Supreme Soviet in the context of "Council democracy"

Soviet democracy, also called council democracy, is a type of democracy in Marxism, in which the rule of a population is exercised by directly elected soviets (workers' councils). Soviets are directly responsible to their electors and bound by their instructions using a delegate model of representation. Such an imperative mandate is in contrast to a trustee model, in which elected delegates are exclusively responsible to their conscience. Delegates may accordingly be dismissed from their post at any time through recall elections. Soviet democracy forms the basis for the soviet republic system of government. This model has influenced anarchist-communist theorists, who have adopted federalist council democracy for its focus on bottom-up self-administration.

In a soviet democracy, people are organized in basic units; for example, the workers of a company, the inhabitants of a district, or the soldiers of a barracks. They directly elect delegates as public functionaries, which act as legislators, government, and courts in one. Soviets are elected on several levels; at the residential and business level, delegates are sent through plenary assemblies to a local council which, in turn, delegates members to the next level. This system of delegation (indirect election) continues to a body such as the Congress of Soviets or the Supreme Soviet at the state level. The electoral processes thus take place from the bottom upward. The levels are usually tied to administrative levels. In contrast to earlier democratic models à la John Locke and Montesquieu, no separation of powers exists in soviet democracy.

The Verkhovna Rada (/vərˈkɒvnə ˈrɑːdə/ vər-KOV-nə RAH-də; VR), officially the Verkhovna Rada of Ukraine, is the unicameral parliament of Ukraine. It consists of 450 deputies presided over by a speaker. The Verkhovna Rada meets in the Verkhovna Rada building in Ukraine's capital, Kyiv.

The Verkhovna Rada developed out of the systems of the republican representative body known in the Soviet Union as the Supreme Soviet (Supreme Council), which was first established on 26 June 1938 as a type of legislature of the Ukrainian SSR after the dissolution of the Congress of Soviets of the Ukrainian SSR.

The Supreme Soviet of the Russian SFSR, later the Supreme Soviet of the Russian Federation, was the highest organ of state authority of the Russian SFSR from 1938 to 1990; between 1990 and 1993, it was the permanent organ of the Congress of People's Deputies of the Russian Federation.

The Supreme Soviet of the Russian SFSR was established to be similar in structure to the Supreme Soviet of the USSR in 1938, replacing the All-Russian Congress of Soviets as the highest organ of power of Russia.

The Ministry of Foreign Affairs of the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics (Russian: Министерство иностранных дел СССР) was founded on 6 July 1923. It had three names during its existence: People's Commissariat for Foreign Affairs (1923–1946), Ministry of Foreign Affairs (1946–1991) and Ministry of External Relations (1991). It was one of the most important government offices in the Soviet Union. The Ministry was led by the Minister of Foreign Affairs prior to 1991, and a Minister of External Relations in 1991. Every leader of the Ministry was nominated by the Chairman of the Council of Ministers and confirmed by the Presidium of the Supreme Soviet, and was a member of the Council of Ministers.

The Ministry of External Relations negotiated diplomatic treaties, handled Soviet foreign affairs along with the International Department of the Communist Party of the Soviet Union (CPSU) and aided in the guidance of world communism and anti-imperialism, both strong themes of Soviet policy. Before Mikhail Gorbachev became CPSU General Secretary, the organisational structure of the MER mostly stayed the same. As many other Soviet agencies, the MER had an inner-policy group known as the Collegium, made up of the minister, the two first deputy ministers and nine deputy ministers, among others. Each deputy minister usually headed his own department.

Declaration of State Sovereignty of Bashkortostan was a document declaring the political and economic autonomy of the Bashkir Autonomous Soviet Socialist Republic from the Soviet Union. The Declaration was adopted on 11 October 1990 at the third session of the Supreme Soviet of the Bashkir ASSR. The former Bashkir ASSR is today the Republic of Bashkortostan, a federal subject of Russia. The declaration of Bashkortostan’s sovereignty was effectively rescinded following the decision of the Constitutional Court of the Russian Federation in June 2009 to strike out all language mentioning regional sovereignty from regional constitutions and laws as contradictory to the Constitution of the Russian Federation.

The Supreme Soviet of the Azerbaijan SSR, later renamed as the Supreme Soviet of the Azerbaijan Republic from 1991 until its abolition in 1995, was the supreme soviet (main legislative institution) of the Azerbaijan SSR, and later the Republic of Azerbaijan. The Supreme Soviet officially disbanded in 1995 when a semi-presidential system was implemented.