The 15 union republics had government structures, nominally elected by the population, that largely ran in parallel to those of the central government. The economic concerns of the republics were of lower priority than those of the USSR government, and all republic activities were checked and, if need be, amended from above. Further restraint was applied by the organs of the CPSU: Each republic but the RSFSR had a republic-level Central Committee, Politburo, and Secretariat subordinated to the Kremlin (the seat of the CPSU and Soviet government) in Moscow. Because the union republics were accountable for educational and cultural services, residents often identified them as defenders of republic interests and identities. This perception became highly important when Gorbachev’s reforms led to the weakening of the authority of the central administration in the late 1980s.

Beneath the union republics was an elaborate web of regional and local authorities.