RUSSIA'S TINDERBOX - Belfer Center for Science and International ...

Supreme Soviet and a Presidium of the Supreme Soviet; a government in the form of a Council of
Ministers; and their own judicial authority with a Supreme Court and a Republican Procurator. In
addition, they were entitled to establish universities and pursue cultural and education policies in the
national language (although in practice this was discouraged by an active policy of Russification
beginning in the 1930s). Most importantly, a union republic had the nominal right to conduct direct
relations with foreign powers, create its own republican armed forces, and secede from the USSR. 11
Autonomous republics were described as “national states” rather than “sovereign states.” 12
Because they were not “sovereign” they did not have the right to pass their own constitution without
the approval of the union republic of which they were part. They were subjects of the union republic,
rather than the direct subjects of the USSR and, as such, did not have the right to secede from either
the union republic or the USSR.. Autonomous republics did, however, have their own Supreme
Soviet, Council of Ministers and Supreme Court. Their Supreme Soviets also had executive,
legislative and budgetary powers, and the ability to establish the republic’s administrative divisions.
In addition, each ASSR was entitled to nominate an assistant to the Head of the Presidium of the
Supreme Soviet of the respective union republic, and to hold 11 seats in the Council of Nationalities
of the Supreme Soviet of the USSR. These provisions thus enabled an autonomous republic to play a
role, albeit limited, in decision-making at the highest level. Under specific circumstances
autonomous republics could even appeal for an upgrade of their status to union republic: if they were
located on the periphery of a Union republic, if the titular nationality was the largest group in the
republic, and if there was a population of at least one million. 13 In terms of the development of
national culture, an ASSR was also entitled to establish a university, a national publishing house and
other research institutions, and thus train its own national cadres. 14
Autonomous oblasts were defined as “oblasts characterized by particularities of daily life and
national composition.” 15 They had fewer structures of national sovereignty than autonomous
republics but a high degree of control over local affairs and administration, especially in the spheres
of education and culture. They were directly subordinated to a union republic and its administrative
organs or a krai in the case of the Russian Federation and did not have their own constitution,
Supreme Soviet or Council of Ministers. The highest body was the Oblast Executive Committee
11 These rights only became important in the Gorbachev era when SSRs, like the three Baltic States, sought
sovereignty and independence from the USSR.
12 In the North Caucasus, Kabardino-Balkaria, North Ossetia, Checheno-Ingushetia and Dagestan were all
autonomous republics.
13 These criteria were established by Joseph Stalin in 1936. See I.V. Stalin, Voprosy leninizma, izd 11-e, Moscow
1952, p.567.
14 Unlike in the SSRs, however, where native languages were guaranteed a certain level of prestige and a defined
place in the education system and the bureaucracy, in ASSRs the language of the larger unit tended to dominate.
See Ronald Wixman, Language Aspects of Ethnic Patterns and Processes in the North Caucasus, University of
Chicago Department of Geography Research Paper, No. 191, 1980.
15 In the North Caucasus, Karachaevo-Cherkessia and Adygeia were autonomous oblasts prior to July 1991.
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