Soviet republic

A soviet republic (from Russian: советская республика, romanized: sovetskaya respublika), also called a council republic, conciliar republic or sovietic republic, is a republic in which the government is formed of soviets (workers' councils) and politics are based on soviet democracy. During the Revolutions of 1917–1923, various revolutionary workers' movements across Europe declared independence or otherwise formed governments as soviet republics.

Although the term is usually associated with the republics of the Soviet Union, it was not initially used to represent the political organisation of the Soviet Union, but merely a system of government under the Communist Party of the Soviet Union (CPSU). This form of government was based on the principle of unified state power, in which all powers are vested in a supreme organ of state power, the Supreme Soviet of the Soviet Union. There were no separation of powers in the Soviet Union throughout its existence. All state organs were elected by, answerable to, and have no separate powers than those granted to them by the Supreme Soviet. By law, all elections at all levels adhered to the leadership of the CPSU prior to demokratizatsiya in the 1980s.