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 18 republics (with nine of them having been in the USSR since the Cold War).

Federation or Unitary state
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.

Divisions
The Union of Soviet Socialist Republics formed with the unification of the Russian SFSR, the Ukrainian SSR, the Belorussian SSR, and the Transcaucasian SFSR. Excluding the annexation of the Baltic states and areas won during World War II, most of the republics of the Soviet Union formed out of the dissolution of the Transcaucasian SFSR into Georgia, Armenia, and Azerbaijan; or the secession of the Central Asian Autonomous republics from the Russian SFSR.

In 1991, Moscow allowed the Baltic states, Georgia, Armenia, and Moldova to secede from the Soviet Union, and granted full republican status to the autonomous republics of Chechnya, Abkhazia, and Transnistria by 1995.

Federal cities
At the formation of the Soviet Union, the two largest cities of the Soviet Union &mdash; Moscow and Leningrad &mdash; were incorporated from the Russian Federation, becoming federal cities of the entire union. The change came from the growing ethic and republican tensions that Russia was still going to be the dominant force in the new union, and wished to have a federal district much like how Washington is for the United States. The movement also came out due to the growing population and economy of both Moscow and Leningrad, that they could hold onto themselves without Russia's help.