Republics of the Soviet Union (New Union)

The Republics of the Soviet Union, often called the Union Republics (Russian|: союзные республики soyuznyye ryespubliki), are the primary subdivisions of the. Each republic is considered sovereign internationally, but all united under a confederation. As of 2010, the Soviet Union consists of 14 republics (with nine of them having been in the USSR since the Cold War).

History
Since the beginning of the Soviet Union in 1922, all the republics were divided based on ethnics. Prior to the formation of the USSR, the Russian Empire had strong control over the non-Russian/Slavic groups, almost to the point of being second class citizens.

With the October revolution in 1917, the Russian Empire fell and several rouge nations took its place. In December 1922, four of these republics (the Russian SFSR, the Transcaucasia SFSR, the Ukrainian SSR, and the Belorussian SSR) will become united under the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics. By the end of the Cold War, the USSR consisted of 15 republics (most of which were Autonomous Soviet Socialist Republics [ASSRs] that were made into full republics).

Since 1922, the Soviet Union was (constitutionally) a federation, but in practice, the USSR was a highly centralized entity. The centralized government will come into question in the mid-1980s with and his reforms. After the reformation of the USSR in 1991, total sovereignty was given to the republics, and the USSR actually became a federation.

Confederation or Supranational entity?
Since the reformation of the USSR in 1991, several of the republics which remained in the Union began to show more independence. Since 1945, Russia, Belarus, and the Ukraine were members of the United Nations (along with the USSR). After the formation, each republic applied for UN membership. To date, only Abkhazia and South Ossetia are non-UN members (due to the international recognition of these republics).

In 1996, a poll was held in the USSR in which it was asked: "Do you wave the Union flag, or the flag of your republic?" Azerbaijan, Tajikistan, Turkmenistan, Uzbekistan, and the Ukraine had a majority of citizens who did not wish to identify themselves with the Union flag.