Autonomous Soviet Socialist Republics (ASSRs) of the Soviet Union were administrative units created for certain nations. The ASSRs had a status lower than the union republics of the Soviet Union, but higher than the autonomous oblasts and the autonomous okrugs. In the Russian SFSR, for example, Chairmen of the Government of the ASSRs were officially members of the Government of the RSFSR. Unlike the union republics, the autonomous republics did not have a right to disaffiliate themselves from the Union. The level of political, administrative and cultural autonomy they enjoyed varied with time - it was most substantial in the 1920s (Korenizatsiya), the 1950s after the death of Stalin, and in the Brezhnev era.

Azerbaijan SSR

• Nakhchivan ASSR, now Nakhchivan

Georgian SSR

• Abkhaz ASSR, now Abkhazia
• Adjar ASSR, now Adjara

Russian SFSR

The 1978 Constitution of the RSFSR recognized sixteen autonomous republics within the RSFSR. Their current status (as of October 2007) within the Russian Federation is given in parentheses:

• Bashkir ASSR (now Republic of Bashkortostan)
• Buryat ASSR (now Buryat Republic)
• Chechen-Ingush ASSR (now Chechen Republic and Republic of Ingushetia)
• Chuvash ASSR (now Chuvash Republic)
• Dagestan ASSR (now Republic of Dagestan)
• Kabardino-Balkar ASSR (now Kabardino-Balkar Republic)
• Kalmyk ASSR (now Republic of Kalmykia)
• Karelian ASSR (now Republic of Karelia)
• Komi ASSR (now Komi Republic)
• Mari ASSR (now Mari El Republic)
• Mordovian ASSR (now Republic of Mordovia)
• Northern Ossetian ASSR (now Republic of North Ossetia-Alania)
• Tatar ASSR (now Republic of Tatarstan)
• Tuva ASSR (now Tuva Republic)
• Udmurt ASSR (now Udmurt Republic)
• Yakut ASSR (now Sakha (Yakutia) Republic)

Gorno-Altai Autonomous Oblast (now Altai Republic) was promoted to the ASSR status in 1991, in the last year of the Soviet Union, thus becoming the seventeenth ASSR.

Other autonomous republics also existed within RSFSR at earlier points of the Soviet history:

• Chechen-Ingush ASSR (1936-1944, 1957-1990)
• Crimean ASSR (October 18, 1921 – June 30 1945; now the Autonomous Republic of Crimea within Ukraine)
• Kabardino-Balkar ASSR (1936-1944, renamed Kabardin ASSR in 1944-1957, restored as Kabardino-Balkar ASSR in 1957-1991)
• Karelian ASSR (1923-1940, 1956-1991)
• Kazakh ASSR (1925-1936), now the independent state of Kazakhstan )
• Kirghiz ASSR (1926-1936), now the independent states of Kazakhstan and Kyrgyzstan)
• Mountanous ASSR (1922-1924) broken up into several smaller Northern Caucasus Republics
• Turkestan ASSR (1918-1924), now the independent states of Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Tajikistan, Turkmenistan, and Uzbekistan)
• Volga German ASSR (1918-1941)

Ukrainian SSR

• Moldavian ASSR (1924-1940). In 1940, it was separated into Moldavian SSR (now the independent state of Moldova).
• Crimean ASSR (February 12, 1991 – ). Crimea Oblast was promoted to the ASSR status following a referendum held on January 20, 1991 (now Autonomous Republic of Crimea).

Uzbek SSR

• Karakalpak ASSR, now Karakalpakstan

See also

• Autonomous oblasts of the Soviet Union
• Autonomous okrugs of the Soviet Union