Аннотация:The article is devoted to the study of transitional processes in the transformation of thestate and law. On the example of Azerbaijan, the genesis of the concepts of "selfdetermination","people's sovereignty" and "state sovereignty", which were included in the1995 Constitution of the Republic of Azerbaijan, is examined. New documents, not previouslyintroduced in the scientific literature, such as the draft treaty on the establishment of the Unionof Democratic Republics, prepared by the Azerbaijan SSR, and letters of the President of theRepublic to President of USSR M.S.Gorbachev are used. The archive documents of 1990/91show Azerbaijan's unyielding and uncompromising struggle for sovereignty and integrity ofthe Republic.