home Auditorium 7 When did the Soviet Union emerge? The composition of the USSR - what it was like and how it was formed

When did the Soviet Union emerge? The composition of the USSR - what it was like and how it was formed

Chronology

1921, February - March Uprising of soldiers and sailors in Kronstadt. Strikes in Petrograd.
1921, March The 10th Congress of the Russian Communist Party (Bolsheviks) adopted a decision on the transition to a new economic policy.
1922, December Education of the USSR
1924, January Adoption of the USSR Constitution at the II All-Union Congress of Soviets.
1925, December XIV Congress of the RCP (b). Adoption of a course towards industrialization of the national economy of the USSR.
1927, December XV Congress of the RCP (b). The course towards collectivization of agriculture of the USSR.

Union of Soviet Socialist Republics— which existed from 1922 to 1991 in Europe and Asia. The USSR occupied 1/6 of the inhabited landmass and was the largest country in the world by area on the territory that by 1917 was occupied by the Russian Empire without Finland, part of the Polish Kingdom and some other territories (the land of Kars, now Turkey), but with Galicia and Transcarpathia , part of Prussia, Northern Bukovina, Southern Sakhalin and the Kuril Islands.

According to the 1977 Constitution, The USSR was proclaimed a single union multinational and socialist state.

Education USSR

On December 18, 1922, the Plenum of the Central Committee adopted the draft Union Treaty, and on December 30, 1922, the First Congress of Soviets was convened. At the Congress of Soviets, General Secretary of the Central Committee of the Bolshevik Party I.V. made a report on the formation of the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics. Stalin, reading the text of the Declaration and Treaty on the Formation of the USSR.

The USSR included the RSFSR, the Ukrainian SSR (Ukraine), the BSSR (Belarus) and the ZSFSR (Georgia, Armenia, Azerbaijan). The heads of delegations of the republics present at the congress signed the Treaty and Declaration. The creation of the Union was formalized by law. The delegates elected a new composition of the USSR Central Executive Committee.

Declaration on the formation of the USSR. Title page

On January 31, 1924, the Second Congress of Soviets approved the Constitution of the USSR. Allied People's Commissariats were created in charge of foreign policy, defense, transport, communications, and planning. In addition, the issues of the borders of the USSR and the republics and admission to the Union were subject to the jurisdiction of the supreme authorities. The republics were sovereign in resolving other issues.

Meeting of the Council of Nationalities of the Central Executive Committee of the USSR. 1927

During the 1920-1930s. The USSR included: Kazakh SSR, Turkmen SSR, Uzbek SSR, Kirghiz SSR, Tajik SSR. From the TSFSR (Transcaucasian Soviet Federative Socialist Republic), the Georgian SSR, the Armenian SSR and the Azerbaijan SSR emerged and formed independent republics within the USSR. The Moldavian Autonomous Republic, which was part of Ukraine, received union status. In 1939, Western Ukraine and Western Belarus were included in the Ukrainian SSR and BSSR. In 1940, Lithuania, Latvia and Estonia became part of the USSR.

The collapse of the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics (USSR), which united 15 republics, occurred in 1991.

Education of the USSR. Development of the union state (1922-1940)

Where does the Motherland begin?
From the picture in your ABC book,
From good and faithful comrades,
Living in the neighboring yard.
Or maybe it's starting
From the song that our mother sang to us,
Since in any test
No one can take it away from us.

Where does the Motherland begin?
From the treasured bench at the gate,
From that very birch tree in the field,
Bowing in the wind, it grows.
Or maybe it's starting
From the spring song of a starling
And from this country road,
Which has no end in sight.

Where does the Motherland begin?
From the windows burning in the distance,
From my father's old budenovka,
What we found somewhere in the closet.
Or maybe it's starting
From the sound of carriage wheels
And from the oath that in my youth
You brought it to her in your heart.

Where does the Motherland begin...

The Soviet Union is not an empty phrase, but a whole era of generations that today have formed into a single generation - the generation of the USSR or “Soviet”, as we sometimes call it. An era, like a word from a song, cannot be thrown out, because it is part of our history. Rewriting history in order to distort it is not only inexcusable, but also offensive. It was during the Soviet era that our country for the first time in history became the first socialist superpower, because as Churchill noted: “Stalin accepted Russia with a plow, and left it with a nuclear club,” and this is a completely fair assessment. But let us not at the same time deny the merits of the Petrine monarchy, which laid the foundation for this glorious path. Azov, Poltava, Gangut, Grengam, Nystadt are certainly the first serious victories of Russia, which turned it into a monarchical superpower, which was also done for the first time. It is difficult to overestimate the importance of the Peace of Nystadt in the North and the Victory in the Great Patriotic War and the Second World War in general. To paraphrase Churchill, all I have to do is add: “Peter the Great accepted Russia with horses, and left it with sea wolves.” If Britain became the trendsetter in naval fashions, and the United States in nuclear ones, then Russia invariably violated the monopoly of each of these enemies. The famous aphorism of the greatest Russian monarch, Alexander III, was suffered through our entire history: “Russia has only 2 allies: the army and the navy; all the rest will oppose it.” Today it is difficult to disagree with this, if we add a third one - a nuclear cannon! So, what else will happen if new types of weapons appear among our types of weapons, which will also become our constant and eternal allies.

Prerequisites for the formation of the USSR
Before the young state, torn apart by the consequences of the civil war, the problem of creating a unified administrative-territorial system became acute. At that time, the RSFSR accounted for 92% of the country's area, whose population later accounted for 70% of the newly formed USSR. The remaining 8% was shared among the Soviet republics: Ukraine, Belarus and the Transcaucasian Federation, which united Azerbaijan, Georgia and Armenia in 1922. Also in the east of the country, the Far Eastern Republic was created, which was administered from Chita. Central Asia at that time consisted of two people's republics - Khorezm and Bukhara.
Let's look at what stages the formation of the USSR went through.

Strengthening the historical trinity of Moscow, Kyiv and Minsk
In order to strengthen the centralization of control and concentration of resources on the fronts of the civil war, the RSFSR, Belarus and Ukraine united into an alliance in June 1919. This made it possible to unite the armed forces, with the introduction of a centralized command (the Revolutionary Military Council of the RSFSR and the Commander-in-Chief of the Red Army). Representatives from each republic were delegated to government bodies. The agreement also provided for the reassignment of some republican branches of industry, transport and finance to the corresponding People's Commissariats of the RSFSR. This new state formation went down in history under the name “contractual federation.” Its peculiarity was that Russian governing bodies were given the opportunity to function as the only representatives of the supreme power of the state. At the same time, the communist parties of the republics became part of the RCP (b) only as regional party organizations.

Transcaucasian Federative SSR as a state-catalyst for unification
Soviet power was strengthened. On this basis, mutual political and economic ties between the independent Soviet republics expanded. Already in 1920, the Communist Party raised the question of strengthening a federal union between them. In his theses on national and colonial issues, written for the Second Congress of the Comintern, V. I. Lenin put forward the task of “striving for a closer and closer federal union.” In the same year, the RSFSR and the Ukrainian SSR concluded a union treaty, which provided for cooperation between the two republics in various areas of their activities. In 1920-1921 Treaties were concluded between the RSFSR and the Byelorussian SSR, between the RSFSR and the Soviet republics of Transcaucasia.
The process of unification of the socialist republics took place in a bitter struggle against great-power chauvinism and local bourgeois nationalism. This struggle was led by the Communist Party, which stood guard over the fraternal unity of peoples. The establishment of the dictatorship of the proletariat ensured free national development for all nations and nationalities of the former Russian Empire and granted them full sovereignty. Peoples, in accordance with their will and depending on the specific historical situation, could unite in a proletarian multinational state or not unite. V.I. Lenin pointed out that the question of the right of nations to self-determination, even to the point of secession, cannot be confused with the question of the advisability of secession. The last question must be resolved by the Communist Party in each individual case from the point of view of the interests of the proletariat and all the working masses of the national Soviet republics. The unifying tendencies won, since they met the fundamental interests of all the peoples of the Soviet republics. This revealed the historical pattern of the dictatorship of the proletariat - a power that unites peoples, and does not separate them. The Soviet nations wished to unite into a single multinational state because they were closely linked to each other economically, politically and culturally, and also because without such unification it would have been extremely difficult for them to resist the onslaught of international imperialism.

The unification of the republics was to be carried out on the basis of complete voluntariness. “A federation can be strong, and its results valid,” said the resolution of the Tenth Congress of the Communist Party, “only if it is based on mutual trust and voluntary consent of its member countries.”

The creation of a single union Soviet socialist state was dictated by objective reasons. First of all, it was necessary to combine the economic and financial resources of the Soviet republics and coordinate their plans for socialist construction. In this case, factors such as the historical division of labor and the unity of the main routes of communication played a major role.

The world and civil wars had a detrimental effect on the state of the country's national economy. In each region, those industries that were the subject of its specialization suffered the most: the mining and sugar industries in Ukraine, flax growing in the North-Western region, cotton growing in Central Asia, etc. In addition to the direct destruction of productive forces, heavy damage was caused by the breakdown of connections due to the emergence of various fronts and disorganization of transport. The restoration of the national economy and economic ties between the Soviet republics, which began after the civil war, took place on the basis of the historically established division of labor. At the same time, the principles of the national policy of the Soviet government provided for the creation of new industrial centers, the development of minerals and other natural resources where this had not been done before. The changes made to the previous division of labor were not intended to weaken, but to further strengthen economic ties between the Soviet republics.

The formation of the union Soviet state was dictated by the tasks of a planned socialist economy. Private property and capital separate people, collective property and labor bring them together. Back in 1920-1921, when the GOELRO plan was developed, all Soviet republics expressed a desire to participate in its implementation. Each of them was interested in the socialist reconstruction of their economy based on electrification. The construction of a number of power plants was designed at the request of the republics: Dnieper, Shterovskaya, Lisichanskaya, Grishinskaya - at the request of the Ukrainian SSR, Osipovskaya - the Byelorussian SSR, Tashkent - the Turkestan ASSR, Zemo-Avchalskaya - the Georgian SSR. Commenting on the electrification map, Chairman of the State Planning Committee G. M. Krzhizhanovsky said that the GOELRO plan cannot be implemented through the isolated efforts of individual republics. It was possible to carry out the socialist reconstruction of the national economy, to achieve the rise of productive forces and the well-being of all peoples only through the united efforts of all Soviet nations within the framework of the multinational Soviet state.

Treaties concluded in 1920-1921 between Soviet republics, contained clauses on economic cooperation, but did not define its conditions and did not provide for the creation of united planning and economic bodies. This caused great difficulties in the development of both the GOELRO plan and, in particular, the plan for the economic zoning of the Soviet country.

The economic zoning project was developed by the State Planning Committee of the RSFSR in 1921-1922. with the direct participation of major Soviet scientists (G. M. Krzhizhanovsky, I. G. Aleksandrov, S. G. Strumilin, etc.). Providing the most favorable conditions for the development of the productive forces of all national republics and regions, this project assumed not departmental, but territorial management of the national economy. Its implementation opened up wide opportunities for the creative initiative of the masses, and on the other hand, the role of planned economic management was strengthened.

Economic zoning provided for the formation of local economic meetings and strengthening the role of state plans and economic councils. This could not be achieved without the creation of unified planning and economic bodies. Therefore, in 1922, the State Planning Committee raised the question of establishing a planning center for all Soviet republics and put forward the idea of further strengthening the Soviet federation through constitutional or contractual means.

In all republics, the need for closer unification of economic activities was acutely felt. In August 1922, the Ukrainian Economic Council decided that “economic zoning should be carried out in contact and cooperation with the State Planning Committee of the RSFSR.” The resolution of the Second Congress of the Communist Party of Azerbaijan stated: “We are faced with the task of establishing the closest connection between the economic bodies of Azerbaijan and the Supreme Council of the National Economy of the RSFSR.” The Central Committee of the Russian Communist Party in its report for 1922 wrote that the experience of economic construction of the Soviet republics over the past year “showed the need for state unification of the economic efforts of the republics and the systematic distribution of the resources available to these republics.”

The unification of the Soviet republics was also dictated by their international position and the tasks of strengthening their defense capability.

The Soviet government in its foreign policy proceeded from the possibility of peaceful coexistence of the Soviet republics with capitalist countries. The victory over the interventionists and the White Guards gave the Soviet people a peaceful respite. However, aggressive circles of the imperialist states still hoped to restore the bourgeois system in Russia, if not by force of arms, then with the help of subversive activities, economic and political pressure. They also hoped to create discord among the Soviet peoples, to pit some Soviet republics against others. In these difficult conditions, the Soviet republics had to maintain strict unity of action in the international arena. In February 1922, eight republics instructed the RSFSR delegation to represent their interests at the Genoa Conference. In November, a joint Russian-Ukrainian-Georgian delegation was formed to participate in the Lausanne Conference. Contact between the People's Commissars of the Soviet republics intensified, and unified diplomatic missions were created abroad. The same unification of activities took place in foreign trade bodies.

All Soviet republics advocated a speedy merger of the armed forces and military leadership. Party and Soviet bodies of the Ukrainian SSR several times noted the urgent need for this. Similar resolutions were adopted by the Central Committees of the Communist Parties in Georgia and Armenia.

Thus, in 1922, all the prerequisites for the creation of a Soviet multinational state were ripe.

The emergence and escalation of confrontation.
But nevertheless, disagreements arose between the republics and the control center in Moscow. After all, having delegated their main powers, the republics lost the opportunity to make decisions independently. At the same time, the independence of the republics in the sphere of governance was officially declared.
Uncertainty in defining the boundaries of the powers of the center and the republics contributed to the emergence of conflicts and confusion. Sometimes state authorities looked ridiculous, trying to bring to a common denominator nationalities whose traditions and culture they knew nothing about. For example, the need for the existence of a subject on the study of the Koran in the schools of Turkestan gave rise in October 1922 to an acute confrontation between the All-Russian Central Executive Committee and the People's Commissariat for Nationalities, which was headed by Stalin before Lenin's death.

Creation of a commission on relations between the RSFSR and independent republics.
The decisions of the central bodies in the economic sphere did not find proper understanding among the republican authorities and often led to sabotage. In August 1922, in order to radically change the current situation, the Politburo and the Organizing Bureau of the Central Committee of the RCP (b) considered the issue “On the relationship between the RSFSR and the independent republics”, creating a commission that included republican representatives. V.V. Kuibyshev was appointed chairman of the commission.
The commission instructed I.V. Stalin to develop a project for the “autonomization” of the republics. The presented decision proposed to include Ukraine, Belarus, Azerbaijan, Georgia and Armenia in the RSFSR, with the rights of republican autonomy. The draft was sent to the Republican Central Committee of the party for consideration. However, this was done only to obtain formal approval of the decision. Considering the significant infringements on the rights of the republics provided for by this decision, J.V. Stalin insisted on not using the usual practice of publishing the decision of the Central Committee of the RCP (b) if it was adopted. But he demanded that the Republican Central Committees of parties be obliged to strictly implement it.

Creation by V.I. Lenin of the concept of a state based on the Federation.
Ignoring the independence and self-government of the country's constituent entities, while simultaneously tightening the role of the central authorities, was perceived by Lenin as a violation of the principle of proletarian internationalism. In September 1922, he proposed the idea of creating a state on the principles of a federation. Initially, the name was proposed - the Union of Soviet Republics of Europe and Asia, but was later changed to the USSR. Joining the union was supposed to be a conscious choice of each sovereign republic, based on the principle of equality and independence, with the general authorities of the federation. V.I. Lenin believed that a multinational state must be built based on the principles of good neighborliness, parity, openness, respect and mutual assistance.

"Georgian conflict". Strengthening separatism.
At the same time, in some republics there is a shift towards the isolation of autonomies, and separatist sentiments intensify. For example, the Central Committee of the Communist Party of Georgia flatly refused to remain part of the Transcaucasian Federation, demanding that the republic be accepted into the union as an independent entity. Fierce polemics on this issue between representatives of the Central Committee of the Georgian Party and the Chairman of the Transcaucasian Regional Committee G.K. Ordzhonikidze ended in mutual insults and even assault on the part of Ordzhonikidze. The result of the policy of strict centralization on the part of the central authorities was the voluntary resignation of the Central Committee of the Communist Party of Georgia in its entirety.
To investigate this conflict, a commission was created in Moscow, the chairman of which was F. E. Dzerzhinsky. The commission took the side of G.K. Ordzhonikidze and severely criticized the Central Committee of Georgia. This fact outraged V.I. Lenin. He repeatedly tried to condemn the perpetrators of the clash in order to exclude the possibility of infringement on the independence of the republics. However, progressive illness and civil strife in the Central Committee of the country's party did not allow him to complete the job.

Officially, the date of formation of the USSR is December 30, 1922. On this day, at the first Congress of Soviets, the Declaration on the Creation of the USSR and the Union Treaty were signed. The Union included the RSFSR, the Ukrainian and Belarusian socialist republics, as well as the Transcaucasian Federation. The Declaration formulated the reasons and defined the principles for the unification of the republics. The agreement delimited the functions of republican and central government bodies. The state bodies of the Union were entrusted with foreign policy and trade, routes of communication, communications, as well as issues of organizing and controlling finance and defense.
Everything else belonged to the sphere of government of the republics.
The All-Union Congress of Soviets was proclaimed the highest body of the state. In the period between congresses, the leading role was assigned to the Central Executive Committee of the USSR, organized on the principle of bicameralism - the Union Council and the Council of Nationalities. M.I. Kalinin was elected chairman of the Central Election Commission, co-chairmen were G.I. Petrovsky, N.N. Narimanov, A.G. Chervyakov. The Government of the Union (Council of People's Commissars of the USSR) was headed by V.I. Lenin.

The machine of repression of the Gulag, the executioners of the Cheka and the dogs of the NKVD
The formation of the USSR occurred not only thanks to the initiative of the leadership of the Communist Party. Over the course of many centuries, the prerequisites for the unification of peoples into a single state were formed. The harmony of the unification has deep historical, economic, military-political and cultural roots. The former Russian Empire united 185 nationalities and nationalities. They all went through a common historical path. During this time, a system of economic and economic ties was formed. They defended their freedom and absorbed the best of each other's cultural heritage. And, naturally, they did not feel hostility towards each other.
It is worth considering that at that time the entire territory of the country was surrounded by hostile states. This, too, had no less influence on the unification of peoples. The unification into one multinational state did not contradict the interests of the peoples inhabiting the territory of the country. Consolidation into the Union allowed the young state to occupy one of the leading positions in the geopolitical space of the world. However, the commitment of the party's top leadership to excessive centralization of management stopped the expansion of powers of the country's subjects. It was I.V. Stalin who finally transferred the country onto the rails of the most brutal centralism at the end of the 30s.

Stalin took over the USSR just a little over a year after its formation: this happened on January 28, 1924. He waited only 395 days for his time. In the year of the formation of the USSR, the first changes took place in Europe: Italy, humiliated and insulted by the results and promises of the British in the First World War, became the world's first fascist state. The case of Italy is generally unique: the country had 2 forms of government in the period from 1922 to 1945, being both a monarchical empire and a fascist dictatorship in one person, while Japan was only a monarchical empire, where power belonged to the emperor. In Nazi Germany, the monarchy was abolished, but Hitler took care of the life and safety of Kaiser Wilhelm, overthrown in November 1919. In Spain, after the fall of the Azaña regime and Franco coming to power, the monarchy, on the contrary, was not abolished as such, but it could return as a form of government only after the death of the caudillo, which happened on November 20, 1975, when Franco died. In general, November 20 is a special day in Spain and is very popular among the Spanish right-wing forces. Then, in 1936, the founder of the Falange, Jose Antonio Primo de Rivera, was shot, and 39 years later, Franco himself died. Interestingly, King Juan Carlos I left the throne to his son after 39 years on it, and the Spanish Civil War ended on April 1, 1939 (try it!). If anyone doesn’t know what the number 39 means, I’ll explain it simply and clearly: it’s “three times 13.”

Stalin's reign was controversial. The Soviet Union largely grew out of the civil war and its victims; in fact, it was “built on the bones” of its own citizens, which distinguishes it from the creation of the Russian Empire. Even during the years of the Civil War, one of the founders of the Red Army, Leiba (Bronstein) Trotsky, formed the concept of “red terror” and “decossackization,” which developed into “dekulakization,” which struck primarily the common people. All this was done under the pretext of the fight for socialism and fanning the fire of the Red Revolution. Food surplus appropriation reigned in the country, a regime of “war communism” was introduced, and in fact, red fascism, when soldiers in Budennovkas broke into peasants’ houses and took away the remaining food. Those who did not comply were simply shot without trial. Bolshevism as such appeared in Russia back in 1905, when the First Congress of the CPSU (then called the RSDLP) was held. The underground red cell was a kind of political sect, like the Spanish Phalanx (Falange JONS), and its funding came from Germany, Switzerland, England and the USA. A special role at the beginning of the civil war in Russia was played by A. Parvus (aka I. Gelfand), who established strong relations with the Bolshevik social democrats, mainly with Ilyich.

Under Stalin, the country took a sharp course towards industrialization and the country's economy began to work at full capacity. Thanks to the 5-year plans, the USSR economy rose to second place in the world after the United States, where at that time the Great Depression initially reigned, but since 1933, Roosevelt’s “New Deal” program allowed the Americans to regain their lost positions in the world. One way or another, both states after the Second World War will come together in a cold confrontation with each other.

The repressions of '37 hit the country hard. The Red Army was practically destroyed (if anyone doesn’t know or has forgotten, the destruction of the top command staff of the Red Army was a black operation by the Abwehr), which naturally went into the pockets of both Hitler and the world Jewish lobby. The results of the repressions had their echo in the shameful Soviet-Finnish war and defeats in the initial stages of the Great Patriotic War. There was also Katyn, which today is a lie that has become history and which will be discussed in another material, where a new answer will be given to the question “who is to blame for the execution of Polish officers in the spring of 1940.”

Despite all the difficulties of the Stalinist era, the USSR emerged victorious in the main hot conflict of the 20th century. By 1945, we received the USSR, the image of which we are trying to drum into our children from the cradle, so as not to disgrace our veterans. And this USSR in the early 50s. in the skies over North Korea showed that it is we, and not the Americans, who are the masters of the sky, and have no right today, almost 25 years after its collapse, to lose this dominance. The Soviet defense industry in many ways made a good leap forward many years ago, and our country was in many ways an example to follow.

What is also curious is that if Peter the Great needed 21 years to transform Russia into an Empire, then the communist elite of the USSR took 23 years to do this. To some extent, Stalin repeated the strategic feat of Peter the Great, when in 1949, after World War II, the first Soviet atomic bomb was tested. By the middle of the 20th century, the USSR was a healthy organism, whose leadership pursued a competent foreign policy, and Stalin assigned a special historical role to the Russian people. If it weren’t for the gullibility of people, who knows, maybe by the mid-60s we would have been able to put an end to America.

Fixing holes or fighting bourgeois nationalism?

If our people had been more enlightened and thoughtful, and not gullible, then perhaps the USSR would have avoided hacking its national card. It’s a pity that history, or rather the freaks, decided against the course of history to try to throw us back into the medieval past

Immortality of the Trinity

Despite the fact that the USSR no longer exists, and it can no longer be restored as such, in no case should members of the Trinity, which has always guarded the security of Eurasia, quarrel with each other. It's time to put aside ideological and other prejudices towards each other and extend each other's hands of help and support. The era of the red and liberal Nazi (Yeltsin) plague has long migrated from Russia to the United States, which has already stepped on the rake of all previously existing empires, where the FBI has long become the American NKVD, surpassing the “red demons in uniform” in every sense. As for today's Ukraine, it is doomed to collapse and the emergence of Novorossiya will become the core of the formation of a new Ukraine without Bandera and overseas external control.
God grant that this day comes as soon as possible and we will bring it closer as soon as we ourselves can. Through our common efforts without external help.
Because we can do everything ourselves!

Website materials used http://www.history-at-russia.ru And http://www.russlav.ru

Here you can see all the republics that were included in the Soviet Union (USSR).

A single union multinational state, formed on the basis of the principle of socialist federalism, as a result of the free self-determination of nations and the voluntary unification of equal Soviet Socialist Republics.

		Belarusian Soviet Socialist Republic (BSSR)

Republics of the USSR

Union republics	Capital	Date of formation	Date of entry into the USSR
USSR	Moscow	December 30, 1922	-
RSFSR	Moscow	November 7 (October 25), 1917	December 30, 1922
Ukrainian SSR	Kyiv	December 25 (12), 1917	December 30, 1922
Byelorussian SSR	Minsk	January 1, 1919	December 30, 1922
Uzbek SSR	Tashkent	October 27, 1924	October 27, 1924
Kazakh SSR	Almaty	August 26, 1920 (Kyrgyz Autonomous Soviet Socialist Republic); transformation into a union republic - December 5, 1936	December 5, 1936
Georgian SSR	Tbilisi	February 25, 1921
Azerbaijan SSR	Baku	April 28, 1920	December 30, 1922 (as part of the TSFSR); December 5, 1936
Lithuanian SSR	Vilnius	July 21, 1940	August 3, 1940
Moldavian SSR	Kishinev	October 12, 1924 (Moldavian Autonomous Soviet Socialist Republic), transformation into a union republic - August 2, 1940	August 2, 1940
Latvian SSR	Riga	July 21, 1940	August 5, 1940
Kirghiz SSR	Frunze	October 14, 1924 (Kara-Kyrgyz Autonomous Okrug); transformation into a union republic - December 5, 1936	December 5, 1936
Tajik SSR	Dushanbe	October 14, 1924 (Tajik ASSR); transformation into a union republic - October 16, 1929	October 16, 1929
Armenian SSR	Yerevan	November 29, 1920	December 30, 1922 (as part of the TSFSR); December 5, 1936
Turkmen SSR	Ashgabat	October 27, 1924	October 27, 1924
	Tallinn	July 21, 1940	August 6, 1940

Story

Russians take a long time to harness, but travel quickly
Winston Churchill

USSR (Union of Soviet Socialist Republics), this form of statehood replaced the Russian Empire. The country began to be ruled by the proletariat, which achieved this right by carrying out the October Revolution, which was nothing more than an armed coup within the country, bogged down in its internal and external problems. Nicholas 2 played an important role in this state of affairs, who actually drove the country into a state of collapse.

Education of the country

The formation of the USSR took place on November 7, 1917 according to the new style. It was on this day that the October Revolution occurred, which overthrew the Provisional Government and the fruits of the February Revolution, proclaiming the slogan that power should belong to the workers. This is how the USSR, the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics, was formed. It is extremely difficult to unambiguously assess the Soviet period of Russian history, since it was very controversial. Without a doubt, we can say that at this time there were both positive and negative aspects.

Capital Cities

Initially, the capital of the USSR was Petrograd, where the revolution actually took place, bringing the Bolsheviks to power. At first there was no talk of moving the capital, since the new government was too weak, but later this decision was made. As a result, the capital of the union of Soviet socialist republics was moved to Moscow. This is quite symbolic, since the creation of the Empire was conditioned by the transfer of the capital to Petrograd from Moscow.

The fact of moving the capital to Moscow today is associated with economics, politics, symbolism and much more. In fact, everything is much simpler. By moving the capital, the Bolsheviks saved themselves from other contenders for power in the conditions of the civil war.

Leaders of the country

The foundations of the power and prosperity of the USSR are connected with the fact that the country had relative stability in leadership. There was a clear, unified party line, and leaders who had been at the head of the state for a long time. It is interesting that the closer the country came to collapse, the more often the General Secretaries changed. In the early 80s, leapfrog began: Andropov, Ustinov, Chernenko, Gorbachev - the country did not have time to get used to one leader before another appeared in his place.

The general list of leaders is as follows:

Lenin. Leader of the world proletariat. One of the ideological inspirers and implementers of the October Revolution. Laid the foundations of the state.
Stalin. One of the most controversial historical figures. With all the negativity that the liberal press pours into this man, the fact is that Stalin raised industry from its knees, Stalin prepared the USSR for war, Stalin began to actively develop the socialist state.
Khrushchev. He gained power after the assassination of Stalin, developed the country and managed to adequately resist the United States in the Cold War.
Brezhnev. The era of his reign is called the era of stagnation. Many people mistakenly associate this with the economy, but there was no stagnation there - all indicators were growing. There was stagnation in the party, which was disintegrating.
Andropov, Chernenko. They didn’t really do anything, they pushed the country towards collapse.
Gorbachev. The first and last president of the USSR. Today everyone blames him for the collapse of the Soviet Union, but his main fault was that he was afraid to take active action against Yeltsin and his supporters, who actually staged a conspiracy and a coup.

Another interesting fact is that the best rulers were those who lived through the times of revolution and war. The same applies to party leaders. These people understood the price of a socialist state, the significance and complexity of its existence. As soon as people came to power who had never seen a war, much less a revolution, everything went to pieces.

Formation and achievements

The Union of Soviet Socialist Republics began its formation with the Red Terror. This is a sad page in Russian history, a huge number of people were killed by the Bolsheviks who sought to strengthen their power. The leaders of the Bolshevik Party, realizing that they could only retain power by force, killed everyone who could somehow interfere with the formation of the new regime. It is outrageous that the Bolsheviks, as the first people's commissars and people's police, i.e. those people who were supposed to keep order were recruited from thieves, murderers, homeless people, etc. In a word, all those who were disliked in the Russian Empire and tried in every possible way to take revenge on everyone who was somehow connected with it. The apogee of these atrocities was the murder of the royal family.

After the formation of the new system, the USSR, headed until 1924 Lenin V.I., got a new leader. He became Joseph Stalin. His control became possible after he won the power struggle with Trotsky. During Stalin's reign, industry and agriculture began to develop at a tremendous pace. Knowing about the growing power of Hitler's Germany, Stalin paid great attention to the development of the country's defense complex. In the period from June 22, 1941 to May 9, 1945, the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics was involved in a bloody war with Germany, from which it emerged victorious. The Great Patriotic War cost the Soviet state millions of lives, but this was the only way to preserve the freedom and independence of the country. The post-war years were difficult for the country: hunger, poverty and rampant banditry. Stalin brought order to the country with a harsh hand.

International situation

After Stalin's death and until the collapse of the USSR, the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics developed dynamically, overcoming a huge number of difficulties and obstacles. The USSR was involved by the United States in an arms race that continues to this day. It was this race that could become fatal for all of humanity, since both countries were in constant confrontation as a result. This period of history was called the Cold War. Only the prudence of the leadership of both countries managed to keep the planet from a new war. And this war, taking into account the fact that both nations were already nuclear at that time, could have become fatal for the whole world.

The country's space program stands apart from the entire development of the USSR. It was a Soviet citizen who was the first to fly into space. He was Yuri Alekseevich Gagarin. The United States responded to this manned space flight with its first manned flight to the Moon. But the Soviet flight into space, unlike the American flight to the moon, does not raise so many questions, and experts do not have a shadow of doubt that this flight really took place.

Population of the country

Every decade the Soviet country showed population growth. And this despite the multimillion-dollar casualties of the Second World War. The key to increasing the birth rate was the social guarantees of the state. The diagram below shows data on the population of the USSR in general and the RSFSR in particular.

You should also pay attention to the dynamics of urban development. The Soviet Union was becoming an industrialized country, whose population gradually moved from villages to cities.

By the time the USSR was formed, Russia had 2 cities with a population of over a million (Moscow and St. Petersburg). By the time the country collapsed, there were already 12 such cities: Moscow, Leningrad Novosibirsk, Yekaterinburg, Nizhny Novgorod, Samara, Omsk, Kazan, Chelyabinsk, Rostov-on-Don, Ufa and Perm. The union republics also had cities with a population of one million: Kyiv, Tashkent, Baku, Kharkov, Tbilisi, Yerevan, Dnepropetrovsk, Odessa, Donetsk.

USSR map

The Union of Soviet Socialist Republics collapsed in 1991, when in White Forest the leaders of the Soviet republics announced their secession from the USSR. This is how all the Republics gained independence and autonomy. The opinion of the Soviet people was not taken into account. A referendum held just before the collapse of the USSR showed that the overwhelming majority of people declared that the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics should be preserved. A handful of people, led by the Chairman of the CPSU Central Committee M.S. Gorbachev, decided the fate of the country and the people. It was this decision that plunged Russia into the harsh reality of the “nineties.” This is how the Russian Federation was born. Below is a map of the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics.

Economy

The economy of the USSR was unique. For the first time, the world was shown a system in which the focus was not on profit, but on public goods and employee incentives. In general, the economy of the Soviet Union can be divided into 3 stages:

Before Stalin. We are not talking about any economics here - the revolution has just died down in the country, there is a war going on. Nobody seriously thought about economic development; the Bolsheviks held power.
Stalin's economic model. Stalin implemented a unique idea of economics, which made it possible to raise the USSR to the level of the leading countries of the world. The essence of his approach is total labor and the correct “pyramid of distribution of funds.” The correct distribution of funds is when workers receive no less than managers. Moreover, the basis of the salary was bonuses for achieving results and bonuses for innovations. The essence of such bonuses is as follows: 90% was received by the employee himself, and 10% was divided between the team, workshop, and supervisors. But the worker himself received the main money. That's why there was a desire to work.
After Stalin. After Stalin's death, Khrushchev overturned the economic pyramid, after which a recession and a gradual decline in growth rates began. Under Khrushchev and after him, an almost capitalist model was formed, when managers received much more workers, especially in the form of bonuses. Bonuses were now divided differently: 90% to the boss and 10% to everyone else.

The Soviet economy is unique because before the war it was able to actually rise from the ashes after the civil war and revolution, and this happened in just 10-12 years. Therefore, when today economists from different countries and journalists insist that it is impossible to change the economy in one election term (5 years), they simply do not know history. Stalin's two five-year plans turned the USSR into a modern power that had a foundation for development. Moreover, the basis for all this was laid in 2-3 years of the first five-year plan.

I also suggest looking at the diagram below, which presents data on the average annual growth of the economy as a percentage. Everything we talked about above is reflected in this diagram.

Union republics

The new period of the country's development was due to the fact that several republics existed within the framework of the single state of the USSR. Thus, the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics had the following composition: Russian SSR, Ukrainian SSR, Belorussian SSR, Moldavian SSR, Uzbek SSR, Kazakh SSR, Georgian SSR, Azerbaijan SSR, Lithuanian SSR, Latvian SSR, Kirghiz SSR, Tajik SSR, Armenian SSR, Turkmen SSR SSR, Estonian SSR.

The state unification of Soviet socialist republics played an important role in successful socialist construction. The voluntary unification of the sovereign Soviet republics into a single union multinational socialist state was dictated by the course of their political, economic and cultural development and was prepared practically as a result of the implementation of Lenin’s national policy. The joint struggle of the peoples of the Soviet republics against external and internal enemies showed that the contractual relations between them, established in the first years of Soviet power, were not enough to restore the economy and further socialist construction, in order to defend their state independence and independence. It was possible to successfully develop the national economy only if all Soviet republics were united into a single economic whole. It was also of great importance that an economic division of labor and interdependence had historically developed between different regions of the country. This led to mutual assistance and close economic ties. The threat of military intervention from the imperialist states demanded unity in foreign policy and strengthening the country's defense capability.

The union cooperation of the republics was especially important for those non-Russian peoples who had to go through the path from pre-capitalist forms of economy to socialism. The formation of the USSR resulted from the presence of a socialist structure in the national economy and from the very nature of Soviet power, international in its essence.

In 1922, a mass movement of workers for unification into a single union state began in all republics. In March 1922 it was proclaimed Transcaucasian Federation, which took shape in December 1922 Transcaucasian Socialist Federative Soviet Republic (TSFSR). The question of the forms of unification of the republics was developed and discussed in the Central Committee of the party. The idea of autonomization, i.e., the entry of independent Soviet republics into the RSFSR on the rights of autonomy, put forward by I. V. Stalin (from April 1922 General Secretary of the Party Central Committee) and supported by some other party workers, was rejected by Lenin, then by the October Plenum (1922) of the Central Committee RCP (b).
Lenin developed a fundamentally different form of unification of independent republics. He proposed the creation of a new state entity - Union of Soviet Socialist Republics, into which all Soviet republics would enter along with RSFSR on equal terms. The Congresses of Soviets of the Ukrainian SSR, BSSR, and ZSFSR, as well as the 10th All-Russian Congress of Soviets, held in December 1922, recognized the timely unification of the Soviet republics into a single union state. On December 30, 1922, the 1st Congress of Soviets of the USSR opened in Moscow, which approved the Declaration on the Formation of the USSR. It formulated the basic principles of the unification of the republics: equality and voluntariness of their entry into the USSR, the right to freely secede from the Union and access to the Union for new Soviet socialist republics. The Congress reviewed and approved the Treaty on the Formation of the USSR. Initially, the USSR included: RSFSR, Ukrainian SSR, BSSR, ZSFSR. The formation of the USSR was a triumph of Lenin's national policy and had world-historical significance. It became possible thanks to the victory of the October Revolution, the establishment of the dictatorship of the proletariat and the creation of a socialist structure in the economy. The 1st Congress of Soviets elected the supreme authority of the USSR - the Central Executive Committee of the USSR (chairmen: M. I. Kalinin, G. I. Petrovsky, N. N. Narimanov and A. G. Chervyakov). At the 2nd session of the Central Executive Committee, the government of the USSR was formed - the Council of People's Commissars of the USSR, headed by Lenin.

The pooling of material and labor resources in a single state was of great importance for successful socialist construction. Lenin, speaking in November 1922 at the plenum of the Moscow Soviet and summing up the five years of Soviet power, expressed confidence that “... from NEP Russia there will be a socialist Russia” (ibid., p. 309).

In the autumn of the same year, Lenin fell seriously ill. While ill, he wrote a number of important letters and articles: “Letter to the Congress”, “On giving legislative functions to the State Planning Committee”, “On the issue of nationalities or “autonomization””, “Pages from the diary”, “On cooperation”, “On our revolution”, “How can we reorganize the Rabkrin”, “Less is better”. In these works, Lenin summed up the development of Soviet society and indicated specific ways to build socialism: industrialization of the country, cooperation of peasant farms (collectivization), carrying out a cultural revolution, strengthening the socialist state and its armed forces. Lenin's instructions, made in his last articles and letters, formed the basis for the decisions of the 12th Party Congress (April 1923) and all subsequent policies of the party and government. Having summed up the results of the NEP for 2 years, the congress outlined ways to implement the new economic policy. The decisions of the congress on the national question contained a detailed program of struggle for the elimination of economic and cultural inequality between peoples inherited from the past.

Despite significant successes in restoring the national economy, in 1923 the country was still experiencing serious difficulties. There were about 1 million unemployed. In the hands of private capital there were up to 4 thousand small and medium-sized enterprises in the light and food industries, 3/4 of retail and about half of wholesale and retail trade. Nepmen in the city, kulaks in the countryside, remnants of the defeated Socialist-Revolutionary-Menshevik parties and other hostile forces fought against Soviet power. Economic difficulties were aggravated by the crisis in the sales of industrial goods, caused by differences in the pace of recovery of industry and agriculture, deficiencies in planning, and violations of price policies by industrial and trade bodies. Prices for industrial goods are high, and prices for agricultural products are extremely low. Discrepancies in prices (the so-called scissors) could lead to a narrowing of the base of industrial production, undermining industry, and weakening the alliance of the working class and the peasantry. Measures were taken to eliminate the difficulties that arose and eliminate the sales crisis: prices for industrial goods were reduced, and a monetary reform was successfully implemented (1922-24), which led to the establishment of a hard currency.

Taking advantage of the acute internal as well as the current international situation and Lenin’s illness, the Trotskyists launched new attacks on the party. They denigrated the work of the Party Central Committee, demanded freedom of factions and groupings, opposed lowering prices for goods, proposed increasing taxes on peasants, closing unprofitable enterprises (which were of great economic importance), and increasing the import of industrial products from abroad. The 13th Party Conference (January 1924), condemning the Trotskyists, stated that “... in the person of the current opposition we have before us not only an attempt to revise Bolshevism, not only a direct departure from Leninism, but also a clearly expressed petty-bourgeois deviation” (“CPSU in resolutions...", 8th ed., vol. 2, 1970, p. 511).

On January 31, 1924, the 2nd Congress of Soviets of the USSR approved the first Constitution of the USSR. It was based on the Declaration and Treaty on the Formation of the USSR, adopted by the 1st All-Union Congress of Soviets in 1922. The Central Executive Committee had 2 equal chambers: the Union Council and the Council of Nationalities. A single union citizenship was established: a citizen of each republic is a citizen of the USSR. The Constitution provided the working people of the USSR with broad democratic rights and freedoms and active participation in government. But at that time, in an atmosphere of intense class struggle, the Soviet government was forced to deprive class-alien elements of voting rights: kulaks, merchants, ministers of religious cults, former police and gendarmerie employees, etc. The Constitution of the USSR had enormous international and domestic significance. In accordance with its text, the constitutions of the union republics were developed and approved.

Nation-state building continued. The process of state structure of the Russian Federation was completed (by 1925 it included, in addition to the provinces, 9 autonomous republics and 15 autonomous regions). In 1924, the BSSR transferred from the RSFSR a number of districts of the Smolensk, Vitebsk and Gomel provinces, populated mainly by Belarusians, as a result of which the territory of the BSSR more than doubled, and the population almost tripled. The Moldavian Autonomous Soviet Socialist Republic was formed as part of the Ukrainian SSR. In 1924-25, the national-state delimitation of the Soviet republics of Central Asia was carried out, as a result of which the peoples of Central Asia received the opportunity to create sovereign national states. The Uzbek SSR and the Turkmen SSR were formed from the regions of the Turkestan Autonomous Soviet Socialist Republic, Bukhara and Khorezm republics inhabited by Uzbeks and Turkmen. From the regions of the Turkestan Autonomous Soviet Socialist Republic and the Bukhara Republic, inhabited by Tajiks, the Tajik Autonomous Soviet Socialist Republic was formed, which became part of the Uzbek Soviet Socialist Republic. Areas inhabited by Kazakhs, previously part of the Turkestan Autonomous Soviet Socialist Republic, were reunited with the Kazakh Autonomous Soviet Socialist Republic. From the areas inhabited by the Kyrgyz, the Kyrgyz Autonomous Okrug was formed as part of the RSFSR.

The 3rd Congress of Soviets of the USSR (May 1925) admitted the newly formed union republics - the Uzbek SSR and the Turkmen SSR - into the USSR.