The 1924 Soviet Constitution legitimated the December 1922 Treaty on the Creation of the USSR between the Russian SFSR, the Ukrainian SSR, the Belarusian SSR, and the Transcaucasian SFSR to form the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics.
In essence, it was but an expansion of the Treaty, as most of the key points were already outlined there. The Constitution contained the identical to the Treaty Declaration, reflecting the current world order, and the common good causes of such a Union, allowing for a potential expansion.
Whereas the original Treaty contained only 26 articles, the Constitution now encompassed 72, divided into eleven chapters. Ratified by the Second Congress of Soviets of the Soviet Union 31st of January 1924, it survived six editions, before being superseded by the 1936 Soviet Constitution.
It established the Congress of Soviets to be the supreme body of state authority, with the Central Executive Committee holding this authority in the interim. The Central Executive Committee is divided into the Soviet of the Union, which would represent the constituent republics, and the Soviet of Nationalities, which would represent the interests of nationality groups. The Presidium of the Central Executive Committee served as the collective presidency. Between sessions of the Central Executive Committee, the Presidium supervised the government administration. The Central Executive Committee also elected the Sovnarkom, which served as the executive arm of the government.
Famous quotes containing the words soviet and/or constitution:
“If the Soviet Union can give up the Brezhnev Doctrine for the Sinatra Doctrine, the United States can give up the James Monroe Doctrine for the Marilyn Monroe Doctrine: Let’s all go to bed wearing the perfume we like best.”
—Carlos Fuentes (b. 1928)
“Can you conceive what it is to native-born American women citizens, accustomed to the advantages of our schools, our churches and the mingling of our social life, to ask over and over again for so simple a thing as that “we, the people,” should mean women as well as men; that our Constitution should mean exactly what it says?”
—Mary F. Eastman, U.S. suffragist. As quoted in History of Woman Suffrage, vol. 4 ch. 5, by Susan B. Anthony and Ida Husted Harper (1902)