Russian Federative Socialist Republic

The Russian Soviet Federative Socialist Republic (Russian: Российская Советская Федеративная Социалистическая Республика, tr. Rossiyskaya Sovetskaya Federativnaya Sotsialisticheskaya Respublika), commonly referred to as Soviet Russia, or simply Russia, is a socialist state on the Eurasian continent, governed as a single-party state by the Communist Party of the Soviet Russia with Moscow as its capital. It is a union of 83 federal subjects, but its government and economy is highly centralized. Soviet Russia is the largest country in the world, covering more than one-eighth of the Earth's inhabited land area. Soviet Russia is also the world's ninth most populous nation with 143 million people as of 2012. Extending across the entirety of northern Asia and much of Eastern Europe, Soviet Russia spans nine time zones and incorporates a wide range of environments and landforms.

The nation's history began with that of the East Slavs, who emerged as a recognizable group in Europe between the 3rd and 8th centuries AD. Founded and ruled by a Varangian warrior elite and their descendants, the medieval state of Rus arose in the 9th century. In 988 it adopted Orthodox Christianity from the Byzantine Empire, beginning the synthesis of Byzantine and Slavic cultures that defined Russian culture for the next millennium. Rus' ultimately disintegrated into a number of smaller states; most of the Rus' lands were overrun by the Mongol invasion and became tributaries of the nomadic Golden Horde. The Grand Duchy of Moscow gradually reunified the surrounding Russian principalities, achieved independence from the Golden Horde, and came to dominate the cultural and political legacy of Kievan Rus'. By the 18th century, the nation had greatly expanded through conquest, annexation, and exploration to become the Russian Empire, which was the third largest empire in history, stretching from Poland in Europe to Alaska in North America.

Following the Russian Revolution, the Russian Soviet Federative Socialist Republic became the largest and leading constituent of the Soviet Union, the world's first constitutionally socialist state and a recognized superpower, which played a decisive role in the Allied victory in World War II. The Soviet era saw some of the most significant technological achievements of the 20th century, including the world's first spacecraft, and the first astronaut. Following the dissolution of the Soviet Union in 1991, the Russian SFSR reconstituted itself as the Russian Federation but corruption and an unclear leadership carried Russia to a civil war that lasted two years from 1991 to 1992 and extended in one form or another most of the former Soviet republics and the Russian republics. There were also military operations in some of the eastern European nations in order to allow communist governments to retain the power. The war ended with a new Soviet Russia that became leader of the communist bloc. Since took power in 1992, the new Communist government was characterized by maintaining a mix of hard line on the political and flexibility in the economic and social matters and an approach to the Russian Orthodox Church. The new Russian model has been used as an example for many former communist countries that have been able to survive and form a new communist bloc around Russia.

Politics
Main article: Politics of the Soviet Russia

There are three power hierarchies in the Soviet Russia: the legislative branch represented by the Supreme Soviet of the Soviet Russia, the government represented by the Council of Ministers, and the Communist Party of the Soviet Russia(CPSR), the only legal party and the ultimate policymaker in the state.

Communist Party
Main article: Communist Party of the Soviet Russia

At the top of the Communist Party is the Central Committee, elected at Party Congresses and Conferences. The Central Committee in turn voted for a Politburo, Secretariat and the General Secretary, the de facto highest office in the USSR. The Politburo as a collective body and the General Secretary, who always is one of the Politburo members, are who effectively led the party and the country. They are not controlled by the general party membership, as the key principle of the party organization is democratic centralism, demanding strict subordination to higher bodies, and elections went uncontested, endorsing the candidates proposed from above.

The Communist Party maintain its dominance over the state largely through its control over the system of appointments. All senior government officials and most deputies of the Supreme Soviet are members of the CPSR. The institutions at lower levels are overseen and at times supplanted by primary party organizations.

In practice, however, the degree of control the party is able to exercise over the state bureaucracy is not total, with the bureaucracy pursuing different interests that are at times in conflict with the party. Nor is the party itself monolithic from top to bottom, although factions are officially banned.

Government
Main article: Government of the Soviet Russia

The Supreme Soviet of the Soviet Russia is nominally the highest state body. The powers and functions of the Supreme Soviet include the creation of new state commissions and committees, the approval of the Five-Year Plans and the Soviet Russia Budget. The Supreme Soviet elects a Presidium to wield its power between plenary sessions, ordinarily held twice a year, and appoint the Supreme Court, the Procurator General of the Soviet RussiaProcurator General and the Council of Ministers, headed by the Premier and managing an enormous bureaucracy responsible for the administration of the economy and society. State and party structures of the constituent federal bodies largely emulate the structure of the central institutions. Local authorities are organized likewise into party committees, local Soviets and executive committees. While the state system is nominally federal, the party is unitary.

Judicial system
Main articles: Law of the Soviet Russia

The judiciary is not independent of the other branches of government. The Supreme Court supervise the lower courts (People's Courts) and apply the law as established by the Constitution or as interpreted by the Supreme Soviet. The Constitutional Oversight Committee reviewed the constitutionality of laws and acts. The Soviet Russia use the inquisitorial system of Roman law, where the judge, procurator, and defense attorney collaborate to establish the truth.