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The Russian Soviet Federative Socialist Republic ( ), commonly referred to as Soviet Russia, Bolshevik Russia, or simply Russia, was the largest, most populous and economically developed republic in the former Soviet Union. The Soviet regime, governed by the Bolsheviks, first came to power on 7 November 1917-immediately after the Russian Provisional Government, which governed the Russian Republic, was overthrown in the October Revolution. Initially, the state did not have an official name and wouldn't be recognized by neighboring countries for five months. On 25 January 1918-at the third meeting of the All-Russian Congress of Soviets-the unrecognized state was renamed the Soviet Russian Republic. On 3 March 1918 the Treaty of Brest-Litovsk was signed, giving away much of the land of the former Russian Empire to Germany, in exchange for peace in World War I. On 10 July 1918 the Russian Constitution of 1918 renamed the country the Russian Socialist Federative Soviet Republic. By 1918, during the Russian Civil War, several states within the former Russian Empire seceded, reducing the size of the country even more. The RSFSR was recognized as an independent state internationally by only Estonia, Finland, Latvia, and Lithuania, in the Treaty of Tartu in 1920. On 30 December 1922-with the creation of the Soviet Union-Russia became one of six republics within the federation of the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics. Russian Soviet Federative Socialist Republic-the final name of the Soviet era for the republic-was adopted in the Soviet Constitution of 1936. On 25 December 1991-following the collapse of the Soviet Union-it was renamed the Russian Federation, which it remains to this day. The Republic comprised 16 autonomous republics, five autonomous oblasts, 10 autonomous okrugs, six krais, and 40 oblasts. Russians formed the largest ethnic group. The RSFSR economy was heavily industrialized. The RSFSR accounted for about two-thirds of the electricity production in the USSR. It was the third largest producer of oil, 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. Health care was provided through a network of territorially organized public health services. |