First volume of the Great Soviet Encyclopedia published

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 First State Great Khural proclaimed the Mongolian People’s Republic and adopted its first constitution, abolishing the monarchy after the Bogd Khan’s death. Mongolia was not a Soviet republic, but...

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 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...

Japanese troops completed their withdrawal from northern Sakhalin under the 1925 Soviet-Japanese settlement, restoring Soviet control over the territory. Japan retained economic concessions in oil and...

The Soviet Union and Turkey signed a treaty of neutrality and non-aggression, extending diplomatic ties between two states formed from former Russian and Ottoman imperial spaces. The pact served...