Autonomous Soviet Socialist Republics (ASSRs) of the Soviet Union were administrative units created for certain nations. The ASSRs had a status lower than the union republics of the Soviet Union, but higher than the autonomous oblasts and the autonomous okrugs. In the Russian SFSR, for example, Chairmen of the Government of the ASSRs were officially members of the Government of the RSFSR. Unlike the union republics, the autonomous republics did not have a right to disaffiliate themselves from the Union. The level of political, administrative and cultural autonomy they enjoyed varied with time - it was most substantial in the 1920s (Korenizatsiya), the 1950s after the death of Stalin, and in the Brezhnev era.1
The 1978 Constitution of the RSFSR recognized sixteen autonomous republics within the RSFSR. Their current status (as of October 2007) within the Russian Federation is given in parentheses:
