Mongolia becomes a republic and adopts its first constitution

The first Party Congress after Lenin’s death opened amid a leadership struggle and debates over party growth, discipline and economic policy. The meeting marked a transition in party leadership and...

The Sino-Soviet agreement restored diplomatic relations and declared that tsarist-era treaties affecting Chinese sovereignty would be reviewed or annulled. It addressed the Chinese Eastern Railway and...

The Politburo approved a plan to redraw Central Asia’s administrative map around designated national republics and autonomous regions. The plan proposed Uzbek and Turkmen republics and a...

An armed uprising began in Georgia against Soviet rule, drawing on opposition to the loss of independence, coercive state policy and restrictions on political life. Soviet security forces crushed...

The Central Executive Committee approved the reorganization of Central Asia, establishing the Uzbek and Turkmen SSRs and a Tajik autonomous republic within Uzbekistan. The reforms dismantled the...

The USSR and Japan signed the Basic Convention establishing diplomatic relations and agreeing on the evacuation of Japanese troops from northern Sakhalin. The settlement restored Soviet sovereignty...

The first volume of the Great Soviet Encyclopedia appeared, part of a project to organize knowledge and define a new socialist account of society and history. The encyclopedia reflected real expansion...

The Tajik ASSR was formally proclaimed within the Uzbek SSR after national delimitation assigned Tajik-majority areas to an autonomous unit inside a larger Uzbek republic. The new institution gave...

The Fourteenth Party Conference debated the pace of industrial development and the prospects for building socialism within the USSR. Stalin and his allies argued that socialism could be built in one...

The Uzbek and Turkmen republics were formally admitted to the USSR as union republics. Their new status gave them constitutional institutions and a nominal right to secede, while union ministries...