Is Kazakhstan USSR's legal successor? (via Quora)

BY: Elena Gold 

USSR was a state made of 15 so called “Republics” with the capital in Moscow—when the Soviet Union collapsed in 1991, it was Russia that announced herself “the legal successor” of the USSR, keeping the privileged Soviet Union’s seat on the United Nations Security Council.

Moscow was the capital of both the Russian Socialistic Federative Soviet Republic and the USSR (Union of the Soviet Socialistic Republics).

RSFSR was also the largest republic of the USSR.

Kazakstan was the 2nd largest republic, with a total area of 2,724,900 square kilometers (1,052,000 square miles).

After the USSR was voluntarily dissolved by presidents of the Russian Socialistic Federative Soviet Republic, Ukrainian and Belarus SSR (Russia, Ukraine, and Belarus) in December 1991, the president of the USSR Gorbachev found himself a chief of state without a state.

The Russian Socialistic Federative Soviet Republic became “the Russian Federation,” in the same borders, with the same capital in Moscow.

It was natural for Moscow to claim they are the legal successor of the USSR, as all ruling state institutions were already there.

In reality, it was a power grab by Yeltsin who de facto became #1 man in Moscow instead of Gorbachev—the leader of Ukraine Kravchuk just got an affirmative vote on referendum for independence; so he naturally pushed for dissolution.

Kravchuk (left) managed to convince Yeltsin (right), and the third president at the meeting, Belarus leader Shushkevich (centre) simply agreed.

You can see Shushkevich isn’t quite sure, in the pictures from that day (Dec.8, 1991). But Yeltsin and Kravchuk convinced him.

So, 2 men instigated a crash of the state that was considered “an evil empire” for decades.

Great job.

Kazakhstan was the last of the Soviet republics to declare its independence from the USSR and secede—they did it only on December 16, 1991.

So, for a very short period, Kazakhstan indeed was the only republic within the USSR that didn’t declare independence.

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