Russian Soviet Federative Socialist Republic
The
Russian Soviet Federative Socialist Republic, commonly referred to as
Soviet Russia, the
Russian Federation, or simply
Russia, was a sovereign state and the largest, most populous, and most economically developed republic of the Soviet Union. The Republic comprised sixteen autonomous republics, five autonomous oblasts, ten autonomous okrugs, six krais, and forty oblasts. Russians formed the largest ethnic group. The RSFSR was established on November 7, 1917 as a sovereign state. The first Constitution was adopted in 1918. In 1922 Russian SFSR signed the Treaty on the Creation of the USSR. The economy of Russia became heavily industrialized, accounting for about two-thirds of the electricity produced in the USSR. It was the third largest producer of petroleum, trailing only the United States and Saudi Arabia. In 1974, there were 475 institutes of higher education in the republic providing education in 47 languages to some 23,941,000 students. A network of territorially-organized public-health services provided health care.