Russian SFSR in the context of "Kazan"

The Union of Soviet Socialist Republics (USSR), commonly known as the Soviet Union, was a transcontinental country that spanned much of Eurasia from 1922 until it dissolved in 1991. During its existence, it was the largest country by area, extending across eleven time zones and sharing borders with twelve countries, and the third-most populous country. An overall successor to the Russian Empire, it was nominally organized as a federal union of national republics, the largest and most populous of which was the Russian SFSR. In practice, its government and economy were highly centralized. As a one-party state governed by the Communist Party of the Soviet Union (CPSU), it was the flagship communist state. Its capital and largest city was Moscow.

The Soviet Union's roots lay in the October Revolution of 1917. The new government, led by Vladimir Lenin, established the Russian SFSR, the world's first constitutionally communist state. The revolution was not accepted by all within the Russian Republic, resulting in the Russian Civil War. The Russian SFSR and its subordinate republics were merged into the Soviet Union in 1922. Following Lenin's death in 1924, Joseph Stalin came to power, inaugurating rapid industrialization and forced collectivization that led to significant economic growth but contributed to a famine between 1930 and 1933 that killed millions. The Soviet forced labour camp system of the Gulag was expanded. During the late 1930s, Stalin's government conducted the Great Purge to remove opponents, resulting in large scale deportations, arrests, and show trials accompanied by public fear. Having failed to build an anti-Nazi coalition in Europe, the Soviet Union signed a non-aggression pact with Nazi Germany in 1939. Despite this, in 1941 Germany invaded the Soviet Union in the largest land invasion in history, opening the Eastern Front of World War II. The Soviets played a decisive role in defeating the Axis powers while liberating much of Central and Eastern Europe. However they would suffer an estimated 27 million casualties, which accounted for most losses among the victorious Allies. In the aftermath of the war, the Soviet Union consolidated the territory occupied by the Red Army, forming satellite states, and undertook rapid economic development which cemented its status as a superpower.

The Congress of People's Deputies of the Russian SFSR (Russian: Съезд народных депутатов РСФСР) and since 1992 Congress of People's Deputies of the Russian Federation (Russian: Съезд народных депутатов Российской Федерации) was the highest organ of state authority in the Russian SFSR and in the Russian Federation from 16 May 1990 to 21 September 1993. Elected on 4 March 1990 for a period of five years, it was dissolved (without constitutional authority) by presidential decree during the Russian constitutional crisis of 1993 and ended de facto when the Russian White House was attacked on 4 October 1993. The Congress played an important role in some of the most important events in the history of Russia during this period, such as the declaration of state sovereignty of Russia within the USSR (June 1990), the rise of Boris Yeltsin, and economic reforms.

The Commonwealth of Independent States (CIS) is a regional intergovernmental organisation in Eurasia. It was formed following the dissolution of the Soviet Union in 1991. It covers an area of 20,368,759 km (7,864,422 sq mi) and has an estimated population of 246,200,194. The CIS encourages cooperation in economic, political, and military affairs and has certain powers related to the coordination of trade, finance, lawmaking, and security, including the prevention of cross-border crime.

As the Soviet Union disintegrated, Belarus, Russia, and Ukraine signed the Belovezha Accords on 8 December 1991, declaring that the Union had effectively ceased to exist and proclaiming the CIS in its place. On 21 December, the Alma-Ata Protocol was signed, but Estonia, Latvia, and Lithuania chose not to participate. Georgia withdrew its membership in 2008 following a war with Russia. Ukraine formally ended its participation in CIS statutory bodies in 2018, although it had stopped participating in the organisation in 2014 following the Russian annexation and occupation of Crimea. In the aftermath of the 2022 Russian invasion of Ukraine, Moldova voiced its intention to progressively withdraw from the CIS institutional framework.

The Union of Russia and Ukraine Tercentenary or the Reunification of Ukraine with Russia Tercentenary (Russian: 300-летие воссоединения Украины с Россией, 300-letiye vossoyedineniya Ukrainy s Rossiyei; Ukrainian: 300-річчя возз'єднання України з Росією) was a republic-wide celebration within the Soviet republics of Russia and Ukraine, starting in February 1954, in celebration of the union between Russia and Ukraine formed by the 1654 Pereiaslav Agreement.

In preparation for the event, a special Republican commission for commemoration of the union between Russia and Ukraine Tercentenary was formed, headed by the First Secretary of the Communist Party of Ukraine Alexei Kirichenko. A three-volume body of documents and materials titled as "Reunification of Ukraine with Russia" was published in 1953 in Moscow, prepared jointly by the History Institute of the Academy of Sciences of the Soviet Union, History Institute of the Academy of Sciences of the Ukrainian SSR, and the Ukrainian Directorate of Archives, and included 747 documents of the period between 1620 and 1654. The materials were prepared by a group of Soviet Russian and Ukrainian historians organized in 1952 and approved by the Central Committee of the Communist Party of the Soviet Union.

The Ukrainian People's Republic of Soviets (Ukrainian: Українська Народна Республіка Рад, romanized: Ukrainska Narodna Respublika Rad; Russian: Украинская Народная Республика Советов, romanized: Ukrainskaya Narodnaya Respublika Sovetov) was a short-lived (1917–1918) Soviet republic of the Russian SFSR that was created by the declaration of the Kharkiv All-Ukrainian Congress of Soviets "About the self-determination of Ukraine" on 25 December [O.S. 12 December] 1917 in the Noble Assembly building in Kharkov. Headed by the Provisional Workers' and Peasants' Government of Ukraine formed earlier in Russian Kursk. The republic was later united into the Ukrainian Soviet Republic and, eventually, liquidated, because of a cessation of support from the government of the Russian SFSR when the Treaty of Brest-Litovsk was signed.

Bashkortostan, officially the Republic of Bashkortostan, sometimes also called Bashkiria, is a republic of Russia between the Volga river and the Ural Mountains in Eastern Europe. The republic borders Perm Krai to the north, Sverdlovsk Oblast to the northeast, Chelyabinsk Oblast to the east, Orenburg Oblast to the south, Tatarstan to the west and Udmurtia to the northwest. It covers 143,600 square kilometres (55,400 square miles). It is the seventh-most populous federal subject in Russia and the most populous republic. Its capital and largest city is Ufa. As of 2025, it has a population of 4,046,094.

Bashkortostan was established on 28 November [O.S. 15 November] 1917. On 20 March 1919, it was transformed into the Bashkir ASSR, the first autonomous republic in the Russian SFSR. On 11 October 1990, it adopted the Declaration of State Sovereignty. In the Constitution of Bashkortostan and Constitution of Russia, Bashkortostan is defined as a state.

Kaliningrad Oblast (Russian: Калининградская область, romanized: Kaliningradskaya oblastʹ) is the westernmost federal subject of Russia. It is a semi-exclave on the Baltic Sea within the historical Baltic region of Prussia, bordered by Poland to the south, Lithuania to the north and east, and the Baltic Sea to the west. The largest city and administrative centre is the city of Kaliningrad. The port city of Baltiysk is Russia's only port on the Baltic Sea that remains ice-free in winter. Kaliningrad Oblast had a population of roughly one million in the 2021 Russian census. It has an area of 15,125 square kilometres (5,840 sq mi).

Various peoples, including Lithuanians, Germans, and Poles, lived on the land which is now Kaliningrad. The territory was formerly the northern part of East Prussia. With the defeat of Nazi Germany in World War II, the territory was annexed to the Russian SFSR by the Soviet Union. Following the post-war migration and flight and expulsion of Germans, the territory was populated with Soviet citizens, mostly Russians.

The Treaty of Brest-Litovsk was a separate peace treaty signed on 3 March 1918 between Soviet Russia and the Central Powers (Germany, Austria-Hungary, the Ottoman Empire, and Bulgaria), by which Russia withdrew from World War I. The treaty, which followed months of negotiations after the armistice on the Eastern Front in December 1917, was signed at Brest-Litovsk (now Brest, Belarus).

The Soviet delegation was initially headed by Adolph Joffe, and key figures from the Central Powers included Max Hoffmann and Richard von Kühlmann of Germany, Ottokar Czernin of Austria-Hungary, and Talaat Pasha of the Ottoman Empire. In January 1918, the Central Powers demanded secession of all occupied territories of the former Russian Empire. The Soviets sent a new peace delegation led by Leon Trotsky, which aimed to stall the negotiations while awaiting revolutions in Central Europe. A renewed Central Powers offensive launched on February 18 captured large territories in the Baltic region, Belarus, and Ukraine and forced the Soviet side to sue for peace.