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p One of the most important features of Soviet federalism is that all the Union Republics are likewise sovereign.

p The U.S.S.R. is a multinational state whose policy takes national distinctions and features into consideration and ensures the all-round economic and cultural development of all nations and nationalities in conformity with their inherent features. Hence, alongside the sovereign rights of the U.S.S.R. every Union Republic naturally retains the sovereign rights of an independent national socialist state. As part of the U.S.S.R. it contributes its share to the building of communism.

p The constitutions of the Union Republics state that the given republic has united with equal Soviet socialist republics in the U.S.S.R. with the purpose of extending mutual economic, political and military assistance. Accordingly, the Union Republics ensure the sovereignty of the U.S.S.R. in the spheres defined in Article 14 of the Constitution. Outside these spheres, however, they exercise their state authority independently.

p In furtherance of their own vital interests, the Union Republics have transferred part of their rights in the sphere of state administration to the U.S.S.R., but at the same time they have acquired rights guaranteeing them a decisive role in important matters connected with the entire state activity of the U.S.S.R. The fact that the Union Republics themselves approve the transfer of certain rights to the U.S.S.R. is yet another manifestation of the sovereignty of these republics.

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p The strengthening of socialist centralism and the growing role of all-Union planning presuppose the increasing participation of the Union Republics and an extension of their rights in planning and financing economic development, in matters concerning labour, wages, and the like.

p The sovereignty of the U.S.S.R. and that of the Union Republics are inseparable and make up an organic whole.

p A Union Republic voluntarily accedes to the U.S.S.R. and has the right unilaterally to renounce its federal ties with the U.S.S.R.

p The right freely to secede from the U.S.S.R. is guaranteed by Article 17 of the Constitution of the U.S.S.R.

p In accordance with Article 15 of its Constitution, the U.S.S.R. protects the sovereign rights of the Union Republics. Their sovereignty is ensured by the entire economic, political and military might of the Soviet Union.

p How the Soviet Union protects the sovereignty of the Union Republics was shown with particular force in the Second World War. It was obvious that singly none of the Soviet republics would have withstood the onslaught of the nazi invaders, but as members of the U.S.S.R. and backed by its economic, political and military might they held their own in the life-and-death struggle against nazi Germany and emerged victors. Today, too, during peaceful construction, the U.S.S.R. protects the sovereignty of the Union Republics just as effectively. As members of the U.S.S.R., they are ensured not only external security but also internal economic progress, freedom and national development.

p Article 18 of the Constitution of the U.S.S.R., which states that the territory of a Union Republic may not be altered without its consent, guarantees the sovereignty of a Union Republic over its territory. The Union Republics independently decide all questions of their administrative and territorial structure.

p Uniform Union citizenship is established throughout the U.S.S.R. Every citizen of the U.S.S.R. is at the same time a citizen of the Union Republic in which he resides (Article 21 of the Constitution of the U.S.S.R.). The law on Soviet citizenship grants the Presidium of the Supreme Soviet of every Union Republic the right to admit a person to citizenship of a given republic and thus to citizenship of the U.S.S.R.

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p A Union Republic has the right to enter into direct relations with foreign states and to conclude agreements and exchange diplomatic and consular representatives with them (Article 18a of the Constitution of the U.S.S.R.). In accordance with this right, two Union Republics, the Ukraine and Byelorussia, are members of the United Nations. All other republics participate in U.N. activities through their representatives in the U.S.S.R. delegation, annually appointed to the U.N. General Assembly. But this is not the limit of foreign policy activity of the Union Republics. They broadly implement their right to conclude agreements with foreign states. These agreements embrace such spheres as economic and cultural relations, communications, the International Labour Organisation and UNESCO.

p A Union Republic has the right to set up its own military formations (Article 18b of the Constitution of the U.S.S.R.).

p A Union Republic enacts legislation within the limits determined by the Constitution of the U.S.S.R. and its own Constitution.

p The sovereignty of a Union Republic as a member of the federation is also seen in its equal representation in the higher organs of state power and state administration of the U.S.S.R., namely, in the Supreme Soviet of the U.S.S.R. (the citizens of each Union Republic elect 32 deputies to the Soviet of Nationalities), the Presidium of the Supreme Soviet of the U.S.S.R. (there are 15 Vice-Presidents of the Presidium of the Supreme Soviet of the U.S.S.R., that is, as many as there are Union Republics), in the Council of Ministers of the U.S.S.R., which includes the Chairmen of the Councils of Ministers of the Union Republics by virtue of their office, and in the Supreme Court of the U.S.S.R., which includes the Chairmen of the Supreme Courts of the Union Republics by virtue of their office.

p An extraordinary session of the Supreme Soviet of the U.S.S.R. may be convened at any time upon the demand of a Union Republic (Article 46 of the Constitution of the U.S.S.R.). This right is of great importance insofar as it makes it possible for any Union Republic to submit for discussion to the Supreme Soviet of the U.S.S.R. any question within its jurisdiction.

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p The Supreme Soviet of the U.S.S.R. conducts a nationwide poll (referendum) upon the demand of one of the Union Republics (Article 49e of the Constitution of the U.S.S.R.).

p Laws passed by the Supreme Soviet of the U.S.S.R. are published in the languages of the Union Republics.

p Membership in the U.S.S.R. has enabled the Union Republics jointly and singly not only to put an end to the economic and cultural inequality inherited from the old system, but also to build up modern industries, a working class and an intelligentsia, and to promote their own culture which is national in form and socialist in content.

p If we take the 1913 industrial output figure as equal to one, we shall find that in 1966 it reached 67 in the Russian Federation, 44 in the Ukraine, 64 in Byelorussia, 32 in Uzbekistan, 101 in Kazakhstan, 62 in Georgia, 25 in Azerbaijan, 51 in Lithuania, 99 in Moldavia, 18 in Latvia, 117 in Kirghizia, 63 in Tajikistan, 119 in Armenia, 33 in Turkmenia and 25 in Estonia.

p The Eastern republics of the Soviet Union were ruled arbitrarily by feudal exploiters, their people were denied political rights and lived in ignorance and there were no industrial or cultural centres to speak of.

p Pre-Revolution Uzbekistan, for example, had almost no industry with the exception of several dozen small factories. Even its cotton was processed thousands of kilometres away in Central Russia. Today Uzbekistan has over a hundred industries and more than 1,000 big plants. Its chemical, engineering, iron and steel, non-ferrous metallurgical, building materials and building industries are expanding rapidly and it has a substantial electric power base. Its exports go to 58 countries.

p Old Tajikistan had only a few semi-primitive factories. Now the Tajik Republic has hundreds of large modern plants. The total volume of industrial output in the republic has increased almost 50-fold over the 1928 figure, and the per capita output of electricity is 1.5 times greater than in Greece, 11 times more than in Iran and 22.5 times as much as in Pakistan. With the completion of the 2,700,000 kw Nurek Hydropower Station, Tajikistan will be generating several times more electricity than was produced in the whole of tsarist Russia in 1913.

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p There was virtually no industry in pre-Revolution Turkmenia, whereas today she has oil refineries, chemical, gas, building materials and other modern industries.

p The material and technical basis of agriculture in the Central Asian republics has also expanded tremendously. Primitive ploughs and seeders have been replaced with tens of thousands of tractors, cotton-pickers and grain combines, lorries and other farm machines.

p In the sphere of cultural development the achievements of the Union Republics are just as striking. The bulk of the population of tsarist Russia was illiterate, particularly in the border areas where only two per cent of the people could read and write. Today all Union Republics have their own universities and other institutions of higher learning training engineers, agronomists, teachers and other specialists.

p Since the Revolution about 50 nations and nationalities have evolved written languages. By offering people education in all fields, the Union Republics have accomplished a gigantic leap forward and not only caught up with but in many respects surpassed the capitalist countries. Suffice it to say that the number of students per 1,000 of population in Soviet Kirghizia, whose people had no written language, is larger than in France, Belgium or Italy. As regards the achievements of Soviet Turkmenia in this sphere, she has overtaken not only the countries of the Middle East, but also Britain, France and the Federal Republic of Germany.

p All the Union Republics have their own Academies of Sciences, hundreds of scientific and cultural institutions, and a large number of scientific and cultural workers; they have their own theatres and a broadly developed local language press.

p Reporting to the 23rd Congress of the C.P.S.U., Leonid Brezhnev said: “In recent years the political equality of the Union Republics and the friendship of the peoples of the U.S.S.R., achieved and steeled in the course of socialist construction, have been strengthened by economic equality. ... This is a vivid demonstration of the vitality of Lenin’s nationalities policy which has shown the whole world that socialism opens up before the peoples reliable ways of overcoming economic and other backwardness and 58 of becoming advanced, highly industrial socialist nations.”  [58•* 

p Further all-round economic development in the Union Republics and the flexible combination of their interests with the interests of the Soviet Union as a whole form the cornerstone of the Soviet nationalities policy and underlie the main targets of the new five-year economic development plan. Under this plan the Russian Federation and Azerbaijan, for example, have to produce a large portion of the Soviet Union’s oil, the Central Asian and Transcaucasian republics almost all the cotton, the Russian Federation, the Ukraine and Kazakhstan the bread, and so on. Each republic will develop industries for which it has the best raw material, technical and power resources. By boosting its economy and culture, each republic will make the maximum contribution towards the fulfilment of countrywide tasks.

p The new five-year economic development plan envisages a further significant rise of the economy and culture of all the Union Republics. Thus, the Russian Federation, the Ukraine, Latvia and Estonia will increase industrial production by about 50 per cent, Georgia, Azerbaijan, Uzbekistan, Kirghizia and Turkmenia by 60 per cent, Byelorussia, Kazakhstan, Lithuania and Moldavia by 70 per cent and Tajikistan and Armenia by 80 per cent.

p The plan also calls for a further improvement in the siting of the productive forces, the comprehensive development and specialisation of the Union Republics and of the economic areas, fuller involvement of the able-bodied population in production, and the correct co-ordination of planning for each territorial division with the branch principle of managing the economy. It is planned to improve economic relations between areas and republics. For this purpose some sections of the trunk railways are to be extended, the Central Siberian Railway is to be completed and new lines are to be built to link Central Asia up with the European part of the Soviet Union. The Central Asia—Centre and Western Siberia—European part of the U.S.S.R. gas pipelines are to be built.

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All these facts mirror the Soviet peoples’ community of vital interests which spring from the unity of the economic, political and ideological principles of the Soviet system.