Russian Soviet Federative Socialist Republic
The Russian SFSR adopts the name Russian Federation (Russia)
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Original prompt & settings (JSON) ↗Russia changed its legal name one day before the Soviet Union's final declaration of dissolution — and gave itself a whole year to replace the old stamps.
The listing gives a year; the law gives a day
On 25 December 1991 the RSFSR Supreme Soviet adopted Law No. 2094-1, directing that the state formerly called the Russian Soviet Federative Socialist Republic be called the Russian Federation (Russia).
The law treated “Russian Federation” and “Russia” as names for the same state, and it took effect on the day it was adopted.
Boris Yeltsin signed it. The signature block already styled him President of the Russian Federation.
New name on the letterhead, old stamps still allowed
The new name was required in official acts, documents, state-symbol wording, the names of government bodies, seals, stamps and letterheads.
The old forms — “Russian Soviet Federative Socialist Republic” and “RSFSR” — could nonetheless remain in official clerical use throughout 1992 while paperwork and seals were replaced.
The law also directed that matching constitutional amendments go to the Congress of People's Deputies; those were adopted on 21 April 1992.
A rename is not an independence declaration
The law changed the state's name. It did not declare or create Russian independence, and the state was not newly created by it. The text itself carries no political preamble.
The Soviet Union still formally existed on 25 December. Its Council of Republics declared the following day that the USSR had ceased to exist.
Sources
Researched 24 Aug 2026 4 sources not yet audited Date corrected
How this was checked
Researched from the web into a fact sheet and rewritten from that sheet. This article has not yet had an independent model audit. How the pipeline works →
Date corrected. The research places this at 1991-12-25.
What the sources leave uncertain
- The original listing gives only 1991, but the renaming law supplies the exact date: 25 December 1991.
- The statutory rename took effect immediately, but the RSFSR Constitution was not brought into line until amendments adopted on 21 April 1992. The different dates refer to different legal steps, not uncertainty about the law’s adoption.