Soviet Nationality Policy Research Articles

TRANSFORMATION OF NATIONAL POLICY IN THE XX – EARLY XXI CENTURY: RUSSIAN EMPIRE, USSR, RUSSIAN FEDERATION

Russia is a multinational state, the multi-ethnicity of which continues to be one of its main features even in the XXI century. In modern conditions, the problem of interethnic relations is of particular relevance. The multi-ethnicity of the Russian Federation is an objective circumstance, which we have no right not to take into account, especially since the federalism of our country is based on the national-territorial principle. Each state has its own historical past, on which its content and form, internal and external political relations depend. Russia has a rich and instructive history, which not only affects the present, but also largely determines its future. The gathering of East Slavic tribes around the Kyiv center, the collapse of the single Old Russian state during the period of feudal fragmentation, the creation of Muscovy as a single centralized state, the formation of the Russian Empire, the Soviet Union, the demise of the USSR, and the formation of a peculiar post-Soviet history – all these are specific stages of the Russian past.
 
 The article presents an overview of the implementation of national policy in the XX – early XXI century within the framework of the existence of the Russian Empire, the Soviet Union, and the Russian Federation. An appeal to the history of national relations in Russia and to the experience of Soviet national policy is very relevant in modern times. The national question naturally acted as one of the main problems in different historical epochs. In modern conditions, Russia is still a multi-ethnic state, uniting peoples of different language groups, cultures and confessions. The ethnic core of the country is the Russian people, constituting more than 80% of its population. At the same time, the territory of Russia remains the historical homeland of many peoples who have retained their ethnic identity and created the foundations of their statehood during the years of the Soviet period.

Rethinking early Soviet nationality policies within the poststructuralist context: Marxist legacy, Soviet nation-building, and contingency

Early Soviet nationality policies determined the framework of the ethnicity regime of the Soviet state and largely continued within the same context until the collapse of the Soviet state. While reevaluating early nationality policies, this study argues that structural analysis is not sufficient to understand the social reality of the nationality policies in the Soviet context. Hence, there is an urgent need to add the conditional, unclear and unpredictable aspects to the structural analysis of Soviet nationality policies. By analyzing through the amorphous nationality legacy of the classical Marxist thought, which highly affected the contingent Bolshevik nationality policy orientation, this study shares the concept of Soviet nation-building against the conventional Cold War approach. While analyzing the foundational dynamics of the early Soviet nationality policies, this study attempts to further improve structural analysis through poststructuralist intervention taking into account contingent case study examples.

Propaganda and the formation of "Soviet values" in Azerbaijan during the years of Soviet rule

The article examines the formation and promotion of "Soviet values" and "Soviet man" in Azerbaijan during the Soviet era. During the 70 years of Azerbaijan's membership in the USSR, a campaign was conducted against the traditional spiritual culture in accordance with the Soviet national policy, the policy of forming "Soviet values" as well as the "Soviet man" who carries these values. Ethnos, national music, folklore, customs, folk and religious holidays, traditional etiquette norms, family values, etc. are moral values that preserve the identity of the ethnos. For the formation of the "Soviet man", first of all, "new" values, Soviet values, were propagated. In order to unite the Soviet peoples around a common ideology, first of all, the elimination of ethno-moral values and the promotion of slogans such as "socialist internationalism", "Soviet patriotism", and "friendship of peoples" were intended. He had to propagate the Soviet way of life and ideology in all spheres of culture and form a "Soviet man" with "Soviet values" and "Soviet values". At first glance, this policy of the Soviet government has no disadvantages. However, the values promoted by Soviet ideologues were different from the traditional values of Azerbaijanis, where the term "patriotism" already meant "Soviet patriotism", "internationalism", "friendship of peoples" and "friendship" with socialist peoples, Soviet peoples, and the world proletariat. Soviet culture and Soviet values were formed in the USSR under the name "cultural revolution". The article reflects the policy of Russification in Azerbaijan during the Soviet era, the methods of forming new Soviet holidays and ceremonies, and the Soviet way of life in general. Names and surnames play an important role in the value system of the people. A person's given name and surname are important indicators of a person's ideology, worldview, and generation. The national policy of the Soviet government was also reflected in the field of anthroponymy. The change in this area was mainly in two directions: first, the change of names, and second, the change in the structure of the anthroponymic model. Along with the new socialist as well as international names, which are not traditional for Azerbaijanis, changes have been made in the structure of surnames. In Azerbaijan, as in other Soviet republics, the next and most important means of propaganda, which played a psychological role in the formation of Soviet values, was the process of admitting students to the ranks of the Komsomol, pioneers, and Octoberists. The ceremonies organized for this purpose instilled in the students enthusiasm, confidence in the building of socialism, Soviet patriotism, and so on. had to play a big role in creating such feelings. However, the processes taking place in the country as a result of the collapse of the USSR and Azerbaijan's independence showed that this policy was not successful. One of the reasons for the failure of Soviet national policy is the self-formation of the people's system of values, which led to the alienation of foreign ideology from its worldview.

Analysis of the Ideas about the Russian language in the All-Russian Identity: Expert Discourse

The article analyzes the meanings given by experts to the Russian language in the all-Russian identity based on the materials of in-depth and expert interviews and focus groups. The experts were humanities scientists, university and school teachers, journalists, public and ethnic activists from Moscow, Kazan, Ufa, Nalchik and some other Russian cities. The analysis of the discourses of these translators of the meanings of Russian identity is important for creating a picture of the meanings of the national language of Russians disseminated and supported by them, since they participate in the formation of mass consciousness and can set the directions of perception of Russian identity in the circles covered by their influence. The key sets of ideas about the Russian language in the Russian identity are associated with the following interpretations of it. Russian language is considered by universalist discourses as the cultural code of Russians, often associating it with the literary-centricity of all-Russian and Russian ethnic culture. Such discourses note the importance of its functionality and influence, and also regard it as the language of Russian everyday life and the life of the state, in which school education plays an essential role, thus “cementing” society. In the discourses of experts in the republics, other facets of the perception of the Russian language are also important. First of all, it is considered as a “language of interethnic (interethnic) communication”, which is the result of the influence of Soviet national policy, established terminology, in particular, in the understanding of the nation, most often in the ethnic sense and the opposition of Russian and native languages. In the historical context, it can be considered as an intermediary language, an instrument of familiarization with world culture. Ethnocentric discourses often emphasize the role of the Russian language as the language of the state and/or the language of the dominant people, including actively contrasting it with native languages and emphasizing the damage to them. The interpretation of the Russian language as the national language of Russians, its positive perception as an all-Russian integrator in such discourses are complicated.

Unsettling Borderlands: The Population Exchange and the Polish Minority in Soviet Belarus, 1944–1947

The article examines the Soviet nationality policy in Belarus in 1944–1947 during the population exchange between the Soviet Union and Poland. Unlike in Lithuania and Ukraine, the authorities in Belarus prioritized keeping the labor force over national homogenization, determined nationality by territory of birth, and attempted to keep the people by designating them as Belarusians irrespective of their self-identification. The article argues that in Belarus, the population transfer was a combination of an exodus of refugees with the expulsion of Poles by the state. Although the declarations about the voluntary character of the resettlement were false, the direction of the compulsion varied, and this ambivalence opened up a space of limited autonomy in which the people could exercise agency. The Soviet ethnic cleansing remained incomplete in Soviet Belarus because of the competing urge to keep the labor force. Paradoxically, much of the demographic de-Polonization of new western territories of Soviet Belarus was achieved without the state’s commitment to ethnic cleansing and without the involvement of Belarusian nationalism.

THE ACTIVITIES OF THE UNITS OF THE RUSSIAN SOCIETY OF THE RED CROSS AND THEIR INFLUENCE ON THE HEALTH STATE OF INDIGENOUS PEOPLES OF THE FAR EAST IN THE 1920s.

Background. The article provides a general description of the activities of the mobile units of the Russian Red Cross Society (ROKK) and their role in organizing a system for ensuring the health of small ethnic groups in the Far East in the 1920s, an assessment of their activities in the framework of the Soviet national policy is given. Purpose. The article identifies and examines the importance of a mobile type of organizing medical and sanitary care for aborigines as the first stage in the formation of the Soviet health care system in remote regions.Materials and methods. The material for the study is the archival documents of the State Archives of the Russian Federation and the State Archives of the Khabarovsk Krai. The traditional methods of historical research were used through analyzing the material, such as chronological, historical-systemic and comparative-typological.Results. Due to the activities of the ROKK units, the data are significantly refined, and in some regions, statistics are obtained on the spread of various diseases, on the peculiarities of the lifestyle of indigenous peoples, primary medical care is provided to the indigenous population, and basic sanitary and hygienic skills and first aid techniques were trained.Practical implications. The scientific results of the research can be used in the educational process (in the form of textbooks, lecture courses) on ethnography, history of the Russian Far East, etc.

Тенденции в западных исследованиях истории ЦентральнойАзии:примержурнала«Central Asian Survey»

The article is devoted to the study of the main trends in Western Central Asian studies over the past 40 years. As a model for tracking the above trends, there was used authoritative foreign academic journal "Central Asian Survey". As a rule, there were published advanced ideas, concepts, and results of the latest research. Respectively, the review of the works presented in it can claim to be representative of the scientific industry in general. In general, the article demonstrates the fundamental transformations in Western Central Asian studies that occurred after 1991, as a result of the collapse of the USSR, the fall of the Iron Curtain, and the corresponding changes in the research field, which faced the need to revise the paradigms that existed at that time and, in general, the tasks of the period the Cold War, the "archival revolution" and, in fact, a new era in historical research, "post-communism", which made possible various forms of intellectual exchange for researchers from previously opposed camps. Among the historiography on the history of the region analyzed in the article. Studies that consider the history of the region over the past few centuries through the prism of Russian expansionism stand out. In addition, the article focuses on works in which an attempt is made to go beyond the conceptual framework of previous studies (in particular, the “totalitarian school”). It is also worth noting the questions of the formation of a single Soviet people and the Soviet national policy in the region, ethnic thinking, as well as the evolution of the administration of tsarist Russia in the region, raised in the papers cited and analyzed in the works.

THE NATIONAL HERITAGE OF THE USSR IN YOUNG PEOPLE’S VIEWS IN THE NORTH CAUCASUS

The article reviews the representations of youth of the North Caucasus of the Soviet national-state heritage and national policy, and their role in the formation of Russian identity. The goal is to study ideas of young people about the Soviet historical heritage, and to determine the similarities and differences in the ideas of the youth of the Russian and Caucasian peoples about Soviet identity and values and the national policy of the USSR. The theoretical and methodological basis of the study is made up of main approaches and concepts of foreign and Russian scholars of the problem of the formation of civil nations and the role of ideas about the historical in the formation of national-state identity. The empirical basis is sociological research consisting of ideas and views of young people in the North Caucasus in the field of Soviet historical heritage. It can be assumed that the role of ideas about the Soviet era in the formation of the national-state identity of modern youth in the North Caucasus is important for the majority of respondents. A number of traditional values of the Soviet era, such as a respect for the person of labor, social equality, and the comprehensive development of the individual guaranteed by the state are still important for today's youth. Most young people do not remember the achievements and shortcomings of the Soviet nationality policy in the region. In general, the study with a high degree of probability indicates that that Soviet national-state heritage is an important factor in the formation of the identity of the modern youth of the North Caucasus. The harmonization of interethnic relations and the formation of interethnic harmony among young people are largely determined by their attitudes to the Soviet historical heritage. Further work in forming a single conceptual basis for the policy of historical memory for a multiethnic region is still necessary, as is more consistency in the work of government bodies for its implementation. Representations of history should be of a consolidating nature, contributing to the formation of historical continuity and general guidelines for the national identity of young people.

Identity of Kazakhstan’s Uyghurs: Migration, Homeland, and Language

Abstract This article examines the ethno-national identity of Uyghurs in Kazakhstan, which, during the period of independence, has been undergoing a complex process of transformation from ‘Sovietness’ to ‘Kazakhstanness.’ This transformation is shaped by the ethnic policy of Kazakhstan, aiming for the consolidation of society and formation of a united Kazakhstani nation. Post-Soviet development not only produces threats to the Uyghur ethnic identity, but also creates new perspectives for it. The article focuses on some dimensions of the Uyghur identity determined by cross-border migration from the Xinjiang-Uyghur autonomous region of the neighboring People’s Republic of China and Soviet national policy, such as language, cultural institutions, and existence of the Uyghur district in the Almaty province. Analysis of the discourse of vätän (motherland) shows a shift to a perception of Kazakhstan as a homeland.

Communism, Christianity, and Translating Russian Jews: Liudmila Ulitskaia's Daniel Stein and Aleksandr Meilakhs's Bentsion Shamir

This article examines two novels from the last decade written by Russian‐Jewish writers, Liudmila Ulitskaia's Daniel Stein, Translator and Aleksandr Meilakhs' Red Zion. Both novels feature remarkably similar protagonists, unique for Russian literature: Polish‐born Jews who survive the Shoah and immigrate to Israel. They use these characters' lives and stories as means of exploring contemporary Russian‐Jewish identity. I read the two novels and their attitudes toward ethnic identity in the historical shadow of the Soviet Nationalities Policy, which promoted the seemingly contradictory values of universalism and ethnic nationalism at one in the same time and inspired diverse and complex reactions in verbal art. The contrast between Ulitskaia and Meilakhs is most apparent in their attitudes toward translation, an important question for the Soviet Nationalities Policy and one which still resonates in the twenty‐first century. While Ulitskaia's novel sees translation as creation and way for Russian‐Jewish identity to progress and live, Meilkahs' see translation only as loss. The two novels therefore offer two divergent paths in how to construct identity and verbal art.

Aleksei Petersoni roll vepslaste ja udmurtide rahvuslikus taassünnis (1980.–1990. aastad)

Estonian ethnographers have always taken a keen interest in Finno-Ugric peoples, their linguistic kin. The golden age of Finno-Ugric studies in Estonian ethnography began in the 1960s and lasted until the early 1990s. The State Ethnographic Museum of the Estonian SSR in Tartu (the current Estonian National Museum) emerged as the center of Finno-Ugric research with its long-term director Aleksei Peterson at the helm of the enterprise. Estonian ethnographers visited almost all Finno-Ugric peoples, with the major focus given to the Veps in the 1960s and 1970s, and to the Udmurts, in the 1980s. The museum acquired an awe-inspiring number of ethnographic objects, descriptions, photographs, drawings and films. Did all this benefit the peoples visited? What was the relationship of Estonian ethnographers with the subjects of their research? Did their plight affect Estonian scholars? The Estonian ethnographers had a high regard for the ethnic particularities, languages and traditional folk cultures of the kindred peoples and resisted their disappearance. Their views contradicted the Soviet nationalities policy which until the mid-1980s, emphasized the convergence and assimilation of nations. The interaction between the Estonian ethnographers and the Veps and Udmurts during the long series of expeditions helped to stimulate the suppressed and weak ethnic self-esteem of the latter. The mid-1980s marked the beginning of the era of Gorbachev’s glasnost and perestroika. As a result, national issues could be discussed openly, and it was at that time that the national revival of the Veps and Udmurts began. Estonian ethnologists embraced the process and actively contributed to it. This is especially true of Peterson, who was quite well known in Vepsia and Udmurtia and had a certain authority there. In his speeches at various events and in the press, Peterson encouraged the use of Veps and Udmurt in public life, including the schools. He emphasized the need to place a greater emphasis on traditional folk culture, which he considered to be critical to the national identity of small nations. His ideas influenced the creation of the open-air museum of the Udmurts. He supported the territorial autonomy of the Veps. He could speak as a messenger of perestroika whose word had weight. Thus Veps and Udmurt activists and nationally-minded ordinary people received inspiration and moral support from Peterson (and other Estonian ethnographers) for the preservation of their mother tongue, national identity and cultural heritage.

ЭВЕНКИЙСКИЙ НАЦИОНАЛЬНЫЙ (АВТОНОМНЫЙ) ОКРУГ В КОНТЕКСТЕ СОВЕТСКОЙ НАЦИОНАЛЬНОЙ ПОЛИТИКИ 1920–1970 ГГ.

The period of Soviet nationality policy was of the utmost importance for the Evenk National (Autonomous) District in the 1920–1970. This article analyzes in detail the place and role of the Evenk National District in the light of Soviet nationality policy. Critical analysis of scientific literature, quantitative and qualitative content analysis of archival material, including the use of the "VAAL" psycholinguistic expert system, were used as research methods. The research sample included the materials of the leading national newspaper of Evenkia — "Soviet Evenkia" for 1960. This material made it possible to reconstruct the history of the development of the Evenk National (Autonomous) District from the moment of its formation in 1930 to 1960 in the context of the Soviet nationality policy, as well as to identify the priority topics and problems that underlie the District's national policy. As a result of the analysis of 78 articles published in 64 issues of the newspaper "Soviet Evenkia" for 1960, the following conclusions were drawn: 1) the most frequently raised topic is the topic of collective farm life, considered in many respects from a material point of view; 2) the second important topic is the topic of the culture of the region, understood primarily as a developed party propaganda system. At the same time, great emphasis is placed on the elimination of illiteracy and the spread of reading among the population. The need for the development of national art is also mentioned, the distribution of cinema among the inhabitants of the district is supported; 3) the topic of education, touched upon in the articles, is the most problematic. It is mainly associated with solving the problem of forming a "national intelligentsia" in the district; 4) the dynamics of the development of the Evenk national district during the period of the Soviet nationality policy of 1920–1970 is obvious. Evenkia, which received an independent status in 1930, was given the opportunity to develop economically and culturally. The district's dynamic development took place within the framework of the general development policy of the Soviet state.

ПРИНЦИПЫ СОВЕТСКОЙ НАЦИОНАЛЬНОЙ ПОЛИТИКИ 1920–1970 ГГ. ПО ОТНОШЕНИЮ К КОРЕННЫМ МАЛОЧИСЛЕННЫМ НАРОДАМ СЕВЕРА, СИБИРИ И ДАЛЬНЕГО ВОСТОКА, КОМПАКТНО ПРОЖИВАЮЩИМ НА ТЕРРИТОРИИ ЭВЕНКИЙСКОГО НАЦИОНАЛЬНОГО (АВТОНОМНОГО) ОКРУГА

The article is devoted to the study of the peculiarities of the Soviet national policy in the regions of the North, Siberia and the Far East. An important issue is the consideration of the actions of the Soviet government in relation to indigenous small-numbered peoples. The radical change of the state system led to the development of a new system of interethnic relations, new systems of interaction with the indigenous peoples of the North, Siberia and the Far East. New social technologies are being introduced in the fields of education, agriculture and national policy in general; local self- government bodies are being created. National policy is undergoing multiple changes, as is the history of the USSR as a whole. A special period is the war and post-war period. There are widespread changes in the economic life and culture of the peoples, their transition to a more sedentary lifestyle and, as a result, the loss of some skills of the traditional nomadic lifestyle.

МОДЕЛИРОВАНИЕ НАЦИОНАЛЬНОЙ ПОЛИТИКИ СССР ПО ОТНОШЕНИЮ К КОРЕННЫМ МАЛОЧИСЛЕННЫМ НАРОДАМ СЕВЕРА, ПРОЖИВАЮЩИМ В 1920–1970 ГГ. В ЭВЕНКИЙСКОМ НАЦИОНАЛЬНОМ (АВТОНОМНОМ С 1977 Г.) ОКРУГЕ

The article is devoted to the specifics and phenomena of the national policy of the USSR in relation to the indigenous peoples of the North, living in the 1920-1970s in the Evenk national (autonomous since 1977) okrug. The materials of the article were both research works on the topic of Soviet nationality policy, and published archival documents, data from statistical studies, such as the All-Russian Population Census. One of the highlighted areas of national policy discussed in this study is language policy, the role of which in public administration in relation to the indigenous small ethnic groups of the North, including Evenkia, is very significant. The indigenous peoples of the Evenk National / Autonomous Okrug are the Evenks and Kets. Today (according to the most recent All-Russian Population Census, conducted in 2010), the share of the indigenous small-numbered peoples of the North in the total population of the Evenk Municipal District of the Krasnoyarsk Territory, formerly the Evenk Autonomous District, is a fairly large percentage - 33.3%. The Evenks are the titular ethnic group of this territory and are widely settled, and the Kets live compactly in one settlement - the village of Sulomai. The study shows that the Soviet stage of the formation and implementation of the national policy towards indigenous peoples in the Evenk National / Autonomous Okrug (from the 1920s to the 1970s) contributed to the fact that these ethnic groups were singled out into a special category and became the object of systemic social protection. and public policy. At the same time, the historical consideration of decisions and measures for the management of the territory and population of Evenkia allows us to see the transition from a policy with an emphasis on the identity of these peoples to a policy of "Sovietization", the universalization of these territories and ethnic groups, which is paternalistic in nature and fulfills the tasks of assimilation of the indigenous population.

The Rise and Fall of Ethnic Mobilization and Sovereignty in Tatarstan: Patterns of Elite Continuity and Dominance

This article aims to examine the rise and fall of the intertwined concepts of ethnic mobilization and sovereignty of Tatarstan from both micro and macro chronological perspectives. The findings of the article indicate that Tatar elites were always hegemonic and decisive in shaping the autonomous sovereignty. The path dependency of Soviet nationality policies combined with an ethnic nomenklatura discourse enabled the Tatar elites to challenge the Federal center for the expansion of sovereignty. However, the Tatar elites pursued an adoptive strategy in order not to risk their elite power and wealth when faced with the growing state capacity of Moscow in the Putin era.

Soviet Policy Toward Siberian Native People: Integration, Assimilation or Russification?

During eight months in 1981-82, we collected data on the occupations, educational attainments, and ethnicity of 58 Siberian Native academics, professionals, and students, and their immediate family members. We have attempted to use our data, and the conclusions of other Soviet and Western researchers on Soviet nationalities policy, to determine whether the concepts of structural integration, cultural integration, assimilation and Russification, as sometimes used by North American social scientists. accurately characterize the results of Soviet policy toward Siberian Native People. It is argued that these concepts are inadequate for this task.

Goff , Krista Nested Nationalism: Making and Unmaking Nations in the Soviet Caucasus (review)

REVIEWS 587 problematic, some of which have already been mentioned. The most striking is perhaps the claim that Stalin’s ‘clearest individual predecessor’ was Henry VIII, while the Soviet Union’s ‘direct predecessor’ was the Confederacy: both were ‘quasi-socialist’ slave states (pp. 12, 20, 24, 102). One must completely ignore history’s ‘heavy facts’ to argue so. And it is not clear how these claims relate to Curtis’s ideas about the monastic roots of Stalinism. To justify his problematic associations methodologically, Curtis takes up arms against metaphysics and causality in history: he claims he is not interested in cause-effect relations between social phenomena (p. 71) and explores their meaning by establishing parallels between them, which helps to ‘enlarg[e] the universe of human discourse’ (pp. 24–25). Giving the plasticity of his methodology, it comes as no surprise that his bibliography does not include several authors whose work has significantly contributed in recent decades to our understanding of Stalinism as culture (e.g. Boris Groys, Igal Halfin, Jochen Hellbeck and Mikhail Weiskopf). Bringing literature, history and anthropology closer together is a valuable enterprise, and cultural analysis can significantly enrich our understanding of history. Literature can reveal cultural mechanisms that are crucial for understanding power relationships in a given society. Examining Stalinism in the context of the world-wide process of ‘concentration of power’ (p. 20) is a very interesting project. But this does not justify the unusual degree of ‘inner freedom’ that Curtis demonstrates in his interpretation of Stalinism. Emory University Nikolay Koposov Goff, Krista. Nested Nationalism: Making and Unmaking Nations in the Soviet Caucasus. Cornell University Press, Ithaca, NY and London, 2020. xii + 319 pp. Maps. Illustrations. Tables. Notes. Bibliography. Index. $49.95. It might be hard to expect anyone to tell us something new and important about a well-worn topic like Soviet nationality policy, but in this remarkable book Krista Goff has done just that. Nested Nationalism takes up the story of ‘nested minorities’ within a single former Soviet republic, offering us a keen mirroring of the better-known, broader federal debates on national belonging in the USSR. Drawing on extensive archival work as well as more than 120 interviews from across the Caucasus, Russia and Europe, this book is arguably the first to map the structural category of what the USSR called ‘non-titular nationalities’, and how the political dynamics they experienced have informed post-Soviet life today. By most reckonings, Ingilois, Kurds, Lezgins and Talysh all had ample cause to anticipate that the USSR’s doctrine of the friendship of peoples would ensure SEER, 99, 3, JULY 2021 588 them protected standing in Azerbaijan, a non-Russian republic that had its own battles for recognition in a crowded hierarchy of Soviet peoples. Officials in Baku, in theory, had every reason to extend the same minority rights to others that they sought from Moscow. Yet, at almost every turn, relations between Azeris and the republic’s smaller ethnic communities proved fraught, with much evidence from Goff’s intrepid archival and field work pointing to the premise that many Azeri officials simply feared the competition in a setting where their own footing was hardly uncontested. Chapters on the Soviet period offer a richly detailed portrait of the initial confusion surrounding policies of korenizatsiia or ‘nativization,’ at a time when, as historian Adeeb Khalid pointed out, the nation had become a leading currency of political elites. Goff draws on extensive government memoranda to illustrate how difficult it proved to sort and count varied minority populations in one of the world’s most ethnically and linguistically saturated areas at the same time as administrative echelons in Baku were themselves being brutally purged. Chapter two offers valuable insight on post-war efforts to resettle Azerbaijanis from Armenia to Azerbaijan, in part to make way for repatriates to Armenia, while chapter four makes particularly good use of often overlooked minutes of dissertation defences from the Soviet Academy of Sciences to walk the reader through the charged debates over ethnic recognition, foremost for Talysh living along the border of Iran. In 1959, Soviet census takers grudgingly identified only eighty-five of them in all of Azerbaijan, conceding some thirty...

The Jewish Autonomous Region of Birobidzhan in Siberia

The Jewish Autonomous Region (JAR) of Birobidzhan in Siberia is still alive. The once famous “Siberian Zion”, at the confluence of the Bira and Bidzhan rivers, a stone’s throw away from China and a day from the Pacific Ocean, 9,000 km and six days by train from Moscow, is still a geographical reality. The political class of the Soviet Union decided to create a territory the size of Belgium for a settlement for Jews, choosing a region on the border between China and the Soviet Union. It believed that Soviet Jews needed, like other national minorities, a homeland with a territory. The Soviet regime thus opted to establish an enclave that would become the JAR in 1934. We should note that the creation of the JAR was the first historically fulfilled case of building an officially recognised Jewish national territory since antiquity and well before Israel. Nevertheless, many historians declared this experiment a failure and the history of the Region only tragic. It is interesting to note, however, that the survival of the JAR in post-Soviet Russia has been not only a historical curiosity, a legacy of Soviet national policy, but today – after the collapse of the Soviet Union – it represents a very interesting case study. It is also a topic useful for the analysis and understanding of inter-ethnic relations, cooperation, and coexistence and it is a unique case of geographic resettlement that produced a special case of “local patriotism”, as an example also for different ethnic groups living in the JAR, based on Jewish and Yiddish roots.

The 1958-62 Chinese Famine and Its Impact on Ethnic Minorities

China underwent its most murderous famine between 1958 and 1962. Although a demographic transition from the countryside to the cities was in its early stage and gross domestic product (GDP) per capita was among the lowest in the world, objective conditions were far less decisive than Chinese Communist Party (CCP) policies in bringing about the famine. A development strategy copied on the Soviet model favoured quick industrialization at the expense of rural dwellers. Such novelties as people’s communes, communal canteens, and backyard furnaces further aggravated the famine. Though ethnic minorities represented only 6 percent of China’s population, compared to forty-seven percent in the Soviet Union, Soviet nationality policies heavily influenced those of China. Initially mild, especially for Tibetans, Chinese nationality policies became more authoritarian with the advent of the Great Leap Forward in 1958. Qinghai Tibetans resisted the closure of many monasteries; then the same policies, and famine itself, caused a more important rebellion in 1959 in Xizang (Tibet). Repression and the flight of the Dalai Lama to northern India coincided with the end of Tibet’s special status in China.
 Internal colonialism did not, however, aggravate the impact of famine on national minorities in China. Their rate of population growth between the first two censuses (1953 and 1982) exceeded that of Han Chinese. Among the provinces most severely affected by famine, only Qinghai was largely inhabited by ethnic minorities. Within Qinghai the same pattern prevailed as in Han populated provinces: the highest toll in famine deaths was concentrated in easily accessible grain surplus areas. The overwhelming majority of victims of the Chinese famine were Han peasants. At most, 5 percent were members of ethnic minorities, compared to eighty percent of victims in the Soviet Union in the period between 1930 and 1933.

SOVIET NATIONAL POLICY OF THE 1920-1930s IN THE PATRIOTIC AND FOREIGN HISTORIOGRAPHY: STAGES, BASIC IDEAS, MODERN TRENDS

This article analyzes the main stages of formation and development of the Soviet national policy of the period of 1920-1930-ies. Learning of the national policy in the USSR has a great historiographical tradition which includes different stages. The article distinguishes 3 stages of Soviet historiography and presents their characteristics. It also highlights the current stage of the study of the national policy of the USSR, which is characterized by a departure from dogmatism and political bias, introduction of previously unavailable unpublished written sources into scientific circulation. Another characteristic feature of modern historiography is the emergence of local studies. As for foreign historiography, it, having more freedom in the interpretation of the facts, however, was also influenced by the ideas of opposition, inherent for the period of the “Cold war” for a long time. A large number of studies of Soviet national policy appeared during the USSR disintegration, which many authors considered as a consequence of the national policy of the USSR. Only in the last 30 years, foreign authors begin to aspire to reassessment of the prewar terminology and introduce new concepts into scientific turnover (for example, “the USSR as a communal apartment”, “the USSR as an Empire of a affirmative nation”, “National policy as a compromise between the elites of the center and the regions”, etc ). The article notes that interest to the topic of Soviet national policy has slightly decreased in recent years. This topic is becoming less politically biased, which creates favorable conditions for joint research of Russian and foreign scientists.