** war and social upheaval: Soviet Union multi-national empire








The Soviet Union: Multi-National Empire


Figure 1.--expression of nationalist sentiment was severely supressed in the Soviet Union. One of the few exception was colorful national costumes and folk dancing. Here we see some children in folk costumes. Also note the Young Pioneers. Tese colorful displays provided photographic eye candy, but the variously ethnic-based repunlicsd had no real politicalmor economic poewre. All imprtant decisions were made in Moscow.

At the time of World War I, most of Wurope was controlled by three great empires -- the Ausro-Hungarian, German, and Tsarist Empires. Each of these empires faced a natioanlities problem, especially the by the 20th century with the ruse of nationalism. A fourth great empire, the Ottoman Empire had lost most of its Europeamn territory because of natioanlist movemrnts in the Balkans. World War I would be set off by natioanlist agitation--the assaination of Arch-Duke Franz Ferdinand. After the War the Bolshevik Revolution, Lenin would seek to gain control over the territory of the Tsarist Empire. Except for Finland, the Baltics, and Poland, he was remanrkably successful. This meant he inherited the nationalities problem that had proved so distuctive to the old empires. His solution was continued by Stalin. The supression of virtually all nationalist expression while at the same time the country was divided into ethically based republics giving the appearance of a nationalist existence. The only real natiomalist expression allowed was basically eye candy--costuming and dancing. The 16 different republics (the number varied over time) had no real power. The country and economy was centrally controlled from Moscow. This continued after World War II when Stalin regained control of Poland and the Baltics. (The Baltics and oarts of Poland were annexed. Ultinately, Lenin's and Stalin's sollution would prove to be a huge mistake. The people od the Soviet Union apparently took the various republic's seriously, in part because thatey were etnically based. As the Soviet Socialist econmy stagnated and largely failed in comparison to the Capitalist West, opposition to the Soviert system coalessed around these ethnically based republics. All this had been held in check by Lenin's and Stalin's brutally efficent police and Gulag. The KGB and its presecors were highly efficient in supressing natioanlist expression. This led to the appearnce that natioanlist thought had been sucessfully extinguished. Khrushchev had began to limit the power of the KGB. But Gorbachev in particular significantly curtailed the use of force. He did not take the nationality problem seriously. But without the use of force thae natioanlity issue exploded. Ths process began in the Soviet Eastern European Empire, especially Poland. But spread to the Sovit Union itself, at first most pronounced in the Baltics. Then Ukranians voted for independence. None of the different republics voted to continue ties with Russia. Only Belarus where the old Communist leadership remained in power and Stalin had been particularly effective in suoressung nationalist expression had Russian conections and showed showed some affity with Russdia.

Great Empires

At the time of World War I, most of Europe was controlled by three great empires -- the Ausro-Hungarian, German, and Tsarist Empires. Britain was an empire, but its imperial possessions were outside of Europe. Each of these empires faced a natioanlities problem, especially the 20th century with the rise of nationalism. Britain was devloping a real democracy. Aystrian and Germany were more athoritarian. Tsarist Russia was still an absolutist power. Overhalf of the population nof the Tsarist Empire was non-Russians, but the Russian rethnic population was huge--about 45 opercent. [Russian Inperial Census] The response to nationalism varied. The Russians had the largest problem and the Tsarisdt approach to the issue was led by Tsar Alexanfer III and was an intensifiacation of Russification. An effort that achieved only limited success. The result was substantial emigration, particularly to America. Realtively little emigration came from the Russian ethinic areas. The Tsarist policies weere espcailly brutal toward Jews with terrible pogroms. The result was massive Jewish emigration. There also was substantial Polish emigration. As a result of the Polish Partitions (18th century), the Tsarist Empire controlled most of Poland. Most Polish emigration came fron the Tsarist cintrolled areas. A fourth great empire, the Ottoman Empire had lost most of its Europeamn territory because of natioanalist movemrnts in the Balkans.

World War I (1914-18)

World War I would be set off by natioanlist agitation--the assaination of ustrian Arch-Duke Franz Ferdinand in Bosnia. One result of the War was the destruction of the mot only the Austro-Hungarian and Otoman Empire, but the end of Tsarist rule. The Germamn Empire lost much of its Polish territories in the East and its French territiories in the West. Even more imprtant is how the Germans help set off the Russian Revolution. The Tsarist Empire was the largest of the greast empires in area and population. And they controlled the greatest number of ethnic groups, some of which had string nationalist movemets. Most Westerrners are undersdtandably nore familiar with the Western than yhe Eastern Front. The Eastern Front was very different than the WEestern Front. It was a war of movement, not trench wearfare. The Germans achieved great victories and acquired territoroes in the East. But it mean that substantial forces ere diverted from the rstern Front. This despite having the strongest army in the world, they were unable to land a knockout blow and win the War. Meanwhile athe economy and civilans were suffering extemner privationsd on yhe Home Front. The Gernans trandported Lenin and his Bolshevik associates throuhj Germany to neutral Sweden. They then arrived in Lennigrad at Finland Statiin. The Tsar had alreasy been overthrown. But the Germnns calculated that the Bolshviks would be the final step in knocking Russia out of the War. Then the Germans could conentrate their forces in the West for the final war winning offensive. The War of Attrtion was eating away at Germany, compeling them to emnd the War. President Wilson in America was promoting a negotiated settlement. The Kaiser and his advisers chose a military solution.

Russian Revolution (1917)

After the War and the Bolshevik Revolution, Lenin would seek to gain control over the territory of the Tsarist Empire. He wand Triotsky, who commanded the Red Army, were remarkably successful. The non-Russian areas of the Empire attempted to achieve independence after the Revolution. The Red Army built by Trotsky managed to piece back together most of the Tsarist Empire during and after the Civil War. This included all of Central sia nand mosdt sugnificantly, Ukraine. Only Finland, the Baltics, Poland, and a small area of Romania managed to remain outside of Soviet control. This involved several new countries, but a small fraction of th territory and population of the Tsarist Empire. The retention of most of the Tsarist Empire meant that Lenin and the Bolsheviks inherited the natioanalities problem that had proved so distuctive to the old empires, ncluding the Tsarist Empire..

Lenin's Nationalties Solution

The Bolsheviks prevailed in the Russian Revolution and the Civil War that followed it. But Lenin's goal was not to destroy the Tsarist Empire, he simply wanted to replace Tsarist control with Bolshevik control. While railing against imperaialism, Lennin in fact wanted to maintain the Tsar's vast empire. This meant an empire in which only about half the population was ethnic Ruissians. The ethnid balance had changed slightly bcauuse of thr loss of territorrybin the West. The Russian ethnic balance was now over over 50 percent. [Soviet Censuses] The rest of the Soviet Empire was a complex mix of other nationalities, ethnic groups, lamnguages, and religions. The Russians shared Slavic etnicuty wiyh Belarus and Ukeaine, but not with the rest of the Sovietnpopulation. Lenin solutions was the supression of virtually all nationalist expression, an eden more brutal campaign of Russification than ever attempted by the Tsars. While at the same time the country was divided into ethically based republics giving the appearance of a nationalist existence. His solution was continued by Stalin with even greater brutality. Constitutionally the Soviet Union emerged as a federation of suposed republics with substantial powers. In fact it was an even more centralized state than the Tsarist system it replaced. The ideology of the state was the international Communist movement. This meant that natioinalism had to be supressed, especially non-Russian nationalism. Thus nationalism in each of the various republics had to be supressed. And various waves of suppressionm as various nationalities over time were eitherr shot or committed to the expanding Gulag. [Solzhenitsyn, pp. 51ff.] Interestingly it was Stalin who most fiercely suppresed the nationalities and he was Georgian. Expression of non-Russian nationalist seniment was actively supressed. Russian nationalism was not strongly promoted, although this varied over time. There was a revival of Russian nationalism during the Great Patriotic War. The only real nationalist expression allowed was basically eye candy--costuming and dancing. The 16 different republics (the number varied over time) had no real power. The country and economy was centrally controlled from Moscow. (Most of which the Soviets would seize back during World War II as a result of the NAZI-Soviet Nomn-Agreession Pact.) The new Soviet Union was still a large multi-national empire with Russia at its core. Another feature of Soviet natioanaliity policy was to nove poitically more relaiable ethnic Russians into the various republics to strengthem the Soviet grip. This policy was pursued by Stalin and was most effective in the smaller republics like the Baltics.

Nationalities

The Soviet Union as it inherited most of the Tsarist Empire was a huge multi-national empire. It lostvmany Wester territoties during the Civil War, byt gained most of them back during the first years of World War II when the Soviets were a NAZI ally (1939-45). Most of these peoples were annexand and incorporated into the Soviet Union. Poland was an exception. Stalin consented to the resrablishment odf an independent Poland, although the country was moved east. The only eample of thos we know of in all of history. During Tsarist times, Poland had been the most restive of all the Tsarist territories--intesting in ht the Poles were also a Slavic people. As part of Lenin's nationalities solution, Soviet citizens were defined by nationality. This was a matter determined at birth largely based on parental identity. It involved a mix of language, regional boundaries, and cultural traditions. Race was not an overt factor, but several of the nationalities had desctinctive features associated with race. This whole pricess was dveloped berdfore DNA had been discovered. Russians from the beginning were the largest single national group. They were not an absolute majority of the population during Tsarist times, but became a slight majority during the Soviet era. Slsvic people were substabtil mjority meaning adding in Beylorussins and Ukranins) Soviet citizens were isssud internal passports which affected their ability to move within the country. Their national identity was stamped in the passport, which bdecame an important marker of identity. Through most of the Soviet era there were 15 republics. They were known as Soviet Socialist Republics (SSRs). There were also over a hundred autonomous regions, many of which were established to accomodate smaller national groups. There was even a Jewish autoinomous region--the only on to estblish a religious group. Soviet schools, especially primary schools were taught in 'native' languages, although there were separate schools for the many Russians living outside of the huge Russian SSR. Advancd studies, esopcilly university studies wre mostly conducted in Russian. Throughout the Soviet Union, newspapers, periodicals, and books were published in the many other languages and not just Russian. Much of this was literature. Technical journals were almost all publushed in Russian. All of this tended to reserve many job opportunities to Russian speakers. This tend to exclude many non-Russian nationalitoes, but not Jews. Leadership roles in the The Communist Party, the NKVD/KGB,a nd the military ensured that political power remained according to one source, 'hierarchical, and dictatorial'. And leadership roles in these key areas were heavily weighted toward Russians. An exception here was Lenin and Stalin's choice of leades for the security servives. Here we are not sure just why. It could be that Jews because of their history were some of the most ideologically committed. It all could be that Stalin wanted Jews to blame for the carnage. The nationalities differed remararkbly in their level of national identity and political awarness. Their imprtance was also factor. Guven the improtance of the Ukranian peasantry, Stalin lunched the Ukranian genocide. This also affected behavior during World Was II. Several nationalities were labeled traitor nations.

Failure

Ultimately, Lenin's and Stalin's sollution would prove to be a huge mistake. The people of the Soviet Union apparently took the various republic's seriously, in part because they were etnically based. As the Soviet Socialist econmy stagnated and largely failed in comparison to the Capitalist West, opposition to the Soviet system coalessed around these ethnically based republics. All this had been held in check by Lenin's and Stalin's brutally efficent police and threat of the Gulag. The KGB and its presecors were highly efficient in supressing natioanlist expression. This led to the appearnce that nationalist thought had been sucessfully extinguished. Khrushchev had began to limit the power of the KGB. Notably some degree of nationlist expression was allowed in dress. You have to winder about the motivation of the parents asnd children who chose to dress in ethnic styles. The furst stirings of resistance began in the Baltics, but vilnt demostrationsbegn to occur in the Caucuses and Central Asi as well ewgich were only quelled by the intervrntion of Army Troops. The most serious involving loss of life only semd to confirm opinion in th vrious republics that independence was the needed. The Soviets despite 70 years of supressing the various nationalities found in the 1990s that as soon as police state controls were eased that natioanlist sentiment emerged in force. Each of the different republics chose independence. The one area that seems to have been effective Russified was the eastern Ukraine. Belarus was alsos affected as a result of both Sralain's NKVD and NAZI occuapyion during the Ostkrieg. In the end, nationalist sentiment destroyed the Soviet Union just as it had destroyed the other great multi national European empires. But Gorbachev in particular significantly curtailed the use of force. He did not take the nationality problem seriously. But without the use of force thae natioanlity issue exploded. Ths process began in the Soviet Eastern European Empire, especially Poland. But spread to the Soviet Union itself, at first most pronounced in the Baltics. Then Ukranians voted for independence.

Disolution (1991)

None of the different republics voted to continue ties with Russia. Only Belarus where the old Communist leadership remained in power and Stalin had been particularly effective in supressung nationalist expression had Russian conectiins and showed showed some affity with Russdia.

Sources

Russiam Imperial Census (1897). The Russian Imperial Census of 1897 was the first and only census carried out in the Tsarist Empire. Finland was excluded, but not significant becsuse of its small population. The recorded demographic data was based on data as of January 28, 1897.

Solzhenitsyn, Aleksandr I. The Gulag Archipelago (Harper & Row: New York, 1973), 660p. The book is well documented so the reader can easily find the waves of repression and how it affected each repunlic and ethnic group from Finns in the north to Azeries in the south.

Soviet Censuses. The first Soviet Census was conducted in 1926. The Russian percentage was 53 percent. Over the blife of the Soviet Union this varied from 51-58 percent. The Slavic population (including Belarusians and Ukranians) was much higher, ranging from 70-78 percent.







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Created: 1:09 AM 3/23/2008
Last updated: 10:30 PM 2/2/2022