The
Russian Soviet Federative Socialist Republic (
Russian SFSR or
RSFSR; ) commonly referred to as
Soviet Russia or simply as
Russia, was a
sovereign state in 1917–22, the largest, most populous, and most economically developed
republic of the
Soviet Union in 1922–91 and a
sovereign part of the Soviet Union with own legislation in 1990–91. The Republic comprised sixteen
autonomous republics, five
autonomous oblasts, ten
autonomous okrugs, six
krais, and forty
oblasts.
Russians formed the largest
ethnic group. To the west it bordered
Finland,
Norway and
Poland; and to the south,
China,
Mongolia and
North Korea whilst bordering the
Arctic Ocean to the north, the
Pacific Ocean to the east and the
Black sea and
Caspian Sea to the south. Within the USSR, it bordered the
Baltic republics (Lithuania, Latvia and Estonia), the
Byelorussian SSR and the
Ukrainian SSR to the west. To the south it bordered the
Georgian,
Azerbaijan and
Kazakh SSRs.