Independence: 1721 (Russian Empire proclaimed)
Constitution: 7 October 1977
Legal system: civil law system as modified by Communist legal theory; no judicial review of legislative acts; has not accepted compulsory ICJ jurisdiction
National holiday: Great October Socialist Revolution, 7-8 November (1917)
Executive branch: president
Legislative branch: the Congress of People's Deputies is the supreme organ of USSR state power and selects the bicameral USSR Supreme Soviet (Verkhovnyy Sovyet) which consists of two coequal houses—Council of the Union (Sovet Soyuza) and Council of Nationalities (Sovet Natsionalnostey)
Judicial branch: Supreme Court of the USSR
Leaders:
Chief of State—President Mikhail Sergeyevich GORBACHEV
(since 14 March 1990; General Secretary of the Central Committee of the
Communist Party since 11 March 1985);
Head of Government—Chairman of the USSR Council of Ministers
Nikolay Ivanovich RYZHKOV (since 28 September 1985)
Political parties and leaders: only party—Communist Party of the Soviet Union (CPSU), President Mikhail Sergeyevich Gorbachev, general secretary of the Central Committee of the CPSU; note—the CPSU is the only party, but others are forming