Soviet Nationality Policy and the New Program of the Communist Party of the Soviet Union

1963 ◽  
Vol 22 (1) ◽  
pp. 3 ◽  
Author(s):  
Alfred D. Low
Keyword(s):  
Soviet Union ◽  
Communist Party ◽  
Nationality Policy ◽  
The Soviet Union ◽  
Soviet Nationality Policy

The Soviet Union

2021 ◽  
pp. 1187-1216
Author(s):  
Geoffrey Hosking
Keyword(s):  
Soviet Union ◽  
Communist Party ◽  
Social Cohesion ◽  
Armed Forces ◽  
Federal State ◽  
Nationality Policy ◽  
Security Services ◽  
Main Form ◽  
The Soviet Union

The USSR was a unique empire in the universality of its claims and its aim of complete equality between nationalities. Its strengths and weaknesses were indissolubly connected. It was formally a federal state, with extensive rights given to constituent nationalities; in practice it was tightly centralized through Gosplan, the armed forces, the security services, and the Communist Party, with its messianic ideology. The USSR’s tight centralization ensured that in wartime it could mobilize social energy to an unprecedented extent, but also that in peacetime localized patronage became the main form of social cohesion. The economy was so rigidly planned as to discourage innovation, which meant that the USSR could not maintain its superpower status. Its nationality policy both encouraged ethnic feeling and repressed it. The final collapse was precipitated by the clash between the largest republic, Russia, and the Soviet Union as a whole.

scholarly journals Cultural Diversity and the Interwar Conjuncture: Soviet Nationality Policy in Its Comparative Context

2020 ◽  
Vol 19 (1) ◽  
pp. 16-46
Author(s):  
Peter A. Blitstein
Keyword(s):  
Soviet Union ◽  
Cultural Diversity ◽  
Eastern Europe ◽  
Eastern European ◽  
National Unity ◽  
Nationality Policy ◽  
Soviet Policy ◽  
The Soviet Union ◽  
New States ◽  
Soviet Nationality Policy

Soviet nationality policy was one of several political responses to cultural diversity in the interwar period. The author situates that policy in its comparative context, contrasting the Soviet Union to its eastern European neighbors and to British and French rule in Africa. Contrary to the nationalizing policies of the new states of eastern Europe, which sought national unity at the expense of ethnic minorities, Soviet nationality policy was initially based on practices of diff erentiation. Contrary to the colonial policies of Britain and France, which were based on ethnic and racial diff erentiation, Soviet policy sought to integrate all peoples into one state. In the mid-to-late 1930s, however, Soviet policy took a nationalizing turn similar to its neighbors in eastern Europe, without completely abandoning policies of ethnic diff erentiation. We should thus understand the Soviet approach as a unique hybrid of contradictory practices of nationalization and diff erentiation.

Cultural Diversity and the Interwar Conjuncture: Soviet Nationality Policy in Its Comparative Context

Slavic Review ◽  
2006 ◽  
Vol 65 (2) ◽  
pp. 273-293 ◽  
Author(s):  
Peter A. Blitstein
Keyword(s):  
Soviet Union ◽  
Cultural Diversity ◽  
Eastern Europe ◽  
Eastern European ◽  
National Unity ◽  
Nationality Policy ◽  
Soviet Policy ◽  
The Soviet Union ◽  
New States ◽  
Soviet Nationality Policy

Soviet nationality policy was one of several political responses to cultural diversity in the interwar period. Peter A. Blitstein situates that policy in its comparative context, contrasting the Soviet Union to its eastern European neighbors and to British and French rule in Africa. Contrary to the nationalizing policies of the new states of eastern Europe, which sought national unity at the expense of ethnic minorities, Soviet nationality policy was initially based on practices of differentiation. Contrary to the colonial policies of Britain and France, which were based on ethnic and racial differentiation, Soviet policy sought to integrate all peoples into one state. In the mid-to-late 1930s, however, Soviet policy took a nationalizing turn similar to its neighbors in eastern Europe, without completely abandoning policies of ethnic differentiation. We should thus understand the Soviet approach as a unique hybrid of contradictory practices of nationalization and differentiation

“Socialist in content, national in form:” the making of Soviet national art and the case of Buryatia

2017 ◽  
Vol 45 (3) ◽  
pp. 393-409 ◽  
Author(s):  
Maria Tagangaeva
Keyword(s):  
Soviet Union ◽  
Socialist Realism ◽  
Fine Art ◽  
Institutional Practices ◽  
Nationality Policy ◽  
Russian Culture ◽  
Cultural Divide ◽  
The Soviet Union ◽  
Scientific Institutions ◽  
Soviet Nationality Policy

This article examines the fine art of the Soviet national republics and its discourse in the Soviet Union, which were considerably shaped under the influence of socialist realism and Soviet nationality policy. While examining the central categories of Soviet artistic discourse such as the “national form,” “national distinctness,” and “tradition,” as well as cultural and scientific institutions responsible for the image of art of non-Russian nationalities, the author reveals the existence of a number of colonial features and discursive and institutional practices that foster a cultural divide between Russian and non-Russian culture and contribute to the marginalization of art. Special attention is paid to the implications of this discursive shaping for the local artistic scene in Buryatia.

The USSR as a Communal Apartment, or How a Socialist State Promoted Ethnic Particularism

Slavic Review ◽  
1994 ◽  
Vol 53 (2) ◽  
pp. 414-452 ◽  
Author(s):  
Yuri Slezkine
Keyword(s):  
Soviet Union ◽  
Nation Building ◽  
Conceptual Foundation ◽  
Nationality Policy ◽  
Socialist State ◽  
Successful Attempt ◽  
The Soviet Union ◽  
Soviet Nationality Policy

Soviet nationality policy was devised and carried out by nationalists. Lenin's acceptance of the reality of nations and "national rights" was one of the most uncompromising positions he ever took, his theory of good ("oppressed-nation") nationalism formed the conceptual foundation of the Soviet Union and his NEP-time policy of compensatory "nation-building" (natsional'noe stroitel'stvo) was a spectacularly successful attempt at a state-sponsored conflation of language, "culture," territory and quota-fed bureaucracy.

Vanguard of the Revolution

2019 ◽  
Author(s):  
A. James McAdams
Keyword(s):  
Soviet Union ◽  
Communist Party ◽  
Political Institutions ◽  
North Korea ◽  
Karl Marx ◽  
Modern World ◽  
The Soviet Union ◽  
History Of ◽  
The Revolution

This book is a sweeping history of one of the most significant political institutions of the modern world. The communist party was a revolutionary idea long before its supporters came to power. The book argues that the rise and fall of communism can be understood only by taking into account the origins and evolution of this compelling idea. It shows how the leaders of parties in countries as diverse as the Soviet Union, China, Germany, Yugoslavia, Cuba, and North Korea adapted the original ideas of revolutionaries like Karl Marx and Vladimir Lenin to profoundly different social and cultural settings. The book is essential reading for anyone seeking to understand world communism and the captivating idea that gave it life.

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