American Academy of Political and Social Science

Ethnicity in the Author(s): Teresa Rakowska-Harmstone Source: Annals of the American Academy of Political and Social Science, Vol. 433, Ethnic Conflict in the World Today (Sep., 1977), pp. 73-87 Published by: Sage Publications, Inc. in association with the American Academy of Political and Social Science Stable URL: http://www.jstor.org/stable/1043229 . Accessed: 17/09/2013 04:36

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This content downloaded from 128.119.168.112 on Tue, 17 Sep 2013 04:36:48 AM All use subject to JSTOR Terms and Conditions ANNALS,AAPSS, 433, September1977

Ethnicity in the Soviet Union

By TERESA RAKOWSKA-HARMSTONE

ABSTRACT:In the Soviet Union, ethnicity is the major force for change. It is a multiethnic society, where the constitute the ruling majority. The country's political system recognizes the ethnic principle in a federal state structure, but the real power is exercised by a unitary and highly centralized Communist party. The ruling ideology of Marxism- postulates class-based internation- alism as the basis of Soviet national integration. Ethnic antagonisms, inherited from Russia's colonial past, were submerged in the Stalinist period, but growing ethnic self- assertion by non-Russian groups became visible in the sixties and seventies, under the impact of accelerated moderniza- tion and other policy decisions, such as the development of ethnic cultures. Quantitative and qualitative hegemony of the Russians has been a major catalyst. New Soviet educated elites are the spokesmen for ethnic interests, which are aggregated within national republics. Ethnic conflict man- ifests itself in all spheres of political, social, economic, and cultural life, but is played by systemic "rules of the game." There is no open separatism or ethnic warfare. Ethnic forces press for an evolution toward greater autonomy, but if it is denied, there may be an explosion.

Teresa Rakowska-Harmstone is a Professor of Political Science at Carleton University in Ottawa, . Educated at Montreal's McGill University, Radcliffe College, and Harvard University, she also taught at Douglass College, Rutgers University, and, as a Visiting Professor, at McGill and George Washington University. A Director of the Institute of Soviet and East European Studies at Carleton in 1972-74, she is the author of Russia and Nationalism in Central Asia; the Case of Tadzhikistan and other contributions on Soviet national relations and politics of Eastern Europe. 73

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HE international and popular an open conflict of a kind present Western image of the Soviet in many other multiethnic societies Union rarely recognizes the multi- throughout the world. The very ethnic and formally federal character nature of the Soviet political system of the Soviet State. The usual per- precludes that. Marxist-Leninist ide- ception is that the Soviet Union ology, which is the source of legiti- is synonymous with "Russia." This macy for the monopoly of power is so, first, because in the Soviet the CPSU exercises in the country, Union the Russians are the dom- denies the existence of conflicts inant nation, quantitatively and quali- other than those based in class tatively, their historical hegemony exploitation, and postulates, ex ca- having survived intact the 1917 thedra, that with the achievement Revolution and the transition from of the class and ethnic Imperial Russia to the Soviet "in- conflicts in the USSR have both ternational workers'" state; second, disappeared. The theory is that the because the highly centralized na- unity of the Soviet nations and ture of the Soviet political system, nationalities stems from the class- run by the unitary Communist Party based "proletarian internationalism" renders the federal constitutional (all Soviet citizens, of whatever state structure largely irrelevant for nationality, are the "working people") the purposes of international Real- and that the "national problem" politik. Only rarely is one reminded in the Soviet Union has been solved of the federal nature of the USSR, precisely because of the duality of as in the case of Soviet demands the Soviet political system. The to grant full ' status national character of each ethnic to all of its constituent national group is safeguarded in the con- republics, or an attempt to have stitutional national form, but their one or another republic acting as a overriding class-based unity, the sovereign state in the international socialist content, is expressed by the arena for selective (and transient) leading role of the CPSU-the foreign policy purposes,' which in "toilers"' vanguard and the leading the sixties and seventies, for ex- force in society. Consequently, any ample, resulted in a higher profile open ethnic self-assertion which for the Soviet Muslim republics. transgresses the limits of the "national But, as the flow of exchanges and form-socialist content" formula is data between the Soviet Union and suppressed. But the dichotomy also the West has increased in the post- opens up the avenues for "legitimate" Stalin era, the phenomenon of eth- self-assertion. nicity (the old-fashioned term used The nature and appearance of in the Soviet Union is "the national ethnic conflict in the Soviet Union problem") and the presence of are, therefore, different than in other ethnic conflict there, have become more "open" societies. On the one increasingly visible. hand, the systemic constraints pre- The ethnic conflict in the Soviet vent expression of open separatism Union does not take the form of as well as open ethnic warfare. For this reason there is no agreement among experts whether the highly 1. See Vernon V. Aspaturian, Process and visible of ethnic self- in Soviet Foreign phenomenon Power Policy (Boston: Soviet ethnic Little, Brown and Company, 1971), chs. 14 assertion by major and 19. groups can be defined as nationalism.

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On the other hand, the legal frame- the major force for change in the work of the system and its ideological Soviet Union. It presents no immedi- premises not only allow the pur- ate threat to the stability of the suit of ethnic autonomy, but also pre- system, but in the long-run the empt the option of a return to an im- build-up of centrifugal ethnic forces perial state based on Russian na- may well contribute to a major tionalism, even though de facto the change in the nature of the Soviet new "Soviet" value system and state as it is today, and may even lead patterns of behavior are permeated to its eventual disintegration. At pre- -for historical reasons-by the sent, the ethnicity-generated change Russian political culture content. is slow and evolutionary, even as In the Soviet Union, therefore, the forces pressing for it are acceler- the forces of ethnicity find their ating. There has been a degree of expression within the system and grudging and conditional recogni- the ethnic conflict is regulated by tion for ethnic demands in Moscow the rules imposed by it. The Russians but no real accommodations, largely, and the or the , one suspects, because the leader- for example, do not fight in the ship cannot find adequate solution streets; on the contrary, professions to the problem and any changes in of "unbreakable unity" and "fra- the present system may open the ternal ties" fill the Soviet media, floodgates of nationalism. Should resound in conferences and assem- there be a violent change in the blies, provide the message in the status quo, however, ethnicity may arts, and form the keynote of official well trigger a revolutionary change. pronouncements. Yet, at the same The subject is too complex to be time the whole fabric of Soviet explored fully in a short article. society is permeated, subtly but Here an attempt is made to dis- unmistakably,by ethnic antagonisms cuss the dimensions and the na- and competition between the dom- ture of the ethnic conflict in the inant Russians and all others in Soviet Union, with special emphasis political, economic, social, and cul- on its sources of growth and the tural life. dynamics of ethnic interaction as All available evidence indicates they evolve under the "rules of the that the rate of growth of the na- game" imposed by the system. tional self-assertion of major Soviet ethnic groups exceeds their rate of SALIENT VARIABLES assimilation into a common Soviet value system. The problem, while Background not officially acknowledged, is rec- The colonial of the heritage Imperial ognized by Soviet leadership. In Russia continues to affect the words of one of relations the key Polit- between the Russians and non- bureau ethnic leaders, antagonisms Russians in the Soviet Union even constitute one of the three main The obstacles on today. Russian colonial expan- the "road to building sion extended into areas communism."2 In the geograph- opinion of ically contiguous, but followed a this writer, the ethnic conflict is now familiar pattern of pursuit of eco- nomic and interests 2. Mikhail Suslov, "The Social Sciences political followed -a Combat Arm of the Party in the Building by conquest. Most of the non- of Communism," Kommiunist (Moscow), Jan- Russian border areas attempted to uary 1972, pp. 18-30. break away after the 1917 Revolu-

This content downloaded from 128.119.168.112 on Tue, 17 Sep 2013 04:36:48 AM All use subject to JSTOR Terms and Conditions 76 THE ANNALS OF THE AMERICAN ACADEMY tion but were reconquered by the units: there are 15 union republics new Bolshevik government in the (SSR) (see table 1), 20 autonomous name of "proletarian unity." Those republics (ASSR), 8 autonomous that did gain independence, such provinces (AO), and 10 national as the three Baltic states, were re- regions. Not all of the majornations, incorporated in World War II, at however, have an appropriate na- which time also the Soviet bound- tional unit; either because of geo- aries were extended westward to graphic dispersal (the Jews and the include the Western Ukraine and Poles) or for political reasons (the Belorussia and Moldavia. Despite an Germans and the Crimean ).5 effort, in the Soviet period, at an The officially sponsored policy across-the-board modernization and of inter-republic migration and eth- equalization, aspects of colonial nic intermixture has affected the relationships survive, inclusive of basic national settlement pattern attitudes. The multiethnic mosaic of of major groups remarkably little in Soviet population today is the result the 60 years of Soviet power. A of past colonial conquest, the histor- preponderantmajority of most ethnic ical-frequently the living-mem- groups still live in their national ory of which is a part of the ethnic areas or in the regions immediately consciousness of the non-Russian contiguous (see table 1). The Rus- peoples.3 sians are the most significant ex- The last (1970) ception, and the eastward shift of listed more than 100 nations and the Soviet population since 1917 nationalities. The Russians consti- occurred largely because of the tuted 53 percent of the total popula- geographic mobility of the Russian tion (a decline of 1 percent since group who now dominate the urban the previous census of 1959), but and industrial centers throughout 21 other national groups numbered the country. A number of Ukrainians more than 1 million people each and Belorussians also migrated east- (see table 1). Of these, the Ukrain- ward; among other groups only the ians (40.8 millions), the Uzbeks have shown a certain (9.2 millions), and the Belorussians geographic mobility. The Jews, who (9.1 millions), were the most nu- are almost totally urbanized (see merous; in the overall mix the Slavs table 1) are a special case. had an overwhelming majority of Levels of ethnic consciousness 74 percent. Under the 1936 USSR and economic and social develop- Constitution,4 the ethnic groups of ment vary significantly among major any significant size have had their Soviet ethnic groups as do the own nationaladministrative-territorial patterns of their national cultures. Along with the historical nations that had enjoyed periods of inde- 3. In the twenties, Soviet historiography recognized and condemned past Russian imperialism. The interpretation changed in the thirties. Now the conquest is presented 5. The Crimean Tatars (deported along as an objectively "good" and historically with the Volga Germans during World War II "progressive" phenomenon, because it in- for alleged collaboration with the invaders) volved the minorities in the Russian Revolu- are a subgroup of a Tatar national group. tion that enabled them to become a part There is a Tatar ASSR for the main Tatar of the world's first socialist state. group, the Volga Tatars. Both the deported 4. The draft of the new constitution, made groups were rehabilitated in the sixties but public June 4, 1977, did not introduce any remain in exile, and their autonomous re- changes in the federal stnrcture. publics were not restored.

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TABLE 1 USSR. MAJORETHNIC GROUPS, 1970: NUMBERS,URBANIZATION, SETTLEMENT PATTERNAND COEFFICIENTSOF DEVELOPMENT

SETTLEMENT NUMBERS URBANIZATIONIN DISTRIBUTION % OF POPULATION IN % OF GROUP ABS. MEMBERSRESIDENT . COEFFICIENTOF FIGURES % OF THE BY THE BY RE- IN OWN NATIONAL DEVELOPMENTBY ETHNIC GROUP (MILLIONS) TOTAL GROUP PUBLIC UNIT* REPUBLICIN 1965

Russians (1) 129.0 53.3 68 64 83 1.05 Ukrainians (1) 40.8 16.9 49 56 86 1.04 Uzbeks (4) 9.2 3.8 25 37 84 .71 Belorussians (1) 9.1 3.7 44 46 80 1.01 Tatars 5.9 2.4 55 n.a. 26 n.a. (4) 5.3 2.2 27 52 80 .88 Azerbaijani (2) 4.4 1.8 40 51 86 .71 Armenians (2) 3.6 1.5 65 61 60 .84 (2) 3.2 1.2 44 48 97 .87 Moldavians 2.7 1.1 20 33 85 .97 Lithuanians (3) 2.7 1.1 47 53 94 1.02 Jews 2.2 0.9 98 n.a. no unit n.a. Tadzhiks (4) 2.1 0.9 26 38 76 .69 Germans 1.8 0.8 46 n.a. no unit n.a. Turkmen (4) 1.5 0.6 31 48 93 .77 Kirgiz (4) 1.5 0.6 15 38 89 .76 Latvians (3) 1.4 0.6 53 64 94 1.17 Poles (1) 1.2 0.5 45 n.a. no unit n.a. Estonians (3) 1.0 0.4 55 66 92 1.14

SOURCE:Columns 2-6 based on Results of the 1970 All-Union Census, vol. 4 (Moscow: Statistika, 1973). Column 7 adapted from K. Vermishev, "On the Level of Economic De- velopment of the Union Republics," Voprosy Ekonomiki, no. 4 (Moscow), 1970, p. 128. The coefficient was calculated by the Soviet scholar as the ratio of the republic's share of total USSR gross domestic product in 1965 to the share of the given republic's population in total Soviet population in the same year. NOTE: The USSR population total was 241.7 million; urbanization-56 percent of the population. The national groups which have union republics are in italics. The Russian republic is known as the Russian Soviet Federated Socialist Republic, (RSFSR), because it contains most of the lower type national units,, inclusive of TatarASSR. Three more groups number over one million people: the Chuvashi (1.7), the Mordvinians(1.3), and the Bashkirs (1.3). All have autonomous republics within RSFSR. Key: (1) Slavs; (2) Caucasians;(3) Baltics; (4) Central Asians. * Except for the Slavs, the major part of union republics' national groups nonresident in their republic are settled in the neighboring areas. pendent statehood, such as the three developing separate national iden- Baltic republics, Armenia, and Geor- tities. The dominant Soviet culture gia, the Soviet peoples include the is rooted in the Russian Byzantine Western Slavs and Moldavians, his- heritage, but the non-Russians have torically subject to the contending retained strong traditional cultural influences, respectively, of Russia identities of their own. These range and Poland, Russia and the Ottoman from the Scandinavian culture and Empire, later Romania; the Turkic Lutheranism of Estonia and Latvia and Iranian groups of Central Asia, and Catholicism of Lithuania, to the ancient culture of which was ancient indigenous traditions and destroyed by the thirteenth-century Orthodox Christianity of Georgia Mongol invasion and who now are and Armenia, Western Orthodoxy

This content downloaded from 128.119.168.112 on Tue, 17 Sep 2013 04:36:48 AM All use subject to JSTOR Terms and Conditions 78 THE ANNALS OF THE AMERICAN ACADEMY of the Ukraine, Belorussia, and existence is legitimate and cannot Moldavia, and Islam of Central Asia be denied. The dynamics of rela- and Azerbaijan. tions between the traditional na- tional loyalties and the new Soviet Policy impact and ethnicity one, are seen to be developing on a "rapprochement-merger" dialec- The growth of the ethnic self- tical continuum. This means a pro- assertion of major Soviet national cess of all the Soviet nations and groups that became visible in the nationalities "ever growing closer sixties and seventies is as much an together" (rapprochement), that is unexpected by-product of Soviet achieved through the "flowering" policies-reinforced by examples of their own national socialist cul- of ethnic self-assertion throughout tures, the reciprocal "enrichment" the world-as it is the outcome of of which serves to develop a com- traditional ethnic hostilities. Para- mon base, all of which is supposed doxically, instead of the expected to lead to an eventual merger into "internationalization," many of the a one common Soviet identity. The Soviet policies aiming at the trans- ideological image of class-based formation of society and the build- integration, however, precludes a ing of socialism have served to return to the Russian national ethos stimulate ethnic polarization. Five as the basis of Soviet political key policy decisions have had a loyalty. The de facto Russian con- direct impact on the growth of na- tent of Soviet norms, value systems, tional self-assertion in the multi- and patterns of behavior cannot be ethnic Soviet society: the legitimiza- legitimately acknowledged, even tion of the system in class-based though a claim is always made that internationalist ideology of Marxism- the Russians, as the most "progres- Leninism; the federal state-unitary sive," are the leading nation in the party dichotomy; the policy of ac- Soviet family of nations. The claim celerated modernization and eco- partially offsets the ideological handi- nomic development; the cultural cap, but it also serves to increase policy aimed at the development non-Russians' resentment of the of "national forms" of all the Soviet Russian hegemony. ethnic groups; and the dynamic Vladimir Ilyich Lenin's compro- post-World War II expansionist for- mise formula of a federal state run eign policy. by a unitary party (a resolution of Marxist-Leninist ideology postu- an endless debate within the party lates unity based in a common in the early twenties between as- working-class identity (proletarian similationists and the autonomists), internationalism), which overrides has built the country's administra- particular national political loyalties. tive structure on an ethnic base. A The latter are expected to disappear brilliant solution to a seemingly in- once socialism is established, but soluble national problem at the time, the process which involves a change in the long run it provided a ter- in attitudes cannot be achieved over- ritorial and economic base for the night. Thus, in the meantime, while growth of the ethnic demands and the ethnic-based sense of political political structures for national in- identity is seen as a vestigial, terests' aggregation and their artic- transitory, and gradually disappear- ulation at the federal level. The ing phenomenon, its continuous federal administration is Russian-

This content downloaded from 128.119.168.112 on Tue, 17 Sep 2013 04:36:48 AM All use subject to JSTOR Terms and Conditions ETHNICITY IN THE SOVIET UNION 79 dominated and in pursuit of their northwest and the European repub- local interests the republican author- lics in general and the lowest in ities tend to identify with their Central Asian southeast.7 (See table national constituency. The old eth- 1.) The growing perception, by the nic conflict has been reinforced new ethnic elites, of their relative by the new administrative one, deprivation and of their second- especially because in the post- class political status vis-a-vis the Stalin period the ethnic coloration Russians feeds ethnic antagonisms, of the republics' state and party while improved living standardsand apparatusbecame increasingly local, growing access to means of social although the outsiders (mostly ethnic and self-fulfillment by the masses Russians) continue to occupy stra- stimulate the familiar rising expec- tegic power positions there.6 The tations. Increasingly, the ethnic base conflict is evident not only in the is being perceived as the instrument state administration, but also within for the gratification of the new the theoretically unitary party ap- ambitions by the elites as well as paratus. by their ethnic constituency, forging The modernization policy has a new bond between them, and giv- transformed and developed the So- ing a new meaning to the traditional viet economy and restructured the sense of ethnic identity and national society through industrialization,col- loyalties. lectivization, urbanization, and the Modernization also has had dif- development of mass education and ferential impact on the dynamics of communications systems and social demographic change. The Russians, services, affecting all of the Soviet and other more developed national peoples. All the majorethnic groups groups, have shown a decline (in now are better off economically, the last intercensal period, 1959- have access to educational and social 70) in natural growth rates, while benefits, and have evolved modern the high fertility rates of the least elites that participate in the power developed groups, in Central Asia structure. But, given differentials primarily, but also in the Caucasus, in the take-off point, the rates of are among the highest in the world, social mobilization have been un- the result of cultural (Islam) as much even, and the relative comparative as of social development factors. standing within the country of ethnic The shift in the demographic pat- groups has not changed. Economic tern has already had political and and social development indicators economic implications. The Rus- still stand the highest in the Baltic sians' weight in the population at and in the 6. In the forties and fifties there was a large population of the pattern in personnel placement in national eastern and southern republics has republics: top positions in party and govern- declined. The depopulation of rural ment bodies were reserved for local nationals; areas of is reaching the second-in-command positions, for federal crisis proportions and the shortage representatives, mostly Russians. See Seweryn of Bialer, "How Russians Rule Russia," Prob- labor, particularly skilled labor, is lems of Communism, September-October felt in the more developed repub- 1964, pp. 45-52; Yaroslav Bilinsky, "The lics and in the Eastern - Rulers and the Ruled," ibid., September- October 1967, pp. 16-26; and this author's 7. See Zev Katz, Rosemarie Rogers, Frederic Russia and Nationalism in Central Asia: Harned, eds., Handbook of Major Soviet The Case of Tadzhikistan (Baltimore, Md.: Nationalities (New York: The Free Press, The Johns Hopkins Press, 1970), ch. 4. 1975), appendix, pp. 452-58, and 462-64.

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Far Eastern region of the RSFSR, established historicallanguages; Rus- where the Soviet economic and stra- sian cultural forms have been held tegic build-up has focused in the as models to be emulated by other seventies. At the same time a major groups. pool of unskilled rural-based man- The policy has been extremely power is building up in Central successful, but not in a way desired Asia. Attempts at a resolution of or expected by its initiators. A virtual impending manpower crisis may renaissance of national cultures took have far-reaching political effects. place among all the major non-Rus- Cultural factors militate against a sian national groups, a renaissance natural flow of economic migration which has become an integral part (the Muslims of Central Asia do not of their new national self-assertion want to leave their area), while and a vehicle for the expression of overall political, economic, and stra- their newly-formed national pride. tegic considerations make a massive Bilingualism spread for functional long-range investment to build up reasons but not the eventually ex- manufacturing industries utilizing pected linguistic assimilation into local manpower in the southeastern the . Paradoxically, regions unlikely. it was the cultural content rather In the implementation of the na- than form that has been affected tional form-socialist content dualism, by the new ethnic cultural renais- the Soviet cultural policy aimed at sance, resulting in the development developing the national cultures of of officially approved common Soviet the major ethnic groups which would forms, the content of which has been become vehicles for the dissemina- increasingly determined by each tion of Socialist culture, common to groups' traditional ethnic heritage. all. National languages were de- After World War II the dynamics veloped and modernized, and a of Soviet foreign policy combined system of mass education was pro- a drive for an extension of political vided in local languages. In some influence of the USSR as a great cases this involved the formation power, with an appeal to inter- of virtually new languages on the nationalism of the working class and basis of regional dialects-as in the all progressive forces abroad. The case of the Turkic peoples of Central East European socialist states (es- Asia-and written and oral culture tablished in the wake of Soviet forms and fine arts, based in tradi- armed invasion in 1945) are mem- tional patterns, were revived or de- bers of the Socialist Commonwealth, veloped. The overall thrust of ideo- led by the USSR. Within the logical socialization, however, was world Communist movement, Soviet marked, for all practical purposes policy has attempted to reestablish by cultural Russification. The study its previously undisputed leader- of the Russian language, the com- ship, lost in the aftermath of the mon Soviet language and the "lan- death ofJ. V. Stalin and the challenge guage of civilization" has been by the Chinese. At the same time, promoted vigorously; linguistic mod- the Soviet Union has come to play an ernization of national languages took increasingly important role in the the road of incorporation of Russian- Third World, as a leader of all derived vocabulary and grammatical "peace loving" and "anti-imperialist" forms and introduction of the Cyril- forces. There are contradictions, lic alphabet, except in the case of however, between an international-

This content downloaded from 128.119.168.112 on Tue, 17 Sep 2013 04:36:48 AM All use subject to JSTOR Terms and Conditions ETHNICITY IN THE SOVIET UNION 81 ist foreign policy and domestic home, especially because the re- national integration, which have publics, particularly the Asian ones, contributed to the growth of eth- are an important asset in foreign nic self-assertion within the Soviet policy as models of Soviet-type Union as minority groups became development as well as justification aware of examples of successful for the claim that the Soviet Union national self-assertion within the is an Asian as well as European Communist movement and in the power. The impact of Third World Third World. contacts is particularly important Theoretically, relations of the because of numerous exchanges be- states within the Communist bloc tween them and the republics. and the Communist international Members of non-Russian minorities, movement in general have been who feature prominently in Soviet governed by the same principle of foreign delegations, can thus gain a proletarian internationalism that ap- first-hand knowledge of conditions plies in domestic national relations. abroad and can compare their own In this context, the relative sov- viability as independent entities ereignty enjoyed by the East Euro- (in terms of economic base, infra- peans provides a tempting example structure,educated elites, and so on) to Soviet ethnic groups and a model with newly independent Third World to strive for in their search for countries. greater national autonomy within the system. The temptation has ETHNIC CONFLICT AND THE been enhanced in the seventies by "RULES OF THE GAME" Soviet efforts at greater integration Dimensions of the bloc, with its emphasis on the identical nature of "fraternal In party and state relations in the ties" on both sides of the border8as USSR, ethnicity has become the well as a start of direct exchanges main base for interest group de- between the republics and East mands, a phenomenon familiar to European states. In relations with the students of ethnic relations the non-ruling parties, particularly worldwide.9 In the absence of in- since the birth of"Eurocommunism," stitutionalized channels for interest the Soviet Union has had to make articulation, the republics are the concessions to polycentrism, includ- focus for the aggregation of local ing recognition of other parties' right interests in all spheres of social to their own "road to socialism." life; when articulatedby local spokes- Ideological concessions lend legiti- men, these invariably acquire ethnic macy to the republics' quest for overtones. The spokesmen are the greater autonomy, and East Euro- new ethnic elites. Fully "socialized" nationalism tends to pean be con- for functional purposes, including tagious. fluency in the Russian language and Finally, in relations with Third ideological medium, these elites are World countries, the avowed Soviet members of the establishment in support for national self-determina- their republics-some move up also tion has not passed unnoticed at

9. See Nathan Glazer and Daniel P. 8. See this author's "Socialist Interna- Moynihan, Ethnicity: Theory and Experi- tionalism in Eastern Europe-A New Stage," ence (Cambridge, Mass.: Harvard University Survey, vol. 98, no. 1, (Winter 1976), pp. 38-54. Press, 1975), p. 7.

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to the federal level-but, invariably, national areas frequently champion their position and power is circum- federal interests more assiduously scribed by the presence of the than do the ethnic Russians. ubiquitous Russians. It is the Russian The elites' ties with their national "fact," probably more than any other constituency are also ambiguous. single factor, that has been the There is a sense of common interests catalyst in the ethnic self-assertion that seems to be growing vis-a-vis of the national elites, especially the "they" in Moscow and cultural because Russian nationalism also ties which, by all accounts, appear has been on the rise. Since they to be stronger than in comparable are partners in the system, the thrust situations elsewhere. In the Central of it is not directed at the systemic Asian republics, for example, there status quo but only at the constraints is evidence that most members of imposed within by Russian hegem- local elites have emerged directly ony. The aim of ethnic self-asser- from a rural background. At the tion of the elites is the maximiza- same time, however, in their daily tion of autonomy that is formally work the elites act as agents of the theirs constitutionally and the re- central authorities enforcing policies alization of the self-determination which make them unpopular with principle enshrined in the ideology; the populace. if an idea of separatism enters the In the past there was relatively equation, it is not openly articulated. little contact between the various Ethnic demands are uttered in the ethnic elites, except within the systemic double talk familiar to all federal administration. This has and concern matters that affect local been changing, however, under the interests. In a system as highly impact of the "rapprochement" policy centralized as that of the Soviet adopted since 1961. Contacts are Union, a greater share in decision now frequent, especially on a re- making at the federal level is of great gional basis, but there is no evidence concern, as is a devolution of power of an incipient common front, except from the federal to the republican in the case of Central Asian Mus- level, formally or through personal lims. Foreign contacts, as pointed "pull" upstairs. out above, are also more frequent. The elites' relationship with the Those with Eastern Europe and the Russians is ambiguous; the majority developing countries have been now in the republics' authorities, they important for the diffusion of new resent controls imposed by outsiders ideas and undoubtedly exposed and attempt to by-pass and counter- Soviet ethnic elites to the virus of act them-frequently with consider- nationalism. able success. At the same time, the relationship is close and collabora- Legitimization tion in defense of local interests as Ethnic self-assertion in the So- seen from an administrator's view- viet Union seeks legitimacy in point, is not uncommon. Those who two sources: the constitutional-legal made it in the federal service may framework and ideological princi- serve as spokesmen for ethnic inter- ples. The USSR Constitution gives ests in Moscow, if representing their the republics the right to conduct own republic; otherwise, they tend their own foreign relations and to to merge into the prevalent Russian have their own military establish- coloration. Those serving in other ments; the first was never genuinely

This content downloaded from 128.119.168.112 on Tue, 17 Sep 2013 04:36:48 AM All use subject to JSTOR Terms and Conditions ETHNICITY IN THE SOVIET UNION 83 exercised, the latter was precluded by ethnic spokesmen in support of de facto by the 1938 military reform.10 their demands, by way of emphasiz- It also gives the formal right to ing the "flowering" part of the secede, which has had no value in formula, which presupposes full de- reality. The enumerated federal velopment of particular ethnic cul- powers are all-embracing, leaving tures. The current line vis-a-vis little residuary authority to repub- Eastern Europe and the CPSU lics. Even so, there are numerous dispute with Eurocommunism are minor provisions formally involving watched carefully for changes of the republics-such as republican wording in current slogans which legislative bodies' approval of federal may provide an opening in the battle decrees or of local boundary changes. for greater autonomy. In general, The genuine exercise of these pro- ethnic spokesmen are at pains to visions is one of the targets of the differentiate between their own elites. The subject of secession has brand of socialist ethnicity, which is not been raised formally, but two "progressive," and the capitalist one Kirgiz scholars, have discussed their (bourgeois nationalism) which is republic's right to do so in legal vigorously condemned. This does terms. not necessarily protect them from The focus of the demands for self- being eventually criticized, by fed- assertion is in the ideological sphere. eral authorities, as bourgeois na- The revival of Leninism as the tionalists or from being purged. ruling myth has provided an opening for the ethnic spokesmen to resurrect Political dynamics Lenin's views on the national self- In the political arena, ethnic determination and on na- principle demands center less on the exercise tional under the equality federal of formal constitutional formula. Numerous treatises have powers- these are desirable-and on the most although appeared subject, more on the exercise of the real couched in impeccable ideological power within the some in their resent- party structure, terms, explicit on access to ment of Russian There focusing particularly hegemony.11 decision and on control of is also much discussion of old making cadres (personnel) policy. In this Leninist policy of autonomization quest, ethnic leaders increasingly of political cadres (Korenizatsia), court the support of their ethnic abandoned under Stalin, as an ex- constituency; this is sought among ample to be emulated. The current local bureaucracies, but also policy of rapprochement is also used among the populace, particularly on issues related to national culture. Pressures 10. Prior to 1938 some units were formed for greater share in decision making on ethnic basis, but the reform instituted are centered in the but units. republics ethnically-mixed, Russian-language extend also to the federal Some ethnic units were formed during World arena. War II on an ad hoc basis. This shows in more open articula- 11. Of the latter, the best known in the tion of economic and cultural West is a monograph by a Ukrainian jour- demands. Control of appointments nalist, Ivan Dzyuba, Internationalism or a Russification? (London: Weidenfeld and -traditionally preserve of the Nicolson, 1968), written for and circulated party12 with selections made at in the Ukrainian party organization, which was later published in the West. Dzyuba 12. The party's control of the appoint- has been imprisoned and has since recanted. ments, the so-called nomenklatura, extends

This content downloaded from 128.119.168.112 on Tue, 17 Sep 2013 04:36:48 AM All use subject to JSTOR Terms and Conditions 84 THE ANNALS OF THE AMERICAN ACADEMY a level higher than the appoint- taries were also included. On the ments-is a political and highly state side, heads of the republican sensitive matter. Here demands for state and judicial hierarchies have greater autonomization and a reduc- been ex-officio members of equiv- tion of outsiders in politically im- alent federal bodies since the six- portantpositions are stated obliquely, ties. But, although the republican a battle punctuated by recurrent state and party representation at the purges of too outspoken or too federal level has improved, they are ambitious ethnic leaders. still a minority in the ruling state The extent of political changes and party bodies. Support of the brought about by ethnic pressures hierarchies of major republics is a may be observed by comparing the significant factor in factional strug- current with the pre-1956 situation, gles at the top; it diminishes as one even though qualitatively they are of the Politbureau leaders is able to small and far below the level of real achieve a degree of personal as- political autonomy. Outsiders are cendancy. The Byzantine character still, inevitably, occupying the key of Soviet politics emphasizes the position of central committee's sec- importance of personal pull and ond secretary (control of cadres) in factional membership for republican all republics; but their ratio declined leaders, each new "Boss" appoints in other key positions in party and his men, and the success of this state hierarchies. In the meantime or that republic in having its demands ethnic elites' members within have met frequently depends on the been vigorously promoting local quality of its leaderships' contacts cadres for positions throughout the at the top. Georgia, for example, republics, squeezing out the Rus- has traditionally enjoyed a higher sians. Complaints about the latter degree of autonomy because the late practice appear sporadically in the was a Georgian; its press. At the federal level, the degree of autonomy has survived republics' first secretaries, invariably relatively untouched, despite suc- of local ethnic origin, are all mem- cessive purges of ethnic first sec- bers of the CPSU Central Committee retaries there. (the usage that dates back to Stalin's period), but those representing the Economic demands key republics or regions are also members or candidate members of In economic relations, the ethnic the ruling Politbureau. The Ukraine conflict centers on disputes concern- contingent has been particularly ing resource allocation and distribu- strong there, because both N. S. tion. Almost every republic would Khrushchev and L. I. Brezhnev rose like to maximize its share of invest- to power from their local base in the ment and to minimize the share of Ukraine. In 1976 Central Asia was its products allocated to other re- represented by the Uzbek and gions, with total disregard, if one is Kazakh party first secretaries; Belo- to believe Soviet sources, of the russian and Azerbaijani first secre- general interest. The issue is par- ticularly aggravated in the case of not only to political jobs but also to all economically strongest non-Russian important positions in the economy and in republic, the Ukraine, the leaders the society in general. of which resent the transfer of

This content downloaded from 128.119.168.112 on Tue, 17 Sep 2013 04:36:48 AM All use subject to JSTOR Terms and Conditions ETHNICITY IN THE SOVIET UNION 85 its resources to other regions.13 evidence of a high level of social It is also crucial in the case alienation between the local and of the least developed south- immigrant communities in the na- eastern republics, laboring under a tional areas, which spills over into handicap of being primarily a re- urban settings despite considerable source base for the manufacturing ethnic intermixture there. Tradi- industries of European Russia. They tional social patterns, values, and agitate for major long-range capital modes of behavior are also rein- investment and equalization. Be- forced by the survival of religion and cause of the recent population ex- its close identification with the plosion there, they argue now from sense of ethnic identity of most stronger positions but, so far, un- major ethnic groups. Evidence of successfully. In general there is alienation is seen in patterns of evidence of central planners being social intercourse between the local tired of ethnic-based parochial de- and immigrant communities and the mands, and arguments appear in low incidence of intermarriage, par- economic journals that republics are ticularly between the Slavs and obsolete for purposes of efficient Asian groups. Among some groups, economic management. Their eco- social behavior has become an nomic role was left unchallenged, ethnic weapon, as in the case of in the 1973 reform of eco- however, Central Asian Muslims, whose high nomic stream- management, despite fertility rates, conditioned by their and no basic lining, changes relatively low level of moderniza- have appeared in the June 1977 also in the urban draft of the new constitution. Be- tion, persist setting for cultural and political reasons. cause of sporadic evidence of heated At the same time, however, the disputes on the subject, the absence impact of socioeconomic advance- of change indicates the weight of the vested interests in the ment has greatly increased social republics' of ethnic system. The economic battle also mobility groups, causing centers around annual and rural exodus to the cities. This, quin- with cultural quennial plan fulfillment coupled alienation, indicators, has served to ethnic conflict with habitual doctoring in their intensify favor of statistical results not in social relations in an urban only where the by enterprises and federally run setting, Russians have been a dominant industries, but also by republics. element. Increas- ingly, there is competition for jobs Social relations not only in the political arena but also in economic-technical and pro- The pattern of compact ethnic fessional spheres-heretofore the settlement and the concentration of domain of the Russians in all but ethnic population in rural areas has the two northern Baltic republics favored the survival of traditional and, in part, Georgia and Armenia, agents of socialization, and there is because of their superior qualifica- tions, but reinforced in all of the 13. Petro Shelest, the Ukrainian party republics by political preference in first secretary, who was purged in 1972, was accused of economic as well as cultural filling sensitive and important posi- nationalism. His additional problem was that tions. Because of the development he belonged to a "wrong" Ukrainian faction. of autonomization of republican

This content downloaded from 128.119.168.112 on Tue, 17 Sep 2013 04:36:48 AM All use subject to JSTOR Terms and Conditions 86 THE ANNALS OF THE AMERICAN ACADEMY power structures, political prefer- has been a revival of traditional ence now works both ways, in favor themes, symbolism, and imagery of local candidates as much as im- and a marked absence of themes migrants, depending on who controls dealing with the current socialist the hiring, and at what level-a tug reality and internationalism as doc- of war which is another source of umented by official criticism. In growing ethnic conflict. historiography a battle is raging between the binding official line, Cultural arena that consigns most traditional heroes and events (especially those that The evidence of ethnic self-asser- testify to past resistance to Russian tion is the most and intense open encroachments) to a reactionary cate- in the cultural Cultural con- sphere. gory, and local historians attempt flict is in a substitute for many ways a more objective interpretation based an open political conflict, the ap- on the research in local archives. of which is muted for pearance Dispute over the interpretation of reasons. As noted all systemic above, national history has been most pro- of the have had a cultural republics nounced in the Ukraine, the Cauca- renaissance (it has been least pro- sian republics, and Central Asia. nounced in Belorussia and Moldavia). The significant aspect of the ethnic Adherence to national languages conflict as revealed in the cultural exceeds 90 all of the percent among sphere has been an apparent support union with major republic nations, for cultural self-assertion by the re- the of Ukrainians and exception publican party authorities, the ap- whom it is in Belorussians, among proval of which is necessary for the 80 indicat- percent plus bracket, anything that appears in print or in the of from ing degree emigration form. Official criticism, their national areas. In any public republics when it comes, is usually generated where the Russification of ethnic in Moscow and appears a consider- has the furthest languages gone able time after the event in question -in the Ukraine and in Central has taken place.'4 Asia-there is a vigorous language "purification" aimed at campaign TRENDS AND PROSPECTS substitution of national terms for Rus- sian-derived words and grammatical It is clear that under the impact usages. Local language primary edu- of ongoing change the dual "national cation continues to develop along in form socialist in content" frame- with Russian-language schools, and work of the Soviet state has been there are increasing demands for the gradually losing its functionality in introduction of local language in- the area it was meant to resolve, structors in technical and professional secondary and higher educational establishments, where it is now 14. Considerable literature exists in the English language on Soviet ethnicity and on conducted primarily in the Russian ethnic conflict in the Soviet Union. For most language. Numbers and circulation comprehensive recent coverage, see Katz, of local language newspapers and Rogers, Hamed, Handbook of Major Soviet periodicals and monographs have Nationalities, and George W. Simmonds, been with some ed., Nationalism in the USSR and Eastern increasing, repub- Europe in the Era of Brezhnev and Kosygin lics acting as regional pacesetters. (Detroit, Mich.: The University of Detroit In the literature and fine arts, there Press, 1977).

This content downloaded from 128.119.168.112 on Tue, 17 Sep 2013 04:36:48 AM All use subject to JSTOR Terms and Conditions ETHNICITY IN THE SOVIET UNION 87 namely, that of ethnic relations. leadership is evident from its almost Instead of an expected unionwide complete immobility on the issue, integration, it has stimulated the as seen in the pursuance of past forces of ethnicity, the containment policies, punctuated by half-hearted of which is proving increasingly repressions. Soviet leaders find them- difficult. The process has advanced selves in a position when even small at differential rates among the several concessions may open the floodgates major ethnic groups: currently it of a major change, and continue is most pronounced in the Ukraine therefore to maintain a hope that and in the Baltic republics, with eventually the ideologically-pre- Georgia and Armenia not far behind, dicted integration will take place but there are signs that in a relatively after all-a hope that, in view of short time Central Asia may well similar experience elsewhere, ap- move into the forefront of ethnic pears illusory. Forces for ethnic turmoil. Many aspects of ethnic self- change now push for the evolution assertion in the Soviet Union are of the system. Should this be denied, directly comparable to those in other however, as seems likely in the face multiethnic areas, and its eventual of the current leadership's resistance outcome may be the same as in other to it, the resulting pressures may societies, where the conflict has eventually lead to an explosion. been more open and further ad- Latent separatism may also come to vanced. the fore in case of a major inter- The policy dilemma for the Soviet national upheaval.

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