An Autonomous Soviet Socialist Republic (ASSR, Russian: автономная советская социалистическая республика, АССР, romanized: avtonomnaya sovetskaya sotsialisticheskaya respublika) was a type of administrative unit in the Soviet Union (USSR), created for certain ethnic groups to be the titular nations of. The ASSRs had a status lower than the constituent union republics of the USSR, but higher than the autonomous oblasts and the autonomous okrugs.
In the Russian SFSR, for example, Chairmen of the Government of the ASSRs were officially members of the Government of the RSFSR. Unlike the union republics, the autonomous republics only had the right to disaffiliate themselves from the Union when the union republic containing them did so, as well as to choose to stay with the Union separately from them. The level of political, administrative and cultural autonomy they enjoyed varied with time—it was most substantial in the 1920s (Korenizatsiya), the 1950s after the death of Joseph Stalin, and in the Brezhnev Era.[1]
According to the constitution of the USSR, in case of a union republic voting on leaving the Soviet Union, autonomous republics, autonomous oblasts and autonomous okrugs had the right, by means of a referendum, to independently resolve whether they will stay in the USSR or leave with the seceding union republic, as well as to raise the issue of their state-legal status.[2]
Azerbaijan SSR
| Emblem | Name | Flag | Years of membership |
Capital | Official languages | Area (km2) | Post-Soviet subjects |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
|
Nakhichevan Autonomous Soviet Socialist Republic | 
|
1921–1990 | Nakhichevan | Azerbaijani, Russian | 5,500 |  Nakhchivan
|
Georgian SSR
| Emblem | Name | Flag | Years of membership |
Capital | Official languages | Area (km2) | Post-Soviet subjects |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
|
Abkhaz Autonomous Soviet Socialist Republic | 
|
1931–1992[a] | Sukhumi | Abkhazian, Georgian, Russian | 8,600 |  Abkhazia
|
|
Adjarian Autonomous Soviet Socialist Republic | 
|
1921–1990 | Batumi | Georgian, Russian | 2,880 |  Adjara
|
Russian SFSR
The 1978 Constitution of the RSFSR recognized sixteen autonomous republics within the RSFSR:
Gorno-Altai Autonomous Oblast (now Altai Republic), Adyghe Autonomous Oblast (now Republic of Adygea), Karachay–Cherkess Autonomous Oblast (now Karachay–Cherkess Republic) and Khakassian Autonomous Oblast (now Republic of Khakassia) were all promoted in status to that of an ASSR in 1991, in the last year of the Soviet Union. Only the Jewish Autonomous Oblast retained its autonomous oblast status in Russia.
Other autonomous republics also existed within RSFSR at earlier points of the Soviet history:
| Emblem | Name | Flag | Capital | Titular nationality | Years of membership |
Population | Area (km2) | Soviet successors |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
|
Crimean Autonomous Soviet Socialist Republic | 
|
Simferopol | Crimean Tatars | 1921–1945 | 1,126,000 (1939) |
26,860 | Crimean Oblast |
| Mountain Autonomous Soviet Socialist Republic |  |
Vladikavkaz | Balkars, Chechens, Ingush, Kabardians, Karachays, Ossetians, Terek Cossacks | 1921–1924 | 1,286,000 (1921) |
74,000 | Karachay-Cherkess AO Kabardino-Balkarian AO Chechen AO North Ossetian AO Ingush AO | |
|
Turkestan Autonomous Soviet Socialist Republic | 
|
Tashkent | Uzbeks, Kazakhs, Kyrgyz, Tajiks, Turkmens | 1918–1924 | 5,221,963 (1920) |
 Uzbek SSR Turkmen SSRTajik ASSR Kara-Kirghiz AO Karakalpak AO | |
|
Volga German Autonomous Soviet Socialist Republic | 
|
Engels | Soviet Germans | 1923–1941 | 606,532 (1939) |
27,400 | Saratov Oblast Stalingrad Oblast |
Crimea Oblast was transferred to the Ukrainian SSR jurisdiction on 19 February 1954 and promoted to the ASSR status following a referendum held on January 20, 1991 (now the Autonomous Republic of Crimea / Republic of Crimea, territory disputed between Ukraine and the Russian Federation).
Uzbek SSR
| Emblem | Name | Flag | Years of membership |
Capital | Official languages | Area (km2) | Post-Soviet subjects |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
|
Karakalpak Autonomous Soviet Socialist Republic | 
|
1932–1991[c] | Nukus | Karakalpak (1956-1980s), Russian | 165,000 |  Karakalpakstan
|
ASSRs promoted to union republics
Some ASSRs existed at earlier points of the Soviet history were promoted into full union republics of the Soviet Union.
| Emblem | Name | Flag | Capital | Titular nationality | Years of membership |
Population | Area (km2) | Soviet Socialist Republic | Soviet successor |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
|
Kazakh Autonomous Socialist Soviet Republic | 
|
Alma-Ata | Kazakhs | 1920–1936[d] | 6,503,000 (1926) |
2,960,000 |  Russian SFSR
|
 Kazakh SSR
|
| Kirghiz Autonomous Socialist Soviet Republic | 
|
Frunze | Kyrgyz | 1926–1936 | 993,000 (1926) |
196,129 |  Kirghiz SSR
| ||
|
Moldavian Autonomous Soviet Socialist Republic | 
|
Tiraspol | Moldovans | 1924–1940 | 599,150 (1939) |
8,288 |  Ukrainian SSR
|
 Moldavian SSR
|
|
Tajik Autonomous Soviet Socialist Republic | 
|
Dushanbe | Tajiks | 1924–1929 | 740,000 (1924) |
Uzbek SSR
|
 Tajik SSR
|
Karelian ASSR was promoted to Karelo-Finnish Soviet Socialist Republic in 1940 but demoted back in 1956.
See also
- Autonomous oblasts of the Soviet Union
- Autonomous okrugs of the Soviet Union
- National delimitation in the Soviet Union
- Republics of Russia
- Subdivisions of the Soviet Union
- Autonomous regions of China
Notes
- ^ 1921-1931: SSR Abkhazia
- ^ 1944-1957: Kabardin ASSR
- ^ Under Russian SFSR until 1936.
- ^ 1920-1925: Kirghiz ASSR
References
- ^ Cornell, Svante E., Autonomy and Conflict: Ethnoterritoriality and Separatism in the South Caucasus – Case in Georgia Archived 2007-06-30 at the Wayback Machine. Department of Peace and Conflict Research, Report No. 61. p. 89-90. University of Uppsala, ISBN 91-506-1600-5.
- ^ "СОЮЗ СОВЕТСКИХ СОЦИАЛИСТИЧЕСКИХ РЕСПУБЛИК. ЗАКОН О порядке решения вопросов, связанных с выходом союзной республики из СССР" (in Russian). Archived from the original on 12 September 2016. Retrieved 13 June 2022.
