Buryat-Mongolian ASSR in the system of federal relations: 1917-1937

Domestic federalism has undergone a number of substantial changes since its inception, which, unfortunately, were not always evolutionary in nature. Some unresolved problems and imperfections of domestic federalism have their origins in the stage of its formation. The need to appeal to the history of the formation of federalism in our country is due to the fact that its analysis can provide a key to solving these problems and help to find the most optimal model of federalism. The article explores the history of the formation of federalism in the USSR by the example of the Buryat-Mongol Autonomous Soviet Socialist Republic in the early period (from 1917 to 1937). Materials and methods: the achievement of research objectives was achieved through a comprehensive analysis of the legislation in force at that time in which the foundations of Soviet federalism were fixed, as well as the theoretical developments of Soviet jurists of the 1st half of the 20th century. The methodology of the work includes the application of both general scientific methods (analysis, observation, generalization, comparison, description) and special methods of legal science, including historical-legal and formal-legal. Results of the study: the study clearly shows how the local forms of governance were brought to structural uniformity, brought together into a single system and the creation of mechanisms of interaction between the center and the regions. Findings and conclusions: the author concludes that the adoption of the Constitution of the RSFSR in 1925 marked the transition from actually federal to “phantom” federal (or federated in the Soviet interpretation) relations. At the same time, according to the author, these “ghostly” federal relations contributed to the progressive development of a number of nations that did not previously have their own statehood and received a certain similarity within which they could solve the problems of developing their culture.