Supreme Soviet

The Supreme Soviet (Russian: Верховный Совет, romanized: Verkhovny Sovet, lit.

The soviets until then were largely rubber-stamp institutions, approving decisions handed to them by the Communist Party of the USSR or of each SSR.

If such decrees were not ratified by the Supreme Soviet at its next session, they were to be considered revoked.

In practice, the principles of democratic centralism meant this power of veto was almost never exercised, meaning that Presidium decrees de facto had the force of law.

After the dissolution of the USSR in late December 1991, most of these soviets remained the legislatures of independent countries until Armenia, Azerbaijan and Kazakhstan abandoned the system in 1995.