View source for Place:Russian Soviet Federative Socialist Republic

{{Short description|Soviet socialist state from 1917 to 1991}}
{{pp-move}}
{{Infobox former country
| conventional_long_name = Russian Soviet Federative<br />Socialist Republic
| native_name            = {{small|{{nobold|Российская Советская Федеративная Социалистическая Республика<br />''Rossiyskaya Sovetskaya Federativnaya Sotsialisticheskaya Respublika''}}<ref>Historical names:
* 1918: Russian Soviet Republic ({{lang|ru|Российская Советская Республика}}; ''Rossiyskaya Sovetskaya Respublika'')
* 1918–1936: Russian Socialist Federative Soviet Republic ({{lang|ru|Российская Социалистическая Федеративная Советская Республика}}; ''Rossiyskaya Sotsialisticheskaya Federativnaya Sovetskaya Respublika'')
* 1936–1991: Russian Soviet Federative Socialist Republic ({{lang|ru|Российская Советская Федеративная Социалистическая Республика}}; ''Rossiyskaya Sovetskaya Federativnaya Sotsialisticheskaya Respublika'')</ref>}}
| common_name            = the Russian SFSR
| status                 = {{ubl|'''1917–1922:'''<br />[[Earth:Sovereign state|Sovereign state]]|'''1922–1991''':<br />Union Republic of the [[Place:Soviet Union|Soviet Union]]|'''1990–1991''':<br />Union Republic of the Soviet Union with priority of republican legislation}}
| p1                     = Russian Republic{{!}}'''1918:'''<br />Russian Republic
| p2                     = Russian State{{!}}'''1920:'''<br />Russian State
| p3                     = Far Eastern Republic{{!}}'''1922:'''<br />Far Eastern Republic
| p4                     = Priamurye Government{{!}}'''1923:'''<br />Priamurye Government
| p5                     = Finland{{!}}'''1940:'''<br />Finland (portion)
| p6                     = Tuvan People's Republic{{!}}'''1944:'''<br />Tuva
| p7                     = Nazi Germany{{!}}'''1945:'''<br />Germany (portion)
| p8                     = Empire of Japan{{!}}Japan (portion)
| p9                     = Karelo-Finnish Soviet Socialist Republic{{!}}'''1956:'''<br />Karelo-Finnish SSR
| s1                     = Ukrainian People's Republic{{!}}'''1918:'''<br>Ukrainian People's Republic (portion)
| s2                     = Estonia{{!}}Estonia (portion)
| s3                     = Belarusian People's Republic{{!}}Belarusian People's Republic (portion)
| s4                     = Latvia{{!}}Latvia (portion)
| s5                     = Soviet Union{{!}}'''1922:'''<br />Soviet Union
| s6                     = Uzbek SSR{{!}}'''1924:'''<br />Uzbek SSR (portion)
| s7                     = Turkmen SSR{{!}}'''1925:'''<br />Turkmen SSR
| s8                     = Byelorussian SSR{{!}}'''1926:'''<br />Byelorussian SSR (portion)
| s9                     = Kazakh SSR{{!}}'''1936:'''<br />Kazakh SSR
| s10                    = Karelo-Finnish Soviet Socialist Republic{{!}}'''1940:'''<br />Karelo-Finnish SSR
| s11                    = China{{!}}'''1991:'''<br />China (portion)
| s12                    = History of Russia (1991–present){{!}}Russian Federation
| flag_p1                = Flag of Russia.svg
| flag_p2                = Flag of Russia.svg
| flag_p3                = Flag of Far Eastern Republic.svg
| flag_p4                = Flag of Russia.svg
| flag_p5                = Flag of Finland.svg
| flag_p6                = Flag of the Tuvan People's Republic (1943-1944).svg
| flag_p7                = Flag of Germany (1935–1945).svg
| flag_p8                = Flag of Japan (1870–1999).svg
| flag_p9                = Flag of the Karelo-Finnish SSR.svg
| flag_s1                = Flag of Ukraine (1917–1921).svg
| flag_s2                = Flag of Estonia.svg
| flag_s3                = Flag of Belarus (1918, 1991–1995).svg
| flag_s4                = Flag of Latvia.svg
| flag_s5                = Flag of the Soviet Union (1922–1923).svg
| flag_s6                = Flag of the Uzbek Soviet Socialist Republic (1925-1927).svg
| flag_s7                = Flag of the Turkmen Soviet Socialist Republic (1926-1937).svg
| flag_s8                = Flag of the Byelorussian Soviet Socialist Republic (1919–1927).svg
| flag_s9                = Flag of the Kazakh Soviet Socialist Republic (1937-1940).svg
| flag_s10               = Flag of the Karelo-Finnish SSR (1940-1953).svg
| flag_s11               = Flag of the People's Republic of China.svg
| flag_s12               = Flag of Russia (1991–1993).svg
| image_flag             = Flag of the Russian Soviet Federative Socialist Republic (1918–1925).svg
| image_flag2            = Flag of the Russian Soviet Federative Socialist Republic (1954–1991).svg
| flag_type              = Top: Flag</br>(1918–1925)</br>Bottom: Flag<br>(1954–1991)
| image_coat             = [[File:Coats of arms of the Russian SFSR (1918-1920).svg|70px]]{{parabr}}[[File:Emblem of the Russian SFSR.svg|70px]]
| symbol_type    = {{nowrap|Top: Emblem<br>(1918–1920)</br>Bottom: Emblem</br>(1978–1991)}}

| national_motto         = ''[[Philosophy:Workers of the world, unite!|Workers of the world, unite!]]''<br />Пролетарии всех стран, соединяйтесь!<br />''Proletarii vsekh stran, soyedinyaytes'!'' (tr.)
| image_map              = Soviet Union - Russian SFSR.svg
| image_map_caption      = The Russian SFSR (red) within the [[Place:Soviet Union|Soviet Union]] (red and white) between 1956 and 1991
| anthem                 = {{unbulleted list
 |{{center|"Worker's Marseillaise"<br/>(1917–1918)[[File:Гимн Российской Республики и РДФР (Рабочая-Марсельеза).oga]]}}
 |{{center|"The Internationale"<br/>(1918–1944)[[File:Internationale-ru.ogg]]}}
 |{{center|"[[Social:State Anthem of the Soviet Union|State Anthem of the Soviet Union]]"<br />(1944–1990)[[File:Gimn Sovetskogo Soyuza (1977 Vocal).oga]]}}
 |{{center|"Patrioticheskaya Pesnya"<br/>(1990–1991)[[File:Former Russian national anthem (1990–2000), performed by the Brass Band of the Russian Ministry of Defense.wav]]}}
}}
| capital                = {{ubl|Petrograd<br />(1917–1918)|[[Place:Moscow|Moscow]]<br />(1918–1991)<ref>Arthur Ransome (16 March 1918). [https://timesmachine.nytimes.com/timesmachine/1918/03/16/98260776.pdf "Lenine's<!-- sic --> Migration A Queer Scene"]. {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20180916171600/https://timesmachine.nytimes.com/timesmachine/1918/03/16/98260776.pdf |date=16 September 2018 }}. ''{{wipe|The New York Times}}''.</ref>}}
| largest_city           = [[Place:Moscow|Moscow]]
| official_languages     = [[Social:Russian language|Russian]]<sup>b</sup>
| recognised_languages   = ''See [[Social:Languages of Russia|Languages of Russia]]''
| government_type        = {{ubl|'''1917–1921:'''<br />{{nowrap|[[Social:Federalism|Federal]] [[Social:Parliamentary system|parliamentary]]}} [[Earth:Socialist state|socialist]] soviet directorial republic<ref>After the October Revolution, the Bolsheviks, the Left SRs, and the Menshevik-Internationalists formed a Socialist coalition government that lasted until March 1918 (''Historical Dictionary of the Russian Revolution''. J. Davis. p. 58); the Mensheviks were allowed to legally hold a congress in 1920 and continued to be elected to the Congress of Soviets until being outlawed in 1921 (''[https://books.google.com/books?id=_UUwDwAAQBAJ Lenin's Legacy]''. R. Wesson, 1978).</ref>|'''1921–1990:'''<br />{{nowrap|[[Social:Federalism|Federal]] [[Social:Marxism–Leninism|Marxist–Leninist]]}} [[Social:One-party state|one-party]] [[Social:Parliamentary system|parliamentary]] [[Earth:Socialist state|socialist]] soviet directorial republic<ref name="ml1">Historical Dictionary of Socialism. James C. Docherty, Peter Lamb. Page 85. "The Soviet Union was a one-party Marxist-Leninist state."</ref>|'''1990–1991:'''<br />[[Social:Federal republic|Federal]] [[Social:Multi-party system|multi-party]] [[Social:Parliamentary system|parliamentary]] [[Social:Parliamentary republic|republic]]|'''July–December 1991:'''<br />[[Social:Federal republic|Federal]] [[Social:Multi-party system|multi-party]] [[Social:Semi-presidential system|semi-presidential]] [[Social:Republic|republic]]<ref>{{cite web|url=http://constitution.garant.ru/history/ussr-rsfsr/1977/zakony/185465|title=Law of the USSR of 14 March 1990 N 1360-I 'On the establishment of the office of the President of the USSR and the making of changes and additions to the Constitution (Basic Law) of the USSR'|publisher=Garant.ru|access-date=12 July 2010|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20110813151229/http://constitution.garant.ru/history/ussr-rsfsr/1977/zakony/185465/|archive-date=13 August 2011|url-status=live}}</ref>}}
| title_leader           = Head of state
| leader1                = Lev Kamenev<sup>c</sup>
| year_leader1           = 1917 (first)
| leader2                = Boris Yeltsin<sup>d</sup>
| year_leader2           = {{no wrap|1990–1991}} (last)
| title_deputy           = Head of government
| deputy1                = [[Biography:Vladimir Lenin|Vladimir Lenin]]<sup>e</sup>
| year_deputy1           = 1917–1924 (first)
| deputy2                = Ivan Silayev<sup>f</sup>
| year_deputy2           = 1990–1991
| deputy3                = Boris Yeltsin<sup>g</sup>
| year_deputy3           = 1991 (last)
| legislature            = {{ubl|'''1917–1938:'''<br />VTsIK/Congress of Soviets|'''1938–1990:'''<br />Supreme Soviet|'''1990–1991:'''<br />Congress of People's Deputies}}
| religion               = {{ubl|[[Philosophy:Secular state|Secular state]] (''de jure'')|[[Philosophy:State atheism|State atheism]] (''de facto'')|[[Religion:Russian Orthodox Church|Russian Orthodoxy]] (majority)}}
| era                    = 
| life_span              = 1917–1991
| year_start             = 1917
| year_end               = 1991
| event_start            = October Revolution
| date_start             = 7 November
| event1                 = USSR formed
| date_event1            = 30 December 1922
| event2                 = Crimea transferred to [[Place:Ukrainian Soviet Socialist Republic|Ukrainian SSR]]
| date_event2            = 19 February 1954
| event3                 = State sovereignty
| date_event3            = 12 June 1990
| event4                 = Belovezh Accords
| date_event4            = 12 December 1991
| event5                 = Russian SFSR renamed into the Russian Federation
| date_event5            = 25 December 1991
| event_end              = Dissolution of the Soviet Union
| date_end               = 26 December
| event_post             = End of the Soviet political system
| date_post              = 25 December 1993
| stat_year1             = 1956
| stat_area1             = 17125200
| ref_area1              = {{Citation needed|date=October 2021}}
| stat_year2             = 1989
| stat_pop2              = 147,386,000
| ref_pop2               = {{Citation needed|date=October 2021}}
| currency               = Soviet ruble (Rbl)<sup>h</sup>
| time_zone              = ([[UTC]] +2 to +12)
| currency_code          = SUR
| footnote_a             = Remained the national anthem of Russia until 2000.
| footnote_b             = Official language in the courts from 1937.<ref>article 114 of the 1937 Constitution, article 171 of the 1978 Constitution</ref>
| footnote_c             = As Chairman of the VTsIK (All-Russian Central Executive Committee).
| footnote_d             = As chairman the Supreme Soviet of the RSFSR from 29 May 1990 to 10 July 1991, then as President.
| footnote_e             = As Chairman of the Council of People's Commissars of the Russian SFSR
| footnote_f             = As Chairmen of the Council of Ministers – Government of the Russian SFSR
| footnote_g             = Served as acting head of government while President of Russia
| footnotes              = Seven Hero City awards
| footnotes2             = The Russian Democratic Federative Republic existed briefly on 19 January 1918, but actual sovereignty was still in the hands of the Soviets even after the Russian Constituent Assembly opened its first and last session in 1918.<ref>{{cite book|last=Riasanovsky|first=Nicholas|title=A History of Russia|publisher=Oxford University Press|year=2000|page=458|isbn=0-19-512179-1|edition=sixth}}</ref>
| demonym                = Russian
| area_km2               = 
| area_rank              = 
| GDP_PPP                = 
| GDP_PPP_year           = 
| HDI                    = 
| HDI_year               = 
| calling_code           = +7
| cctld                  = .su
| iso3166code            = RU
| today                  = 
| footnote_h             = Between 1917 and 1919 the Imperial ruble lost all of its value due to overprinting. It would be replaced that same year by the new Soviet ruble.<ref name="DaviesHarrison1993">{{cite book|author1=R. W. Davies|author2=Mark Harrison|author3=S. G. Wheatcroft|title=The Economic Transformation of the Soviet Union, 1913–1945|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=7ULWRnskfr4C&pg=PA6|date=9 December 1993|publisher=Cambridge University Press|isbn=978-0-521-45770-5|page=6}}</ref>
}}
The '''Russian Soviet Federative Socialist Republic''' ('''Russian SFSR''' or '''RSFSR'''; {{lang-ru|Российская Советская Федеративная Социалистическая Республика|Rossiyskaya Sovetskaya Federativnaya Sotsialisticheskaya Respublika}}, {{IPA-ru|rɐˈsʲijskəjə sɐˈvʲetskəjə fʲɪdʲɪrɐˈtʲivnəjə sətsɨəlʲɪˈsʲtʲitɕɪskəjə rʲɪˈspublʲɪkə|IPA|Ru-Российская Советская Федеративная Социалистическая Республика.ogg}}), previously known as the '''Russian Soviet Republic'''<ref name="autogenerated1" /> and the '''Russian Socialist Federative Soviet Republic''',<ref name="Besier2014">{{cite book|last1=Besier|first1=Gerhard|last2=Stokłosa|first2=Katarzyna|title=European Dictatorships: A Comparative History of the Twentieth Century |publisher=Cambridge Scholars Publishing |year=2014|page=67|isbn=9781443855211}}</ref> as well as being unofficially referred to as '''Soviet Russia''',<ref name="DEKL">Declaration of Rights of the laboring and exploited people ([http://www.marx2mao.com/Lenin/DRWP18.html original VTsIK variant] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20110807042052/http://www.marx2mao.com/Lenin/DRWP18.html |date=7 August 2011 }}, [https://web.archive.org/web/20020904232218/http://russiannewsnetwork.com/article1.html III Congress revision]), article I.</ref> the '''Russian Federation''',<ref>Colloquially referred to as such for short in intra-Soviet politics (along with the adjacent "Transcaucasian Federation" in the south until 1936). See for example, the [http://www.rg.ru/2004/02/19/stenogramma.html log of the meeting of the Supreme Soviet of the USSR on 19 February 1954] {{Webarchive|url=https://archive.today/20120912095839/http://www.rg.ru/2004/02/19/stenogramma.html |date=12 September 2012 }}. The Russian SFSR officially renamed into the Russian Federation on Christmas Day, 25 December 1991.</ref> or simply '''Russia''', was an [[Social:Independence|independent]] [[Social:Federalism|federal]] [[Earth:Socialist state|socialist state]] from 1917 to 1922, and afterwards the largest and most populous constituent republic of the [[Place:Soviet Union|Soviet Union]] (USSR) from 1922 to 1991, until becoming a sovereign part of the Soviet Union with priority of Russian laws over Union-level legislation in 1990 and 1991, the last two years of the existence of the USSR.<ref name="TFD">[http://encyclopedia2.thefreedictionary.com/Russian+Soviet+Federated+Socialist+Republic+RSFSR The Free Dictionary Russian Soviet Federated Socialist Republic] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20110813024949/http://encyclopedia2.thefreedictionary.com/Russian+Soviet+Federated+Socialist+Republic+RSFSR |date=13 August 2011 }}. Encyclopedia2.thefreedictionary.com. Retrieved on 22 June 2011.</ref> The Russian SFSR was composed of sixteen smaller constituent units of autonomous republics, five autonomous oblasts, ten autonomous okrugs, six krais and forty oblasts.<ref name="TFD" /> Russians formed the largest [[Social:Ethnic group|ethnic group]]. The capital of the Russian SFSR and the USSR as a whole was Moscow and the other major urban centers included Leningrad, Stalingrad, Novosibirsk, Sverdlovsk, [[Place:Nizhny Novgorod|Gorky]] and Kuybyshev. It was the first [[Earth:Socialist state|socialist state]] in the world.

The economy of Russia became heavily industrialized, accounting for about two-thirds of the electricity produced in the USSR. By 1961, it was the third largest producer of petroleum due to new discoveries in the Volga-Urals region<ref>{{cite web|last1=Peterson|first1=James A.|last2=Clarke|first2=James W.|title=Petroleum Geology and Resources of the Volga-Ural Province, U.S.S.R.|url=http://pubs.usgs.gov/circ/1983/0885/report.pdf|website=Pubs.USGS.gov|publisher=1983, U.S. Department of the Interior – U.S. Geological Survey|access-date=11 March 2015|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20150402174712/http://pubs.usgs.gov/circ/1983/0885/report.pdf|archive-date=2 April 2015|url-status=live}}</ref> and Siberia, trailing in production to only the United States and Saudi Arabia.<ref>{{cite book|last1=Sokolov|first1=Vasily Andreevich|title=Petroleum|date=2002|publisher=University Press of the Pacific|location=Honolulu|isbn=0898757258|page=183|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=WHcv8OGV_WgC&pg=PA183|access-date=11 March 2015|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20150402130556/https://books.google.com.au/books?id=WHcv8OGV_WgC&pg=PA183|archive-date=2 April 2015|url-status=live}}</ref> In 1974, there were 475 institutes of higher education in the republic providing education in 47 languages to some 23,941,000 students. A network of territorially organized public-health services provided health care.<ref name="TFD"/> The economy, which had become stagnant since the late 1970s under General Secretary Leonid Brezhnev, began to be liberalized starting in 1985 under Gorbachev's "perestroika" restructuring policies, including the introduction of non-state owned enterprises (e.g. cooperatives).

On 7 November 1917 [O.S. 25 October], as a result of the October Revolution, the Russian Soviet Republic was proclaimed as a [[Earth:Sovereign state|sovereign state]] and the world's first constitutionally [[Earth:Socialist state|socialist state]] guided by [[Social:Communism|communist ideology]]. The first constitution was adopted in 1918. In 1922, the Russian SFSR signed a treaty officially creating the USSR. The Russian SFSR's 1978 constitution stated that "[a] Union Republic is a sovereign [...] state that has united [...] in the Union"<ref>Article 76</ref> and "each Union Republic shall retain the right freely to secede from the USSR".<ref>Article 72</ref> On 12 June 1990, the Congress of People's Deputies adopted the Declaration of State Sovereignty, established [[Philosophy:Separation of powers|separation of powers]] (unlike in the [[Social:Soviet republic (system of government)|Soviet form of government]]), established citizenship of Russia and stated that the RSFSR shall retain the right of free secession from the USSR. On 12 June 1991, Boris Yeltsin (1931–2007), supported by the Democratic Russia pro-reform movement, was elected the first and only President of the RSFSR, a post that would later become the Presidency of the Russian Federation.

The August 1991 Soviet coup d'état attempt in Moscow with the temporary brief internment of President [[Biography:Mikhail Gorbachev|Mikhail Gorbachev]] destabilised the Soviet Union. Following these events, Gorbachev lost all his remaining power, with Yeltsin superseding him as the pre-eminent figure in the country. On 8 December 1991, the heads of Russia, Ukraine and Belarus signed the Belovezha Accords. The agreement declared dissolution of the USSR by its original founding states (i.e., renunciation of the 1922 Treaty on the Creation of the USSR) and established the Commonwealth of Independent States (CIS) as a loose replacement confederation. On 12 December, the agreement was ratified by the Supreme Soviet (the parliament of the Russian SFSR); therefore the Russian SFSR had renounced the Treaty on the Creation of the USSR and ''de facto'' declared Russia's independence from the USSR itself and the ties with the other Soviet republics.

On 25 December 1991, following the resignation of Gorbachev as President of the Soviet Union (and former General Secretary of the Communist Party of the Soviet Union), the Russian SFSR was renamed the {{wipe|Russia}}.<ref>The names Russian Federation and Russia have been equal since 25 December 1993</ref> The next day, after the lowering of the Soviet flag from the top of the Senate building of the Moscow Kremlin and its replacement by the Russian flag, the USSR was self-dissolved by the Soviet of the Republics on 26 December, which by that time was the only functioning parliamentary chamber of the All-Union Supreme Soviet (the other house, Soviet of the Union, had already lost the [[Social:Quorum|quorum]] after recall of its members by the several union republics). After the dissolution, Russia took full responsibility for all the rights and obligations of the USSR under the Charter of the United Nations, including the financial obligations. As such, Russia assumed the Soviet Union's UN membership and permanent membership on the Security Council, nuclear stockpile and the control over the armed forces; Soviet embassies abroad became Russian embassies.<ref name="web.archive.org">[https://web.archive.org/web/20031123143520/http://www.iaea.org/Publications/Documents/Infcircs/Others/inf397.shtml Letter to the Secretary-General of the United Nations from the President of the Russian Federation]</ref>

The 1978 constitution of the Russian SFSR was amended several times to reflect the transition to democracy, private property and market economy. The new Russian constitution, coming into effect on 25 December 1993 after a constitutional crisis, completely abolished the [[Social:Soviet republic (system of government)|Soviet form of government]] and replaced it with a [[Social:Semi-presidential system|semi-presidential system]].

==Nomenclature==
Under the leadership of [[Biography:Vladimir Lenin|Vladimir Lenin]] (1870–1924) and [[Biography:Leon Trotsky|Leon Trotsky]] (1879–1940), the Bolshevik communists established the Soviet state on {{OldStyleDate|7 November|1917|25 October}}. It happened immediately after the October Revolution, when the interim Russian Provisional Government, most recently led by opposing democratic socialist Alexander Kerensky (1881–1970), which governed the new Russian Republic after the abdication of the [[Place:Russian Empire|Russian Empire]] government of the Romanov imperial dynasty of Tsar Nicholas II the previous March, the second of the two Russian Revolutions that turbulent year of 1917 during [[Social:World War I|World War I]]. Initially, the state did not have an official name and was not recognized by neighboring countries for five months. Meanwhile, anti-Bolsheviks coined the mocking label Sovdepia for the nascent state of the Soviets of Workers' and Peasants' Deputies.<ref>{{cite book |last = Mawdsley |first = Evan |chapter = Sovdepia: The Soviet Zone, October 1917 – November 1918 |title = The Russian Civil War |year = 2007 |url = https://archive.org/details/russiancivilwar00evan |url-access = registration |publisher = Pegasus Books |publication-date = 2007 |page = [https://archive.org/details/russiancivilwar00evan/page/70 70] |isbn = 9781933648156 |access-date = 25 January 2014 |quote = The Bolsheviks' enemies gave the name 'Sovdepia' to the area under the authority of the Soviets of Workers' and Peasants' Deputies. The comic-opera term was intended to mock [...]. }}</ref>

On 25 January 1918, at the third meeting of the All-Russian Congress of Soviets, the establishment of the Russian Soviet Republic was proclaimed.<ref name="Service2005">{{cite book|last=Service|first=Robert|title=A History of Modern Russia from Nicholas II to Vladimir Putin |publisher=Harvard University Press |year=2005|page=84|isbn=9780674018013}}</ref><ref name="Besier2014"/><ref name="autogenerated1">[http://www.hist.msu.ru/ER/Etext/cnst1918.htm Конституции РСФСР 1918 г.] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20180702150648/http://www.hist.msu.ru/ER/Etext/cnst1918.htm |date=2 July 2018 }} (in Russian). Hist.msu.ru. Retrieved on 22 June 2011.</ref> The Treaty of Brest-Litovsk was signed on 3 March 1918, giving away much of the border lands in the west of the former [[Place:Russian Empire|Russian Empire]] to the [[Place:German Empire|German Empire]] (Germany) in exchange for peace during the last year of the rest of [[Social:World War I|World War I]]. In July 1918, the fifth All-Russian Congress of Soviets adopted both the new name, Russian Socialist Federative Soviet Republic (RSFSR), and the Constitution of the Russian SFSR.<ref name="russians1">[http://russians.net/ Soviet Russia information] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20100826032442/http://www.russians.net/ |date=26 August 2010 }}. Russians.net (23 August 1943). Retrieved on 22 June 2011.</ref>{{Better source needed|date=November 2022}}

Internationally, the Russian SFSR was recognized as an independent state in 1920 only by bordering neighbors of Estonia, {{wipe|Finland}}, Latvia and Lithuania in the Treaty of Tartu and by the short-lived Irish Republic in Ireland.<ref>Carr, EH ''The Bolshevik Revolution 1917–23, vol 3'' Penguin Books, London, 4th reprint (1983), pp. 257–258. The draft treaty was published for propaganda purposes in the 1921 British document ''Intercourse between Bolshevism and Sinn Féin'' (Cmd 1326).</ref>

On 30 December 1922, with the treaty on the creation of the Soviet Union, Russia, alongside the Transcaucasian SFSR, the Ukrainian SSR and the Byelorussian SSR formed the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics. The final Soviet name for the constituent republic, the Russian Soviet Federative Socialist Republic, was adopted in the later Soviet Constitution of 1936. By that time, Soviet Russia had gained roughly the same borders of the old [[Place:Tsardom of Russia|Tsardom of Russia]] before the Great Northern War of 1700.

The RSFSR dominated the Soviet Union to such an extent that for most of the Soviet Union's existence, it was commonly, but incorrectly, referred{{By whom|date=May 2023}} to as Russia; this position is comparable to that of {{wipe|England}} within the {{wipe|United Kingdom}}. Technically, Russia itself was only one republic within the larger union – albeit by far the largest, most powerful and most highly developed{{Quantify|date=May 2023}} of the 15 republics. Nevertheless, according to historian Matthew White {{speculation inline|text=it was an open secret that the country's federal structure was "window dressing" for Russian dominance|date=May 2023}}. For that reason, the people of the USSR were almost always called{{By whom|date=May 2023}} "Russians", not "Soviets", since "everyone knew who really ran the show".{{Better source needed|date=May 2023}}<ref>{{cite book |title=The Great Big Book of Horrible Things |last=White |first=Matthew|publisher=W. W. Norton |year=2012 |page=368 |isbn=978-0-393-08192-3|title-link=The Great Big Book of Horrible Things}}</ref>

On 25 December 1991, during the collapse of the Soviet Union, which concluded on the next day, the republic's official name was changed to the Russian Federation, which it remains to this day.<ref>[http://marxistsfr.org/history/ussr/government/1928/sufds/ch28.htm Chronicle of Events] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20110727070057/http://marxistsfr.org/history/ussr/government/1928/sufds/ch28.htm |date=27 July 2011 }}. Marxistsfr.org. Retrieved on 22 June 2011.</ref> This name and Russia were specified as the official state names on 21 April 1992, an amendment to the then existing Constitution of 1978, and were retained as such in the subsequent 1993 Constitution of Russia.

==Geography==
At a total of about 17,125,200&nbsp;km (6,612,100 sq mi), the Russian SFSR was the largest of the fifteen Soviet republics, with its southerly neighbor, the Kazakh SSR, being second.

The international borders of the RSFSR touched Poland on the west; {{wipe|Norway}} and {{wipe|Finland}} of [[Place:Scandinavia|Scandinavia]] on the northwest; and to its southeast in eastern Asia were the Democratic People's Republic of Korea (North Korea), Mongolian People's Republic (Mongolia) and the People's Republic of China (China, formerly the Republic of China; 1911–1949). Within the Soviet Union, the RSFSR bordered the Slavic states: Ukrainian SSR ({{wipe|Ukraine}}), Belarusian SSR ({{wipe|Belarus}}), the [[Place:Baltic Sea|Baltic]] states: Estonian SSR (Estonia), Latvian SSR (Latvia) and Lithuanian SSR (Lithuania) (Included in USSR in 1940) to its west and the Azerbaijan SSR ([[Place:Azerbaijan|Azerbaijan]]), Georgian SSR ([[Place:Georgia (country)|Georgia]]) and Kazakh SSR (Kazakhstan) to the south in Central Asia.<ref name="TFD" />

Roughly 70% of the area in the RSFSR consisted of broad [[Earth:Plain|plain]]s, with mountainous tundra regions mainly concentrated in the east of Siberia with Central Asia and East Asia. The area is rich in mineral resources, including petroleum, natural gas, and iron ore.<ref>{{cite web |url = http://russia.rin.ru/guides_e/4319.html |title = Russia the Great: Mineral resources |publisher = Russian Information Network |access-date = 22 November 2010 |archive-url = https://web.archive.org/web/20110119081833/http://russia.rin.ru/guides_e/4319.html |archive-date = 19 January 2011 |url-status = live }}</ref>

==History==

===Early years (1917–1920)===

{{multiple image
 | align = right
 | total_width = 300
 | image1 = Lenin in 1920 (cropped).jpg
 | caption1 = [[Biography:Vladimir Lenin|Vladimir Lenin]], founder of the [[Place:Soviet Union|Soviet Union]] and the leader of the Bolshevik party.
 | image2 = Bundesarchiv Bild 183-R15068, Leo Dawidowitsch Trotzki.jpg
 | caption2 = [[Biography:Leon Trotsky|Leon Trotsky]], founder of the Red Army and a key figure in the October Revolution.
}}

The Soviet government first came to power on 7 November 1917, immediately after the interim Russian Provisional Government headed by Alexander Kerensky, which governed the Russian Republic, was overthrown in the October Revolution, the second of the two Russian Revolutions. The state it governed, which did not have an official name, would be unrecognized by neighboring countries for another five months.

On 18 January 1918, the newly elected Constituent Assembly issued a decree, proclaiming Russia a democratic federal republic under the name "Russian Democratic Federal Republic". However, the Bolsheviks dissolved the Assembly on the following day and declared its decrees null and void.<ref>{{cite web|last1=Ikov|first1=Marat Sal|title=Round Table the Influence Of National Relations on the Development of the Federative State Structure and on the Social and Political Realities of the Russian Federation |url=http://www.prof.msu.ru/publ/book/round1.htm|access-date=9 February 2021|website=Prof.Msu.RU|quote=However, historically, the first proclamation of the federation was made somewhat earlier – by the Constituent Assembly of Russia. In his short resolution of 6 (18) January 1918, the following was enshrined: 'In the name of the peoples, the state of the Russian constituent, the All-Russian Constituent Assembly decides: the Russian state is proclaimed by the Russian Democratic Federal Republic, uniting peoples and regions in an indissoluble union, within the limits established by the federal constitution. Of course, the above resolution, which did not thoroughly regulate the entire system of federal relations, was not considered by the authorities as having legal force, especially after the dissolution of the Constituent Assembly.'}}</ref> Conversely, the Bolsheviks also reserved a number of vacant seats in the Soviets and Central Executive for the opposition parties in proportion to their vote share at the Congress.<ref>{{cite book |last1=Deutscher |first1=Isaac |title=The Prophet Armed Trotsky 1879-1921 (1954) |date=1954 |publisher=Oxford University Press. |page=330-336 |url=https://archive.org/details/dli.ernet.507702/page/335/mode/1up?view=theater}}</ref> At the same time, a number of prominent members of the Left Socialist Revolutionaries had assumed positions in Lenin's government and lead commissariats in several areas. This included agriculture (Kolegaev), property (Karelin), justice (Steinberg), post offices and telegraphs (Proshian) and local government (Trutovsky).<ref>{{cite book |last1=Abramovitch |first1=Raphael R. |title=The Soviet Revolution, 1917-1939 |date=1985 |publisher=International Universities Press |page=130 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=L_q1WAmv7XkC&q=Steinberg+became+the+People%27s+Commissar+of+Justice,+Proshyan+became+the+People%27s+Commissar+for+Posts+and+Telegraphs |language=en}}</ref> Lenin's government also instituted a number of progressive measures such as universal education, healthcare and equal rights for women.<ref>{{cite book |last1=Adams |first1=Katherine H. |last2=Keene |first2=Michael L. |title=After the Vote Was Won: The Later Achievements of Fifteen Suffragists |date=10 January 2014 |publisher=McFarland |isbn=978-0-7864-5647-5 |page=109 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=oyaxYvSG6gAC&dq=lenin+universal+literacy+after+the+vote+was+won&pg=PA109 |language=en}}</ref><ref>{{cite book |last1=Ugri͡umov |first1=Aleksandr Leontʹevich |title=Lenin's Plan for Building Socialism in the USSR, 1917–1925 |date=1976 |publisher=Novosti Press Agency Publishing House |page=48 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=gXknAQAAMAAJ&q=lenin+universal+literacy |language=en}}</ref><ref>{{cite book |last1=Service |first1=Robert |title=Lenin: A Political Life: Volume 1: The Strengths of Contradiction |date=24 June 1985 |publisher=Springer |isbn=978-1-349-05591-3 |page=98 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=ntiuCwAAQBAJ&q=universal+education&pg=PA98 |language=en}}</ref>

On 25 January 1918, at the third meeting of the All-Russian Congress of Soviets, the establishment of the Russian Socialist Federative Soviet Republic (RSFSR) was proclaimed.<ref name="Service2005"/><ref name="Besier2014"/><ref name="autogenerated1"/> On 3 March 1918, the Treaty of Brest-Litovsk was signed, giving away much of the westernmost lands of the former [[Place:Russian Empire|Russian Empire]] to the [[Place:German Empire|German Empire]], in exchange for peace on the Eastern Front of World War I. In July 1918, the fifth All-Russian Congress of Soviets adopted the Constitution of the Russian SFSR.<ref name="russians1"/>{{Better source needed|date=November 2022}} By 1918, during the Russian Civil War, several states within the former Russian Empire had seceded, reducing the size of the country even more, although some were conquered by the Bolsheviks.

===1920s===
[[File:Soviet Union - Russian SFSR (1922).svg|thumb|The Russian SFSR in 1922]]
[[File:Soviet Union - Russian SFSR (1924).svg|thumb|The Russian SFSR in 1924]]
[[File:Soviet Union - Russian SFSR (1929).svg|thumb|The Russian SFSR in 1929]]

The Russian famine of 1921–22, also known as [[Place:Volga region|Povolzhye]] famine, killed an estimated 5&nbsp;million, primarily affecting the Volga and Ural River regions.<ref>{{Cite book|url=https://archive.org/stream/TheBlackBookofCommunism10/the-black-book-of-communism-jean-louis-margolin-1999-communism#page/n71/|title=The Black Book of Communism: Crimes, Terror, Repression|last1=Courtois|first1=Stéphane|last2=Werth|first2=Nicolas|last3=Panné|first3=Jean-Louis|last4=Paczkowski|first4=Andrzej|last5=Bartošek|first5=Karel|last6=Margolin|first6=Jean-Louis|publisher=Harvard University Press|year=1999|isbn=9780674076082|pages=123|access-date=5 May 2019|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20180627125452/http://archive.org/stream/TheBlackBookofCommunism10/the-black-book-of-communism-jean-louis-margolin-1999-communism#page/n71/|archive-date=27 June 2018|url-status=live}}</ref>

The economic impact of the Civil War was devastating. A [[Finance:Black market|black market]] emerged in Russia, despite the threat of martial law against profiteering. The ruble collapsed, with barter increasingly replacing money as a medium of exchange<ref name="DaviesHarrison1993">{{cite book|author1=R. W. Davies|author2=Mark Harrison|author3=S. G. Wheatcroft|title=The Economic Transformation of the Soviet Union, 1913–1945|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=7ULWRnskfr4C&pg=PA6|date=9 December 1993|publisher=Cambridge University Press|isbn=978-0-521-45770-5|page=6}}</ref> and, by 1921, heavy industry output had fallen to 20% of 1913 levels. 90% of wages were paid with goods rather than money.<ref>{{Cite web|title=Bread and Authority in Russia, 1914-1921|url=https://publishing.cdlib.org/ucpressebooks/view?docId=ft796nb4mj&chunk.id=d0e9364&toc.id=&brand=ucpress|access-date=2021-10-27|website=publishing.cdlib.org}}</ref> 70% of locomotives were in need of repair{{Citation needed|date=April 2021}}, and food requisitioning, combined with the effects of seven years of war and a severe drought, contributed to a famine that caused between 3 and 10 million deaths.<ref>{{Cite web|url=http://necrometrics.com/20c5m.htm#RCW|title=Twentieth Century Atlas – Death Tolls|website=necrometrics.com|access-date=2017-12-12}}</ref> Coal production decreased from 27.5 million tons (1913) to 7 million tons (1920), while overall factory production also declined from 10,000 million roubles to 1,000 million roubles. According to the noted historian David Christian, the grain harvest was also slashed from 80.1 million tons (1913) to 46.5 million tons (1920).<ref>{{cite book|last=Christian|first=David|title=Imperial and Soviet Russia|year=1997|publisher=Macmillan Press Ltd|location=London|isbn=0-333-66294-6|page=236}}</ref>

On 30 December 1922, the First Congress of the Soviets of the USSR approved the Treaty on the Creation of the USSR, by which Russia was united with the [[Place:Ukrainian Soviet Socialist Republic|Ukrainian Soviet Socialist Republic]], Byelorussian Soviet Socialist Republic and Transcaucasian Soviet Federal Socialist Republic into a single federal state, the Soviet Union. The treaty was included in the 1924 Soviet Constitution,{{Clarify|date=March 2011}} adopted on 31 January 1924 by the Second Congress of Soviets of the USSR.

One of the early ambitious economic plans of the Soviet government was GOELRO, Russian abbreviation for "State Commission for Electrification of Russia" ('''Го'''сударственная комиссия по '''эл'''ектрификации '''Ро'''ссии), which sought to achieve total [[Physics:Electrification|electrification]] of the entire country. Soviet propaganda declared the plan was basically fulfilled by 1931.<ref>{{cite web|url=http://www.situation.ru/app/j_artp_324.htm|script-title=ru:Развитие электроэнергетики в СССР (к 80летию плана ГОЭЛРО)|language=Russian|access-date=2013-04-08|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20181022081121/http://www.situation.ru/app/j_artp_324.htm|archive-date=2018-10-22|url-status=dead}}</ref> The national power output per year stood at 1.9&nbsp;billion kWh in [[Place:Russian Empire|Imperial Russia]] in 1913, and Lenin's goal of 8.8&nbsp;billion kWh was reached in 1931. National power output continued to increase significantly. It reached 13.5&nbsp;billion kWh by the end of the first five-year plan in 1932, 36&nbsp;billion kWh by 1937, and 48&nbsp;billion kWh by 1940.<ref>{{cite journal|last=Никитин|first=Олег|date=February 2010|script-title=ru:Плюс электрификация|journal={{wipe|Forbes}}|url=http://www.forbes.ru/forbes/issue/2010-02/44842-plyus-elektrifikatsiya|language=Russian}}</ref>

Paragraph&nbsp;3 of Chapter&nbsp;1 of the 1925 Constitution of the RSFSR stated the following:<ref>Constitution (Basic Law) of the Russian Socialist Federative Soviet Republic (approved by Twelfth All-Russian Congress of Soviets on 11 May 1925).</ref>

{{blockquote|By the will of the peoples of the Russian Socialist Federative Soviet Republic, who decided on the formation of the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics during the Tenth All-Russian Congress of Soviets, the Russian Socialist Federative Soviet Republic, being a part of the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics, devolves to the Union the powers which according to Article&nbsp;1 of the Constitution of the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics are included within the scope of responsibilities of the government bodies of the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics.}}

===1930s===
[[File:Soviet Union - Russian SFSR (1936).svg|thumb|The Russian SFSR in 1936]]

Many regions in Russia were affected by the Soviet famine of 1932–1933: Volga, Central Black Soil Region, [[Place:Caucasus Mountains|North Caucasus]], the Urals, the Crimea, part of Western Siberia, and the Kazakh ASSR. With the adoption of the 1936 Soviet Constitution on 5 December 1936, the size of the RSFSR was significantly reduced. The Kazakh ASSR and Kirghiz ASSR were transformed into the Kazakh SSR (now Kazakhstan) and Kirghiz Soviet Socialist Republic (Kyrgyzstan). The former Karakalpak Autonomous Socialist Soviet Republic was transferred to the Uzbek Soviet Socialist Republic (Uzbekistan).

The final name for the republic during the Soviet era was adopted by the Russian Constitution of 1937, which renamed it the Russian Soviet Federative Socialist Republic (RSFSR).

===1940s===
[[File:Soviet Union - Russian SFSR (1940).svg|thumb|The Russian SFSR in 1940]]

Just four months after Operation Barbarossa, the Wehrmacht was quickly advancing through the Russian SFSR, and was approximately {{convert|10|miles}} away from Moscow. However, after the defeat in the Battle of Moscow and the Soviet winter offensive, the Germans were pushed back. In 1942, the Wehrmacht entered Stalingrad. Despite a deadly 5 month lasting battle in which the Soviets suffered over 1,100,000 casualties, they achieved victory following the surrender of the last German troops near the Volga River, ultimately pushing German forces out of Russia by 1944.

In 1943, Karachay Autonomous Oblast was dissolved by {{wipe|Joseph Stalin}} (1878–1953), General Secretary of the Communist Party, later Premier, when the Karachays were exiled to Central Asia for their alleged collaboration with the invading [[Place:Nazi Germany|Germans]] in the Great Patriotic War ([[Social:World War II|World War II]], 1941–1945), and territory was incorporated into the Georgian SSR.

On 3 March 1944, on the orders of Stalin, the Chechen-Ingush ASSR was disbanded and its population forcibly deported upon the accusations of [[Social:Collaboration|collaboration]] with the invaders and [[Social:Separatism|separatism]]. The territory of the ASSR was divided between other administrative units of Russian SFSR and the Georgian SSR.

On 11 October 1944, the [[Place:Tuvan People's Republic|Tuvan People's Republic]] was joined with the Russian SFSR as the Tuvan Autonomous Oblast, becoming an Autonomous Soviet Socialist Republic in 1961.

After reconquering Estonia and Latvia in 1944, the Russian SFSR annexed their easternmost territories around Ivangorod and within the modern Pechorsky and Pytalovsky Districts in 1944–1945.

[[File:RIAN archive 44732 Soviet soldiers attack house.jpg|thumb|left|240px|The Battle of Stalingrad, considered by many historians as a decisive turning point of World War II]]

At the end of World War II Soviet troops of the Red Army occupied southern Sakhalin Island and the Kuril Islands off the coast of East Asia, north of Japan, making them part of the RSFSR. The status of the southernmost Kurils, north of Hokkaido of the Japanese home islands remains in dispute with Japan and the United States following the peace treaty of 1951 ending the state of war.

On 17 April 1946, the Kaliningrad Oblast – the north-eastern portion of the former [[History:Kingdom of Prussia|Kingdom of Prussia]], the founding state of the [[Place:German Empire|German Empire]] (1871–1918) and later the German province of [[Place:East Prussia|East Prussia]] including the capital and [[Place:Baltic Sea|Baltic]] seaport city of Königsberg – was annexed by the Soviet Union and made part of the Russian SFSR.

===1950s===
[[File:Soviet Union Administrative Divisions 1989.jpg|thumb|250px|The Russian SFSR in 1956–1991]]
After the death of Joseph Stalin on 5 March 1953, Georgy Malenkov became the new leader of the USSR. In January 1954, Malenkov transferred Crimea from the Russian SFSR to the Ukrainian SSR. On 8 February 1955, Malenkov was officially demoted to deputy Prime Minister. As First Secretary of the Central Committee of the Communist Party, Nikita Khrushchev's authority was significantly enhanced by Malenkov's demotion.

The Karelo-Finnish SSR was transferred back to the RSFSR as the Karelian ASSR in 1956.

On 9 January 1957, Karachay Autonomous Oblast and Chechen-Ingush Autonomous Soviet Socialist Republic were restored by Khrushchev and they were transferred from the Georgian SSR back to the Russian SFSR.

===1960s–1980s===
[[File:Map of the ethnic groups of the Soviet Union.png|thumb|250px|Ethnographic map of the Soviet Union, 1970]]
In 1964, Nikita Khrushchev was removed from his position of power and replaced with Leonid Brezhnev. Under his rule, the Russian SFSR and the rest of the Soviet Union went through a mass era of stagnation. Even after Brezhnev's death in 1982, the era did not end until [[Biography:Mikhail Gorbachev|Mikhail Gorbachev]] took power in March 1985 and introduced liberal reforms in Soviet society.

On 12 April 1978, a new Constitution of Russia was adopted.<ref>{{Cite book |url=https://www.prlib.ru/en/node/420902 |title=The Constitution (Basic Law) of the Russian Soviet Federative Socialist Republic |language=en}}</ref>

===Early 1990s===

On 29 May 1990, at his third attempt, Boris Yeltsin was elected the chairman of the Supreme Soviet of the Russian SFSR. The Congress of People's Deputies of the Republic adopted the Declaration of State Sovereignty of the Russian SFSR on 12 June 1990, which was the beginning of the "War of Laws", pitting the Soviet Union against the Russian Federation and other constituent republics.
[[File:Flag of Russia 1991-1993.svg|thumb|right|Flag adopted by the Russian SFSR national parliament in 1991]]
On 17 March 1991, an all-Russian referendum created the post of President of the RSFSR and on 12 June, Boris Yeltsin was elected president by popular vote.

During the unsuccessful 1991 Soviet coup d'état attempt of 19–21 August 1991 in [[Place:Moscow|Moscow]], the capital of the Soviet Union and Russia, Yeltsin strongly supported the President of the Soviet Union, [[Biography:Mikhail Gorbachev|Mikhail Gorbachev]]. On 23 August, Yeltsin, in the presence of Gorbachev, signed a decree suspending all activity by the Communist Party of the Russian SFSR in the territory of Russia.<ref>Decree of the President of the Russian SFSR of 23 August 1991 No.&nbsp;79</ref> On 6 November, he went further, banning the Communist Parties of the USSR and the RSFSR in the RSFSR.<ref>Decree of the President of the Russian SFSR 06.11. 1991 N169 "On activity of the CPSU and the Communist Party of the Russian SFSR"</ref>

On 8 December 1991, at Viskuli near Brest (Belarus), Yeltsin, Ukrainian President Leonid Kravchuk and Belarusian leader Stanislav Shushkevich signed the "Agreement on the Establishment of the Commonwealth of Independent States", known in media as the Belovezh Accords. The document, consisting of a preamble and fourteen articles, stated that the Soviet Union no longer existed "as a subject of [[Finance:International law|international law]] and geopolitical reality". However, based on the historical community of peoples and relations between the three states, as well as bilateral treaties, the desire for a democratic rule of law, the intention to develop their relations based on mutual recognition and respect for state sovereignty, the parties agreed to the formation of the Commonwealth of Independent States. On 12 December, the agreement was ratified by the Supreme Soviet of the Russian SFSR by an overwhelming majority: 188 votes for, 6 against and 7 abstentions.<ref>Francis X. Clines, [https://www.nytimes.com/1991/12/13/world/soviet-disarry-gorbachev-is-ready-to-resign-as-post-soviet-plan-advances.html "Gorbachev is Ready to Resign as Post-Soviet Plan Advances"], ''{{wipe|The New York Times}}'', 13 December 1991.</ref> The legality of this ratification raised doubts among some members of the Russian parliament, since according to the Constitution of the RSFSR of 1978 consideration of this document was in the exclusive jurisdiction of the Congress of People's Deputies of the RSFSR.<ref>''V.Pribylovsky, Gr.Tochkin'' [http://sssr.net.ru/denons.html . Kto i kak uprazdnil SSSR]</ref><ref>[https://web.archive.org/web/20150403001152/http://n-discovery.spb.ru/news_full.php?id=379 Из СССР В СНГ: подчиняясь реальности]</ref><ref>''Бабурин С. Н.'' [https://web.archive.org/web/20171107165055/http://www.ni-journal.ru/archive/2006/n_506/38b39a96/39cf8ddd/ На гибель Советского Союза]</ref><ref>''Воронин Ю. М.'' [http://www.sovross.ru/articles/555/9021/ Беловежское предательство] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20200812180933/http://www.sovross.ru/articles/555/9021/ |date=12 August 2020 }}</ref> However, by this time the Soviet government had been rendered more or less impotent, and was in no position to object. On the same day, the Supreme Soviet of the Russian SFSR denounced the Treaty on the Creation of the USSR and recalled all Russian deputies from the Supreme Soviet of the Soviet Union. A number of lawyers believe that the denunciation of the union treaty was meaningless since it became invalid in 1924 with the adoption of the first constitution of the USSR.<ref>''Исаков В. Б.'' Расчленёнка. Кто и как развалил Советский Союз: Хроника. Документы. — М., Закон и право. 1998. — C. 58. — 209 с.</ref><ref>''Станкевич З. А.'' История крушения СССР: политико-правовые аспекты. — М., 2001. — C. 299—300</ref><ref>''Лукашевич Д. А.'' Юридический механизм разрушения СССР. — М, 2016. — С. 254—255. — 448 с.</ref> Although the 12 December vote is sometimes reckoned as the moment that the RSFSR seceded from the collapsing Soviet Union, this is not the case. It appears that the RSFSR took the line that it did not need to follow the secession process delineated in the Soviet Constitution because it was not possible to secede from a country that no longer existed.

On 24 December, Yeltsin informed the Secretary-General of the United Nations that by agreement of the member states of the CIS the Russian Federation would assume the membership of the Soviet Union in all UN organs (including the Soviet Union's permanent seat on the UN Security Council). Russia took full responsibility for all the rights and obligations of the USSR under the Charter of the United Nations, including the financial obligations, and assumed control over its nuclear stockpile and the armed forces; Soviet embassies abroad became Russian embassies.<ref name="web.archive.org"/> On 25 December – just hours after Gorbachev resigned as president of the Soviet Union – the Russian SFSR was renamed the Russian Federation (Russia), reflecting that it was now a sovereign state with Yeltsin assuming the Presidency.<ref name="RF">Supreme Soviet of the Russian SFSR approved the Law of the RSFSR #2094-I of 25 December 1991 [http://www.humanities.edu.ru/db/msg/12047 "On renaming of the Russian Soviet Federative Socialist Republic"] {{webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20090520175808/http://www.humanities.edu.ru/db/msg/12047 |date=20 May 2009 }} // Congress of People's Deputies of the Russian SFSR and Supreme Soviet of the Russian SFSR Daily. – 1992. – No. 2. – Article&nbsp;62</ref> That same night, the Soviet flag was lowered and replaced with the tricolor. The Soviet Union officially ceased to exist the next day. The change was originally published on 6 January 1992 ({{Lang|ru-latn|Rossiyskaya Gazeta}}). According to law, during 1992, it was allowed to use the old name of the RSFSR for official business (forms, seals, and stamps).

On 21 April 1992, the Congress of People's Deputies of Russia approved the renaming of the RSFSR into the Russian Federation, by making appropriate amendments to the Constitution, which entered into force 
since publication on 16 May 1992.<ref>[http://constitution.garant.ru/history/ussr-rsfsr/1978/zakony/183094/ Закон Российской Федерации от 21 апреля 1992 года № 2708-I «Об изменениях и дополнениях Конституции (Основного Закона) Российской Советской Федеративной Социалистической Республики»] // «Российская газета», 16 мая 1992 года, № 111 (447), с. 3–5</ref>

==Government==

The Government was known officially as the Council of People's Commissars (1917–1946) and Council of Ministers (1946–1991). The first government was headed by Vladimir Lenin as Chairman of the Council of People's Commissars of the Russian SFSR and the last by Boris Yeltsin as both head of government and head of state under the title of president. The Russian SFSR was controlled by the Communist Party of the Soviet Union until the 1991 August coup, which prompted President Yeltsin to suspend the recently created Communist Party of the Russian Soviet Federative Socialist Republic.

===Autonomous republics within the Russian SFSR===
* Turkestan ASSR was formed on 30 April 1918 on the territory of the former Turkestan General-Governorate. As part of the delimitation programme of Soviet Central Asia, the Turkestan ASSR along with the Khorezm SSR and the [[Place:Bukharan People's Soviet Republic|Bukharan PSR]] were disbanded on 27 October 1924 and replaced by the Soviet Union republics of Turkmen SSR and Uzbek SSR. The latter contained the Tajik ASSR until December 1929, when it too became a full Union republic, the Tajik SSR. The RSFSR retained the newly formed Kara-Kirghiz and the Kara-Kalpak autonomous oblasts. The latter was part of the Kirgiz, then the Kazak ASSR until 1930 when it was directly subordinated to Moscow.
* Bashkir ASSR was formed on 23 March 1919 from several northern districts of the Orenburg Governorate populated by Bashkirs. On 11 October 1990, it declared its sovereignty, as the Bashkir SSR, which in 1992 was renamed the Republic of Bashkortostan.
* Tatar ASSR was formed on 27 May 1920 on the territory of the western two-thirds of the Kazan Governorate populated by Tatars. On 30 October 1990, it declared sovereignty as the Republic of Tatarstan and on 18 October 1991 declared its independence. The Russian constitutional court overturned the declaration on 13 March 1992. In February 1994, a separate agreement was reached with Moscow on the status of Tatarstan as an associate state in Russia with confederate status.
* Kirgiz ASSR was formed on 26 August 1920 from the Ural, Turgay, Semipalatinsk oblasts and parts of Transcaspia, Bukey Horde and Orenburg Governorate populated by Kirgiz-Kaysaks (former name of Kazakh people). Further enlarged in 1921 upon gaining land from Omsk Governorate and again in 1924 from parts of Jetysui Governorate and Syr Darya and Samarkand oblasts. On 19 April 1925, it was renamed Kazak ASSR. (see below)
* Mountain ASSR was formed on 20 January 1921 after the Bolshevik Red Army evicted the short-lived [[Place:Mountainous Republic of the Northern Caucasus|Mountainous Republic of the Northern Caucasus]]. Initially composed of several national districts, one-by-one these left the republic until 7 November 1924 when the remains of the republic was partitioned into the Ingush Autonomous Oblast, the North Ossetian Autonomous Oblast and the Sunzha Cossack District (all subordinates to the North Caucasus Krai).
* Dagestan ASSR was formed on 20 January 1921 from the former Dagestan Oblast. On 17 September 1991, it declared sovereignty as the Dagestan SSR.
* Crimean ASSR was formed on 18 October 1921 on the territory of Crimean peninsula within the Russian SFSR, following the Red Army's defeat of Baron Wrangel's Army, ending the Russian Civil War in Europe. On 18 May 1944, it was reduced to the status of oblast alongside the criminal deportation of the Crimean Tatars, now recognized as genocide, as collective punishment for alleged collaboration with the German occupation regime in Taurida Subdistrict. On 19 February 1954, the oblast was transferred to the Ukrainian SSR. Re-established on 12 February 1991, it declared sovereignty on 4 September of that year. On 5 May 1992, it declared independence as the Republic of Crimea. On 13 May, the Verkhovna Rada of Ukraine overturned the declaration, but compromised on an Autonomous Republic of Crimea within Ukraine. After the 2014 Ukrainian revolution, a Russian military intervention and a disputed referendum, Crimea was annexed by Russia in March 2014, a move largely considered illegal by the international community.
* Yakut ASSR was formed on 16 February 1922 upon the elevation of the Yakut Autonomous Oblast into an ASSR. On 27 September 1990, it declared sovereignty as the Yakut-Sakha Soviet Socialist Republic. From 21 December 1991, it has been known as the [[Biography:Sakha Republic|Republic of Sakha (Yakutia)]].
* Buryat ASSR was formed on 30 March 1923 as due to the merger of the Mongol-Buryat Autonomous Oblast of the RSFSR and the Buryat-Mongol Autonomous Oblast of the Far Eastern Republic. Until 7 July 1958 – Mongol-Buryat ASSR. On 27 March 1991, it became the Republic of Buryatia.
* Karelian ASSR was formed on 23 July 1923 when the Karelian Labor Commune was integrated into the RSFSR's administrative structure. On 31 March 1940, it was elevated into a full Union republic as the Karelo-Finnish SSR. On 16 July 1956, it was downgraded in status to that of an ASSR and re-subordinated to RSFSR. It declared sovereignty on 13 October 1991 as the Republic of Karelia.
* Volga German ASSR was formed on 19 December 1924 upon elevation of the Volga German Autonomous Oblast into an ASSR. On 28 August 1941, upon the deportation of Volga Germans to Central Asia, the ASSR was disbanded. The territory was partitioned between the Saratov and Stalingrad Oblasts.
* Kazak ASSR was formed on 19 April 1925 when the first Kirghiz ASSR was renamed and partitioned. Upon the ratification of the new Soviet constitution, the ASSR was elevated into a full Union Republic on 3 December 1936. On 25 October 1990, it declared sovereignty and on 16 December 1991 its independence as the Republic of Kazakhstan.
* Chuvash ASSR was formed on 21 April 1925 upon the elevation of the Chuvash Autonomous Oblast into an ASSR. It declared sovereignty on 26 October 1990 as the Chuvash SSR.
* Kirghiz ASSR was formed on 1 February 1926 upon elevation of the Kirghiz Autonomous Oblast. Upon the ratification of the new Soviet constitution, the ASSR was elevated into a full Union Republic on 3 December 1936. On 12 December 1990, it declared sovereignty as the Republic of Kyrgyzstan and on 31 August 1991 its independence.
* Kara-Kalpak ASSR was formed on 20 March 1932 upon elevation of the Kara-Kalpak Autonomous Oblast into the Kara-Kalpak ASSR; from 5 December 1936 a part of the Uzbek SSR. In 1964, it was renamed the Karakalpak ASSR. It declared sovereignty on 14 December 1990.
* Mordovian ASSR was formed on 20 December 1934 upon the elevation of Mordovian Autonomous Oblast into an ASSR. It declared sovereignty on 13 December 1990 as the Mordovian SSR. Since 25 January 1991, it has been known as the Republic of Mordovia.
* Udmurt ASSR was formed on 28 December 1934 upon the elevation of Udmurt Autonomous Oblast into an ASSR. It declared sovereignty on 20 September 1990. Since 11 October 1991, it has been known as the Udmurt Republic.
* Kalmyk ASSR was formed on 20 October 1935 upon the elevation of Kalmyk Autonomous Oblast into an ASSR. On 27 December 1943, upon the deportation of the Kalmyks, the ASSR was disbanded and split between the newly established Astrakhan Oblast and parts adjoined to Rostov Oblast, [[Place:Krasnodar Krai|Krasnodar Krai]] and Stavropol Krai. On 9 January 1957, Kalmyk Autonomous Oblast was re-established in its present borders, first as a part of Stavropol Krai and from 19 July 1958 as a part of the Kalmyk ASSR. On 18 October 1990, it declared sovereignty as the Kalmyk SSR.
* Kabardino-Balkar ASSR was formed on 5 December 1936 upon the departure of the Kabardino-Balkar Autonomous Oblast from the North Caucasus Kray. After the deportation of the Balkars on 8 April 1944, the republic is renamed as Kabardin ASSR and parts of its territory transferred to Georgian SSR. Upon the return of the Balkars, the KBASSR is re-instated on 9 January 1957. On 31 January 1991, the republic declared sovereignty as the Kabardino-Balkar SSR and from 10 March 1992 as the Kabardino-Balkarian Republic.
* Northern Ossetian ASSR was formed on 5 December 1936 upon the disbandment of the North Caucasus Kray and its constituent North Ossetian Autonomous Oblast was raised into an ASSR. Declared sovereignty on 26 December 1990 as the North Ossetian SSR.
* Chechen-Ingush ASSR was formed on 5 December 1936 when the North Caucasus Krai was disestablished and its constituent Chechen-Ingush Autonomous Oblast was elevated into an ASSR and subordinated to Moscow. Following the en masse deportation of the Chechens and Ingush, on 7 March 1944 the ChIASSR was disbanded and the Grozny Okrug was temporarily administered by Stavropol Kray until 22 March when the territory was portioned between North Ossetian and Dagestan ASSRs and the Georgian SSR. The remaining land was merged with Stavropol Krays Kizlyar district and organised as Grozny Oblast, which existed until 9 January 1957 when the ChIASSR was re-established though only the southern border's original shape was retained. It declared sovereignty on 27 November 1990 as the Chechen-Ingush Republic. On 8 June 1991, the 2nd Chechen National Congress proclaimed a separate Chechen-Republic (Noxchi-Cho) and on 6 September began a coup which overthrew the Soviet local government. ''De facto'', all authority passed to the self-proclaimed government which was renamed as the [[Place:Chechen Republic of Ichkeria|Chechen Republic of Ichkeria]] in early 1993. In response, the western Ingush districts after a referendum on 28 November 1991 were organised into an Ingush Republic which was officially established on 4 June 1992 by decree of Russian President as the Republic of Ingushetia. The same decree de jure created a Chechen republic, although it would be established only on 3 June 1994 and carry out partial governance during the First Chechen War. The Khasavyurt Accord would again suspend the government on 15 November 1996. The present Chechen Republic government was re-established on 15 October 1999.
* Komi ASSR was formed on 5 December 1936 upon the elevation of the Komi (Zyryan) Autonomous Oblast into an ASSR. Declared sovereignty on 23 November 1990 as the Komi SSR and from 26 May 1992 as the Republic of Komi.
* Mari ASSR was formed on 5 December 1936 upon the elevation of the Mari Autonomous Oblast into an ASSR. Declared Sovereignty on 22 December 1990 as the Mari Soviet Socialist Republic (Mari El).
* Tuva ASSR was formed on 10 October 1961 when the Tuva Autonomous Oblast was elevated{{by whom|date=January 2014}} into an ASSR. On 12 December 1990, it declared sovereignty as the Soviet Republic of Tyva.
* Gorno-Altai ASSR was formed on 25 October 1990 when Gorno-Altai Autonomous Oblast declared sovereignty. Since 3 July 1991, it has been known as the Gorno-Altai SSR.
* Karachayevo-Cherkessian ASSR was formed on 17 November 1990 when Karachay-Cherkess Autonomous Oblast was elevated into an ASSR and instead of Stavropol Krai subordinated directly to the RSFSR. It declared sovereignty on 3 July 1991 as the Karachay-Cherkess SSR.

==Economy==
In the first years of the existence of the RSFSR, the doctrine of war communism became the starting point of the state's economic activity. In March 1921, at the X Congress of the RCP (B), the tasks of the policy of "war communism" were recognized by the country's leadership as fulfilled, and a new economic policy was introduced at Lenin's suggestion.

After the formation of the Soviet Union, the economy of the RSFSR became an integral part of the economy of the USSR. The economic program of the RSFSR (NEP) was continued in all union republics. The [[Social:Gosplan|Gosplan]] (State General Planning Commission) of the RSFSR, which replaced GOELRO, was reorganized into the Gosplan of the USSR. His early task was to develop a unified national economic plan based on the electrification plan and to oversee the overall implementation of this plan.

Unlike the previous Russian constitutions, the 1978 Constitution devoted an entire chapter (Chapter II) to the description of the economic system of the RSFSR, which defined the types of property and indicated the goals of the economic tasks of the state.<ref>{{Cite web|title=Конституция РСФСР в редакции от 12 апреля 1978 г.|url=http://constitution.garant.ru/history/ussr-rsfsr/1978/red_1978/5478721/|access-date=17 November 2021|website=constitution.garant.ru}}</ref>

As noted by Corresponding Member RAS RAS V. I. Suslov, who took part in large-scale studies of the relationship between the economies of the republics of the USSR and the RSFSR in the late Soviet era: "The degree of inequality of economic exchange was very high, and Russia was always the losing side. The product created by Russia largely supported the consumption of other union republics".<ref>{{Cite web|title=Наука в Сибири|url=http://www.nsc.ru/HBC/article.phtml?nid=158&id=6|access-date=17 November 2021|website=www.nsc.ru|archive-date=9 March 2014|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20140309144636/http://www.nsc.ru/HBC/article.phtml?nid=158&id=6|url-status=dead}}</ref>

==Culture==

===National holidays and symbols===
The public holidays for the Russian SFSR included Defender of the Fatherland Day (23 February), which honors Russian men, especially those serving in the army; International Women's Day (8 March), which combines the traditions of Mother's Day and Valentine's Day; Spring and Labor Day (1 May); Victory Day; and like all other Soviet republics, the Great October Socialist Revolution (7 November).

Victory Day is the second most popular holiday in Russia as it commemorates the victory over [[Social:Nazism|Nazism]] in the Great Patriotic War. A huge military parade, hosted by the President of Russia, is annually organised in Moscow on Red Square. Similar parades take place in all major Russian cities and cities with the status Hero City or City of Military Glory.

[[File:Russian-Matroshka2.jpg|thumb|[[Matryoshka doll|Matryoshka doll]] taken apart]]
During its 76-year existence, the Russian SFSR anthem was the same as the Soviet anthem (unlike other republics): The Internationale until 1944 and then the [[Social:State Anthem of the Soviet Union|State Anthem of the USSR]]. In 1990, the RSFSR adopted its own separate anthem called Patrioticheskaya Pesnya, which went on to become the anthem of independent Russia since 1991. In 2000, Vladimir Putin re-introduced the Soviet anthem. The [[Philosophy:Motto|motto]] "Workers of the world, unite!" was commonly used and shared with other Soviet republics. The [[Hammer and sickle|hammer and sickle]] and the full Soviet coat of arms are still widely seen in Russian cities as part of architectural decorations. The Soviet [[Red star|red star]]s are also encountered, often on military equipment and war memorials. The Red Banner continues to be honored, especially the Banner of Victory of 1945.

The [[Matryoshka doll]] is a recognizable symbol of the Russian SFSR (and the Soviet Union as a whole) and the towers of Moscow Kremlin and Saint Basil's Cathedral in Moscow are Russian SFSR's main architectural icons. [[Biology:Chamomile|Chamomile]] is the national flower while [[Biology:Birch|birch]] is the national tree. The Russian bear is an animal symbol and a national personification of Russia. Though this image has a Western origin, Russians themselves have accepted it. The native Soviet Russian national personification is Mother Russia.

===Flag history===
The flag of the Russian SFSR changed numerous times, with the original being a field of red with the Russian name of the republic written on the flag's centre in white. This flag had always been intended to be temporary, as it was changed less than a year after its adoption. The second flag had the letters РСФСР (RSFSR) written in yellow within the canton and encased within two yellow lines forming a [[Right angle|right angle]]. The next flag was used from 1937, notably during [[Social:World War II|World War II]]. Interesting because it was used until Stalin's death when a major vexillological reform was undertaken within the Soviet Union. This change incorporated an update for all the flags of the Soviet Republics as well as for the flag of the Soviet Union itself. The flag of the Russian SFSR was now a defaced version of the flag of the Soviet Union, with the main difference being a minor repositioning of the [[Hammer and sickle|hammer and sickle]] and most notably adding a blue vertical stripe to the hoist. This version of the flag was used from 1954 all the way to 1991, where it was changed due to the ongoing collapse of the Soviet Union. The flag was changed to a design that resembled the original ensign of the [[Place:Tsardom of Russia|Tsardom of Russia]] and the [[Place:Russian Empire|Russian Empire]], with a notable difference of the flag ratio being 1:2 instead of the original 2:3 ratio. After 1993, when the [[Social:Soviet republic (system of government)|Soviet form of government]] was officially dissolved in the Russian Federation, the flag of the Russian Federation was changed to the original civil ensign with its original 2:3 proportions.

{{gallery|height=100
|File:Flag the Russian SFSR (1918).svg|1917–1918
|File:Flag RSFSR 1918.svg|1918–1937
|File:Flag of the Russian SFSR 1937-1954.svg|1937–1954
|File:Flag of the Russian SFSR.svg|1954–1991|File:Flag of Russia (1991-1993).svg|1991<ref>Resolution of the Supreme Soviet of the Russian SFSR from 22 August 1991 [http://www.rusflag.ru/arch/pvsnflag.htm "On the national flag of the Russian SFSR"] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20170610183623/http://www.rusflag.ru/arch/pvsnflag.htm |date=10 June 2017 }}</ref><ref>[http://constitution.garant.ru/history/ussr-rsfsr/1978/zakony/183125/ Law "On Amendments and Additions to the Constitution (Basic Law) of the Russian SFSR"] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20110716071151/http://constitution.garant.ru/history/ussr-rsfsr/1978/zakony/183125/ |date=16 July 2011 }} from 1 November 1991</ref>{{Efn|Later used as a national flag of the Russian Federation until 1993.}}
}}

== Bibliographies ==
* Bibliography of the Russian Revolution and Civil War
* Bibliography of Stalinism and the Soviet Union
* Bibliography of the post-Stalinist Soviet Union

==Notes==
{{notelist}}

==References==
{{Reflist}}

==External links==
* {{in lang|ru}} [http://constitution.garant.ru/DOC_0000810003000.htm Full Texts and All Laws Amending Constitutions of the Russian SFSR]
* [https://archive.org/details/RussianSocialistFederalSovietRepublicTheWholeRepublicAConstruction ''Russian Federation; The Whole Republic a Construction Site''] by D. S. Polyanski.
* [http://www.marxists.org/history/ussr/government/constitution/1918/index.htm Full 1918 RSFSR Constitution]


[[Category:Former countries in Europe]]

{{Sourceattribution|Russian Soviet Federative Socialist Republic}}