Treaty on the Formation of the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics

Treaty on the Formation of the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics

 

the document that legally formulated and established the union of four Soviet socialist republics—the RSFSR, the Ukrainian SSR, the Byelorussian SSR, and the Transcaucasian Soviet Federative Socialist Republic (Georgia, Azerbaijan, and Armenia)—into one federal state, the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics. On Dec. 29, 1922, a conference of plenipotentiary delegations elected by the congresses of Soviets of the RSFSR, the Ukrainian SSR, the Byelorussian SSR, and the Transcaucasian SFSR adopted the document. On December 30 of the same year the First Congress of Soviets of the USSR confirmed the treaty in its essentials together with the Declaration on the Formation of the USSR. On Jan. 31, 1924, the Second Congress of Soviets of the USSR confirmed the First Constitution of the USSR, which incorporated the Treaty on the Formation of the USSR.

The treaty was based on the Leninist principles regarding the structure of a federal socialist state. The treaty established the constitutional principles of the USSR, defined supreme agencies of state authority and of state administration of the USSR and their jurisdiction, determined the mode of elections and the norms of representation of delegates to Congresses of Soviets of the USSR, determined the procedure for convoking congresses of Soviets and sessions of the Central Executive Committee of the USSR, and determined the composition of the Councils of People’s Commissars of the USSR and of the Union republics. It also provided for the establishment of other central agencies.

The treaty spelled out general principles for legislative activity and the hierarchy of state agencies of the USSR and of the Union republics and established a system for coordinating acts issued by Union and republic agencies, important for state administration in a federal state. The treaty established a single Union citizenship for all citizens of the Union republics and granted each Union republic the right to freely leave the Union.

REFERENCE

S’ezdy Sovetov Soiuza SSR, Soiuznykh i Avtonomnykh Sovetskikh Sotsialisticheskikh Respublik: Sb. dokumentov, 1917-36, vol. 3. Moscow, 1960. Pages 18-22.