A chronicle of state associations on the territory of Russia during the Revolution and the Civil War (1917-1922)
Authors:   Tomsk State University (Tomsk, Russian Federation), Zinoviev Vasily P. ,   University of Tyumen
Published: February 2023

The article analyzes the collapsing of the Russian Empire and the formation of the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics. The process is presented as a chronicle of the creation and liquidation of state formations from 28 February 1917 to 30 December 1922 on the territory of the country, including Poland, Finland and the territories of Turkey and Austria, where Russian troops were stationed. The chronicle records the formation of 150 different authorities that claimed to be all-Russian or regional power, organized by Russian political forces or interventionist troops. The chronicle is based on information from encyclopedias and reference books. Statistics on the creation of organizations show that state construction was most intensive in 1917 (24 new formations were created), 1918 (60), and 1918 (22). During this three-year period, Anti-Bolshevik forces were more active than others and formed 50 governments, interventionists formed 17 governments, the Soviet authorities established 31 states. Some governments claimed the all-Russian status -- the Omsk government of Alexander Kolchak, the Special Meeting of Anton Denikin, the Government of the South of Russia of Pyotr Wrangel. The governments of the RSFSR, Ukraine, Belarus, Lithuania, Finland, Poland, Latvia, Estonia, Georgia, Azerbaijan, Armenia, Khiva and Bukhara had nationwide claims. Most of the governments were regional and opportunistic, formed by local political and military circles, which were supported by the Whites, the Reds, or the interventionists. In 1920-1922, anti-Soviet forces were able to organize 4 governments, the interventionists 1, the construction of Soviet state structures was confidently underway = 32 states of different levels and 3 democratic state structures were created in the Far East under the control of the Bolsheviks. The result of state construction on 30 December 1922 recorded 7 sovereign states (USSR, Finland, Estonia, Latvia, Lithuania, Poland, the Tannu-Tuva People's Republic) and two governments without territory - the Belarusian People's Republic and the Karelian United government in Vyborg. The Soviet Union was a unique, extremely complex state entity: it included 4 union republics - the RSFSR, the Transcaucasian Socialist Federative Soviet Republic, the Ukrainian SSR, the Belarusian SSR. The Transcaucasian SFSR consisted of the Azerbaijani SSR, the Armenian SSR and the union of the Georgian SSR and the Abkhaz SSR. In addition, formally, the Soviet Union did not include two People's Soviet republics - Bukhara and Khorezm, with which the RSFSR had union treaties. The USSR included 2 labor communes, 8 autonomous republics and 12 autonomous regions. The basis of Soviet state-building was the principle of national self-determination. The Soviet experience of assembling a single state is now in demand again due to the growth of nationalism on the territory of the former USSR and the desire of Russia's geopolitical opponents to use it to destroy the country and seize its resources.