2 ms·
> The Soviet Union was still a union of different countries. Calling it "a union" may be a bit misleading for people who don't know Russia's history. The count
by badpun 3y ago
> The Soviet Union was still a union of different countries.
Calling it "a union" may be a bit misleading for people who don't know Russia's history. The countries in USSR were formerly (before the Bolschevik revolution) territories of the Russian Empire, which were conquered by Russia and then mostly held against people's will.
The Soviet Republics, created after the Revolution, were artificial creations, as they were completely powerless (all power was coming exclusively from Moscow). They were created to sell the international public opinion on the idea of USSR being the universal "worker's republic", containing many nations, which will soon be joined by Soviet republics of Poland, Germany, France etc.
- epolanski 3y agoIf the legal status of the soviet union wasn't a federal union, it's constituents could've not broke up by the end of the 80s. Legal status matters, even when it is a facade. Another example: even though power was very centralized in Mussolini's hands in Italy, Italy was still a monarchy and the king could depose Mussolini in 1943. Also, the fact that power was very centralized, does not change the fact that countries still operated autonomously and there's no reason to believe censuses would not be counted differently in the different republics.