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Template:Republicanism sidebar People's republic is an official title that is mostly used by current and former communist states, as well as other left-wing governments.<ref>{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation |CitationClass=web }}</ref> It is mainly associated with soviet republics, socialist states following the doctrine of people's democracy, sovereign states with a democratic-republican constitution that usually mentions socialism, as well as some countries that do not fit into any of these categories.
A number of the short-lived socialist states that formed during World War I and its aftermath called themselves people's republics. Many of these sprang up in the territory of the former Russian Empire, which had collapsed in 1917 as a result of the Russian Revolution. Decades later, following the Allied victory in World War II, the name "people's republic" was adopted by some of the newly established Marxist–Leninist states, mainly within the Soviet Union's Eastern Bloc.
As a term, people's republic is associated with socialist states as well as communist countries adhering to Marxism–Leninism, although its use is not unique to such states. A number of republics with liberal democratic political systems such as Algeria and Bangladesh adopted the title, given its rather generic nature, after popular wars of independence. Nonetheless, such countries still usually mention socialism in their constitutions.Template:Citation needed
Non-Marxist–Leninist people's republicsEdit
The collapse of the European empires during and following World War I resulted in the creation of a number of short-lived non-Marxist–Leninist people's republics during the revolutions of 1917–1923. In many cases, these governments were unrecognised and often had Marxist–Leninist rivals.
The Russian Empire produced several non-Marxist–Leninist people's republics after the October Revolution. The Crimean People's Republic was opposed to the Bolsheviks and the latter went on to capture its territory and establish the Taurida Soviet Socialist Republic.<ref>Template:Cite book</ref> The anti-Bolshevik Kuban People's Republic was established in Russia's Kuban region and survived until the Red Army captured the area.<ref>Template:Cite book</ref> The socialist-leaning Ukrainian People's Republic declared its independence from the Russian Republic, but it had a rival in the Ukrainian People's Republic of Soviets (later the Ukrainian Soviet Republic) whom it fought during the Ukrainian War of Independence.<ref>Template:Cite book</ref> The Belarusian People's Republic tried to create an independent Belarusian state in land controlled by the German Imperial Army, but the Socialist Soviet Republic of Byelorussia replaced it once the German army had left. All of these territories finally became constituent parts of the Soviet Union.Template:Sfn
In the former Austro-Hungarian Empire, the West Ukrainian People's Republic was formed in eastern Galicia under the political guidance of Greek Catholic, liberal and socialist ideologies. The territory was subsequently absorbed into the Second Polish Republic.Template:Sfn Meanwhile, the Hungarian People's Republic was established, briefly replaced by the Hungarian Soviet Republic and eventually succeeded by the Kingdom of Hungary.<ref>Template:Cite book</ref>
In Germany, the People's State of Bavaria (Template:Langx)Template:Efn was a short-lived socialist state and people's republic formed in Bavaria during the German Revolution of 1918–1919 as an attempt to establish a socialist state to replace the Kingdom of Bavaria. Its supporters clashed with the Bavarian Soviet Republic, founded five months later, before revolutionary activity was put down by elements of the German Army and the paramilitary Freikorps. The Free State of Bavaria, a state within the Weimar Republic, was then established on 15 September 1919.<ref>Template:Cite journal</ref>
During the 1960s and 1970s, a number of former colonies that had gained independence through revolutionary liberation struggles adopted the name people's republic. Examples include Algeria,<ref>Template:Cite book</ref> Bangladesh<ref>Template:Cite book</ref> and Zanzibar.<ref>Template:Cite book</ref> Libya adopted the termTemplate:Efn after its Al Fateh Revolution against King Idris.<ref>Template:Cite book</ref>
In the 2010s, Ukraine's pro-Russian separatist movements during the Russo-Ukrainian War declared the oblasts of Donetsk and Luhansk to be people's republics, but they did not receive diplomatic recognition from the international community.<ref>Template:Cite news</ref> In 2022 amid an ongoing invasion of Ukraine they were annexed by Russia.<ref>{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation |CitationClass=web }}</ref>
List of non-Marxist–Leninist people's republicsEdit
Current non-Marxist–Leninist people's republics include:
- Template:Flagicon People's Democratic Republic of Algeria (since 1962)
- Template:Flagicon People's Republic of Bangladesh (since 1971)
Historical people's republics include:
- Template:Flag (1918–1919; partially recognized)
- Template:Flagicon Crimean People's Republic (1917–1918; unrecognized)
- Template:Flag (2014–2022; partially recognized)
- Template:Flagicon People's Revolutionary Republic of Guinea (1958–1984)
- Template:Flag (1918–1919; unrecognized)
- Template:Flagicon People's Republic of Korea (1945–1946)
- Template:Flagicon Kuban People's Republic (1918–1920; unrecognized)
- Template:Flagicon image Democratic People's Republic of Angola (1975–2002; partially recognized)
- Template:Flagicon Great Socialist People's Libyan Arab Jamahiriya (1977–2011)
- Template:Flag (2014–2022; partially recognized)
- Template:Flag (1917–1921; partially recognized)
- Template:Flag (1918–1919; joined the Ukrainian People's Republic)
- Template:Flagicon People's Republic of Zanzibar (1963–1964)
Marxist–Leninist people's republicsEdit
{{#invoke:Labelled list hatnote|labelledList|Main article|Main articles|Main page|Main pages}} Template:Socialism sidebar Template:Marxism–Leninism sidebar The first people's republics that came into existence were those formed following the Russian Revolution. Ukraine was briefly declared a people's republic in 1917.<ref>Template:Cite book</ref> The Khanate of Khiva<ref>Template:Cite book</ref> and the Emirate of Bukhara,<ref>Template:Cite book</ref> both territories of the former Russian Empire, were transformed into people's republics in 1920. In 1921, the Russian protectorate of Tuva became a people's republic,<ref>Template:Cite book</ref> followed in 1924 by neighbouring Mongolia.<ref>Template:Cite book</ref> Following World War II, developments in Marxist–Leninist theory led to the appearance of people's democracy, a concept which potentially allowed for a route to socialism and dictatorship of the proletariat via multi-class, multi-party democracy. Countries which had reached this intermediate stage were called people's republics.<ref>Template:Cite book</ref> The European states that became people's republics at this time were Albania,<ref>Template:Cite book</ref> Bulgaria,<ref>Template:Cite book</ref> Czechoslovakia,<ref>Template:Cite book</ref> Hungary,<ref>Template:Cite book</ref> Poland,<ref>Template:Cite book</ref> Romania<ref>Template:Cite book</ref> and Yugoslavia.<ref>Template:Cite book</ref> In Asia, China became a people's republic following the Chinese Communist Revolution,<ref>{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation |CitationClass=web }}</ref> and North Korea also became a people's republic.<ref>Template:Cite book</ref>
Many of these countries also called themselves socialist states in their constitutions. During the 1960s, Romania and Yugoslavia ceased to use the term people's in their official names, replacing it with the term socialist as a mark of their ongoing political development. Czechoslovakia also added the term socialist into its name during this period. It had become a people's republic in 1948, but the country had not used that term in its official name.<ref>Template:Cite book</ref> Albania used both terms in its official name from 1976 to 1991.<ref>Template:Cite book</ref> In the West, these countries are often referred to as communist states. However, none of them described themselves in that way, as they regarded communism as a level of political development that they had not yet reached.<ref name="The Economics of Socialism after World War Two: 1945-1990">Template:Cite book</ref><ref>Template:Cite book</ref><ref>Template:Cite book</ref><ref name="Williams 1983 289">Template:Cite book</ref> Terms used by communist states include national-democratic, people's democratic, socialist-oriented and workers and peasantsTemplate:' states.<ref>Template:Cite book</ref> The communist parties in these countries often governed in coalition with other progressive parties.<ref>Template:Cite bookTemplate:Dead link</ref>
During the postcolonial period, a number of former European colonies that had achieved independence and adopted Marxist–Leninist governments took the name people's republic. Angola,<ref>{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation |CitationClass=web }}</ref> Benin, Congo-Brazzaville,<ref>Template:Cite book</ref> Ethiopia,<ref>Template:Cite book</ref> Cambodia,<ref>Template:Cite book</ref> Laos,<ref>Template:Cite book</ref> Mozambique<ref>Template:Cite bookTemplate:Dead link</ref> and South Yemen<ref>Template:Cite book</ref> followed this route. Following the Revolutions of 1989, the people's republics of Central and Eastern Europe (namely Albania,<ref>Template:Cite book</ref> Bulgaria,<ref>Template:Cite book</ref> Hungary,<ref>Template:Cite book</ref> and Poland<ref name="PWN_historia">Template:Cite encyclopedia</ref>), as well as Mongolia,<ref>Template:Cite book</ref> dropped the term people's from their names due to the term's association with their former communist governments, and became known simply as republics, adopting liberal democracy as their system of government.<ref>Template:Cite journal</ref> At around the same time, most of the former European colonies that had taken the people's republic name began to replace it as part of their move away from Marxism–Leninism and towards democratic socialism or social democracy.<ref>Template:Cite book</ref><ref>Template:Cite book</ref>
List of Marxist–Leninist people's republicsEdit
The current officially Marxist–Leninist states that use the term people's republic in their full names include:
- Template:Flagicon People's Republic of China (since 1949)
- Template:Flagicon Lao People's Democratic Republic (since 1975)
- Template:Flagicon Democratic People's Republic of Korea (since 1946)
Historical examples include:
- Template:Flagicon People's Republic of Albania (1946–1976) and People's Socialist Republic of Albania (1976–1991)
- Template:Flagicon People's Republic of Angola (1975–1992)
- Template:Flagicon People's Republic of Benin (1975–1990)
- Template:Flagicon image Bukharan People's Soviet Republic (1920–1925)
- Template:Flagicon People's Republic of Bulgaria (1946–1990)
- Template:Flagicon People's Republic of the Congo (1969–1992)
- Template:Flagicon People's Democratic Republic of Ethiopia (1987–1991)
- Template:Flagicon image Hungarian People's Republic (1949–1989)
- Template:Flagicon People's Republic of Kampuchea (1979–1989)
- Template:Flagicon image Khorezm People's Soviet Republic (1920–1925)
- Template:Flagicon Democratic People's Republic of Korea (1948–1992/2009)Template:Efn
- Template:Flagicon Mongolian People's Republic (1924–1992)
- Template:Flagicon People's Republic of Mozambique (1975–1990)
- Template:Flagicon image Polish People's Republic (1944; 1952–1989)
- Template:Flagicon Romanian People's Republic (1947–1965)
- Template:Flag (1921–1944)
- Template:Flagicon image Ukrainian People's Republic of Soviets (1917–1918) (united into the Ukrainian Soviet Republic)
- Template:Flagicon People's Democratic Republic of Yemen (1967–1990)
- Template:Flagicon Federal People's Republic of Yugoslavia (1945–1963)
Other titles commonly used by Marxist–Leninist and socialist states are democratic republic (e.g. the German Democratic Republic, the Somali Democratic Republic, or the Democratic Federal Yugoslavia between 1943 and 1946) and socialist republic (e.g. the Czechoslovak Socialist Republic and the Socialist Republic of Vietnam).
21st centuryEdit
Presently five countries use the phrase People's Republic in their official names:
- Template:Flagicon People's Democratic Republic of Algeria
- Template:Flagicon People's Republic of Bangladesh
- Template:Flagicon People's Republic of China
- Template:Flagicon Lao People's Democratic Republic
- Template:Flagicon Democratic People's Republic of Korea
Other usesEdit
As a term, people's republic is sometimes used by critics and satirists to describe areas perceived to be dominated by left-wing politics, such as the People's Republic of South Yorkshire.<ref>{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation |CitationClass=web }}</ref><ref>{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation |CitationClass=web }}</ref><ref>Template:Cite news</ref><ref>{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation |CitationClass=web }}</ref><ref>Template:Cite news</ref><ref>Template:Cite news</ref><ref>Template:Cite news</ref><ref>Template:Cite news</ref><ref>{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation |CitationClass=web }}</ref>
See alsoEdit
- Bolivarianism
- Decolonization
- Democratic republic
- Islamic republic
- List of republics
- List of socialist states
- Narodniks
- Populism