaries had assumed positions in Lenin's government and lead commissariats in several areas. This included agriculture (Kolegaev), property (Karelin), justice (Steinberg), post offices and telegraphs (Proshian) and local government (Trutovsky).[24] Lenin's government also instituted a number of progressive measures such as universal education, healthcare and equal rights for women.[25][26][27]

On 25 January 1918, at the third meeting of the All-Russian Congress of Soviets, the establishment of the Russian Soviet Federative Socialist Republic (RSFSR) was proclaimed.[13][14][4] On 3 March 1918, the Treaty of Brest-Litovsk was signed, giving away much of the westernmost lands of the former Russian Empire to the German Empire, in exchange for peace on the Eastern Front of World War I. In July 1918, the fifth All-Russian Congress of Soviets adopted the Constitution of the Russian SFSR.[15][better source needed] By 1918, during the Russian Civil War, several states within the former Russian Empire had seceded, reducing the size of the country even more, although some were conquered by the Bolsheviks.

### 1920s

[edit]

The Russian famine of 1921–22, also known as Povolzhye famine, killed an estimated 5 million, primarily affecting the Volga and Ural River regions.[28][better source needed] The economic impact of the Civil War was devastating. A black market emerged in Russia, despite the threat of martial law against profiteering. The ruble collapsed, with barter increasingly replacing money as a medium of exchange[29] and, by 1921, heavy industry output had fallen to 20% of 1913 levels. 90% of wages were paid with goods rather than money.[30] 70% of locomotives were in need of repair,[citation needed] and food requisitioning, combined with the effects of seven years of war and a severe drought, contributed to a famine that caused between 3 and 10 million deaths.[31] Coal production decreased from 27.5 million tons (1913) to 7 million tons (1920), while overall factory production also declined from 10,000 million roubles to 1,000 million roubles. According to the noted historian David Christian, the grain harvest was also slashed from 80.1 million tons (1913) to 46.5 million tons (1920).[32]

On 30 December 1922, the First Congress of the Soviets of the USSR approved the Treaty on the Creation of the USSR, by which Russia was united with the Ukrainian Soviet Socialist Republic, Byelorussian Soviet Socialist Republic and Transcaucasian Soviet Federal Socialist Republic into a single federal state, the Soviet Union. The treaty was included in the 1924 Soviet Constitution,[clarification needed] adopted on 31 January 1924 by the Second Congress of Soviets of the USSR.

One of the early ambitious economic plans of the Soviet government was GOELRO, Russian abbreviation for "State Commission for Electrification of Russia" (Государственная комиссия по электрификации России), which sought to achieve total electrification of the entire country. Soviet propaganda declared the plan was basically fulfilled by 1931.[33] The national power output per year stood at 1.9 billion kWh in Imperial Russia in 1913, and Lenin's goal of 8.8 billion kWh was reached in 1931. National power output continued to increase significantly. It reached 13.5 billion kWh by the end of the first five-year plan in 1932, 36 billion kWh by 1937, and 48 billion kWh by 1940.[34]

Paragraph 3 of Chapter 1 of the 1925 Constitution of the RSFSR stated the following:[35]

> By the will of the peoples of the Russian Socialist Federative Soviet Republic, who decided on the formation of the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics during the Tenth All-Russian Congress of Soviets, the Russian Socialist Federative Soviet Republic, being a part of the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics, devolves to the Union the powers which according to Article 1 of the Constitution of the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics are included within the scope of responsibilities of the government bodies of the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics.

### 1930s

[edit]

Many regions in Russia were affected by the Soviet famine of 1932–1933: Volga, Central Black Soil Region, North Caucasus, the Urals, the Crimea, part of Western Siberia, and the Kazakh ASSR. With the adoption of the 1936 Soviet Constitution on 5 December 1936, the size of the RSFSR was significantly reduced. The Kazakh ASSR and Kirghiz ASSR were transformed into the Kazakh SSR (now Kazakhstan) and Kirghiz Soviet Socialist Republic (Kyrgyzstan). The former Karakalpak Autonomous Socialist Soviet Republic was transferred to the Uzbek Soviet Socialist Republic (Uzbekistan).

The final name for the republic during the Soviet era was adopted by the Russian Constitution of 1937, which renamed it the Russian Soviet Federative Socialist Republic (RSFSR).

### 1940s

[edit]

See also: Eastern Front (World War II) and Great Patriotic War (term)

Just four months after Operation Barbarossa, the Wehrmacht was quickly advancing through the Russian SFSR, and was approximately 10 miles (16 km) away from Moscow. However, after the defeat in the Battle of Moscow and the Soviet winter offensive, the Germans were pushed back. In 1942, the Wehrmacht entered Stalingrad. Despite a deadly five-month battle in which the Soviets suffered over 1,100,000 casualties, they achieved victory following the surrender of the last German troops near the Volga River, ultimately pushing German forces out of Russia by 1944.

In 1943, Karachay Autonomous Oblast was dissolved by Joseph Stalin (1878–1953), General Secretary of the Communist Party, later Premier, when the Karachays were exiled to Central Asia for their alleged collaboration with the invading Germans in the Great Patriotic War (World War II, 1941–1945), and territory was incorporated into the Georgian SSR.

On 3 March 1944, on the orders of Stalin, the Chechen-Ingush ASSR was disbanded and its population forcibly deported upon the accusations of collaboration with the invaders and separatism. The territory of the ASSR was divided between other administrative units of Russian SFSR and the Georgian SSR.

On 11 October 1944, the Tuvan People's Republic was joined with the Russian SFSR as the Tuvan Autonomous Oblast, becoming an Autonomous Soviet Socialist Republic in 1961.

After reconquering Estonia and Latvia in 1944, the Russian SFSR annexed their easternmost territories around Ivangorod and within the modern Pechorsky and Pytalovsky Districts in 1944–1945.

The Battle of Stalingrad, considered by many historians as a decisive turning point of World War II

At the end of World War II Soviet troops of the Red Army occupied southern Sakhalin Island and the Kuril Islands off the coast of East Asia, north of Japan, making them part of the RSFSR. The status of the southernmost Kurils, north of Hokkaido of the Japanese home islands remains in dispute with Japan and the United States following the peace treaty of 1951 ending the state of war.

On 17 April 1946, the Kaliningrad Oblast – the north-eastern portion of the former Kingdom of Prussia, the founding state of the German Empire (1871–1918) and later the German province of East Prussia including the capital and Baltic seaport city of Königsberg – was annexed by the Soviet Union and made part of the Russian SFSR.

### 1950s

[edit]

Political divisions of RSFSR (1989)

After the death of Joseph Stalin on 5 March 1953, Georgy Malenkov became the new leader of the USSR. In January 1954, Malenkov (via Presidium of the Supreme Soviet of the Soviet Union issuing a decree) transferred the Crimean Oblast from the Russian SFSR to the Ukrainian SSR.

On 8 February 1955, Malenkov was officially demoted to deputy Prime Minister. As First Secretary of the Central Committee of the Communist Party, Nikita Khrushchev's authority was significantly enhanced by Malenkov's demotion. Under Khrushchev's leadership of the country, the Karelo-Finnish SSR was transferred back to the RSFSR as the Karelian ASSR in 1956.

On 9 January 1957, Karachay Autonomous Oblast and Chechen-Ingush Autonomous Soviet Socialist Republic were restored by Khrushchev and they were transferred from the Georgian SSR back to the Russian SFSR.

### 1960s–1980s

[edit]

Ethnographic map of the Soviet Union, 1970

In 1964, Nikita Khrushchev was removed from his position of power and replaced with Leonid Brezhnev. Under his rule, the Russian SFSR and the rest of the Soviet Union went through a mass era of stagnation. Even after Brezhnev's death in 1982, the era did not end until Mikhail Gorbachev took power in March 1985 and introduced liberal reforms in Soviet society.

On 12 April 1978, a new Constitution of Russia was adopted.[36]

### Early 1990s

[edit]

Main articles: Declaration of State Sovereignty of the Russian Soviet Federative Socialist Republic, 1991 Soviet coup d'etat attempt, Belovezh Accords, and 1993 Russian constitutional crisis

On 29 May 1990, at his third attempt, Boris Yeltsin was elected the chairman of the Supreme Soviet of the Russian SFSR. The Congress of People's Deputies of the Republic adopted the Declaration of State Sovereignty of the Russian SFSR on 12 June 1990, which was the beginning of the "War of Laws", pitting the Soviet Union against the Russian Federation and other constituent republics.

Flag adopted by the Russian SFSR national parliament in 1991

On 17 March 1991, an all-Russian referendum created the post of President of the RSFSR and on 12 June, Boris Yeltsin was elected president by popular vote.

During the unsuccessful 1991 Soviet coup d'état attempt of 19–21 August 1991 in Moscow, the capital of the Soviet Union and Russia, Yeltsin strongly supported the President of the Soviet Union, Mikhail Gorbachev. On 23 August, Yeltsin, in the presence of Gorbachev, signed a decree suspending all activity by the Communist Party of the Russian SFSR in the territory of Russia.[37] On 6 November, he went further, banning the Communist Parties of the USSR and the RSFSR in the RSFSR.[38] In the meantime, Yeltsin began taking over what remained of the Soviet government.

On 8 December 1991, at Viskuli near Brest (Belarus), Yeltsin, Ukrainian President Leonid Kravchuk and Belarusian leader Stanislav Shushkevich signed the "Agreement on the Establishment of the Commonwealth of Independent States", known in media as the Belovezh Accords. The document, consisting of a preamble and fourteen articles, began with a declaration that the Soviet Union no longer existed "as a subject of international law and geopolitical reality". However, based on the historical community of peoples and relations between the three states, as well as bilateral treaties, the desire for a democratic rule of law, the intention to develop their relations based on mutual recognition and respect for state sovereignty, the parties agreed to the formation of the Commonwealth of Independent States. On 12 December, the agreement was ratified by the Supreme Soviet of the Russian SFSR by an overwhelming majority: 188 votes for, 6 against and 7 abstentions.[39] The legality of this ratification raised doubts among some members of the Russian parliament, since according to the Constitution of the RSFSR of 1978 consideration of this document was in the exclusive jurisdiction of the Congress of People's Deputies of the RSFSR.[40][41][42][43] On the same day, the Supreme Soviet of the Russian SFSR denounced the Treaty on the Creation of the USSR and recalled all Russian deputies from the Supreme Soviet of the Soviet Union. A number of lawyers believe that the denunciation of the union treaty was meaningless since it became invalid in 1924 with the adoption of the first constitution of the USSR.[44][45][46] While the Soviet Constitution did not allow a republic to unilaterally recall its deputies,[47] what was left of the Soviet government had been rendered impotent, and was in no position to object. Although the 12 December vote is sometimes reckoned as the moment that the RSFSR seceded from the collapsing Soviet Union, this is not the case. It appears that the RSFSR took the line that it did not need to follow the secession process delineated in the Soviet Constitution because it was not possible to secede from a country that no longer existed.

On 24 December, Yeltsin informed the Secretary-General of the United Nations that by agreement of the member states of the CIS the Russian Federation would assume the membership of the Soviet Union in all UN organs (including the Soviet Union's permanent seat on the UN Security Council). Russia took full responsibility for all the rights and obligations of the USSR under the Charter of the United Nations, including the financial obligations, and assumed control over its nuclear stockpile and the armed forces; Soviet embassies abroad became Russian embassies.[7] On 25 December – just hours after Gorbachev resigned as president of the Soviet Union – the Russian SFSR was renamed the Russian Federation (Russia), reflecting that it was now a sovereign state with Yeltsin assuming the Presidency.[48] That same night, the Soviet flag was lowered from the Kremlin for the last time, replaced with the tricolor. The Soviet Union officially ceased to exist the next day. The change was originally published on 6 January 1992 (Rossiyskaya Gazeta). According to law, during 1992, it was allowed to use the old name of the RSFSR for official business (forms, seals, and stamps).

On 21 April 1992, the Congress of People's Deputies of Russia approved the renaming of the RSFSR into the Russian Federation, by making appropriate amendments to the Constitution, which entered into force since publication on 16 May 1992.[49]

## Government

[edit]

Main article: Government of the Russian Soviet Federative Socialist Republic

See also: List of leaders of the Russian SFSR

The Government was known officially as the Council of People's Commissars (1917–1946) and Council of Ministers (1946–1991). The first government was headed by Vladimir Lenin as Chairman of the Council of People's Commissars of the Russian SFSR and the last by Boris Yeltsin as both head of government and head of state under the title of president. The Russian SFSR was controlled by the Communist Party of the Soviet Union until the 1991 August coup, which prompted President Yeltsin to suspend the recently created Communist Party of the Russian Soviet Federative Socialist Republic.

### Autonomous republics within the Russian SFSR

[edit]

* Turkestan ASSR was formed on 30 April 1918 on the territory of the former Turkestan General-Governorate. As part of the delimitation programme of Soviet Central Asia, the Turkestan ASSR along with the Khorezm SSR and the Bukharan PSR were disbanded on 27 October 1924 and replaced by the Soviet Union republics of Turkmen SSR and Uzbek SSR. The latter contained the Tajik ASSR until December 1929, when it too became a full Union republic, the Tajik SSR. The RSFSR retained the newly formed Kara-Kirghiz and the Kara-Kalpak autonomous oblasts. The latter was part of the Kirgiz, then the Kazak ASSR until 1930 when it was directly subordinated to Moscow.
* Bashkir ASSR was formed on 23 March 1919 from several northern districts of the Orenburg Governorate populated by Bashkirs. On 11 October 1990, it declared its sovereignty, as the Bashkir SSR, which in 1992 was renamed the Republic of Bashkortostan.
* Tatar ASSR was formed on 27 May 1920 on the territory of the western two-thirds of the Kazan Governorate populated by Tatars. On 30 October 1990, it declared sovereignty as the Republic of Tatarstan and on 18 October 1991 declared its independence. The Russian constitutional court overturned the declaration on 13 March 1992. In February 1994, a separate agreement was reached with Moscow on the status of Tatarstan as an associate state in Russia with confederate status.
* Kirgiz ASSR was formed on 26 August 1920 from the Ural, Turgay, Semipalatinsk oblasts and parts of Transcaspia, Bukey Horde and Orenburg Governorate populated by Kirgiz-Kaysaks (former name of Kazakh people). Further enlarged in 1921 upon gaining land from Omsk Governorate and again in 1924 from parts of Jetysui Governorate and Syr Darya and Samarkand oblasts. On 19 April 1925, it was renamed Kazak ASSR. (see below)
* Mountain ASSR was formed on 20 January 1921 after the Bolshevik Red Army evicted the short-lived Mountainous Republic of the Northern Caucasus. Initially composed of several national districts, one-by-one these left the republic until 7 November 1924 when the remains of the republic was partitioned into the Ingush Autonomous Oblast, the North Ossetian Autonomous Oblast and the Sunzha Cossack District (all subordinates to the North Caucasus Krai).
* Dagestan ASSR was formed on 20 January 1921 from the former Dagestan Oblast. On 17 September 1991, it declared sovereignty as the Dagestan SSR.
* Crimean ASSR was formed on 18 October 1921 on the territory of Crimean peninsula within the Russian SFSR, following the Red Army's defeat of Baron Wrangel's Army, ending the Russian Civil War in Europe. On 18 May 1944, it was reduced to the status of oblast alongside the criminal deportation of the Crimean Tatars, now recognized as genocide, as collective punishment for alleged collaboration with the German occupation regime in Taurida Subdistrict. On 19 February 1954, the oblast was transferred to the Ukrainian SSR. Re-established on 12 February 1991, it declared sovereignty on 4 September of that year. On 5 May 1992, it declared independence as the Republic of Crimea. On 13 May, the Verkhovna Rada of Ukraine overturned the declaration, but compromised on an Autonomous Republic of Crimea within Ukraine. After the 2014 Ukrainian revolution, a Russian military intervention and a disputed referendum, Crimea was annexed by Russia in March 2014, a move largely considered illegal by the international community.
* Yakut ASSR was formed on 16 February 1922 upon the elevation of the Yakut Autonomous Oblast into an ASSR. On 27 September 1990, it declared sovereignty as the Yakut-Sakha Soviet Socialist Republic. From 21 December 1991, it has been known as the Republic of Sakha (Yakutia).
* Buryat ASSR was formed on 30 March 1923 as due to the merger of the Mongol-Buryat Autonomous Oblast of the RSFSR and the Buryat-Mongol Autonomous Oblast of the Far Eastern Republic. Until 7 July 1958 – Mongol-Buryat ASSR. On 27 March 1991, it became the Republic of Buryatia.
* Karelian ASSR was formed on 23 July 1923 when the Karelian Labor Commune was integrated into the RSFSR's administrative structure. On 31 March 1940, it was elevated into a full Union republic as the Karelo-Finnish SSR. On 16 July 1956, it was downgraded in status to that of an ASSR and re-subordinated to RSFSR. It declared sovereignty on 13 October 1991 as the Republic of Karelia.
* Volga German ASSR was formed on 19 December 1924 upon elevation of the Volga German Autonomous Oblast into an ASSR. On 28 August 1941, upon the deportation of Volga Germans to Central Asia, the ASSR was disbanded. The territory was partitioned between the Saratov and Stalingrad Oblasts.
* Kazak ASSR was formed on 19 April 1925 when the first Kirghiz ASSR was renamed and partitioned. Upon the ratification of the new Soviet constitution, the ASSR was elevated into a full Union Republic on 3 December 1936. On 25 October 1990, it declared sovereignty and on 16 December 1991 its independence as the Republic of Kazakhstan.
* Chuvash ASSR was formed on 21 April 1925 upon the elevation of the Chuvash Autonomous Oblast into an ASSR. It declared sovereignty on 26 October 1990 as the Chuvash SSR.
* Kirghiz ASSR was formed on 1 February 1926 upon elevation of the Kirghiz Autonomous Oblast. Upon the ratification of the new Soviet constitution, the ASSR was elevated into a full Union Republic on 3 December 1936. On 12 December 1990, it declared sovereignty as the Republic of Kyrgyzstan and on 31 August 1991 its independence.
* Kara-Kalpak ASSR was formed on 20 March 1932 upon elevation of the Kara-Kalpak Autonomous Oblast into the Kara-Kalpak ASSR; from 5 December 1936 a part of the Uzbek SSR. In 1964, it was renamed the Karakalpak ASSR. It declared sovereignty on 14 December 1990.
* Mordovian ASSR was formed on 20 December 1934 upon the elevation of Mordovian Autonomous Oblast into an ASSR. It declared sovereignty on 13 December 1990 as the Mordovian SSR. Since 25 January 1991, it has been known as the Republic of Mordovia.
* Udmurt ASSR was formed on 28 December 1934 upon the elevation of Udmurt Autonomous Oblast into an ASSR. It declared sovereignty on 20 September 1990. Since 11 October 1991, it has been known as the Udmurt Republic.
* Kalmyk ASSR was formed on 20 October 1935 upon the elevation of Kalmyk Autonomous Oblast into an ASSR. On 27 December 1943, upon the deportation of the Kalmyks, the ASSR was disbanded and split between the newly established Astrakhan Oblast and parts adjoined to Rostov Oblast, Krasnodar Krai and Stavropol Krai. On 9 January 1957, Kalmyk Autonomous Oblast was re-established in its present borders, first as a part of Stavropol Krai and from 19 July 1958 as a part of the Kalmyk ASSR. On 18 October 1990, it declared sovereignty as the Kalmyk SSR.
* Kabardino-Balkar ASSR was formed on 5 December 1936 upon the departure of the Kabardino-Balkar Autonomous Oblast from the North Caucasus Kray. After the deportation of the Balkars on 8 April 1944, the republic is renamed as Kabardin ASSR and parts of its territory transferred to Georgian SSR. Upon the return of the Balkars, the KBASSR is re-instated on 9 January 1957. On 31 January 1991, the republic declared sovereignty as the Kabardino-Balkar SSR and from 10 March 1992 as the Kabardino-Balkarian Republic.
* Northern Ossetian ASSR was formed on 5 December 1936 upon the disbandment of the North Caucasus Kray and its constituent North Ossetian Autonomous Oblast was raised into an ASSR. Declared sovereignty on 26 December 1990 as the North Ossetian SSR.
* Chechen-Ingush ASSR was formed on 5 December 1936 when the North Caucasus Krai was disestablished and its constituent Chechen-Ingush Autonomous Oblast was elevated into an ASSR and subordinated to Moscow. Following the en masse deportation of the Chechens and Ingush, on 7 March 1944 the ChIASSR was disbanded and the Grozny Okrug was temporarily administered by Stavropol Kray until 22 March when the territory was portioned between North Ossetian and Dagestan ASSRs and the Georgian SSR. The remaining land was merged with Stavropol Krays Kizlyar district and organised as Grozny Oblast, which existed until 9 January 1957 when the ChIASSR was re-established though only the southern border's original shape was retained. It declared sovereignty on 27 November 1990 as the Chechen-Ingush Republic. On 8 June 1991, the 2nd Chechen National Congress proclaimed a separate Chechen-Republic (Noxchi-Cho) and on 6 September began a coup which overthrew the Soviet local government. De facto, all authority passed to the self-proclaimed government which was renamed as the Chechen Republic of Ichkeria in early 1993. In response, the western Ingush districts after a referendum on 28 November 1991 were organised into an Ingush Republic which was officially established on 4 June 1992 by decree of Russian President as the Republic of Ingushetia. The same decree de jure created a Chechen republic, although it would be established only on 3 June 1994 and carry out partial governance during the First Chechen War. The Khasavyurt Accord would again suspend the government on 15 November 1996. The present Chechen Republic government was re-established on 15 October 1999.
* Komi ASSR was formed on 5 December 1936 upon the elevation of the Komi (Zyryan) Autonomous Oblast into an ASSR. Declared sovereignty on 23 November 1990 as the Komi SSR and from 26 May 1992 as the Republic of Komi.
* Mari ASSR was formed on 5 December 1936 upon the elevation of the Mari Autonomous Oblast into an ASSR. Declared Sovereignty on 22 December 1990 as the Mari Soviet Socialist Republic (Mari El).
* Tuva ASSR was formed on 10 October 1961 when the Tuva Autonomous Oblast was elevated[by whom?] into an ASSR. On 12 December 1990, it declared sovereignty as the Soviet Republic of Tyva.
* Gorno-Altai ASSR was formed on 25 October 1990 when Gorno-Altai Autonomous Oblast declared sovereignty. Since 3 July 1991, it has been known as the Gorno-Altai SSR.
* Karachayevo-Cherkessian ASSR was formed on 17 November 1990 when Karachay-Cherkess Autonomous Oblast was elevated into an ASSR and instead of Stavropol Krai subordinated directly to the RSFSR. It declared sovereignty on 3 July 1991 as the Karachay-Cherkess SSR.

## Economy

[edit]

In the first years of the existence of the RSFSR, the doctrine of war communism became the starting point of the state's economic activity. In March 1921, at the X Congress of the RCP (B), the tasks of the policy of "war communism" were recognized by the country's leadership as fulfilled, and a new economic policy was introduced at Lenin's suggestion.

After the formation of the Soviet Union, the economy of the RSFSR became an integral part of the economy of the USSR. The economic program of the RSFSR (NEP) was continued in all union republics. The Gosplan (State General Planning Commission) of the RSFSR, which replaced GOELRO, was reorganized into the Gosplan of the USSR. His early task was to develop a unified national economic plan based on the electrification plan and to oversee the overall implementation of this plan.

Unlike the previous Russian constitutions, the 1978 Constitution devoted an entire chapter (Chapter II) to the description of the economic system of the RSFSR, which defined the types of property and indicated the goals of the economic tasks of the state.[50]

As noted by Corresponding Member RAS RAS V. I. Suslov, who took part in large-scale studies of the relationship between the economies of the republics of the USSR and the RSFSR in the late Soviet era: "The degree of inequality of economic exchange was very high, and Russia was always the losing side. The product created by Russia largely supported the consumption of other union republics".[51]

## Culture

[edit]

See also: Culture of Russia

### National holidays and symbols

[edit]

Main articles: Public holidays in Russia and Public holidays in the Soviet Union

The public holidays for the Russian SFSR included Defender of the Fatherland Day (23 February), which honors Russian men, especially those serving in the army; International Women's Day (8 March), which combines the traditions of Mother's Day and Valentine's Day; Spring and Labor Day (1 May); Victory Day; and like all other Soviet republics, the Great October Socialist Revolution (7 November), which was most popular holiday backthen.

Victory Day is the second most popular holiday in Russia as it commemorates the victory over Nazism in the Great Patriotic War. A huge military parade, hosted by the President of Russia, is annually organised in Moscow on Red Square. Similar parades take place in all major Russian cities and cities with the status Hero City or City of Military Glory.

Matryoshka doll taken apart

During its 76-year existence, the Russian SFSR anthem was the same as the Soviet anthem (unlike other republics): The Internationale until 1944 and then the State Anthem of the Soviet Union. In 1990, the RSFSR adopted its own separate anthem called Patrioticheskaya Pesnya, which went on to become the anthem of independent Russia since 1991. In 2000, Vladimir Putin re-introduced the Soviet anthem. The motto "Workers of the world, unite!" was commonly used and shared with other Soviet republics. The hammer and sickle and the full Soviet coat of arms are still widely seen in Russian cities as part of architectural decorations. The Soviet red stars are also encountered, often on military equipment and war memorials. The Red Banner continues to be honored, especially the Banner of Victory of 1945.

The Matryoshka doll is a recognizable symbol of the Russian SFSR (and the Soviet Union as a whole) and the towers of Moscow Kremlin and Saint Basil's Cathedral in Moscow are Russian SFSR's main architectural icons. Chamomile is the national flower while birch is the national tree. The Russian bear is an animal symbol and a national personification of Russia. Though this image has a Western origin, Russians themselves have accepted it. The native Soviet Russian national personification is Mother Russia.

### Flag history

[edit]

Main article: Flag of the Russian Soviet Federative Socialist Republic

The flag of the Russian SFSR changed numerous times, with the original being a field of red with the Russian name of the republic written on the flag's centre in white. This flag had always been intended to be temporary, as it was changed less than a year after its adoption. The second flag had the letters РСФСР (RSFSR) written in yellow within the canton and encased within two yellow lines forming a right angle. The next flag was used from 1937, notably during World War II. Interesting because it was used until Stalin's death when a major vexillological reform was undertaken within the Soviet Union. This change incorporated an update for all the flags of the Soviet Republics as well as for the flag of the Soviet Union itself. The flag of the Russian SFSR was now a defaced version of the flag of the Soviet Union, with the main difference being a minor repositioning of the hammer and sickle and most notably adding a blue vertical stripe to the hoist. This version of the flag was used from 1954 all the way to 1991, where it was changed due to the ongoing collapse of the Soviet Union. The flag was changed to a design that resembled the original ensign of the Tsardom of Russia and the Russian Empire, with a notable difference of the flag ratio being 1:2 instead of the original 2:3 ratio. After 1993, when the Soviet form of government was officially dissolved in the Russian Federation, the flag of the Russian Federation was changed to the original civil ensign with its original 2:3 proportions.

* 1917–1918

* 1918–1937

* 1937–1954

* 1954–1991

* 1991[52][53][d]

## Bibliographies

[edit]

* Bibliography of the Russian Revolution and Civil War
* Bibliography of Stalinism and the Soviet Union
* Bibliography of the post-Stalinist Soviet Union

## Notes

[edit]

1. ^ After the October Revolution, the Bolsheviks, the Left SRs, and the Menshevik-Internationalists formed a Socialist coalition government that lasted until March 1918;[2] the Mensheviks were allowed to legally hold a congress in 1920 and continued to be elected to the Congress of Soviets until being outlawed in 1921.[3]
2. ^ Russian: Российская Советская Федеративная Социалистическая Республика, IPA: [rɐˈsʲijskəjə sɐˈvʲetskəjə fʲɪdʲɪrɐˈtʲivnəjə sətsɨəlʲɪˈsʲtʲitɕɪskəjə rʲɪˈspublʲɪkə] ⓘ
3. ^ The names Russian Federation and Russia have been equal since 25 December 1993.
4. ^ Later used as a national flag of the Russian Federation until 1993.

## References

[edit]

1. ^ Banks, Arthur S.; Overstreet, William (1983). Political Handbook of the World: 1982-1983: Governments and Intergovernmental Organisation as of January 1st 1983. McGraw-Hill. p. 499-501. Retrieved 29 July 2025.
2. ^ (Historical Dictionary of the Russian Revolution. J. Davis. p. 58)
3. ^ Lenin's Legacy. R. Wesson, 1978
4. ^ a b c Конституции РСФСР 1918 г. Archived 2 July 2018 at the Wayback Machine (in Russian). Hist.msu.ru. Retrieved on 22 June 2011.
5. ^ Declaration of Rights of the laboring and exploited people (original VTsIK variant Archived 7 August 2011 at the Wayback Machine, III Congress revision), article I.
6. ^ a b c d The Free Dictionary Russian Soviet Federated Socialist Republic Archived 13 August 2011 at the Wayback Machine. Encyclopedia2.thefreedictionary.com. Retrieved on 22 June 2011.
7. ^ a b "INFCIRC/397 - Note to the Director General from the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of the Russian Federation". 23 November 2003. Archived from the original on 23 November 2003. Retrieved 7 February 2023.`{{cite web}}`: CS1 maint: bot: original URL status unknown (link)
8. ^ Peterson, James A.; Clarke, James W. "Petroleum Geology and Resources of the Volga-Ural Province, U.S.S.R." (PDF). Pubs.USGS.gov. 1983, U.S. Department of the Interior – U.S. Geological Survey. Archived (PDF) from the original on 2 April 2015. Retrieved 11 March 2015.
9. ^ Sokolov, Vasily Andreevich (2002). Petroleum. Honolulu: University Press of the Pacific. p. 183\. ISBN 0898757258. Archived from the original on 2 April 2015. Retrieved 11 March 2015.
10. ^ Mawdsley, Evan (2007). "Sovdepia: The Soviet Zone, October 1917 – November 1918". The Russian Civil War. Pegasus. p. 70. ISBN 9781933648156. Retrieved 25 January 2014. "The Bolsheviks' enemies gave the name 'Sovdepia' to the area under the authority of the Soviets of Workers' and Peasants' Deputies. The comic-opera term was intended to mock [...]."
11. ^ Note especially: Patenaude, Bertrand M. (2002). The Big Show in Bololand: The American Relief Expedition to Soviet Russia in the Famine of 1921. Stanford University Press. p. 687\. ISBN 0804744939. Retrieved 16 April 2024. "[Turrou] had succeeded in gaining the confidence of the Soviet leaders and had thus been able to learn the inside story about Bolo affairs."
12. ^ "Bolo". Oxford English Dictionary (Online ed.). Oxford University Press. (Subscription or participating institution membership required.) \- "Misused for: a Bolshevik. Also collective singular = the Bolshevists. Also attributive."
13. ^ a b Service, Robert (2005). A History of Modern Russia from Nicholas II to Vladimir Putin. Harvard University Press. p. 84\. ISBN 9780674018013.
14. ^ a b Besier, Gerhard; Stokłosa, Katarzyna (2014). European Dictatorships: A Comparative History of the Twentieth Century. Cambridge Scholars Publishing. p. 67\. ISBN 9781443855211.
15. ^ a b Soviet Russia information Archived 26 August 2010 at the Wayback Machine. Russians.net (23 August 1943). Retrieved on 22 June 2011.
16. ^ Carr, EH The Bolshevik Revolution 1917–23, vol. 3 Penguin Books, London, 4th reprint (1983), pp. 257–258. The draft treaty was published for propaganda purposes in the 1921 British document Intercourse between Bolshevism and Sinn Féin (Cmd 1326).
17. ^ Chronicle of Events Archived 27 July 2011 at the Wayback Machine. Marxistsfr.org. Retrieved on 22 June 2011.
18. ^ "Russia the Great: Mineral resources". Russian Information Network. Archived from the original on 19 January 2011. Retrieved 22 November 2010.
19. ^ Shukman, Harold (5 December 1994). The Blackwell Encyclopedia of the Russian Revolution. John Wiley & Sons. p. 343\. ISBN 978-0-631-19525-2.
20. ^ Bergman, Jay (2019). The French Revolutionary Tradition in Russian and Soviet Politics, Political Thought, and Culture. Oxford University Press. p. 224\. ISBN 978-0-19-884270-5.
21. ^ McMeekin, Sean (30 May 2017). The Russian Revolution: A New History. Basic. ISBN 978-0-465-09497-4.
22. ^ Ikov, Marat Sal. "Round Table the Influence Of National Relations on the Development of the Federative State Structure and on the Social and Political Realities of the Russian Federation". Prof.Msu.RU. Archived from the original on 27 February 2019. Retrieved 9 February 2021. "However, historically, the first proclamation of the federation was made somewhat earlier – by the Constituent Assembly of Russia. In his short resolution of 6 (18) January 1918, the following was enshrined: 'In the name of the peoples, the state of the Russian constituent, the All-Russian Constituent Assembly decides: the Russian state is proclaimed by the Russian Democratic Federal Republic, uniting peoples and regions in an indissoluble union, within the limits established by the federal constitution. Of course, the above resolution, which did not thoroughly regulate the entire system of federal relations, was not considered by the authorities as having legal force, especially after the dissolution of the Constituent Assembly.'"
23. ^ Deutscher, Isaac (1954). The Prophet Armed Trotsky 1879-1921 (1954). Oxford University Press. pp. 330–336.
24. ^ Abramovitch, Raphael R. (1985). The Soviet Revolution, 1917-1939. International Universities Press. p. 130.
25. ^ Adams, Katherine H.; Keene, Michael L. (10 January 2014). After the Vote Was Won: The Later Achievements of Fifteen Suffragists. McFarland. p. 109\. ISBN 978-0-7864-5647-5.
26. ^ Ugri͡umov, Aleksandr Leontʹevich (1976). Lenin's Plan for Building Socialism in the USSR, 1917–1925. Novosti Press Agency Publishing House. p. 48.
27. ^ Service, Robert (24 June 1985). Lenin: A Political Life: Volume 1: The Strengths of Contradiction. Springer. p. 98\. ISBN 978-1-349-05591-3.
28. ^ Courtois, Stéphane; Werth, Nicolas; Panné, Jean-Louis; Paczkowski, Andrzej; Bartošek, Karel; Margolin, Jean-Louis (1999). The Black Book of Communism: Crimes, Terror, Repression. Harvard University Press. p. 123\. ISBN 9780674076082. Archived from the original on 27 June 2018. Retrieved 5 May 2019.
29. ^ R. W. Davies; Mark Harrison; S. G. Wheatcroft (9 December 1993). The Economic Transformation of the Soviet Union, 1913–1945. Cambridge University Press. p. 6\. ISBN 978-0-521-45770-5.
30. ^ Lih, Lars T. (1990). "8 Leaving Troubled Times". Bread and Authority in Russia, 1914-1921. UC Press E-Books Collection, 1982-2004. Archived from the original on 27 October 2021. Retrieved 27 October 2021.
31. ^ "Source List and Detailed Death Tolls for the Primary Megadeaths of the Twentieth Century". Necrometrics. February 2011. Archived from the original on 7 March 2011. Retrieved 12 December 2017.
32. ^ Christian, David (1997). Imperial and Soviet Russia. London: Macmillan. p. 236\. ISBN 0-333-66294-6.
33. ^ Развитие электроэнергетики в СССР (к 80летию плана ГОЭЛРО) (in Russian). Archived from the original on 22 October 2018. Retrieved 8 April 2013.
34. ^ Никитин, Олег (February 2010). Плюс электрификация. Forbes (in Russian). Archived from the original on 30 January 2019. Retrieved 13 April 2023.
35. ^ Constitution (Basic Law) of the Russian Socialist Federative Soviet Republic (approved by Twelfth All-Russian Congress of Soviets on 11 May 1925).
36. ^ The Constitution (Basic Law) of the Russian Soviet Federative Socialist Republic - via www.prlib.ru.
37. ^ Decree of the President of the Russian SFSR of 23 August 1991 No. 79
38. ^ Decree of the President of the Russian SFSR 06.11. 1991 N169 "On activity of the CPSU and the Communist Party of the Russian SFSR"
39. ^ Clines, Francis X. (13 December 1991). "Gorbachev is Ready to Resign as Post-Soviet Plan Advances". The New York Times. Archived from the original on 17 September 2018. Retrieved 14 October 2020.
40. ^ V.Pribylovsky, Gr.Tochkin . Kto i kak uprazdnil SSSR Archived 26 January 2021 at the Wayback Machine
41. ^ "Из СССР В СНГ: подчиняясь реальности. | www.n-discovery.spb.ru". 3 April 2015. Archived from the original on 3 April 2015. Retrieved 13 October 2020.
42. ^ Бабурин С. Н. На гибель Советского Союза
43. ^ Воронин Ю. М. Беловежское предательство Archived 12 August 2020 at the Wayback Machine
44. ^ Исаков В. Б. Расчленёнка. Кто и как развалил Советский Союз: Хроника. Документы. — М., Закон и право. 1998. — C. 58. — 209 с.
45. ^ Станкевич З. А. История крушения СССР: политико-правовые аспекты. — М., 2001. — C. 299—300
46. ^ Лукашевич Д. А. Юридический механизм разрушения СССР. — М, 2016. — С. 254—255. — 448 с.
47. ^ The Russian SFSR has constitutional right to "freely secede from the Soviet Union" (art. 69 of the RSFSR Constitution, art. 72 of the USSR Constitution), but according to USSR laws 1409-I (enacted on 3 April 1990) and 1457-I[permanent dead link] (enacted on 26 April 1990) this can be done only by a referendum and only if two-thirds of all registered voters of the republic has supported that motion. No special referendum on the secession from the USSR was held in the RSFSR
48. ^ Supreme Soviet of the Russian SFSR approved the Law of the RSFSR #2094-I of 25 December 1991 "On renaming of the Russian Soviet Federative Socialist Republic" Archived 20 May 2009 at the Wayback Machine // Congress of People's Deputies of the Russian SFSR and Supreme Soviet of the Russian SFSR Daily. – 1992. – No. 2. – Article 62
49. ^ Закон Российской Федерации от 21 апреля 1992 года № 2708-I «Об изменениях и дополнениях Конституции (Основного Закона) Российской Советской Федеративной Социалистической Республики» Archived 19 September 2010 at the Wayback Machine // «Российская газета», 16 мая 1992 года, № 111 (447), с. 3–5
50. ^ "Конституция РСФСР в редакции от 12 апреля 1978 г." constitution.garant.ru. Archived from the original on 12 September 2024. Retrieved 17 November 2021.
51. ^ "Наука в Сибири". www.nsc.ru. Archived from the original on 9 March 2014. Retrieved 17 November 2021.
52. ^ Resolution of the Supreme Soviet of the Russian SFSR from 22 August 1991 "On the national flag of the Russian SFSR" Archived 10 June 2017 at the Wayback Machine
53. ^ Law "On Amendments and Additions to the Constitution (Basic Law) of the Russian SFSR" Archived 16 July 2011 at the Wayback Machine from 1 November 1991

## External links

[edit]

* (in Russian) Full Texts and All Laws Amending Constitutions of the Russian SFSR
* Russian Federation; The Whole Republic a Construction Site by D. S. Polyanski.
* Full 1918 RSFSR Constitution

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* Anarchism
* Capital punishment
* Citizenship
* Civil Service
* Classified information
* Conscription
* Constitution
* Criminal code
* Elections
* Far-right politics
* Federal budget
* Foreign relations
* Foreign relations of Russia since the Russian invasion of Ukraine
* Freedom of assembly
* Impeachment
* Government (Apparatus)
* Judiciary
* Law
* Law enforcement
* Police
* Prisons
* Department security
* Political abuse of psychiatry
* Political divisions
* Propaganda
* Liberalism
* Conservatism
* Imperialism
* Irredentism
* Nationalism
* Martial law
* Monarchism
* Media freedom
* Neo-Nazism
* Military
* Territorial defense
* Intelligence agencies
* Opposition
* Political parties
* President of Russia
* Prime Minister of Russia
* Commonwealth of Independent States
* Collective Security Treaty Organization
* State Council
* State of emergency
* Civil defense
* Search and rescue
* Urban planning
* Mass surveillance
* Separatism
* Term limits
* Terrorism
* Union State

Economy|

* Agriculture
* Aircraft industry
* Banking
* Droughts and famines
* Car industry
* Central Bank
* Defence industry
* Economic regions
* Energy
* Fishing industry
* Forestry
* Financial districts
* Gambling
* Homelessness
* Mining
* Petroleum industry
* Postal codes
* Russian oligarchs
* Ruble (currency)
* Science and technology
* Academy of Sciences
* Shipbuilding
* Social security system
* Space industry
* Taxation
* Telecommunications
* Telephone numbers
* Tourism
* Trade unions
* Transport
* Federal highways
* Waste
* Water supply and sanitation

Society|

* Abortion
* Alcohol
* Anti-American sentiment
* Cannabis
* Censorship
* Corruption
* Crime
* Deafness
* Demographics
* Aging
* Domestic violence
* Doping
* Education
* Ethnic groups
* Feminism
* Forced public apologies
* Funerals
* Gun control
* Health
* Healthcare
* HIV/AIDS
* Mental health
* Human rights
* LGBTQ
* Immigration
* Illegal
* Labour
* Languages
* Life expectancy
* Open access
* Orphans
* Polygamy
* Prostitution
* Racism
* Religion
* Irreligion
* Buddhism
* Christianity
* Hinduism
* Islam
* Judaism
* Sikhism
* Scouting
* Slavery
* Social entrepreneurship
* Sociology
* Smoking
* Suicide
* Wedding
* Witch trials
* Women
* in army

Culture|

* Architecture
* Armorial
* Army culture
* Honorary weapons
* Arts
* Ballet
* Cinema
* Cuisine
* Wine
* Fashion
* Fairy tales
* Fashion
* Festivals
* Folklore
* Traditions and superstitions
* Forms of addressing
* Graffiti
* Heraldry
* Internet
* Inventions
* Literature
* Martial arts
* Mass media
* Music
* Names of Russia
* Russian given name
* Nobility
* National symbols
* Anthem
* Coat of arms
* Imperial coat of arms
* Flag
* Russian tsars regalia
* Opera
* Panel buildings
* Personification
* Bear
* Winter
* Playing cards
* Philosophy
* Political jokes
* Public holidays
* Russian language
* Tea culture
* Television
* Seven Wonders
* Sports
* Unified Sports Classification System
* Yoga
* World Heritage sites

* Outline

* Category
* Portal

* v
* t
* e

Soviet Union topics

* Bibliography of the Russian Revolution and Civil War
* Bibliography of Stalinism and the Soviet Union
* Bibliography of the Post Stalinist Soviet Union

History|

* Index of Soviet Union–related articles
* Outline
* Russian Revolution
* February
* October
* Russian Civil War
* Russian SFSR
* Creation treaty
* New Economic Policy
* Stalinism
* Great Purge
* Great Patriotic War (World War II)
* Evacuation
* The Holocaust
* Cold War
* Khrushchev thaw
* Sino-Soviet split
* Soviet space program
* Caribbean Crisis
* Stagnation
* Soviet–Afghan War
* Perestroika
* Glasnost
* Chernobyl disaster
* Revolutions of 1989
* August Coup
* Parade of sovereignties
* Dissolution
* Transition period and cessation of the existence
* Succession, continuity and legacy
* Post-Soviet states
* Nostalgia

Geography|

| Subdivisions|

* Republics
* Autonomous
* Krais
* Oblasts
* Autonomous
* Autonomous okrugs
* Closed city

|

Regions|

* Baltic States
* Caspian Sea
* Caucasus Mountains
* Central Asia
* Crimea
* European Russia
* North Caucasus
* Russian Far East
* Siberia
* Transcaucasia
* Ural Mountains
* Volga Region
* West Siberian Plain

Politics|

| General|

* Conscription
* Constitution
* 1924
* 1936
* 1977
* Elections
* Foreign relations
* Brezhnev Doctrine
* Gun control
* Government
* List
* Ministries
* State Committees
* Human rights
* LGBT
* Law
* Capital punishment
* Leaders
* Collective leadership
* National delimitation
* Passport system
* Propiska
* Political parties
* State ideology
* Marxism–Leninism
* Leninism
* Stalinism
* Soviet anti-Zionism

|

Bodies|

* Communist Party
* organisation
* Congress
* Central Committee
* Presidium/Politburo
* Secretariat
* General Secretary
* Congress of Soviets (1922–1936)
* Supreme Soviet (1938–1991)
* Congress of People's Deputies (1989–1991)
* Supreme Court
* Military Collegium
* All-Union Central Council of Trade Unions
* Creative unions

Offices|

* Heads of state
* President
* Premier
* Deputy Premier
* First Deputy Premier

Security services|

* Cheka
* GPU
* NKVD
* Destruction battalions
* MVD
* Militsiya
* MGB
* KGB
* Chairmen
* Soviet Border Troops
* Soviet Armed Forces
* Soviet Army/Spetsnaz GRU • Soviet Navy • Soviet Air Forces/Soviet Airborne Forces

Political repression|

* Red Terror
* Collectivization
* Great Purge
* Population transfer
* Forced labor
* Foreign forced labor
* POW labor
* Gulag
* List
* Holodomor
* Political abuse of psychiatry
* Anti-abuse struggle
* War crimes
* Atrocities against prisoners of war

Ideological repression|

* Persecution of Christians
* Eastern Catholics
* Science
* Censorship
* Censorship of images

Economy|

* Agriculture
* Banking
* Central Bank
* State Labor Savings Banks System
* Economic planning
* Energy policy
* Enterprises
* Five-year plans
* Industrialization
* Internet domain
* Inventions
* Net material product
* OGAS
* Economic reforms
* 1956–1962 Wage reform
* 1957
* 1965
* 1973
* 1979
* Rouble (currency)
* Monetary reforms
* 1947
* 1961
* 1991
* Automotive industry
* Construction

Transport|

* Ministry of Railways
* Railway system
* Rail transport
* Railway electrification
* List of metro systems
* Vehicle registration plates

Science|

* Communist Academy
* Cybernetics
* Academy of Sciences
* Academy of Medical Sciences
* Lenin All-Union Academy of Agricultural Sciences
* Sharashkas
* Naukograds
* List

Society|

* Antisemitism
* Crime
* Demographics
* Soviet people
* Working class
* 1989 census
* Drug policy
* Ethnic conflicts
* Family
* Languages
* Linguistics
* Cyrillisation
* Prohibition
* Racism

Culture|

* Ballet
* Cinema
* Fashion
* Literature
* Music
* Opera
* Phraseology
* Printed media
* Propaganda
* Publishing houses
* Religion
* Islam
* Sports
* Stalinist architecture
* Broadcasting
* Radio
* Television

Opposition|

* Anti-Soviet agitation
* Soviet dissidents and their groups
* List

Symbols|

* Anthem
* Republics
* Emblem
* Republics
* Flag
* Republics
* Hammer and sickle

* Soviet Union portal
* Category

* v
* t
* e

Eastern Bloc

* Soviet Union
* Communism

Formation|

* Yalta Conference
* Soviet occupations
* Bessarabia and Northern Bukovina
* Baltic states
* Hungary
* Romania
* 1948 Czechoslovak coup d'état
* Berlin Blockade
* Soviet response to the Marshall Plan
* Tito–Stalin split

Soviet-allied states|

* People's Republic of Albania (to 1961)
* People's Republic of Bulgaria
* Czechoslovak Socialist Republic
* German Democratic Republic
* Hungarian People's Republic
* Polish People's Republic
* Socialist Republic of Romania
* Federal People's Republic of Yugoslavia (to 1948)

Organizations|

* Cominform
* COMECON
* Warsaw Pact
* World Federation of Trade Unions (WFTU)
* World Federation of Democratic Youth (WFDY)

Revolts and
opposition

* Goryani Movement
* 1949 East German State Railway strike
* Rebellion of Cazin 1950
* 1953 Plzeň uprising
* 1953 East German uprising
* 1956 Poznań protests
* 1956 Hungarian Revolution
* Prague Spring / Warsaw Pact invasion of Czechoslovakia
* 1970 Polish protests
* Croatian Spring
* June 1976 protests
* Solidarity / Soviet reaction / Martial law
* 1981 protests in Kosovo

Conditions|

* Emigration and defection (list of defectors)
* Sovietization of the Baltic states
* Information dissemination
* Politics
* Economies
* Telephone tapping

Dissolution|

* Revolutions of 1989
* Die Wende
* Fall of the Berlin Wall
* End of communism in Hungary
* Velvet Revolution
* Romanian revolution
* Fall of communism in Albania
* Singing Revolution
* Collapse of the Soviet Union
* Dissolution of Czechoslovakia
* January 1991 events in Lithuania
* January 1991 events in Latvia
* Breakup of Yugoslavia
* Yugoslav Wars

Authority control databases

International|

* ISNI
* VIAF
* 2

National|

* Germany
* United States
* France
* BnF data
* Australia
* Czech Republic
* Israel
* Catalonia

Other|

* IdRef
* Yale LUX

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