List of socialist states

The following is a list of self-declared socialist countries — that is to say, past and present countries which have declared themselves to be socialist or in the process of building socialism. Self-identification is the only criterion used by the list. Therefore, all countries that claimed to be socialist are included, even if their claims are disputed. All countries that did not claim to be socialist are excluded, even in cases where those countries were considered socialist by certain outside observers.

The majority of self-declared socialist countries have been Marxist–Leninist states inspired by the example of the Soviet Union. They share a common definition of "socialism" and they refer to themselves as socialist states on the road to communism. For this reason, they are generally called "communist states" by Western sources. Meanwhile, the countries in the Non-Marxist–Leninist category represent a wide variety of different interpretations of the word "socialism." In many cases, they do not define what they mean by it.

A sovereign state is a different entity from the political party which rules that state at any given time. Thus, a country may be ruled by a socialist political party but without the country itself claiming to be socialist. This has occurred in both single-party and multi-party political systems. In particular, there are numerous cases of democratic socialist political parties winning elections in liberal democratic states and ruling for a number of terms until a different party wins the elections. For example, the Swedish Social Democratic Party has won most elections in Sweden since 1945, but the country never adopted socialism as its official ideology. This article does not list countries that do not have constitutional references to socialism, even in cases where those countries happen to be governed by socialist parties for a certain period of time.

On the other hand, countries that do maintain constitutional references to socialism are always listed, even when those countries are ruled by non-socialist political parties. For example, India is a liberal democracy that has been ruled by non-socialist parties on many occasions, but it is listed here because the Indian constitution makes references to socialism.

Ephemeral
These are short-lived political entities that emerged during wars or revolutions (mostly in the aftermath of World War I) and declared themselves socialist under some interpretation of the term, but did not survive long enough to create a stable government or achieve international recognition.


 * Alsace Soviet Republic (November 9–22, 1918)
 * Asturian Socialist Republic (October 5–18, 1934)
 * Azerbaijan People's Government (November 1945 – December 1946)
 * Bavarian Soviet Republic (April 6 – May 3, 1919)
 * Saxony Soviet (November, 1918 - March 14, 1919)
 * Bessarabian Soviet Socialist Republic (May – September 1919)
 * Socialist Republic of Chile (4 June - 2 October 1932)
 * Provisional Government of the Republic of China (January 1, 1912 - March 11, 1912)
 * Chinese Soviet Republic (November 7, 1931 - October 10, 1934)
 * People's Revolutionary Government of the Republic of China (November 22, 1933 - January 13, 1934)
 * Donetsk-Krivoy Rog Soviet Republic (February 12 – May 1918)
 * Commune of the Working People of Estonia (November 29, 1918 – June 5, 1919)
 * Finnish Socialist Workers' Republic (January 28 – April 29, 1918)
 * Finnish Democratic Republic (December 1939 - March 1940)
 * Galician Soviet Socialist Republic (July 8 – September 21, 1920)
 * National Revolutionary Council of Gambia (July 30, 1981 - August 5, 1981)
 * Free Socialist Republic of Germany (November 9, 1918 – August 11, 1919)
 * Hunan Soviet (1927)
 * Hungarian Soviet Republic (March 21 – August 6, 1919)
 * People's Republic of Korea (September 6, 1945 - February, 1946)
 * Provisional People's Committee for North Korea (February, 1946 - September 9, 1948)
 * Limerick Soviet (April 15–27, 1919)
 * Latvian Socialist Soviet Republic (December 17, 1918 - January 13, 1920)
 * Lithuanian-Byelorussian Soviet Socialist Republic (February 27 – August 25, 1919)
 * Republic of Mahabad (January 22 – December 15, 1946)
 * Mughan Soviet Republic (March – June 1919)
 * Soviet Republic of Naissaar (December 1917 – February 26, 1918)
 * Odessa Soviet Republic (January 31 – March 13, 1918)
 * Paris Commune (March 18 – May 28, 1871, first socialist republic in history)
 * Persian Socialist Soviet Republic (June 9, 1920 – September 1921)
 * Political Committee of National Liberation (March 10, 1944 - August 28 1949)
 * Provisional Revolutionary Government of the Republic of South Vietnam (June 8, 1969 – June 2, 1976)
 * Slovak Soviet Republic (June 16 – July 7, 1919)
 * Democratic Republic of Yemen (May 21 – July 7, 1994)
 * Nghe-Tinh Soviet (1930-1931)