TERRITORIAL AUTONOMY

TERRITORIAL AUTONOMY, legal status of a territory, which has its special life and ethnic composition, economic integrity and peculiarities of historical development, defined by the Constitution. The term determines independent administration of a given territory. In the USSR, Т.а. was built on ethnic grounds and existed in both political and administrative forms. In the early 1990s, the concept of an ‘autonomous republic’ was excluded from the Constitution of the RSFSR. Instead, the notion of a ‘republic within the RSFSR’ was introduced. According to the Constitution of the Russian Federation 1993, the republics, autonomous areas (okrug) and autonomous regions (oblast), as well as the territories (krai), regions (oblast) and cities with federal status — all received the status of equal constituent entities of the Russian Federation. In November 1917, Bashkir Central Shuro declared “the Bashkir territory of Orenburg, Ufa, Samara and Perm Guberniyas... an autonomous part of the Russian Republic”. In December, the 3rd All-Bashkir Kurultay (Congress) approved Т.а. of Bashkortostan and  formed  the  Bashkir  Government. The All-Russia Government headed by A.V.Kolchak would not acknowledge the Bashkir Government, thus on February 18th 1919, the Bashkortostan Government had to defect to the Soviet Power, which had declared the right of nations to selfdetermination. According to the Agreement of the Central Soviet Power with the Bashkir Government on the Soviet Autonomous Bashkiriya, Bashkortostan acquired the status of the Autonomous Republic (ref. Malaya Bashkiriya). In the 2nd half of the 1980s — early 1990s, the BASSR, like other republics, began to seek to upgrade its political and economic status. On October 11th, 1990, the Supreme Council of the BASSR adopted the Declaration on the Sovereignty of the Bashkir Soviet Socialist Republic. The status and the name of the Republic were changed. Based on the BSSR Law On Changing the Name of the Bashkir Soviet Socialist Republic State (February 25th, 1992), the Republic, for the first time in its history, received the name of the Republic of Bashkortostan. According to the Constitution of the RB, the Republic of Bashkortostan is a democratic legal state within the RF.