Imagining Post-Imperial Order: Nationalism, Regionalism, Autonomism, and State Socialism in Northeast Russia, 1905-1922
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Imagining Post-Imperial Order: Nationalism, Regionalism, Autonomism, and State Socialism in Northeast Russia, 1905-1922 By Aleksandr Korobeinikov Submitted to Central European University Department of History In partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree of Master of Arts in Comparative History Supervisor: Professor Charles Shaw Second Reader: Professor Balázs Trencsényi CEU eTD Collection Budapest, Hungary 2019 Copyright Notice Copyright in the text of this thesis rests with the Author. Copies by any process, either in full or part, may be made only in accordance with the instructions given by the Author and lodged in the Central European Library. Details may be obtained from the librarian. This page must form a part of any such copies made. Further copies made in accordance with such instructions may not be made without the written permission of the Author. CEU eTD Collection i Abstract Focusing on the works and intellectual activity of the Yakut intelligentsia (the national and Bolshevik), the Thesis examines the development of post-imperial political imagination in Russia’s Northeast region (Yakutia). The formation of the Yakut intellectuals occurred due to the circulation of wider imperial as well as global discourses on nationalism, anti-colonialism, socialism, regionalism during the crisis of the Russian Empire. By discussing the Yakut marginal, even colonial conditions, the Yakut national intellectuals followed the self- governmental aspirations, inherited from the Siberian regionalists, which became commonplace for many Siberian ‘indigenous’ movements. Despite the Stalinist myth, according to which the Soviet Union (and its social engineers) for the first time in Russian history produced the autonomists discourse in the Northeast, it was the Yakut intelligentsia who developed the self-governmental (autonomist) rhetoric during the first decades of the twentieth century. Regional political and social cooperation between the Yakut national and Bolshevik intellectuals during the imperial transformation contributed to the Soviet central government’s decisions regarding the Yakut issues. Hence, the Yakut intellectuals became mediators of the post-imperial political projects in the Northeast that resulted in the establishment of Yakut Autonomous Soviet Socialist Republic in 1922. CEU eTD Collection ii Acknowledgments This thesis is a result of intensive work during the two years I spent at the Central European University. These years were filled with encounters with new people and places that significantly broadened my intellectual horizons. I would like to thank my supervisor, Charles Shaw, who not only helped me to examine the Northeast from a new perceptive and understand my role in the field of Russian/Soviet studies but also provided a comfortable atmosphere of working on my thesis. I am also grateful to my second reader, Balázs Trencsényi, who always pointed to valuable corrections and provoked with broad questions that made me think about my thesis differently. The thesis could not be possible without the help of the CEU and the History Department in particular. Thanks to the professors and staff of the Department, I was able to realize my long dream to visit the Republic of Sakha (Yakutia) for archival research. In Yakutsk, my project was supported by wonderful researchers Ekaterina Nazarovna Romanova and Yegor Petrovich Antonov, who kindly agreed to accompany my stay in the region. I also would like to express appreciation to the Reference Archivists from the National Archive of the Republic of Sakha (Yakutia) and the National Library of the Republic of Sakha (Yakutia) for their patience and assistance during my research. Finally, I am grateful to my sisters Natalia and Maria who motivated me these years finding the right words that pushed me to work and study. Most of all, my sincere gratitude goes to Margarita for her thoughtful advice and invaluable critical contribution to my thesis. Our shared emotional and intellectual experience allowed me to finally realize who I am and CEU eTD Collection what life path I chose. iii Notes on Transliteration Transliteration from the Cyrillic to the Latin alphabet is an eternal issue for anyone studying Russian/Soviet subjects regarding especially names, ethnonyms, and toponyms. Since I work with sources of personal origin mainly of the early twentieth century, I have opted for a dual system: in the text I usually use a simplified Library of Congress system. However, I depart from this system a) when a Russian name/surname has a clear English version (Joseph instead of Iosif, Maxim instead of Maksim); b) when a Russian name/surname, notion or concept has an accepted English spelling (for instance, Yakut instead of Iakut, Yadrintsev instead of Iadrintsev). CEU eTD Collection iv Abbreviations and Glossary AN USSR – The Academy of Science of the USSR ASSR – An Autonomous Soviet Socialist Republic Bichik – The Yakut alphabet GARF – The State Archive of the Russian Federation Kolchakovshchina – The colloquial name for the anti-Bolshevik movement in Siberia headed by Alexander Kolchak during the Civil War in Russia Ksenofontovshchina – The colloquial name for the anti-Soviet national movement headed by Pavel Ksenofontov in 1927-28, also known as the Movement of the Yakut Confederalists NA RS(Y) – The National Archive of the Sakha Republic (Yakutia) Nasleg – A subdivision of an ulus NB RS(Y) – The National Library of the Sakha Republic (Yakutia) Oblast – region Olonkho – Epic poetry of the Yakuts RGIA – The Russian State Historical Archive RGO – The Russian Geographical Society RKP(b) – Russian Communist Party (Bolsheviks) RSDRP – The Russian Social Democratic Labour Party RSFSR – The Russian Soviet Federative Socialist Republic Sakha – The ethnonym of the Yakuts SPbFA RAN – The St. Petersburg Branch of the Federal State Government-Financed Institution CEU eTD Collection of Science of the Archive of Russian Academy of Sciences Toyon – A nobleman in the Yakut social hierarchy that was frequently used to represent both respect and critique. USSR – The Union of Soviet Socialist Republics v Ulus – An administrative unit in territorial division of the Yakut region VSORGO – East Siberian Branch of the Russian Geographical Society VTsIK – The All-Russian Central Executive Committee YASSR – The Yakut Autonomous Soviet Socialist Republic YAKOB – The Yakut Committee of Public Safety YNC SO RAN – The Yakut Scientific Centre of the Siberian Branch of the Russian Academy of Science YTSF – The Yakut Labour Union of Federalists CEU eTD Collection vi Table of Contents Copyright Notice ....................................................................................................................... i Abstract ..................................................................................................................................... ii Acknowledgments.................................................................................................................... iii Notes on Transliteration ......................................................................................................... iv Abbreviations and Glossary .................................................................................................... v Table of Contents ................................................................................................................... vii Introduction: Towards a Post-Imperial Order? ................................................................... 1 A New Imperial History of Northeast Russia – Governing Imperial Diversity in Yakutia ... 5 Categories and Practices: Nation, Nationalism, Intelligentsia, and Autonomy – Global Trends and the Transformation of the Russian Empire ........................................................ 13 Historiography: A New History of Siberia? ......................................................................... 20 The Structure of the Research .............................................................................................. 27 Chapter 1. The Yakut Intellectuals and Siberian Space in Late Imperial Russia ........... 30 1.1. The Northeast as a Part of the Russian Empire ............................................................. 33 1.2. Siberian Regionalism as an Intellectual Center for ‘Indigenous’ Self-Organization .... 44 1.3. Russia’s Own Orient? Ethnographic Knowledge and Exile in the Northeast Region .. 54 1.4. Public and Political Activity of the Yakut National Intelligentsia ................................ 70 1.5. Concluding Remarks ..................................................................................................... 94 Chapter 2. Between Two Empires: Revolutions, Civil War and Nation-Building in the Yakut Region .......................................................................................................................... 96 2.1. Nationalizing the Northeast: Territory, Symbols, Languages of Self-Description, and the Yakut Political Imagination Before the Imperial Collapse ............................................ 97 2.2. “To Achieve a Full Principle of Self-Determination” – Discussions, Ideas, and Projects of the Yakut Autonomy ...................................................................................................... 108 2.3. Civil War in Siberia and the End of National Activism? ............................................ 122 2.4. Concluding Remarks ..................................................................................................