95 years ago, on December 30, 1922, the First All-Union Congress of Soviets approved the Treaty on the Formation of the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics, signed by the delegations of the Russian Federation, the Transcaucasian Federation, the Ukrainian SSR and the Byelorussian SSR. Clause 26 of the treaty secured "the right of the republics to freely secede from the USSR." The Council of People's Commissars of the USSR and the allied people's commissariats (ministries) were created only on July 6, 1923.