Countries of the World/COUNTRYS.BIN/dp/0392/03922.txt

Text File | 1991-06-25 | 23KB | 393 lines

$Unique_ID{COW03922}
$Pretitle{295}
$Title{Union of Soviet Socialist Republics
Chapter 12A.  Component Political Subdivisions}
$Subtitle{}
$Author{Thomas D. Roberts}
$Affiliation{HQ, Department of the Army}
$Subject{oblasti
soviet
local
union
republics
ussr
republic
administrative
autonomous
national}
$Date{1972}
$Log{Table 3.*0392201.tab
Table 4.*0392202.tab
}
Country:     Union of Soviet Socialist Republics
Book:        Soviet Union, A Country Study
Author:      Thomas D. Roberts
Affiliation: HQ, Department of the Army
Date:        1972

Chapter 12A.  Component Political Subdivisions

     The Soviet Union in early 1970 consisted of fourteen soviet socialist
republics and one soviet federated socialist republic. Each republic,
variously referred to as a union republic, a constituent republic, or a soviet
socialist republic (Sovetskaya Sotsialisticheskaya Respublika-SSR-see
Glossary), had its own constitution, supreme soviet, and supreme court, all
patterned upon similar agencies at USSR level. All but the most minor foreign
relations, foreign trade, defense policy, economic controls, and fiscal
matters were delegated by the union republics to the central government.

     Contained within, and subordinate to, some of the union republics were
twenty so-called autonomous republics (Avtonomnaya Sovetskaya
Sotsialisticheskaya Respublika-ASSR-see Glossary) and various levels of local
governments of both administrative and national types from villages to
regions. Sizes and boundaries of the administrative units were based upon
economic and geographic considerations, whereas the national or autonomous
units had been created to recognize various ethnic minorities.

     Although the two general types of subdivisions, administrative and
national, varied greatly in size and population, they did not constitute two
separate governmental hierarchies. Not only were there fewer autonomous or
national areas, all categories of which were generally less important than
their administrative counterparts, but no autonomous or national area
contained lower level autonomous areas. The SSR's were considered apart. They
were national states, joined to form the USSR but, in time, have come to be
considered its major administrative subdivisions.

     The administrative local government units included kraya (territories),
oblasti (provinces), rayony (districts), towns, settlements, and villages (see
Glossary). Kraya and oblasti were regional subdivisions. Rayony were
districts. The village level referred to the smallest point or area that
merited a local soviet. It may have been a small town, a group of small
villages or populated points, a workers' settlement, or an agricultural
settlement (see fig. 8).

     The kraya and oblasti were directly subordinate to the SSR's and, in
turn, administered lower level governments within them. In early 1970 there
were six kraya and just over 100 oblasti.

     District-level governments included the rural rayon (equivalent to a
county in the United States), medium-sized cities, and the boroughs of the
large cities (known as city rayony). Rural rayony were the usual subdivisions
of kraya, oblasti, the smaller SSR's, and of autonomous areas. In early 1970
there were probably a few more than 1,800 rural rayony, approximately the
same number of cities governed at that level, and about 400 city rayony.

     In the village category about 40,000 small towns, villages, or groups of
villages had the lowest level of local government. An additional 3,000 to
3,500 populated areas were referred to as settlements. Workers settlements
were ordinarily towns that had sprung up around an industrial enterprise;
agricultural settlements were farm communities.

     The national, or autonomous, units were created in an effort to solve
some of the problems inherent in governing a land containing many
nationalities, each wishing to preserve a certain amount of independence,
national identity, culture, and language. Each category was granted a degree
of autonomy that depended on the size and importance of the national group
and the area in which it was predominant. They were represented, as were the
SSR's, in the USSR Soviet of Nationalities, a representation that had no
counterpart from the administrative subdivisions.

     There were twenty autonomous republics, or ASSR's, in early 1970,
administered in most respects the same as the union republics. Their autonomy
consisted of a considerable degree of self-determination in the control of
local governments beneath them and permitted the use of local languages in
schools, courts, local trade, communications, and administration. National
manners and customs were respected.

     Autonomous oblasti were formed where there were smaller areas dominated
by a national group, large enough to have individual significance but too
small to be considered for republic status. Eight of them existed in early
1970.

     The least important of the autonomous areas to be represented in the USSR
Soviet of Nationalities were the national okruga (areas-see Glossary). Most of
these consisted of sparsely inhabited spaces where there had as yet been no
economic reason for colonization. There were ten national okruga in early
1970. They were administered at a level between the oblast and the rayon and
were permitted, by virtue of their autonomous status, to retain local manners
and customs.

     Governments throughout the entire system were structurally similar. There
was, however, a major demarcation separating the USSR and republic governments
from those below, all of which were considered to be in the local government
category. Basic to all were the soviets, but local soviets were sheared of the
title supreme. Republic ministries and state committees were replaced in local
governments by administrations or departments, and councils of ministers and
presidiums by executive committees. Although the soviets and committees grew
progressively smaller in the local governments, they were a means through
which mass participation in state machinery was achieved. About 2 million
deputies were elected to local soviets in 1969, and a roughly similar number
of additional people were appointed to various groups supporting their
executive committees.

     Each element of a republican or local government was responsible at its
own level to its soviet and presidium or executive committee. It was also
responsible to a parent agency in the government at the administrative level
above. The Communist Party of the Soviet Union (CPSU) and local governments
had generally parallel organizations. Party personnel were active in local
government agencies, and it was usual practice for many of the key positions
in both Party and government structures to be occupied by the same individual.
The Party organization and the subordinations within the governmental system
have served to hold actual power and controls tightly under the central
government and the CPSU in Moscow (see ch. 5, the Political System; ch 21,
Political Dynamics).

The Union Republics

     The original USSR, proclaimed on January 31, 1924, was a "one-union
state" consisting of four union republics: the Russian Soviet Federated
Socialist Republic (Rossiyskaya Sovetskaya Federativnaya Sotsialisticheskaya
Respublika-RSFSR-see Glossary), the Ukraine, Belorussia, and the
Transcaucasus. The three republics in south-central USSR-Uzbek, Turkmen, and
Tadzhik-were added to the union between then and 1930. In 1936 the
Transcaucasus SSR was divided into three republics: Georgia, Azerbaijan, and
Armenia. Kazakhstan and Kirgiz in south-central USSR became SSR's at about the
same time. Kazakhstan had previously been an autonomous republic within the
RSFSR (see table 3).

     The Baltic states of Estonia, Latvia, and Lithuania were forcibly annexed
to the Soviet Union and made soviet socialist republics in 1940. In the same
year, Rumania was forced to cede Bessarabia and northern Bukovina to the
Soviets, and that territory was combined with