page_title: Republics of the Soviet Union
section_title: Union Republics of the Soviet Union
hierarchical_section_title: Republics of the Soviet Union / Union Republics of the Soviet Union
context_page_description: The Republics of the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics or Union Republics were ethnically based administrative units of the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics. For most of its history, the USSR was a highly centralized state; the decentralization reforms during the era of Perestroika and Glasnost conducted by Mikhail Gorbachev are cited as one of the factors which led to the dissolution of the USSR in 1991.
  There were two different types of republics in the Soviet Union: union republics which, according to the Soviet Constitution, had the right of secession from the Soviet Union and autonomous republics which subordinated to union republics in which they were located. The autonomous status of all republics was nominal and was fully controlled by the Communist Party of the Soviet Union and government of the Soviet Union that was also controlled by the Party. Before adaptation of the "Perestroika" policy of political liberalization in 1980s, any deviation from the Party policy in any form was subject to legal persecutions.
  In 1940, a new entity was created for the annexation of Finland.
context_section_description: The number of the union republics of the USSR varied from 4 to 16. In majority of years and at the later decades of its existence, the Soviet Union consisted of 15 Soviet Socialist Republics. Rather than listing the republics in alphabetical order, the republics were listed in constitutional order, which, particularly by the last decades of the Soviet Union, did not correspond to order either by population or economic power.
caption: Map of the Union Republics from 1956 to 1991, as numbered by the Soviet Constitution