The Presidential Library formed a new collection "Formation of the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics"

On December 30, 1922, at the First All-Union Congress of Soviets, representatives of the RSFSR, the Ukrainian and Belarusian Soviet Socialist Republics, and the TSFSR signed the Declaration on the Formation of the USSR and the Union Treaty. Marking the 100th anniversary of the signing of these documents, the Presidential Library has prepared a collection dedicated to the formation of the Soviet Union.

The collection includes collections of documents and materials about the formation of the USSR, archival materials, as well as newsreel dedicated to the signing of the Treaty and the Declaration on the formation of the USSR and the formation of new union republics in the 1920s-1930s.

The declaration defined the main principles of the association: equality and voluntariness of the association, the right to freely secede from the USSR and the right to join other Soviet Socialist Republics.

The Treaty determined the relationship between the republics and the center. Issues of foreign policy, foreign trade, finance, defence, means of communication were transferred to the competence of the allied bodies. The rest of the spheres remained under the jurisdiction of the Union republics.

The USSR included four Soviet republics formed on the territory of the former Russian Empire: the RSFSR, the Ukrainian SSR, the Byelorussian SSR and the ZSFSR, which in March 1922 included the Azerbaijan SSR, the Armenian SSR and the Georgian SSR. The composition of the Soviet Union was constantly changing as a result of the entry into its composition of other Soviet republics and changes in the administrative-territorial division of the country. The formation of the USSR and the entry of the union republics into it took place in stages:

∙ 1922. The original formation of the Soviet Union, which included the RSFSR, the Ukrainian SSR, the Byelorussian SSR and the ZSFSR.

∙ 1925. The Uzbek SSR and the Turkmen SSR joined the Union.

∙ 1929. The Tajik SSR became part of the USSR.

∙ 1936. It was marked by a major expansion of the USSR. The ZSFSR was divided into the Azerbaijan SSR, the Armenian SSR and the Georgian SSR, and the Kazakh SSR and the Kirghiz SSR were also formed.

∙ 1940. As a result of geopolitical changes in Europe, the Karelian ASSR was transformed into the Karelian-Finnish SSR, the Union also included the Moldavian SSR, the Lithuanian SSR, the Latvian SSR and the Estonian SSR.

∙ 1956. The Karelian-Finnish SSR was returned to the status of an autonomous republic and transformed into the Karelian ASSR within the RSFSR.

By 1989 the USSR included 15 union republics.

The collection consists of 9 sections, which materials tell about the First Congress of Soviets of the USSR and the formation of all-Union legislation and authorities, spotlight the administrative and territorial division of the Soviet Union, represent the symbols of state authority of the USSR, etc.

Of great interest are fragments of the newsreel Adoption of the declaration and signing of the treaty on the formation of the USSR, 1922, USSR. The Formation of New Union Republics in Central Asia, 1924-1925 and USSR. Formation of new union republics in Transcaucasia, 1936.

The collection includes materials from the holdings of the State Archive of the Russian Federation, the State Public Historical Library, the State Socio-Political Library of Russia, the Central Naval Library, the Belgorod State Universal Scientific Library and the Presidential Library.

The history of the creation of the USSR is available in On This Day section on the library’s portal.