Soviet scientists pay great attention to studying the history of the formation of the USSR 1 . Further development of this topic requires the involvement of new sources, primarily those that give an idea of the patterns of mass processes that took place during the creation of a single multinational Soviet state. Such information is available, in particular, in the materials of the highest authorities of the USSR, including in the questionnaires of delegates to the congresses of Soviets. Within the framework of the scientific program for processing personal data of delegates to all congresses of Soviets, in which a large team of researchers takes part2, the author of this work analyzed the composition of delegates to the First and Second Congresses of Soviets of the USSR 3 . Data on the composition of delegates are published in appendices to verbatim reports (preliminary summaries) and in separate publications (updated results) .4 Researchers rarely turn to their analysis, and yet the information capabilities of this source are very significant .5Some modern methods of processing this data, including computers and mathematical methods, were used to make more extensive use of data on the composition of delegates to congresses. After performing a series of preparatory operations (preliminary analysis of the questionnaire form and the nature of delegates ' responses, preparation of coding classifiers, encoding of questionnaire data, and transferring these data to computer storage media), we were able to judge the circumstances of the lives and activities of people who voted for the formation of the USSR a little more than 60 years ago and adopted the first all-Union Constitution. We processed 2,241 applications for the First Congress, and 2,136 applications for the second Congress . The results of processing the questionnaires give the following picture of representation in the four Union republics: at the First Congress 1 See Khromov S. S. Historical experience of educ ... Читать далее