Composition of the USSR - what it was and how it was formed

The original composition of the USSR was determined on the basis that by the end of the Civil War, the power of the Bolsheviks had been established in a number of regions of the former Russian Empire. This created certain prerequisites for the integration of several regions into a single state. The formation of the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics took place on 30/12/1922, when the All-Union Congress approved the treaty on the formation of this state, signed on 29/12/1922.

The first Soviet Union included the RSFSR, Belorussia, Ukraine and the Transcaucasian republics (Armenia, Azerbaijan, Georgia). All of them were considered independent and theoretically could leave the union at any time. In 1924, Uzbekistan and Turkmenistan joined the above-mentioned republics, and in 1929 - Tajikistan.

The territory of present Kazakhstan since the 18th century was part of the Russian Empire on an unofficial basis. However, the state as such was not there. The social system was represented by separate tribes (hordes). In 1936 the territories of Kazakhstan were incorporated into the USSR in the format of the Kazakh Autonomous Soviet Socialist Republic. At the same time, the lands of Kyrgyzstan joined the union.

The path of the remaining republics to the USSR was longer and less simple. In 1940, Moldova (Bessarabia), part of Romania, was transferred to the USSR after the Molotov-Ribbentrop Pact. In the same year, the Seimas of Lithuania decided to join this state to the USSR, and the Estonian parliament adopted a declaration on the republic 's accession to the union. Latvia was joined to the union at the same time.

Thus, it is possible to say which republics were part of the USSR to the beginning of the Great Patriotic War - Ukrainian, Uzbek, Turkmen, Tajik, Russian, Moldavian, Lithuanian, Latvian, Kyrgyz, Kazakh, Estonian, Belarusian, Armenian and Azerbaijani.

All of them were the most powerful state that won the Second World War, occupying one-sixth of the land, in which almost all climatic zones, natural resources and various cultures were represented. The USSR actively promoted communist ideas in all parts of the globe and many peoples recall the cooperation of that period as a time without internecine wars, but with the active construction, the blossoming of education, construction and culture.

The countries that were part of the USSR took advantage of the right to withdraw from the union in 1990-1991 with the formation of 15 states. As time has shown, this decision, partly related to the economic decline caused by the artificial fall in oil prices, was most likely mistaken. As the state of the USSR was a well-established economic system that collapsed in the first place, causing even greater poverty in the territory of disparate states and a whole series of wars in which many people died.

Today, attempts are being made to close cooperation between the former republics of the collapsed empire - a structure such as the Commonwealth of Independent States and the customs union, which includes Russia, the Republic of Belarus and the Republic of Kazakhstan.