Russian Soviet Federative Socialist Republic

Russian Soviet Federative Socialist Republic
Российская Советская Федеративная Социалистическая Республика

1917–1991
Flag Coat of arms
Capital Petrograd (1917–1918)
Moscow (since March 1918)[1]
Government Democratic Soviet socialist republic
Head of state
 - 1917 Lev Kamenev (Chairman of the VTsIK)
 - 1991 Boris Yeltsin (President)
Legislature
History
 - Established 1917
 - Disestablished 1991
On 19 January 1918, there was a brief existence of the Russian Democratic Federative Republic, but actual sovereignty was still in the hands of the Soviets even after the Russian Constituent Assembly opened its first and the last session.[2]

The Russian Soviet Federative Socialist Republic (Russian: Российская Советская Федеративная Социалистическая Республика,[3] Translit.: Rossiyskaya Sovetskaya Federativnaya Sotsialisticheskaya Respublika), commonly referred to as Soviet Russia, Bolshevik Russia, or simply Russia,[4][5] was the largest, most populous and economically developed republic in the former Soviet Union.[6]

The Soviet regime, governed by the Bolsheviks, first came to power on 7 November 1917—immediately after the Russian Provisional Government, which governed the Russian Republic, was overthrown in the October Revolution. Initially, the state did not have an official name and wouldn't be recognized by neighboring countries for five months.

On 25 January 1918—at the third meeting of the All-Russian Congress of Soviets—the unrecognized state was renamed the Soviet Russian Republic.[7] On 3 March 1918 the Treaty of Brest-Litovsk was signed, giving away much of the land of the former Russian Empire to Germany, in exchange for peace in World War I. On 10 July 1918 the Russian Constitution of 1918 renamed the country the Russian Socialist Federative Soviet Republic.[8] By 1918, during the Russian Civil War, several states within the former Russian Empire seceded, reducing the size of the country even more.

The RSFSR was recognized as an independent state internationally by only Estonia, Finland, Latvia, and Lithuania, in the Treaty of Tartu in 1920 and by the Irish Republic in 1920.[9]

On 30 December 1922, with the creation of the Soviet Union, Russia became one of six republics within the federation of the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics. Russian Soviet Federative Socialist Republic—the final name of the Soviet era for the republic—was adopted in the Soviet Constitution of 1936.

On 25 December 1991—following the collapse of the Soviet Union—it was renamed the Russian Federation, which it remains to this day.[10]

The Republic comprised 16 autonomous republics, five autonomous oblasts, 10 autonomous okrugs, six krais, and 40 oblasts.[6] Russians formed the largest ethnic group.

The RSFSR economy was heavily industrialized. The RSFSR accounted for about two-thirds of the electricity production in the USSR. It was the third largest producer of petroleum, trailing only the United States and Saudi Arabia.

In 1974 there were 475 institutes of higher education in the republic providing education in 47 languages to some 23,941,000 students. Health care was provided through a network of territorially organized public health services.[6]

Contents

Geography

The international borders of the RSFSR touched Poland on the west; Norway and Finland on the northwest; and to its southeast were the Democratic People's Republic of Korea, Mongolian People's Republic, and the People's Republic of China. Within the Soviet Union, the RSFSR bordered the Ukrainian, Belarusian, Estonian, Latvian and Lithuanian SSRs to its west and Azerbaijan, Georgian and Kazakh SSRs to the south.[6]

Roughly 70% of the area in the RSFSR consisted of broad plains, with mountainous regions mainly concentrated in the east. The area is rich in mineral resources, including petroleum, natural gas, and iron ore.[11]

History

History of Russia

This article is part of a series
Volga Bulgaria (7th–13th)
Khazar Khaganate (7th–10th)
Rus' Khaganate (8th–9th)
Novgorodian Rus' (862—882)
Kievan Rus' (9th–12th)
Vladimir-Suzdal (12th–14th)
Novgorod Republic (12th–15th)
Mongol invasion (1220s–1240s)
Tatar Yoke (13th–15th)
Grand Duchy of Moscow (1340–1547)
Tsardom of Russia (1547–1721)
Russian Empire (1721–1917)
Russian Provisional Government / Russian Republic (1917)
Russian SFSR / Soviet Union (1917–1991)
Russian Federation (1992–present)
Timeline

Russia Portal

Early years (1917–20)

The Soviet regime first came to power on 7 November 1917—immediately after the Russian Provisional Government, which governed the Russian Republic, was overthrown in the October Revolution—although the state it governed—which did not have an official name— would be unrecognized by neighboring countries for another five months.

On 25 January 1918—at the third meeting of the All-Russian Congress of Soviets—the unrecognized state was renamed the Soviet Russian Republic.[7] On 3 March 1918 the Treaty of Brest-Litovsk was signed, giving away much of the land of the former Russian Empire to Germany, in exchange for peace in World War I. On 10 July 1918 the Russian Constitution of 1918 renamed the country the Russian Socialist Federative Soviet Republic.[8] By 1918, during the Russian Civil War, several states within the former Russian Empire seceded, reducing the size of the country even more.

The RSFSR was recognized as an independent state internationally by only Estonia, Finland, Latvia, and Lithuania, in the Treaty of Tartu in 1920.

1920s

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. Later treaty was included in the 1924 Soviet Constitution, adopted on 31 January 1924 by the Second Congress of Soviets of the USSR.

The third article of the 1925 Constitution of the RSFSR states the following:[12]

According to a quotation will of the peoples of the Russian Socialist Federative Soviet Republic, have decided to Tenth All-Russian Congress of Soviets on the formation of the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics, the Russian Socialist Federal Soviet republics of the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics, the transmit powers of the Union, classified in accordance with Article 1 of the Constitution of the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics, the purview of the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics.

1930s

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 and Kirghiz Soviet Socialist Republic. The Karakalpak Autonomous Soviet Socialist Republic was transferred to the Uzbek SSR.

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.

1940s

On 17 April 1946, the Kaliningrad Oblast—the northern portion of the former German province of East Prussia—was annexed by the Soviet Union and made part of the Russian SFSR.

1950s

Nikita Khrushchev transferred Crimea from the Russian SFSR to the Ukrainian SSR in 1954.

The Karelo-Finnish SSR was transferred back to the RSFSR as the Karelian ASSR in 1956.

Early 1990s

On 29 May 1990, on his third attempt, Boris Yeltsin was elected the chairman of the Supreme Soviet of the Russian SFSR.

On 12 June 1990, the Congress of People's Deputies of the Republic adopted the Declaration of State Sovereignty of the Russian SFSR, which was the beginning of the "War of Laws", pitting the Soviet Union against the Russian Federation and other constituent republics.

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

During an unsuccessful coup attempt on 19–21 August 1991 in Moscow, the capital of the Soviet Union and Russia, President of Russia Yeltsin strongly supported the President of the USSR, Mikhail Gorbachev. On 23 August, after the failure of GKChP, in the presence of Gorbachev, Yeltsin signed a decree suspending all activity by the Communist Party of the Russian SFSR in the territory of Russia.[13] On 6 November, he went further, banning the Communist Parties of the USSR and the RSFSR from the territory of the RSFSR.[14]

On 8 December 1991 at Viskuli near Brest (Belarus), the President of the Russian SFSR and the heads of Byelorussian SSR and Ukrainian SSR signed the "Agreement on the Establishment of the Commonwealth of Independent States" (known in media as Belavezha Accords). The document, consisting of a preamble and fourteen articles, stated that the Soviet Union ceased to exist as a subject of international law and geopolitical realitiy. However, based on the historical community of peoples, relations between them, given the 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, 7 abstentions. 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. The legality of this act is the subject of discussions because, according to the 1978 Constitution (Basic Law) of the Russian SFSR, the Supreme Soviet Russian SFSR had no right to do so.[15]

On 24 December the President of the Russian Federation informed the Secretary-General of the United Nations that the Russian Federation would assume the membership of the Soviet Union in all UN organs (including membership in the UN Security Council). Thus, Russia is considered to be an original member of the UN (since 24 October 1945) along with Ukraine (Ukrainian SSR) and Belarus (Byelorussian SSR).

On 25 December the Russian SFSR was renamed the Russian Federation, and remains so to this day.[4] 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).

The name "Russian Federation" has been also used in Soviet times.[16]

Government

Autonomous Soviet Socialist Republics (ASSRs) within the Russian SFSR

References

  1. ^ LENINE'S MIGRATION A QUEER SCENE, The New York Times, March 16, 1918
  2. ^ Riasanovsky, Nicholas (2000). A History of Russia (sixth edition). Oxford University Press. p. 458. ISBN 0-19-512179-1. 
  3. ^ Российская Советская Федеративная Социалистическая Республика
  4. ^ a b Supreme Soviet of the Russian SFSR approved the Law of the RSFSR #2094-I of December 25, 1991 "On renaming of the Russian Soviet Federative Socialist Republic" // Congress of People's Deputies of the Russian SFSR and Supreme Soviet of the Russian SFSR Daily. – 1992. – № 2. – Art. 62
  5. ^ Declaration of Rights of the laboring and exploited people (original VTsIK variant, III Congress revision), article I
  6. ^ a b c d The Free Dictionary Russian Soviet Federated Socialist Republic. Encyclopedia2.thefreedictionary.com. Retrieved on 22 June 2011.
  7. ^ a b Declaration on the rights of working and exploited people. Hist.msu.ru. Retrieved on 22 June 2011.
  8. ^ a b Soviet Russia information. Russians.net (23 August 1943). Retrieved on 22 June 2011.
  9. ^ 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 Fein (Cmd 1326).
  10. ^ Chronicle of Events. Marxistsfr.org. Retrieved on 22 June 2011.
  11. ^ "Russia the Great: Mineral resources". http://russia.rin.ru/guides_e/4319.html. Retrieved 22 November 2010. 
  12. ^ Constitution (Basic Law) of the Russian Socialist Federative Soviet Republic (approved by Twelfth All-Russian Congress of Soviets from 11 May 1925).
  13. ^ Decree of the President of the Russian SFSR of 23 August 1991 N 79
  14. ^ 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"
  15. ^ The Russian SFSR has constitutional right to "freely seccede 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 (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 seccession from the USSR was held in the RSFSR
  16. ^ See for example, the log of the meeting of the Supreme Soviet of the USSR on February 19, 1954 (in Russian)

External links