Editing Soviet Union (section)

=== Administrative divisions ===
{{Main|Subdivisions of the Soviet Union|Soviet republic (system of government)|Republics of the Soviet Union}}
Constitutionally, the USSR was a federation of constituent Union Republics, which were either unitary states, such as [[Ukrainian Soviet Socialist Republic|Ukraine]] or [[Byelorussian Soviet Socialist Republic|Byelorussia]] (SSRs), or federations, such as [[Russian Soviet Federative Socialist Republic|Russia]] or [[Transcaucasian Socialist Federative Soviet Republic|Transcaucasia]] (SFSRs),<ref name="Sakwa" /> all four being the founding republics who signed the [[Treaty on the Creation of the USSR]] in December 1922. In 1924, during the [[National delimitation in the Soviet Union|national delimitation]] in Central Asia, [[Uzbek Soviet Socialist Republic|Uzbekistan]] and [[Turkmen Soviet Socialist Republic|Turkmenistan]] were formed from parts of Russia's [[Turkestan ASSR]] and two Soviet dependencies, the [[Khorezm People's Soviet Republic|Khorezm]] and [[Bukharan People's Soviet Republic|Bukharan PSPs]]. In 1929, [[Tajik Soviet Socialist Republic|Tajikistan]] was split off from the Uzbekistan SSR. With the constitution of 1936, the Transcaucasian SFSR was dissolved, resulting in its constituent republics of [[Armenian Soviet Socialist Republic|Armenia]], [[Georgian Soviet Socialist Republic|Georgia]] and [[Azerbaijan Soviet Socialist Republic|Azerbaijan]] being elevated to Union Republics, while [[Kazakh Soviet Socialist Republic|Kazakhstan]] and [[Kirghiz Soviet Socialist Republic|Kirghizia]] were split off from the Russian SFSR, resulting in the same status.<ref>{{cite book |last=Adams |first=Simon |title=Russian Republics |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=LyqIDCc-cSsC |year=2005 |page=21 |publisher=Black Rabbit Books |isbn=978-1-58340-606-9 |access-date=20 June 2015 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20150512041101/http://books.google.com/books?id=LyqIDCc-cSsC&dq |archive-date=12 May 2015 |url-status=live}}</ref> In August 1940, [[Moldavian Soviet Socialist Republic|Moldavia]] was formed from parts of Ukraine and [[Soviet occupation of Bessarabia and northern Bukovina|Soviet-occupied Bessarabia]], and Ukrainian SSR. [[Estonian Soviet Socialist Republic|Estonia]], [[Latvian Soviet Socialist Republic|Latvia]] and [[Lithuanian Soviet Socialist Republic|Lithuania]] were also [[Soviet occupation of the Baltic states (1940)|annexed by the Soviet Union]] and turned into SSRs, which was [[State continuity of the Baltic states|not recognized by most of the international community]] and was considered an [[Occupation of the Baltic states|illegal occupation]]. After the [[Soviet invasion of Finland]], the [[Karelo-Finnish SSR]] was formed on annexed territory as a Union Republic in March 1940 and then incorporated into Russia as the [[Karelian ASSR]] in 1956. Between July 1956 and September 1991, there were 15 union republics (see map below).<ref>{{cite book |last=Feldbrugge |first=Ferdinand Joseph Maria |title=Russian Law: The Rnd of the Soviet system and the Role of Law |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=JWt7MN3Dch8C |year=1993 |page=94 |publisher=[[Martinus Nijhoff Publishers]] |isbn=978-0-7923-2358-7 |access-date=20 June 2015 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20150512041218/http://books.google.com/books?id=JWt7MN3Dch8C&dq |archive-date=12 May 2015 |url-status=live}}</ref>

While nominally a union of equals, in practice the Soviet Union was dominated by [[Russians]]. The domination was so absolute that for most of its existence, the country was commonly (but incorrectly) referred to as 'Russia'. While the Russian SFSR was technically only one republic within the larger union, it was by far the largest (both in terms of population and area), most powerful, and most highly developed. The Russian SFSR was also the industrial center of the Soviet Union. Historian Matthew White wrote that it was an open secret that the country's federal structure was 'window dressing' for Russian dominance. For that reason, the people of the USSR were usually called 'Russians', not 'Soviets', since 'everyone knew who really ran the show'.<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>

{{USSR Map}}