Parade of sovereignties
Declarations of sovereignty by Soviet republics
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Union Republics
The first top-level Soviet republic to declare state sovereignty was the Estonian Soviet Socialist Republic on 16 November 1988. The other 14 Soviet republics would adopt similar declarations of state sovereignty within two years and one month of that, with the approval of Gorbachev’s government in Moscow. However, it would be the Lithuanian Soviet Socialist Republic that was the first to declare its full independence on 11 March 1990, after candidates endorsed by the opposition movement Sąjūdis had won an absolute majority of seats in the Supreme Soviet of Lithuania in the parliamentary elections of 24 February 1990. This went further than Gorbachev’s government had intended, and Moscow imposed an economic blockade on Lithuania to pressure it into revoking its declaration of independence.
The independence of the Baltic republics was recognized by the State Council of the USSR on September 6, 1991. The rest of the republics continued to formally remain part of the USSR until the adoption by the Council of the Republics of the Supreme Soviet of the USSR of a declaration on the termination of its existence on December 26, 1991.
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Autonomous units
The first lower-level subdivision to declare independence was the Nakhichevan Autonomous Soviet Socialist Republic on January 19, 1990, predating that of Lithuania by weeks.
Following the proposal of New Union Treaty by Gorbachev during the Communist Party Congress in July 1990, most of autonomous republics expressed the desire to be a party to the new treaty and declared sovereignty. The effort was ultimately futile due to the August Coup.
Russian SFSR
As most autonomous republics and oblasts self-declared promotion to Soviet Socialist Republics, Art. 71 and 72 of the Constitution of the RSFSR were amended on May 24, 1991 to recognize its autonomous republics as SSRs; it was further amended on July 3 to promote all its autonomous oblasts other than the Jewish Autonomous Oblast to SSRs.
All of them other than Tatarstan and the self-proclaimed Chechen Republic (Nokhchi-cho) in the defunct Checheno-Ingushetia agreed to sign the Treaty of Federation on 31 March 1992 and became republics of Russia. The self-proclaimed Yamalo-Nenets Republic gave up the claim and resumed the status of an autonomous okrug.
While the Mordovian ASSR and Dagestan ASSR self-declared promotion to SSRs on 7 December 1990 and 13 May 1991 respectively, they did not proclaim state sovereignty.
On August 15, 1990, the Khakas Autonomous Oblast adopted a resolution to transform the region into an ASSR and submitted a corresponding petition to the Supreme Soviet of the RSFSR.
On November 30, 1990, the Karachay-Cherkess Autonomous Oblast self-declared promotion to an SSR. From 1990 to 1991, there were attempts to split the region on an ethnic basis as the congresses of representatives of local nationalities proclaimed the Karachay Republic, the Republic of Cherkessia, the Abazin Republic, and the Upper Kuban Cossack Republic. In March 1992, a referendum was held in which the majority of the population spoke out against the division. Karachay-Cherkessia signed the Treaty of Federation on 31 March 1992.
Other republics
All autonomous units outside the Russian SFSR other than Adjarian ASSR declared sovereignty at some point. While some were reintegrated into the post-Soviet republic they were in peacefully relatively soon after, most in the South Caucasus region turned into long-time breakaways states.
Other entities
Some regions inside Moldavian Soviet Socialist Republic proclaimed republics within the Soviet Union that were not recognized. They declared independence from the Moldavian SSR and became de facto independent states upon the dissolution of the Soviet Union.