Autonomous Soviet Socialist Republics

An Autonomous Soviet Socialist Republic (ASSR, Russian: автономная советская социалистическая республика, АССР, romanized: avtonomnaya sovetskaya sotsialisticheskaya respublika) was a type of administrative unit in the Soviet Union (USSR), created for certain ethnic groups to be the titular nations of.

The level of political, administrative and cultural autonomy they enjoyed varied with time—it was most substantial in the 1920s (Korenizatsiya), the 1950s after the death of Joseph Stalin, and in the Brezhnev Era.

[1] According to the constitution of the USSR, in case of a union republic voting on leaving the Soviet Union, autonomous republics, autonomous oblasts and autonomous okrugs had the right, by means of a referendum, to independently resolve whether they will stay in the USSR or leave with the seceding union republic, as well as to raise the issue of their state-legal status.

Their status as of October 2007 within the Russian Federation is given in parentheses: Gorno-Altai Autonomous Oblast (now Altai Republic), Adyghe Autonomous Oblast (now Republic of Adygea), Karachay–Cherkess Autonomous Oblast (now Karachay–Cherkess Republic) and Khakassian Autonomous Oblast (now Republic of Khakassia) were all promoted in status to that of an ASSR in 1991, in the last year of the Soviet Union.

Other autonomous republics also existed within RSFSR at earlier points of the Soviet history: 1918–24  Turkestan3 1918–41  Volga German4 1919–90  Bashkir 1920–25  Kirghiz2 1920–90  Tatar 1921–91  Adjarian 1921–45  Crimean 1921–91  Dagestan 1921–24  Mountain 1921–90  Nakhichevan 1922–91  Yakut 1923–90  Buryat1 1923–40  Karelian 1924–40  Moldavian 1924–29  Tajik 1925–92  Chuvash5 1925–36  Kazakh2 1926–36  Kirghiz 1931–92  Abkhaz 1932–92  Karakalpak 1934–90  Mordovian 1934–90  Udmurt6 1935–43  Kalmyk 1936–44  Checheno-Ingush 1936–44  Kabardino-Balkarian 1936–90  Komi 1936–90  Mari 1936–90  North Ossetian 1944–57  Kabardin 1956–91  Karelian 1957–92  Checheno-Ingush 1957–91  Kabardino-Balkarian 1958–90  Kalmyk 1961–92  Tuvan 1990–91  Gorno-Altai 1991–92  Crimean