National delimitation
Encyclopedia
National delimitation in the Soviet Union refers to the process of creating well-defined national territorial units
(Soviet socialist republics – SSR, autonomous Soviet socialist republics – ASSR, autonomous provinces – oblasts, or autonomous national territories – okrugi) from the ethnic diversity of the Soviet Union
and its subregions. The Russian term for this Soviet state policy is razmezhevanie , which is variously translated in English-language literature as national-territorial delimitation, demarcation, or partition. National delimitation is part of a broader process of changes in administrative-territorial division, which also changes the boundaries of territorial units, but is not necessarily linked to national or ethnic considerations. National delimitation in the Soviet Union is distinct from nation-building
, which typically refers to the policies and actions implemented by the government of a national territorial unit (a nation-state
) after delimitation. In most cases National delimitation in the Soviet Union was followed by korenizatsiya
.
was officially a single nation-state
in which the Russian ethnic group was the only recognized nationality. The many other ethnic groups that inhabited the Russian Empire were classified as inorodtsy, or aliens. The Soviet Russia that took over from the Russian Empire in 1917 was not a nation-state, nor was the Soviet leadership committed to turning their country into such a state. In the early Soviet period, even voluntary assimilation was actively discouraged, and the promotion of the national self-consciousness of the non-Russian populations was attempted. Each officially recognized ethnic minority, however small, was granted its own national territory where it enjoyed a certain degree of autonomy, national schools, and national elites. A written national language (if it had been lacking), national language planning
, native-language press, and books written in the native language came with the national territory. The attitudes towards many ethnic minorities changed dramatically in the 1930s-1940s under the leadership of Joseph Stalin
with the advent of a repressive policy featuring abolition of the national institutions, ethnic deportations
, national terror, and Russification
(mostly towards those with cross-border ethnic ties to foreign nation-states in the 1930s or compromised in the view of Stalin during the Great Patriotic War in the 1940s), although nation-building often continued simultaneously for others.
After the establishment of the Soviet Union
within the boundaries of the former Russian Empire
, the Bolshevik government
began the process of national delimitation and nation building, which lasted through the 1920s and most of the 1930s. The project attempted to build nations out of the numerous ethnic groups in the Soviet Union. Defining a nation or politically-conscious ethnic group
was in itself a politically-charged issue in the Soviet Union. In 1913, Joseph Stalin
, in his work Marxism and the National Question, which subsequently became the cornerstone of the Soviet policy towards nationalities, defined a nation as “a historically constituted, stable community of people, formed on the basis of a common language, territory, economic life, and psychological makeup manifested in a common culture.” Many of the subject nationalities or communities in the Russian Empire did not fully meet these criteria. Not only cultural, linguistic, religious and tribal diversities made the process difficult but also the lack of a political consciousness of ethnicity among the people was a major obstacle to this process. Still, the process relied on The Declaration of Rights of the Peoples of Russia
, adopted by the Bolshevik government
on 15 November 1917, immediately after the October Revolution
, which recognized equality and sovereignty of all the peoples of Russia; their right for free self-determination, up to and including secession and creation of an independent state; freedom of religion; and free development of national minorities and ethnic groups on the territory of Russia.
The Soviet Union (or more formally USSR – the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics) was established in 1922 as a federation
of nationalities, which eventually came to encompass 15 major national territories, each organized as a Union-level republic (Soviet Socialist Republic or SSR). All 15 national republics, created between 1917 and 1940, had constitutionally equal rights and equal standing in the formal structure of state power. The largest of the 15 republics – Russia – was ethnically the most diverse and from the very beginning it was constituted as RSFSR – Russian Soviet Federative Socialist Republic
, a federation within a federation. Russian SFSR was divided in the early 1920s into some 30 autonomous ethnic territories (Autonomous Soviet Socialist Republics – ASSR and autonomous oblasts
– AO), many of which exist to this day as ethnic republics within the Russian Federation
. There was also a very large number of lower level ethnic territories, such as national districts and national village sovets. The exact number of ASSR and AO varied over the years as new entities were created while old entities switched from one form to another, transformed into Union-level republics (e.g., Kazakh
and Kyrgyz SSR created in 1936, Moldovan SSR created in 1940), or were absorbed into larger territories (e.g., Crimean ASSR absorbed into the RSFSR in 1945 and Volga German ASSR absorbed into RSFSR in 1941).
The first population census of the USSR in 1926 listed 176 distinct nationalities. Eliminating excessive detail (e.g., four ethnic groups for Jews and five ethnic groups for Georgians) and omitting very small ethnic groups, the list was aggregated into 69 nationalities. These 69 nationalities lived in 45 nationally delimited territories, including 16 Union-level republics (SSR) for the major nationalities, 23 autonomous regions (18 ASSR and 5 autonomous oblasts) for other nationalities within Russian SFSR, and 6 autonomous regions within other Union-level republics (one in Uzbek SSR, one in Azerbaijan SSR, one in Tajik SSR, and three in Georgian SSR).
Higher level autonomous national territories in the Soviet Union
Map showing the ethnic republics of the Russian Federation
(2008) that succeeded the national territories of Russian SFSR (pre-1990)
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Despite the general policy of granting national territories to all ethnic groups, several nationalities remained without their own territories in the 1920s and the 1930s. These were Poles, Bulgarians, Greeks, Hungarians, Gypsies, Uigurs, Koreans, and Gagauz (today the Gagauz live in a compact area in the south of Moldova, where they enjoy a measure of autonomy). The Volga Germans lost their national territory with the outbreak of World War II
in 1941. The peoples of the North had neither autonomous republics nor autonomous oblasts, but since the 1930s they have been organized in 10 national okrugs
, such as the Chukotka Autonomous Okrug, the Koryak Autonomous Okrug, the Nenets Autonomous Okrug, and others.
Besides national republics, oblasts, and okrugs, several hundred national districts (population 10,000-50,000) and several thousand national townships (population 500-5,000) were established. In some cases this policy required voluntary or forced resettlement in both directions to create a compact population. Ethnic left immigration and return of non-Russian émigrés to the Soviet Union during the New Economic Policy
, albeit perceived as an easy cover for espionage, were not discouraged and proceeded quite actively, contributing to nation-building.
Soviet fear of foreign influence was given momentum by sporadic ethnic guerilla uprisings along the entire Soviet frontier throughout the 1920s. The Soviet government was particularly concerned about the loyalty of the Finnish, Polish, and German populations. However, in July 1925 the Soviet authorities felt secure enough and in order to project Soviet influence outwards, exploiting cross-border ethnic ties, granted national minorities in the border regions with more privileges and national rights than those in the central regions. This policy was implemented especially successfully in the Ukrainian SSR
, which at first indeed succeeded in attracting the population of Polish Kresy
. However, some Ukrainian communists claimed neighboring regions even from the Russian SFSR.
, the entire space occupied today by Turkmenistan
, Uzbekistan
, Tajikistan
, Kyrgyzstan
, and the southern part of Kazakhstan
consisted of three administrative territorial units: the Turkestan Autonomous Soviet Socialist Republic
(Turkestan ASSR), created in April 1918 within the Russian Soviet Federative Socialist Republic (RSFSR), and the two successor states of the Emirate of Bukhara
and the Khanate of Khiva
, which were transformed into Bukhara
and Khorezm People's Soviet Republics following the takeover by the Red Army in 1920. North of Turkestan ASSR lay the Kirghiz Autonomous Soviet Socialist Republic
(Kirghiz ASSR, Kirgizistan ASSR on the map), which was created on 26 August 1920 in the territory coinciding with the northern part of today's Kazakhstan (the southern part of Kazakhstan, south of the Aral Sea
–Balkhash Lake line, was part of Turkestan ASSR in 1920).
In 1924, Turkestan ASSR, i.e., roughly the southern half of Soviet Central Asia
, was partitioned into two Soviet Socialist Republics (SSR), Turkmen SSR
and Uzbek SSR
. Turkmen SSR matched the borders of today's Turkmenistan and it was created as a home for the Turkmens
of Soviet Central Asia. The Bukhara and Khorezm People's Soviet Republics were absorbed into Uzbek SSR, which also included other territories inhabited by Uzbeks
as well as those inhabited by ethnic Tajiks. At the same time, Tajik Autonomous Soviet Socialist Republic (Tajik ASSR
) was created within Uzbek SSR for the Tajik ethnic population and after five years, in 1929, it was separated from Uzbek SSR and upgraded to the status of Soviet Socialist Republic (Tajik SSR
). Kirghiz SSR (today's Kyrgyzstan) was created only in 1936; between 1929 and 1936 it existed as the Kara-Kirghiz Autonomous Oblast (province) within RSFSR. Kazakh SSR
was also created at that time (5 December 1936), thus completing the process of national delimitation of Soviet Central Asia into five Soviet Socialist Republics that in 1991 would become five independent states.
Bitter debates accompanied the partition of Uzbek SSR and Tajik SSR in 1929, focusing especially on the status of Bukhara
, Samarkand
, and the Surkhandarya Province
, all of which had sizeable, if not dominant, Tajik populations. The final decision negotiated by the Uzbek and Tajik parties, not without strong involvement of the Communist Party, left these three Tajik-populated territories within the Turkic-populated
Uzbek SSR. Tajik SSR was created on 5 December 1929 as the home for most of the ethnic Tajiks in Soviet Central Asia within the boundaries of present-day Tajikistan
.
was implemented, native teachers were trained, and national schools were established. This was always accompanied by native-language press and books written in the native language. National elites were encouraged to develop and take over the leading administrative and Party positions, sometimes in proportions exceeding the proportion of the native population.
With the grain requisition crises, famines, troubled economic conditions, international destabilization and the reversal of the immigration flow in the early 1930s, the Soviet Union became increasingly worried about a possible disloyalty of diaspora ethnic groups with cross-border ties (especially Finns, Germans
and Poles
), residing along its western borders, which eventually led to the start of Stalin's repressive policy towards them.
Each adult citizen's ethnicity was necessarily recorded in his passport after the introduction of the passport system in the Soviet Union
in 1932 and was determined by his choice between his parents' ethnicities (practice that didn't exist in Imperial Russia and is abolished in the Russian Federation).
However, the important question is: why did the communist rulers of the USSR need to create a national consciousness among people, given that it is generally used by the bourgeoisie
to curtail the class struggle? The reason lies in both the pre-revolutionary and post-revolutionary policies of the Bolshevik Party. Before the revolution, Vladimir Lenin
used demands for national autonomy by the non-Russian communities as a tool for gaining power against the tsarist regime; he promised autonomy to these communities, even the right to secede. After the revolution, reifying national identities was seen as a solution for local administrative problems. Sovietization
was the ultimate goal behind the nation-building process. In local administrative units, the “rulers” needed to be natives in order to make the non-Russian populations feel that they had been granted national self-determination
, and this was accomplished via the politics dubbed korenization ("indigenization"). Autonomous states like Kazakhstan
, Uzbekistan
, and others had their own ruling communist parties and native elites, although they were actually under the explicit control of the overall Communist Party of the Soviet Union
. There was also another aspect of this project: it was not aimed at the differentiation of nations but at unifying them over time. The implicit assumption was that after a short (10-20 year) period, bourgeois nationalism would be abandoned and support for a worker-state would follow. The Bolsheviks' aim was not a loose federation but a completely unified modern socialist state.
The Bolsheviks’ plan was to identify the total sum of all national, cultural, linguistic, and territorial diversities under their rule and establish scientific criteria to identify which groups of people were entitled to the description of 'nation'. This task relied on the existing work of tsarist-era ethnographers and statisticians, as well as new research conducted under Soviet auspices. Because most people did not know what is meant by a nation, some of them simply gave names when asked about ethnicity. Many groups were thought to be biologically similar, but culturally distinct. In Central Asia, many identified their "nation" as "Muslim." In other cases, geography made the difference, or even whether one lived in a town versus the countryside. Principally, however, dialects or languages formed the basis for distinguishing between various nations. The results were often contradictory and confusing. More than 150 nations were counted in Central Asia alone. Some were quickly subordinated to others, with communities which had hitherto been counted as "nations" now deemed to be simply tribes. As a result, the number of nations shrunk over the decades.
was one of the largest border minorities in the Soviet Union, facing in the 1920s and the 1930s the Japanese-occupied Korea on the other side. This minority had been gradually building up since the second half of the 19th century, as poor Korean peasants migrated across the border in search for land and livelihoods. The Korean immigration increased dramatically during the early 1920s, after the Japanese took over Korea. From 1917 to 1926 the Soviet Korean population tripled to nearly 170,000 people, and by 1926 Koreans represented more than a quarter of the rural population of the Vladivostok
region. Declared Soviet policy toward national minorities demanded the formation of a Korean autonomous territory for the large Korean community in the Russian Far East. The option of Korean ASSR in the Far East was seriously debated in Moscow but finally rejected in 1925 because of opposition from the local Russian population who feared competition for land and the political goal of maintaining a peaceful stance toward the Japanese. As a result, a contradictory policy emerged. On the one hand, smaller Korean national territories were authorized, with Korean-language schools and newspapers, and the policy line represented Koreans as a model Soviet national minority contrasted with the Korean population suffering under the yoke of Japanese occupation across the border. On the other hand, the central government confirmed a plan (6 December 1926) to resettle half of the Soviet Koreans (88,000 people) north of Khabarovsk
on suspicions of disloyalty to the Soviet Union. However, the northward resettlement plan had not been implemented by 1928 for a variety of political and budgetary reasons. By 1931, when the plan was officially abandoned, only 500 Korean families (2,500 individuals) had been resettled in the north.
The resettlement plans were revived with new vigor in August 1937, ostensibly with the purpose of suppressing "the penetration of the Japanese espionage into the Far Eastern Krai". This time, however, the direction of resettlement was westward, to Soviet Central Asia
. From September to October 1937, more than 172,000 of Soviet Koreans were deported
from the border regions of the Russian Far East
to Kazakh SSR
and Uzbek SSR
(the latter including Karakalpak ASSR). The deportees expected a Korean ASSR to be created in Central Asia, but they never received a national territory, although the deported Koreans were settled in separate Korean collective farms with Korean-language schools, a Korean publishing house, a Korean newspaper for all of Central Asia, and even a Korean teachers' college. A significant population of ethnic Koreans still exist in Kazakhstan and Uzbekistan.
Boundary delimitation
Boundary delimitation, or simply delimitation, is the term used to describe the drawing of boundaries, but is most often used to describe the drawing of electoral boundaries, specifically those of precincts, states, counties or other municipalities...
(Soviet socialist republics – SSR, autonomous Soviet socialist republics – ASSR, autonomous provinces – oblasts, or autonomous national territories – okrugi) from the ethnic diversity of the Soviet Union
Soviet Union
The Soviet Union , officially the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics , was a constitutionally socialist state that existed in Eurasia between 1922 and 1991....
and its subregions. The Russian term for this Soviet state policy is razmezhevanie , which is variously translated in English-language literature as national-territorial delimitation, demarcation, or partition. National delimitation is part of a broader process of changes in administrative-territorial division, which also changes the boundaries of territorial units, but is not necessarily linked to national or ethnic considerations. National delimitation in the Soviet Union is distinct from nation-building
Nation-building
For nation-building in the sense of enhancing the capacity of state institutions, building state-society relations, and also external interventions see State-building....
, which typically refers to the policies and actions implemented by the government of a national territorial unit (a nation-state
Nation-state
The nation state is a state that self-identifies as deriving its political legitimacy from serving as a sovereign entity for a nation as a sovereign territorial unit. The state is a political and geopolitical entity; the nation is a cultural and/or ethnic entity...
) after delimitation. In most cases National delimitation in the Soviet Union was followed by korenizatsiya
Korenizatsiya
Korenizatsiya sometimes also called korenization, meaning "nativization" or "indigenization", literally "putting down roots", was the early Soviet nationalities policy promoted mostly in the 1920s but with a continuing legacy in later years...
.
Policies of national delimitation in the Soviet Union
The Russian EmpireRussian Empire
The Russian Empire was a state that existed from 1721 until the Russian Revolution of 1917. It was the successor to the Tsardom of Russia and the predecessor of the Soviet Union...
was officially a single nation-state
Nation-state
The nation state is a state that self-identifies as deriving its political legitimacy from serving as a sovereign entity for a nation as a sovereign territorial unit. The state is a political and geopolitical entity; the nation is a cultural and/or ethnic entity...
in which the Russian ethnic group was the only recognized nationality. The many other ethnic groups that inhabited the Russian Empire were classified as inorodtsy, or aliens. The Soviet Russia that took over from the Russian Empire in 1917 was not a nation-state, nor was the Soviet leadership committed to turning their country into such a state. In the early Soviet period, even voluntary assimilation was actively discouraged, and the promotion of the national self-consciousness of the non-Russian populations was attempted. Each officially recognized ethnic minority, however small, was granted its own national territory where it enjoyed a certain degree of autonomy, national schools, and national elites. A written national language (if it had been lacking), national language planning
Language planning
Language planning is a deliberate effort to influence the function, structure, or acquisition of languages or language variety within a speech community. It is often associated with government planning, but is also used by a variety of non-governmental organizations, such as grass-roots...
, native-language press, and books written in the native language came with the national territory. The attitudes towards many ethnic minorities changed dramatically in the 1930s-1940s under the leadership of Joseph Stalin
Joseph Stalin
Joseph Vissarionovich Stalin was the Premier of the Soviet Union from 6 May 1941 to 5 March 1953. He was among the Bolshevik revolutionaries who brought about the October Revolution and had held the position of first General Secretary of the Communist Party of the Soviet Union's Central Committee...
with the advent of a repressive policy featuring abolition of the national institutions, ethnic deportations
Population transfer in the Soviet Union
Population transfer in the Soviet Union may be classified into the following broad categories: deportations of "anti-Soviet" categories of population, often classified as "enemies of workers," deportations of entire nationalities, labor force transfer, and organized migrations in opposite...
, national terror, and Russification
Russification
Russification is an adoption of the Russian language or some other Russian attributes by non-Russian communities...
(mostly towards those with cross-border ethnic ties to foreign nation-states in the 1930s or compromised in the view of Stalin during the Great Patriotic War in the 1940s), although nation-building often continued simultaneously for others.
After the establishment of the Soviet Union
Soviet Union
The Soviet Union , officially the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics , was a constitutionally socialist state that existed in Eurasia between 1922 and 1991....
within the boundaries of the former Russian Empire
Russian Empire
The Russian Empire was a state that existed from 1721 until the Russian Revolution of 1917. It was the successor to the Tsardom of Russia and the predecessor of the Soviet Union...
, the Bolshevik government
Communist Party of the Soviet Union
The Communist Party of the Soviet Union was the only legal, ruling political party in the Soviet Union and one of the largest communist organizations in the world...
began the process of national delimitation and nation building, which lasted through the 1920s and most of the 1930s. The project attempted to build nations out of the numerous ethnic groups in the Soviet Union. Defining a nation or politically-conscious ethnic group
Ethnic group
An ethnic group is a group of people whose members identify with each other, through a common heritage, often consisting of a common language, a common culture and/or an ideology that stresses common ancestry or endogamy...
was in itself a politically-charged issue in the Soviet Union. In 1913, Joseph Stalin
Joseph Stalin
Joseph Vissarionovich Stalin was the Premier of the Soviet Union from 6 May 1941 to 5 March 1953. He was among the Bolshevik revolutionaries who brought about the October Revolution and had held the position of first General Secretary of the Communist Party of the Soviet Union's Central Committee...
, in his work Marxism and the National Question, which subsequently became the cornerstone of the Soviet policy towards nationalities, defined a nation as “a historically constituted, stable community of people, formed on the basis of a common language, territory, economic life, and psychological makeup manifested in a common culture.” Many of the subject nationalities or communities in the Russian Empire did not fully meet these criteria. Not only cultural, linguistic, religious and tribal diversities made the process difficult but also the lack of a political consciousness of ethnicity among the people was a major obstacle to this process. Still, the process relied on The Declaration of Rights of the Peoples of Russia
Declaration of Rights of Peoples of Russia
The Declaration of the Rights of the Peoples of Russia was a document promulgated by the Bolshevik government of Russia on November 15 , 1917 .The document proclaimed:...
, adopted by the Bolshevik government
Council of the People's Commissars
The Council of People's Commissars , was a government institution formed shortly after the October Revolution in 1917. Created in the Russian Republic the council laid foundations in restructuring the country to form the Soviet Union...
on 15 November 1917, immediately after the October Revolution
October Revolution
The October Revolution , also known as the Great October Socialist Revolution , Red October, the October Uprising or the Bolshevik Revolution, was a political revolution and a part of the Russian Revolution of 1917...
, which recognized equality and sovereignty of all the peoples of Russia; their right for free self-determination, up to and including secession and creation of an independent state; freedom of religion; and free development of national minorities and ethnic groups on the territory of Russia.
The Soviet Union (or more formally USSR – the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics) was established in 1922 as a federation
Federation
A federation , also known as a federal state, is a type of sovereign state characterized by a union of partially self-governing states or regions united by a central government...
of nationalities, which eventually came to encompass 15 major national territories, each organized as a Union-level republic (Soviet Socialist Republic or SSR). All 15 national republics, created between 1917 and 1940, had constitutionally equal rights and equal standing in the formal structure of state power. The largest of the 15 republics – Russia – was ethnically the most diverse and from the very beginning it was constituted as RSFSR – Russian Soviet Federative Socialist Republic
Russian Soviet Federative Socialist Republic
The Russian Soviet Federative Socialist Republic , commonly referred to as Soviet Russia, Bolshevik Russia, or simply Russia, was the largest, most populous and economically developed republic in the former Soviet Union....
, a federation within a federation. Russian SFSR was divided in the early 1920s into some 30 autonomous ethnic territories (Autonomous Soviet Socialist Republics – ASSR and autonomous oblasts
Autonomous oblasts of the Soviet Union
Autonomous oblasts of the Soviet Union were administrative units created for a number of smaller nations, which were given autonomy within the republics of the Soviet Union.-Azerbaijan SSR:*Nagorno-Karabakh AO -Byelorussian SSR:...
– AO), many of which exist to this day as ethnic republics within the Russian Federation
Republics of Russia
The Russian Federation is divided into 83 federal subjects , 21 of which are republics. The republics represent areas of non-Russian ethnicity. The indigenous ethnic group of a republic that gives it its name is referred to as the "titular nationality"...
. There was also a very large number of lower level ethnic territories, such as national districts and national village sovets. The exact number of ASSR and AO varied over the years as new entities were created while old entities switched from one form to another, transformed into Union-level republics (e.g., Kazakh
Kazakh SSR
The Kazakh Soviet Socialist Republic , also known as the Kazakh SSR for short, was one of republics that made up the Soviet Union.At in area, it was the second largest constituent republic in the USSR, after the Russian SFSR. Its capital was Alma-Ata . Today it is the independent state of...
and Kyrgyz SSR created in 1936, Moldovan SSR created in 1940), or were absorbed into larger territories (e.g., Crimean ASSR absorbed into the RSFSR in 1945 and Volga German ASSR absorbed into RSFSR in 1941).
The first population census of the USSR in 1926 listed 176 distinct nationalities. Eliminating excessive detail (e.g., four ethnic groups for Jews and five ethnic groups for Georgians) and omitting very small ethnic groups, the list was aggregated into 69 nationalities. These 69 nationalities lived in 45 nationally delimited territories, including 16 Union-level republics (SSR) for the major nationalities, 23 autonomous regions (18 ASSR and 5 autonomous oblasts) for other nationalities within Russian SFSR, and 6 autonomous regions within other Union-level republics (one in Uzbek SSR, one in Azerbaijan SSR, one in Tajik SSR, and three in Georgian SSR).
Higher level autonomous national territories in the Soviet Union
| Host republic | Autonomous republics Autonomous republics of the Soviet Union Autonomous Soviet Socialist Republics of the Soviet Union were administrative units created for certain nations. The ASSRs had a status lower than the union republics of the Soviet Union, but higher than the autonomous oblasts and the autonomous okrugs.... | Creation date | Autonomous oblasts Autonomous oblasts of the Soviet Union Autonomous oblasts of the Soviet Union were administrative units created for a number of smaller nations, which were given autonomy within the republics of the Soviet Union.-Azerbaijan SSR:*Nagorno-Karabakh AO -Byelorussian SSR:... | Creation date |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Russian SFSR | Bashkir ASSR | 1919 | Adyghe AO | 1922 |
| Buryat ASSR | 1923 | Gorno-Altai AO Gorno-Altai Autonomous Oblast The Gorno-Altai Autonomous Oblast It was upgraded into an ASSR in 1991, shortly before the dissolution of the Soviet Union. It corresponds to the current Altai Republic.... |
1922 (Oyrot AO until 1948) | |
| Crimean ASSR (Crimean Tatars) | 1921-1945 | Karachay-Cherkess AO | 1922 | |
| Dagestan ASSR | 1921 | Khakas AO | 1930 | |
| Yakut ASSR | 1922 | Jewish AO Jewish Autonomous Oblast The Jewish Autonomous Oblast is a federal subject of Russia situated in the Russian Far East, bordering Khabarovsk Krai and Amur Oblast of Russia and Heilongjiang province of China. Its administrative center is the town of Birobidzhan.... |
1934 | |
| Kabardino-Balkar ASSR | 1921 | |||
| Kalmyk ASSR | 1935 | |||
| Karelian ASSR Karelian ASSR The Karelian ASSR was an autonomous republic of the Russian SFSR, Soviet Union, with the capital in Petrozavodsk.The Karelian ASSR was formed as a part of the Russian SFSR by the Resolution of the Presidium of the All-Russian Central Executive Committee of June 27, 1923 and by the Decree of... |
1923 | |||
| Komi ASSR | 1921 | |||
| Mari ASSR | 1920 | |||
| Mordovian ASSR | 1930 | |||
| North Ossetian ASSR | 1924 | |||
| Udmurt ASSR | 1920 | |||
| Volga German ASSR | 1918-1941 | |||
| Tatar ASSR | 1920 | |||
| Chechen-Ingush ASSR | 1936 | |||
| Chuvash ASSR | 1925 | |||
| Tuva ASSR | 1961 | |||
| Georgian SSR | Abkhaz ASSR | 1931 (Abkhazian SSR 1921-1931) |
South Ossetian AO South Ossetian Autonomous Oblast The South Ossetian Autonomous Oblast was an autonomous oblast of the Soviet Union created within the Georgian SSR on April 20, 1922. Its autonomy was revoked on December 10, 1990 by the Supreme Soviet of the Georgian SSR, leading to the First South Ossetian War... |
1922 |
| Adjar ASSR Adjar ASSR The Adjar ASSR, Adzhar ASSR or Adjarian Autonomous Soviet Socialist Republic was an autonomous republic of the Soviet Union within the Georgian SSR, established on 16 July 1921... |
1921 | |||
| Azerbaijan SSR Azerbaijan SSR The Azerbaijan Soviet Socialist Republic , also known as the Azerbaijan SSR for short, was one of the republics that made up the former Soviet Union.... |
Nakhichevan ASSR | 1920 | ||
| Uzbek SSR Uzbek SSR The Uzbek Soviet Socialist Republic , also known as the Uzbek SSR for short, was one of the republics of the Soviet Union since its creation in 1924... |
Karakalpak ASSR | 1925 (Karakalpak AO Karakalpak Autonomous Oblast Karakalpak Autonomous Oblast was created on February 19, 1925 by separating lands of the ethnic Karakalpaks from the Turkestan Autonomous Soviet Socialist Republic and Khorezm People's Soviet Republic.... until 1932) |
||
| Tajik SSR Tajik SSR The Tajik Soviet Socialist Republic , also known as the Tajik SSR for short, was one of the 15 republics that made up the Soviet Union. Located in Central Asia, the Tajik SSR was created on 5 December 1929 as a national entity for the Tajik people within the Soviet Union... |
Gorno-Badakhshan AO Gorno-Badakhshan Autonomous Province Gorno-Badakhshan Autonomous Province is an autonomous, mountainous province in the east of Tajikistan. Located in the Pamir Mountains, it makes up 45% of the land area of the country but only 3% of the population.... (Pamir nationalities) |
1929 |
Map showing the ethnic republics of the Russian Federation
Republics of Russia
The Russian Federation is divided into 83 federal subjects , 21 of which are republics. The republics represent areas of non-Russian ethnicity. The indigenous ethnic group of a republic that gives it its name is referred to as the "titular nationality"...
(2008) that succeeded the national territories of Russian SFSR (pre-1990)
 |
||
|
8. Kalmykia Kalmykia The Republic of Kalmykia is a federal subject of Russia . Population: It is the only Buddhist region in Europe. It has also become well-known as an international chess mecca because its former President, Kirsan Ilyumzhinov, is the head of the International Chess Federation .-Geography:*Area:... 9. Karachay-Cherkessia Karachay-Cherkessia The Karachay-Cherkess Republic , or Karachay-Cherkessia is a federal subject of Russia . Population: -Geography:*Area: *Borders:**internal: Krasnodar Krai , Kabardino-Balkar Republic , Stavropol Krai .... 10. Karelia Republic of Karelia The Republic of Karelia is a federal subject of Russia .-Geography:The republic is located in the northwestern part of Russia, taking intervening position between the basins of White and Baltic seas... 11. Komi Komi Republic The Komi Republic is a federal subject of Russia .-Geography:The republic is situated to the west of the Ural mountains, in the north-east of the East European Plain... 12. Mari El Mari El The Mari El Republic is a federal subject of Russia . Its capital is the city of Yoshkar-Ola. Population: -Geography:The republic is located in the eastern part of the East European Plain of Russia, along the Volga River. The swampy Mari Depression is located in the west of the republic... 13. Mordovia Mordovia The Republic of Mordovia , also known as Mordvinia, is a federal subject of Russia . Its capital is the city of Saransk. Population: -Geography:The republic is located in the eastern part of the East European Plain of Russia... 14. Sakha (Yakutia) |
15. North Ossetia-Alania North Ossetia-Alania The Republic of North Ossetia–Alania is a federal subject of Russia . Its population according to the 2010 Census was 712,877.-Name:... 16. Tatarstan Tatarstan The Republic of Tatarstan is a federal subject of Russia located in the Volga Federal District. Its capital is the city of Kazan, which is one of Russia's largest and most prosperous cities. The republic borders with Kirov, Ulyanovsk, Samara, and Orenburg Oblasts, and with the Mari El, Udmurt,... 17. Tuva Tuva The Tyva Republic , or Tuva , is a federal subject of Russia . It lies in the geographical center of Asia, in southern Siberia. The republic borders with the Altai Republic, the Republic of Khakassia, Krasnoyarsk Krai, Irkutsk Oblast, and the Republic of Buryatia in Russia and with Mongolia to the... 18. Udmurtia Udmurtia The Udmurt Republic , or Udmurtia is a federal subject of Russia . Its capital is the city of Izhevsk. Population: -History:... 19. Khakassia Khakassia The Republic of Khakassia or Khakasiya is a federal subject of Russia located in south-central Siberia. Its capital city is Abakan, which is also the largest city in the republic... 20. Chechnya Chechnya The Chechen Republic , commonly referred to as Chechnya , also spelled Chechnia or Chechenia, sometimes referred to as Ichkeria , is a federal subject of Russia . It is located in the southeastern part of Europe in the Northern Caucasus mountains. The capital of the republic is the city of Grozny... 21. Chuvashia |
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Despite the general policy of granting national territories to all ethnic groups, several nationalities remained without their own territories in the 1920s and the 1930s. These were Poles, Bulgarians, Greeks, Hungarians, Gypsies, Uigurs, Koreans, and Gagauz (today the Gagauz live in a compact area in the south of Moldova, where they enjoy a measure of autonomy). The Volga Germans lost their national territory with the outbreak of World War II
World War II
World War II, or the Second World War , was a global conflict lasting from 1939 to 1945, involving most of the world's nations—including all of the great powers—eventually forming two opposing military alliances: the Allies and the Axis...
in 1941. The peoples of the North had neither autonomous republics nor autonomous oblasts, but since the 1930s they have been organized in 10 national okrugs
Autonomous okrugs of Russia
Autonomous okrug is a type of federal subject of Russia and simultaneously a type of administrative division of some federal subjects. As of 2008, the Russian Federation is divided into 83 federal subjects, of which four are avtonomnyye okruga Autonomous okrug (district, area, region) is a...
, such as the Chukotka Autonomous Okrug, the Koryak Autonomous Okrug, the Nenets Autonomous Okrug, and others.
Besides national republics, oblasts, and okrugs, several hundred national districts (population 10,000-50,000) and several thousand national townships (population 500-5,000) were established. In some cases this policy required voluntary or forced resettlement in both directions to create a compact population. Ethnic left immigration and return of non-Russian émigrés to the Soviet Union during the New Economic Policy
New Economic Policy
The New Economic Policy was an economic policy proposed by Vladimir Lenin, who called it state capitalism. Allowing some private ventures, the NEP allowed small animal businesses or smoke shops, for instance, to reopen for private profit while the state continued to control banks, foreign trade,...
, albeit perceived as an easy cover for espionage, were not discouraged and proceeded quite actively, contributing to nation-building.
Soviet fear of foreign influence was given momentum by sporadic ethnic guerilla uprisings along the entire Soviet frontier throughout the 1920s. The Soviet government was particularly concerned about the loyalty of the Finnish, Polish, and German populations. However, in July 1925 the Soviet authorities felt secure enough and in order to project Soviet influence outwards, exploiting cross-border ethnic ties, granted national minorities in the border regions with more privileges and national rights than those in the central regions. This policy was implemented especially successfully in the Ukrainian SSR
Ukrainian SSR
The Ukrainian Soviet Socialist Republic or in short, the Ukrainian SSR was a sovereign Soviet Socialist state and one of the fifteen constituent republics of the Soviet Union lasting from its inception in 1922 to the breakup in 1991...
, which at first indeed succeeded in attracting the population of Polish Kresy
Kresy
The Polish term Kresy refers to a land considered by Poles as historical eastern provinces of their country. Today, it makes western Ukraine, western Belarus, as well as eastern Lithuania, with such major cities, as Lviv, Vilnius, and Hrodna. This territory belonged to the Polish-Lithuanian...
. However, some Ukrainian communists claimed neighboring regions even from the Russian SFSR.
National delimitation in Central Asia
After the Russian revolution of 1917Russian Revolution of 1917
The Russian Revolution is the collective term for a series of revolutions in Russia in 1917, which destroyed the Tsarist autocracy and led to the creation of the Soviet Union. The Tsar was deposed and replaced by a provisional government in the first revolution of February 1917...
, the entire space occupied today by Turkmenistan
Turkmenistan
Turkmenistan , formerly also known as Turkmenia is one of the Turkic states in Central Asia. Until 1991, it was a constituent republic of the Soviet Union, the Turkmen Soviet Socialist Republic . Turkmenistan is one of the six independent Turkic states...
, Uzbekistan
Uzbekistan
Uzbekistan , officially the Republic of Uzbekistan is a doubly landlocked country in Central Asia and one of the six independent Turkic states. It shares borders with Kazakhstan to the west and to the north, Kyrgyzstan and Tajikistan to the east, and Afghanistan and Turkmenistan to the south....
, Tajikistan
Tajikistan
Tajikistan , officially the Republic of Tajikistan , is a mountainous landlocked country in Central Asia. Afghanistan borders it to the south, Uzbekistan to the west, Kyrgyzstan to the north, and China to the east....
, Kyrgyzstan
Kyrgyzstan
Kyrgyzstan , officially the Kyrgyz Republic is one of the world's six independent Turkic states . Located in Central Asia, landlocked and mountainous, Kyrgyzstan is bordered by Kazakhstan to the north, Uzbekistan to the west, Tajikistan to the southwest and China to the east...
, and the southern part of Kazakhstan
Kazakhstan
Kazakhstan , officially the Republic of Kazakhstan, is a transcontinental country in Central Asia and Eastern Europe. Ranked as the ninth largest country in the world, it is also the world's largest landlocked country; its territory of is greater than Western Europe...
consisted of three administrative territorial units: the Turkestan Autonomous Soviet Socialist Republic
Turkestan Autonomous Soviet Socialist Republic
Turkestan Autonomous Soviet Socialist Republic was created from the Turkestan Krai of Imperial Russia...
(Turkestan ASSR), created in April 1918 within the Russian Soviet Federative Socialist Republic (RSFSR), and the two successor states of the Emirate of Bukhara
Emirate of Bukhara
The Emirate of Bukhara was a Central Asian state that existed from 1785 to 1920. It occupied the land between the Amu Darya and Syr Darya rivers, known formerly as Transoxiana. Its core territory was the land along the lower Zarafshan River, and its urban centres were the ancient cities of...
and the Khanate of Khiva
Khanate of Khiva
The Khanate of Khiva was the name of a Uzbek state that existed in the historical region of Khwarezm from 1511 to 1920, except for a period of Persian occupation by Nadir Shah between 1740–1746. It was the patrilineal descendants of Shayban , the fifth son of Jochi and grandson of Genghis Khan...
, which were transformed into Bukhara
Bukharan People's Soviet Republic
The Bukharan People's Soviet Republic was a short-lived Soviet state which governed the former Emirate of Bukhara during the period immediately following the Russian Revolution from 1920-1925. In 1924 its name was changed to the Bukharan Soviet Socialist Republic...
and Khorezm People's Soviet Republics following the takeover by the Red Army in 1920. North of Turkestan ASSR lay the Kirghiz Autonomous Soviet Socialist Republic
Kirghiz Autonomous Soviet Socialist Republic
The Kirghiz Autonomous Soviet Socialist Republic was an autonomous republic of the Soviet Union within the Russian Soviet Federative Socialist Republic existing from 1920 until 1925, when it took the name of Kazakh Autonomous Soviet Socialist Republic....
(Kirghiz ASSR, Kirgizistan ASSR on the map), which was created on 26 August 1920 in the territory coinciding with the northern part of today's Kazakhstan (the southern part of Kazakhstan, south of the Aral Sea
Aral Sea
The Aral Sea was a lake that lay between Kazakhstan in the north and Karakalpakstan, an autonomous region of Uzbekistan, in the south...
–Balkhash Lake line, was part of Turkestan ASSR in 1920).
In 1924, Turkestan ASSR, i.e., roughly the southern half of Soviet Central Asia
Soviet Central Asia
Soviet Central Asia refers to the section of Central Asia formerly controlled by the Soviet Union, as well as the time period of Soviet administration . In terms of area, it is nearly synonymous with Russian Turkestan, the name for the region during the Russian Empire...
, was partitioned into two Soviet Socialist Republics (SSR), Turkmen SSR
Turkmen SSR
The Turkmen Soviet Socialist Republic , also known as the Turkmen SSR for short, was one of republics of the Soviet Union in Central Asia. It was initially established on 7 August 1921 as the Turkmen Oblast of the Turkestan ASSR. On 13 May 1925 it was transformed into Turkmen SSR and became a...
and Uzbek SSR
Uzbek SSR
The Uzbek Soviet Socialist Republic , also known as the Uzbek SSR for short, was one of the republics of the Soviet Union since its creation in 1924...
. Turkmen SSR matched the borders of today's Turkmenistan and it was created as a home for the Turkmens
Turkmen people
The Turkmen are a Turkic people located primarily in the Central Asian states of Turkmenistan, Afghanistan, and northeastern Iran. They speak the Turkmen language, which is classified as a part of the Western Oghuz branch of the Turkic languages family together with Turkish, Azerbaijani, Qashqai,...
of Soviet Central Asia. The Bukhara and Khorezm People's Soviet Republics were absorbed into Uzbek SSR, which also included other territories inhabited by Uzbeks
Uzbeks
The Uzbeks are a Turkic ethnic group in Central Asia. They comprise the majority population of Uzbekistan, and large populations can also be found in Afghanistan, Tajikstan, Kyrgyzstan, Turkmenistan, Kazakhstan, Russia, Pakistan, Mongolia and the Xinjiang Uyghur Autonomous Region of China...
as well as those inhabited by ethnic Tajiks. At the same time, Tajik Autonomous Soviet Socialist Republic (Tajik ASSR
Tajik ASSR
The Tajik Autonomous Soviet Socialist Republic was an autonomous republic within the Uzbek SSR in the Soviet Union. It was created in October 1924 by a series of legal acts that partitioned the three existing regional entities in Central Asia – Turkestan ASSR, Bukharan People's Soviet Republic,...
) was created within Uzbek SSR for the Tajik ethnic population and after five years, in 1929, it was separated from Uzbek SSR and upgraded to the status of Soviet Socialist Republic (Tajik SSR
Tajik SSR
The Tajik Soviet Socialist Republic , also known as the Tajik SSR for short, was one of the 15 republics that made up the Soviet Union. Located in Central Asia, the Tajik SSR was created on 5 December 1929 as a national entity for the Tajik people within the Soviet Union...
). Kirghiz SSR (today's Kyrgyzstan) was created only in 1936; between 1929 and 1936 it existed as the Kara-Kirghiz Autonomous Oblast (province) within RSFSR. Kazakh SSR
Kazakh SSR
The Kazakh Soviet Socialist Republic , also known as the Kazakh SSR for short, was one of republics that made up the Soviet Union.At in area, it was the second largest constituent republic in the USSR, after the Russian SFSR. Its capital was Alma-Ata . Today it is the independent state of...
was also created at that time (5 December 1936), thus completing the process of national delimitation of Soviet Central Asia into five Soviet Socialist Republics that in 1991 would become five independent states.
Bitter debates accompanied the partition of Uzbek SSR and Tajik SSR in 1929, focusing especially on the status of Bukhara
Bukhara
Bukhara , from the Soghdian βuxārak , is the capital of the Bukhara Province of Uzbekistan. The nation's fifth-largest city, it has a population of 263,400 . The region around Bukhara has been inhabited for at least five millennia, and the city has existed for half that time...
, Samarkand
Samarkand
Although a Persian-speaking region, it was not united politically with Iran most of the times between the disintegration of the Seleucid Empire and the Arab conquest . In the 6th century it was within the domain of the Turkic kingdom of the Göktürks.At the start of the 8th century Samarkand came...
, and the Surkhandarya Province
Surxondaryo Province
Surxondaryo Province , old spelling Surkhandarya Province is a viloyat of Uzbekistan, located in the extreme south-east of the country. Established on March 6, 1941, it borders on Turkmenistan, Tajikstan, Afghanistan and Qashqadaryo Province. It covers an area of 20,100 km²...
, all of which had sizeable, if not dominant, Tajik populations. The final decision negotiated by the Uzbek and Tajik parties, not without strong involvement of the Communist Party, left these three Tajik-populated territories within the Turkic-populated
Turkic peoples
The Turkic peoples are peoples residing in northern, central and western Asia, southern Siberia and northwestern China and parts of eastern Europe. They speak languages belonging to the Turkic language family. They share, to varying degrees, certain cultural traits and historical backgrounds...
Uzbek SSR. Tajik SSR was created on 5 December 1929 as the home for most of the ethnic Tajiks in Soviet Central Asia within the boundaries of present-day Tajikistan
Tajikistan
Tajikistan , officially the Republic of Tajikistan , is a mountainous landlocked country in Central Asia. Afghanistan borders it to the south, Uzbekistan to the west, Kyrgyzstan to the north, and China to the east....
.
Nation-building for ethnic minorities
In the 1920s and the 1930s, the policy of national delimitation, which assigned national territories to ethnic groups and nationalities, was followed by nation-building, attempting to create a full range of national institutions within each national territory. Each officially recognized ethnic minority, however small, was granted its own national territory where it enjoyed a certain degree of autonomy, In addition to , and national elites. A written national language was developed (if it had been lacking), national language planningLanguage planning
Language planning is a deliberate effort to influence the function, structure, or acquisition of languages or language variety within a speech community. It is often associated with government planning, but is also used by a variety of non-governmental organizations, such as grass-roots...
was implemented, native teachers were trained, and national schools were established. This was always accompanied by native-language press and books written in the native language. National elites were encouraged to develop and take over the leading administrative and Party positions, sometimes in proportions exceeding the proportion of the native population.
With the grain requisition crises, famines, troubled economic conditions, international destabilization and the reversal of the immigration flow in the early 1930s, the Soviet Union became increasingly worried about a possible disloyalty of diaspora ethnic groups with cross-border ties (especially Finns, Germans
Germans
The Germans are a Germanic ethnic group native to Central Europe. The English term Germans has referred to the German-speaking population of the Holy Roman Empire since the Late Middle Ages....
and Poles
Poles
thumb|right|180px|The state flag of [[Poland]] as used by Polish government and diplomatic authoritiesThe Polish people, or Poles , are a nation indigenous to Poland. They are united by the Polish language, which belongs to the historical Lechitic subgroup of West Slavic languages of Central Europe...
), residing along its western borders, which eventually led to the start of Stalin's repressive policy towards them.
Each adult citizen's ethnicity was necessarily recorded in his passport after the introduction of the passport system in the Soviet Union
Passport system in the Soviet Union
The Soviet passport is an identity document issued upon the laws of the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics for the citizen of the USSR. For the general purposes of identity certification Soviet passports contained such data as name, date of birth, sex, place of birth, nationality and citizenship...
in 1932 and was determined by his choice between his parents' ethnicities (practice that didn't exist in Imperial Russia and is abolished in the Russian Federation).
However, the important question is: why did the communist rulers of the USSR need to create a national consciousness among people, given that it is generally used by the bourgeoisie
Bourgeoisie
In sociology and political science, bourgeoisie describes a range of groups across history. In the Western world, between the late 18th century and the present day, the bourgeoisie is a social class "characterized by their ownership of capital and their related culture." A member of the...
to curtail the class struggle? The reason lies in both the pre-revolutionary and post-revolutionary policies of the Bolshevik Party. Before the revolution, Vladimir Lenin
Vladimir Lenin
Vladimir Ilyich Lenin was a Russian Marxist revolutionary and communist politician who led the October Revolution of 1917. As leader of the Bolsheviks, he headed the Soviet state during its initial years , as it fought to establish control of Russia in the Russian Civil War and worked to create a...
used demands for national autonomy by the non-Russian communities as a tool for gaining power against the tsarist regime; he promised autonomy to these communities, even the right to secede. After the revolution, reifying national identities was seen as a solution for local administrative problems. Sovietization
Sovietization
Sovietization is term that may be used with two distinct meanings:*the adoption of a political system based on the model of soviets .*the adoption of a way of life and mentality modelled after the Soviet Union....
was the ultimate goal behind the nation-building process. In local administrative units, the “rulers” needed to be natives in order to make the non-Russian populations feel that they had been granted national self-determination
Self-determination
Self-determination is the principle in international law that nations have the right to freely choose their sovereignty and international political status with no external compulsion or external interference...
, and this was accomplished via the politics dubbed korenization ("indigenization"). Autonomous states like Kazakhstan
Kazakhstan
Kazakhstan , officially the Republic of Kazakhstan, is a transcontinental country in Central Asia and Eastern Europe. Ranked as the ninth largest country in the world, it is also the world's largest landlocked country; its territory of is greater than Western Europe...
, Uzbekistan
Uzbekistan
Uzbekistan , officially the Republic of Uzbekistan is a doubly landlocked country in Central Asia and one of the six independent Turkic states. It shares borders with Kazakhstan to the west and to the north, Kyrgyzstan and Tajikistan to the east, and Afghanistan and Turkmenistan to the south....
, and others had their own ruling communist parties and native elites, although they were actually under the explicit control of the overall Communist Party of the Soviet Union
Communist Party of the Soviet Union
The Communist Party of the Soviet Union was the only legal, ruling political party in the Soviet Union and one of the largest communist organizations in the world...
. There was also another aspect of this project: it was not aimed at the differentiation of nations but at unifying them over time. The implicit assumption was that after a short (10-20 year) period, bourgeois nationalism would be abandoned and support for a worker-state would follow. The Bolsheviks' aim was not a loose federation but a completely unified modern socialist state.
The Bolsheviks’ plan was to identify the total sum of all national, cultural, linguistic, and territorial diversities under their rule and establish scientific criteria to identify which groups of people were entitled to the description of 'nation'. This task relied on the existing work of tsarist-era ethnographers and statisticians, as well as new research conducted under Soviet auspices. Because most people did not know what is meant by a nation, some of them simply gave names when asked about ethnicity. Many groups were thought to be biologically similar, but culturally distinct. In Central Asia, many identified their "nation" as "Muslim." In other cases, geography made the difference, or even whether one lived in a town versus the countryside. Principally, however, dialects or languages formed the basis for distinguishing between various nations. The results were often contradictory and confusing. More than 150 nations were counted in Central Asia alone. Some were quickly subordinated to others, with communities which had hitherto been counted as "nations" now deemed to be simply tribes. As a result, the number of nations shrunk over the decades.
Korean minorities: a failed delimitation
The Korean minority population in the Russian Far EastRussian Far East
Russian Far East is a term that refers to the Russian part of the Far East, i.e., extreme east parts of Russia, between Lake Baikal in Eastern Siberia and the Pacific Ocean...
was one of the largest border minorities in the Soviet Union, facing in the 1920s and the 1930s the Japanese-occupied Korea on the other side. This minority had been gradually building up since the second half of the 19th century, as poor Korean peasants migrated across the border in search for land and livelihoods. The Korean immigration increased dramatically during the early 1920s, after the Japanese took over Korea. From 1917 to 1926 the Soviet Korean population tripled to nearly 170,000 people, and by 1926 Koreans represented more than a quarter of the rural population of the Vladivostok
Vladivostok
The city is located in the southern extremity of Muravyov-Amursky Peninsula, which is about 30 km long and approximately 12 km wide.The highest point is Mount Kholodilnik, the height of which is 257 m...
region. Declared Soviet policy toward national minorities demanded the formation of a Korean autonomous territory for the large Korean community in the Russian Far East. The option of Korean ASSR in the Far East was seriously debated in Moscow but finally rejected in 1925 because of opposition from the local Russian population who feared competition for land and the political goal of maintaining a peaceful stance toward the Japanese. As a result, a contradictory policy emerged. On the one hand, smaller Korean national territories were authorized, with Korean-language schools and newspapers, and the policy line represented Koreans as a model Soviet national minority contrasted with the Korean population suffering under the yoke of Japanese occupation across the border. On the other hand, the central government confirmed a plan (6 December 1926) to resettle half of the Soviet Koreans (88,000 people) north of Khabarovsk
Khabarovsk
Khabarovsk is the largest city and the administrative center of Khabarovsk Krai, Russia. It is located some from the Chinese border. It is the second largest city in the Russian Far East, after Vladivostok. The city became the administrative center of the Far Eastern Federal District of Russia...
on suspicions of disloyalty to the Soviet Union. However, the northward resettlement plan had not been implemented by 1928 for a variety of political and budgetary reasons. By 1931, when the plan was officially abandoned, only 500 Korean families (2,500 individuals) had been resettled in the north.
The resettlement plans were revived with new vigor in August 1937, ostensibly with the purpose of suppressing "the penetration of the Japanese espionage into the Far Eastern Krai". This time, however, the direction of resettlement was westward, to Soviet Central Asia
Soviet Central Asia
Soviet Central Asia refers to the section of Central Asia formerly controlled by the Soviet Union, as well as the time period of Soviet administration . In terms of area, it is nearly synonymous with Russian Turkestan, the name for the region during the Russian Empire...
. From September to October 1937, more than 172,000 of Soviet Koreans were deported
Deportation of Koreans in the Soviet Union
Deportation of Koreans in the Soviet Union, originally conceived in 1926, initiated in 1930, and carried through in 1937, was the first mass transfer of an entire nationality based on their ethnicity to be committed by the Soviet Union...
from the border regions of the Russian Far East
Russian Far East
Russian Far East is a term that refers to the Russian part of the Far East, i.e., extreme east parts of Russia, between Lake Baikal in Eastern Siberia and the Pacific Ocean...
to Kazakh SSR
Kazakh SSR
The Kazakh Soviet Socialist Republic , also known as the Kazakh SSR for short, was one of republics that made up the Soviet Union.At in area, it was the second largest constituent republic in the USSR, after the Russian SFSR. Its capital was Alma-Ata . Today it is the independent state of...
and Uzbek SSR
Uzbek SSR
The Uzbek Soviet Socialist Republic , also known as the Uzbek SSR for short, was one of the republics of the Soviet Union since its creation in 1924...
(the latter including Karakalpak ASSR). The deportees expected a Korean ASSR to be created in Central Asia, but they never received a national territory, although the deported Koreans were settled in separate Korean collective farms with Korean-language schools, a Korean publishing house, a Korean newspaper for all of Central Asia, and even a Korean teachers' college. A significant population of ethnic Koreans still exist in Kazakhstan and Uzbekistan.
Further reading
- John Everett-HeathJohn Everett-HeathJohn Everett-Heath is an author, former civil servant, and a Fellow of the Royal Geographical Society. Everett-Heath was a military diplomat in Belgrade and, during his 13 years in the civil service, was concerned with Russia, Central Asia, and the Caucasus. He has lived in Cameroun, Cyprus,...
(2003) Central Asia: History, Ethnicity, Modernity, RoutledgeRoutledgeRoutledge is a British publishing house which has operated under a succession of company names and latterly as an academic imprint. Its origins may be traced back to the 19th-century London bookseller George Routledge...
-Curzon, ISBN 0700709568 - Arne Haugen (2004) The Establishment of National Republics in Central Asia, Palgrave MacmillanPalgrave MacmillanPalgrave Macmillan is an international academic and trade publishing company, headquartered in Basingstoke, Hampshire, England, United Kingdom and with offices in New York, Melbourne, Sydney, Hong Kong, Delhi, Johannesburg. It was created in 2000 when St...
, ISBN 1403915717 - Terry Martin(2001). The Affirmative Action Empire: Nations and Nationalism in the Soviet Union, 1923-1939, Cornell University PressCornell University PressThe Cornell University Press, established in 1869 but inactive from 1884 to 1930, was the first university publishing enterprise in the United States.A division of Cornell University, it is housed in Sage House, the former residence of Henry William Sage....
, ISBN 0801486777 - Oliver Roy (2000) The New Central Asia: The Creation of Nations, NYU Press, ISBN 0814775551