Federalism and Local Politics in Russia

Unification as a political project 89up the majority of population (according to the 2002 census Komi-Permyaksconstitute 59 per cent of the Okrug population). 17The Komi-Permyak ‘national’ Okrug was founded on 26 February 1925as a part of the Urals Oblast. Even though the Okrug was the first to befounded it was an uneasy arrangement. The issue of the institutionalizationof a Komi-Permyak national identity goes back to 1921 when the KomiAutonomous Republic was founded. Even though there was agreement thatthere should be some territorial institutionalization of the Komi-Permyaknational identity, there was no consensus among the Bolshevik party elite asto whether Komi-Permyaks were to be part of the Komi Republic or institutionalizationcould take a different form. In the end, the idea to unite twoclose ethnic groups in one administrative and territorial unit did not receiveenough support from the party elite. Therefore, the first territorial unit in thenewly created form of a national Okrug was founded. 18 The foundation ofthe Komi-Permyak National Okrug was the starting point in the history ofcompound territorial units within the Soviet Union (it is symbolical that theOkrug was also the first one to merge and disappear). In 1977, all theOkrugs in the Soviet Union, changed their title from ‘national Okrugs’ to‘Autonomous Okrugs’. The Komi-Permyak Okrug did not miss out in theprocess of the levelling up of their status during ‘the parade of sovereignties’in the early 1990s, and in 1993, the Komi-Permyak Autonomous Okrugbecame a fully-fledged subject of the federation. At the same time, the Komi-Permyak Okrug never completely broke away from its ‘mother’ region. In1994 the Okrug adopted its Charter reconfirming its status within theFederation. Article 1 of the Charter stated that the Komi-PermyakAutonomous Okrug was a fully-fledged subject of the Russian Federation. 19At the same time, article 8 proclaimed that the Komi-Permyak AutonomousOkrug was an integral part of the Perm Oblast. Relations between theOkrug and the Oblast were regulated by the Federal Constitution, the 1992Federal Treaty, Federal laws, and special bilateral treaties signed between theKomi-Permyak Autonomous Okrug and the Perm Oblast. 20The Perm Oblast Charter also stated that the Perm Oblast acknowledgesthe rights of the population of the Komi-Permyak Autonomous Okrug, theirright to self-determination and development of their language and culture,respecting their traditions and customs (article 6, part 1). 21 The Charterdeclares that the region would not interfere in the Okrug’s internal affairs(article 6, part 3). 22 The only instrument that institutionalizes relationsbetween the Okrug and the Oblast is the bilateral treaty (article 6, part 2). 23The Perm Oblast law, ‘On the Administrative-Territorial Structure of thePerm Oblast’, also confirmed that administratively the Komi-PermyakOkrug was an integral part of the Oblast and that administrative boundariesbetween the Okrug and Oblast were set as of 1992. 24In 1996 a tripartite agreement was signed between the Komi-PermyakAutonomous Okrug, the Perm Oblast and the Russian Federation whichdefines their spheres of competence and responsibility. 25 Therefore, one could