Leninist National Minorites

Question 1

What was the early B’vik policy to national minorities?

Answer 1

-promised nation self-determination Nov 1917 decree - ‘declaration of the rights if the peoples of russia’
-motivated by move to gain support from non-Russian minorities - tsarist Russia over half population

Question 2

What is the limitation of this decree?

Answer 2

-encouraged separatist movements Finland, the Baltic + the Caucasus
-dec 1917 Finland opted become independent state
-elected ‘rada’ (parliament) set up in Ukraine

Question 3

Why did the B’viks oppose independence movements of national groups?

Answer 3

-in practice they sought maintain control over former imperial territories
-some move,ent conflicted rev goals - preservation soviet state + not democracy

Question 4

How were nationalities represented in Russia?

Answer 4

-Jews given separate representation within communist later
-1926 so her Jews given special ‘national homeland’ settlement to maintain cultural heritage

Question 5

How did the B’viks bring independence movement back under control?

Answer 5

-military force to suppress movement in Ukraine, Caucasus + Central Asia
-B’viks prioritised survival + expansion of socialist state

Question 6

What was the Georgian affair 1922?

Answer 6

-revealed divisions within B’vik leadership
-local B’viks Stalin (Georgian) pushed for higher centralisation
-but this against Lenin’s wished for more autonomy

Question 7

How did the formation of the USSR change policies towards national minorities?

Answer 7

-used policy of indigenisation

Question 8

What was indigenisation?

Answer 8

-integrate national minorities into soviet system
-but B’viks hostile any form of nationalism that threatened unity of socialist state

Question 9

What was the position of national minorities in the USSR upon Lenin’s death in 1924?

Answer 9

-some national cultures + lang promoted
-but regime hostile any form of separatism that could undermine soviet unity