The Ukrainian Soviet Socialist Republic (Ukrainian SSR; Ukrainian: Українська Радянська Соціалістична Республіка, Українська РСР; Russian: Украинская Советская Социалистическая Республика, Украинская ССР; see "Name" section below), commonly called Ukraine or Soviet Ukraine, was a sovereign Soviet socialist state (Article 68, Constitution of Ukraine 1978) and one of the fifteen constituent republics of the Soviet Union from its inception in 1922 to its breakup in 1991.
Although the Ukrainian SSR was a founding member of the United Nations, its foreign affairs were tightly controlled by the Kremlin. Upon the Soviet Union's dissolution and perestroika, the Ukrainian SSR was transformed into the modern nation-state of Ukraine, although Ukraine's new constitution was only ratified on June 28, 1996.
Throughout its 72-year history, the republic's borders changed many times, with a significant portion of what is now Western Ukraine being annexed by Soviet forces in 1939 and the addition of formerly Russian Crimea in 1954. From the start, the eastern city of Kharkiv served as the republic's capital. However, in 1934, the seat of government was subsequently moved to the city of Kiev, which remained the capital of newly-independent Ukraine.
Geographically, the Ukrainian SSR was situated in Eastern Europe to the north of the Black Sea, bordered by the Soviet republics of Moldova, Belarus, and Russia. The Ukrainian SSR's border with Czechoslovakia formed the Soviet Union's western-most border point. With the Soviet Census of 1989, the republic's population consisted of 51,706,746 inhabitants, although the population would fall sharply after the breakup of the Soviet Union.
Read more about Ukrainian Soviet Socialist Republic: Name, Politics and Government, Religion, Administrative Divisions, Urbanisation
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