Declaration of State Sovereignty (1991)

The Declaration of State Sovereignty was adopted by the Supreme Soviet of the Iradi SSR on October 9, 1991. It declared the republic independent of the Soviet Union and reconstituted it as the Socialist Republic of Irad (SRI), with its government in Kobozev (now Nurzhan) and Vasily Chernov, First Secretary of the Communist Party of Irad, at its head.^[1]

The declaration followed the failed coup attempt in Moscow in August 1991, and the Communist Party of Irad prepared it to secure its own position as Union institutions collapsed. Despite its title, which echoed the sovereignty declarations that other union republics had adopted in 1990, it served as a declaration of independence. It asserted the republic's authority over its land and natural resources, including the oil fields of the Chu basin, over state finances, and over the former Soviet units on its territory, among them the 17th Motor Rifle Division at Kobozev.^[2]

The national movement that had emerged during the 1989 bread riots criticized the declaration as a maneuver by the communist leadership to keep power, since it was not followed by free elections or the legalization of opposition parties. The Soviet Union was dissolved on December 26, 1991. Within months the SRI was overtaken by the Winter Uprising of 1992, and on March 11, 1992 the Provisional Government in Talas proclaimed the Republic of Irad, beginning the First Iradi Civil War.^[2] October 9 is not a public holiday in Irad; the national holiday is Irad Day on March 11.

References

1. ^ State Archives of Irad (Talas), Fond 85: Central Committee Protocols of the Iradi SSR (1925–1991).
2. ^ Eurasian Political Quarterly (2017). 'Talas Besieged: The First Iradi Civil War Twenty-Five Years On.' Vol. 24, Iss. 1, pp. 33–58.