In 1914 administrative divison of Russian Empire have 81 governorates (guberniyas), 20 oblasts, and 1 okrug. Emirate of Bukhara, the Khanate of Khiva and Tuva was Russian vassals or protectorates (c) Wikipedia
And this got me curious. After October Revolution of 1917 and Civil War, Soviet leaders have drastically changed administrative divisons of former Empire: 14 SSRs (after 1945) and Russian SFSR.
But why they created USSR with Russia and 14 SSRs, instead of one big Russian Soviet Federation?
Isn't the best way to rule USSR - to keep just one solid country? I mean - USSR have central government and planned economy. All major decisions came from Moscow. Why the hell you split it up?
PS: also in current Ukraine crisis Russian media and even officials occasionally tell about how one country (Russian Empire) was torn out by commies, how Lenin created never existed countrys on Russian soil. So I want to undestand how true is this statement.
The Soviet policy on nationalities was conceived by Joseph Stalin in his work Marxism and the National Question.
The basic idea was to encourage the promotion of representatives of titular nations of Soviet republics and national minorities on lower levels of the administrative subdivision of the state, into local government, management, bureaucracy and nomenklatura in the corresponding national entities.
This was basically a nuanced form of affirmative action, designed to counter the chauvinistic and imperialist policies of the Czarist regime.
This wouldn't have been possible in a unitary state. Most of the bureaucracy and political elite would remain ethnically Russian, which would create tensions and conflict between various ethnicities in the USSR. More info: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Korenizatsiya
How Lenin created never existed countrys on Russian soil
The Donetsk-Krivoy Rog republic was incorporated into Ukraine by Lenin, even though the region was mostly Russian speaking.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/DonetskâKrivoy_Rog_Soviet_Republic
From one perspective, this was a stupid idea that made no sense. But from another perspective, the addition of the Donetsk-Krivoy Rog SR, a major working class industrial center into the largely agrarian Ukrainian SSR heavily Russified and Sovietified Ukraine. It depends how you look at it.