Soviet Socialist Republics

In its final decades of its existence, the Soviet Union consisted of 15 Socialist Republics, most of which are now independent countries, only very loosely organized under the heading [Commonwealth of Independent States]?.

The USSR was a highly centralised and authoritarian entity. Under the constitution adopted in the 1930s and modified along the way until October 1977, the political foundation of the Soviet Union was formed by the Soviets (Councils) of People's Deputies. These existed at all levels of the administrative hierarchy, with the Soviet Union as a whole under the nominal control of the Supreme Soviet of the USSR, located in Moscow. The role of the Soviets in the individual republics and other territories was primarily to put into effect the decisions made by the Supreme Soviet of the USSR.

• Armenia
• Azerbaijan
• Belorussia? (now Belarus)
• Estonia
• Georgia
• Kazakstan?
• Kirgiziya? (now Kyrgyzstan)
• Latvia
• Lithuania
• Moldavia? (now Moldova)
• Russia
• Tajikistan
• Turkmenistan
• Ukraine
• Uzbekistan

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What we'd like to have here is information about what was the legal/political status of a Soviet Socialist Republic vis-a-vis the central Soviet government.

Any better LMS?? -- WojPob