We, the undersigned Soviet members of the Transnational Radical Party - i. e., of the transparty, gandhian, antiauthoritarian, democratic, federalist, laic, non-violent international, - consider it is nesessary to declare our position in relation with the new Union pact published recently in press.

We proceed from the:

- conviction in the absolute priority of personal rights over any other rights, including rights of nations and States;

- justice of the nations self-determination for all peoples including those who don't and didn't posess their own State systems, demands;

- truth, obvious for us, that Soviet Union in it's present state is none other than imperial reconstructed by Stalin, where nations and peoples belonging to it are still deprived of national self-determination rights;

- conviction in the creation of United States of Europe - i.e., all the european contries and peoples (including Russia, Ukraine, Lithvenia, Georgia and other contries that were involved or annexed earlier to the USSR, union, - democratic, federalistic, based on the respect of all rights and personal liberties as the only way to democratic solution of economical, political, ecological, national and cultural problems which still affect our peoples.

We take in attention, that:

- deep constitutional crisis that has envolved USSR independently but side by side with the economical one, is natural consequence of the democratization and the refusal to adopt Stalinist methods to solve existing problems;

- one can not stop the yearning for national self-determination in the USSR, which was expressed, in particular, in the declarations of souverenity approved by all the Union republics and some autonomic republics;

- forceful opposition by the Centre to the deamnds for independence by the republics is fraught with disastrous consiquences not only for the USSR, but for the whole world association (especially in light of huge reserves of weapons of mass annihilation on it's territory);

- one is not able to ignore wide cultural and economical connections have been created between the republics in the USSR.

We declare:

1) The essence of the project of the new Union pact published in press is a late attempt to retain the the old unitarian State with only renovated facade.

2) The Union pact must be a basis for exceptionally free-will unification of the republics involved now in the USSR. It must be in accordance with the standards of international law and with the agreements about human rights.

3) Action of the old Union pact (from 1922 year) must be terminated, the old pact must be invalidated, and all of it's participators must receive formal status of independent States unless they decide to voluntarily join the new Union pact.

4) All mentions about the Constotution of the USSR must be eliminated from the Union pact text. It must be brought exceptionally to the republic competence sphere to approve their constitutions. Union pact must be the only legal document for the relationships between the Union republics regulation and powers confered by the republics to the Union determination.

5) Democratic constitutions approved by the republics must base on international agreements in sphere of human rights (particularly, the UNO Universal declaration of human rights and European convention of human rights) and give priority to the international-legal standarts over national low in the case they will be concurrent.

6) We consider the novel Union pact to be a provisional measure to act only till involvement of the Pact subjects into the United States of Europe.

Nikolaj KHRAMOV, member of the Radical Party, Moscow;

Alexandr PRONOZIN, member of RP, Moscow;

Natalia MIRIMANOVA, executive director of the Soviet-American Humanitarian Initiative, member of RP, Moscow;

Fedor CHUB, member of RP, Leningrad;

Ruslan SADYRHANOV, member of Council of the Radical Association Baku;

Dmitrij RADYSHEVSKIJ, member of RP, Moscow;

Kirill POPOV, member of International Society for Human Rights (ISHR) and member of RP;

Elena OVCHARENKO, member of RP;

Samir JAVADZADE, secretary of Radical Association Baku;

Zeinal IBRAGIMOV, member of Council of the Radical Association Baku;

Jonas CEKUOLIS, member of RP, Vilnius;

Mihail LAPYGIN, member of the People's Worker's Union of Russian Solidarity Supporters (NTS) and member of RP;

Elena ZAGORODNEVA, member of RP, Magadan;

Irina PODLESOVA, member of the Democratic Union, vice treasurer of RP for the Soviet Union.

Moscow, 10 December 1990