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The Sakha (Yakutia) Republic Constitution adopted
April 4th, 1992 at an extraordinary Eleventh session of the Supreme Council of the Sakha (Yakutia) Republic, its Constitution was adopted. The adopted document had a preamble, eight chapters comprising 144 articles, and transitional provisions in three articles. It was the first Constitution in the post-Soviet Russia.
June 12, 1990 the First Congress of the People's Deputies of the Russian Soviet Federative Socialist Republic adopted the Declaration on State Sovereignty, thus laying the legal basis for the political development of the RSFSR within the Soviet Union and autonomous republics within the RSFSR.
In the new historical conditions, the autonomous republics of the RSFSR sought to improve their status and become independent parties to conclude a new union treaty. Speaking in September 1990 at the Second Session of the Twelfth Convocation of the Supreme Council of the Yakut ASSR, its chairman, Mikhail E. Nikolayev thus grounded the need for adoption of the Declaration of State Sovereignty of the Republic: "The growing political status of the republic gives it an opportunity to exercise state power on its territory, independently address the issues of socio-political, socio-economic, ethnic and cultural life."
September 27 of that year, the Supreme Soviet adopted the Declaration on State Sovereignty of Yakutia. Its 11th article reads: "This Declaration is the basis for the development of the new Constitution of the Yakut-Sakha SSR, for conclusion of a contract with the RSFSR, for the participation in signing the Union Treaty, for the improvement of the national legislation." The same day the Supreme Soviet adopted a decree "On the formation of the Constitutional Commission of the Yakut-Sakha SSR" of 57 members, headed by Chairman of the Supreme Council. Some members of the Commission formed a working group under the leadership of the Deputy Chairman of the Supreme Council and Chairman of the Constitutional Commission, V. M. Vlasov, which operated until the last plenary session of the Constitutional Commission - April 2, 1992.
During the discussion of the draft Constitution, more than two thousand suggestions and comments were received from the government and administration, political parties and social organizations, labor groups and groups of voters, individuals. Posted on December 2, 1990 the project was submitted for consideration to the Institute of State and Law, USSR Academy of Sciences.
In May-June 1991 the working group presented a revised draft for consideration to the Constitutional Commission. During 1991 and early 1992, while drafting the Constitution, the working group prepared a package of legislative acts that incorporated new legal norms, changes in the governing system, build in the draft of the new Constitution. They were designed in the form of new laws, changes to the existing Constitution of the Republic.
6 February 1992, after a line-item discussion, the Tenth Session of the Supreme Council of the Sakha (Yakutia) Republic adopted the new draft of the Constitution (Basic Law) of the Republic in the first reading, and resolved to publish it in print for public discussion asking the Constitutional Commission to compile suggestions and comments and submit the revised draft to the Supreme Council. At its closing plenary meeting on April 2, making the latest amendments, the Constitutional Commission decided to submit the draft constitution for consideration to the Eleventh Extraordinary Session of the Supreme Council.
April 4, the draft constitution was considered and after 11-hour heated debate finally adopted at the Eleventh Session of the Supreme Council.
The Constitution of the Sakha (Yakutia) Republic has played a positive role in the political life of Yakutia in 1990s, having become the legal basis for statehood in Yakutia, which defined its development.
Лит.: В единстве с Россией: Конституционно-договорные отношения с органами государственной власти РФ // Реальный федерализм: Пять лет суверенитета Республики Саха (Якутия). Якутск, 1995. С. 191—283; Игнатьева М. Н. Комментарий к Конституции (Основного Закона) Республики Саха (Якутия). Якутск, 1996; Ким А. Н. Динамика статуса Республики Саха (Якутия) — субъекта Российской Федерации: опыт конституционно-правового и сравнительно-институционального исследования. М., 2001; Он же. Конституционно-договорные основы разграничения предметов ведения и полномочий между Российской Федерацией и Республикой Саха (Якутия): теоретико- правовые и организационные аспекты. М, 1996; Конституция и конституционные акты Республики Саха (Якутия). Якутск, 1994; Официальный информационный портал Республики Саха (Якутия). 2018. URL: https://www.sakha.gov.ru/; Миронов Д. Н. Конституционно-правовой статус Республики Саха (Якутия) как субъекта Российской Федерации / Академия наук РС (Я), Институт гуманитарных исследований. Новосибирск, 1996; Мы построим новую Якутию: Пять лет Конституции Республики Саха (Якутия) / сост. Е. М. Ларионов. Якутск, 1997.
Based on the Presidential Library’s materials:
Sakha (Yakutia) Republic: pages of history: [digital collection].
The materials provided by the National Library of the Sakha (Yakutia) Republic