Soviet nationalities policy

Soviet nationalities policy organized the multinational state through territorial units, officially recognized national groups, language policies, and institutions. Its changing approach combined national cultural development with centralized Communist rule.

Korenizatsiya: The early Soviet policy of promoting local languages and recruiting members of titular nationalities into regional administrations. It put nationalities policy into practice through local staffing and language use.
Russian Empire: A multiethnic empire ruled by the Romanov dynasty until the revolutions of 1917. Soviet policies inherited territories and national tensions from this imperial state.
Soviet national consciousness: A sense of national identity shaped by Soviet institutions, education, public culture, and political categories. Official recognition helped strengthen national identities the state also sought to manage.
Internationalism: A political principle that emphasizes solidarity and cooperation across national boundaries. Soviet internationalism coexisted uneasily with institutions organized around nationality.
National delimitation in Central Asia: The 1920s reorganization of Central Asia into Soviet republics and autonomous units defined largely along national lines. It shows how Soviet authorities turned national categories into territorial borders.
Bolshevik nationalities policy: The Bolshevik approach to national self-determination and national institutions before and after the 1917 Revolution. Its arguments established the early framework later adapted by Soviet leaders.
Russification: The spread or imposition of Russian language and culture among non-Russian populations. Centralizing pressures often worked against earlier support for local languages.
National self-determination: The principle that a people should determine its political status and form of government. It was a stated ideal whose meaning Soviet leaders limited in practice.
Soviet federalism: A constitutional system that divided the Soviet Union into union republics and subordinate territorial units. Its formal hierarchy structured the territorial side of nationalities policy.
Vladimir Lenin: A Bolshevik revolutionary and the first head of the Soviet government. Lenin defended national self-determination while seeking a unified socialist state.

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