THE ART OF NATION-BUILDING: NATIONAL CULTURE AND SOVIET POLITICS IN STALIN-ERA AZERBAIJAN AND OTHER MINORITY REPUBLICS A Dissertation submitted to the Faculty of the Graduate School of Arts and Sciences of Georgetown University in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy in History By Isabelle Ruth Kaplan, A.M. Washington, DC August 22, 2017 Copyright 2017 by Isabelle Ruth Kaplan All Rights Reserved ii THE ART OF NATION-BUILDING: NATIONAL CULTURE AND SOVIET POLITICS IN STALIN-ERA AZERBAIJAN AND OTHER MINORITY REPUBLICS Isabelle Ruth Kaplan, A.M. Thesis Advisor: Michael David-Fox , Ph.D . ABSTRACT This dissertation investigates the role of national cultural production and consumption in Soviet nation-building, focusing on Stalin-era Moscow’s promotion of cultural interaction among Soviet ethnic groups as a strategy to build individual national identities and a unified Soviet multinational identity simultaneously. Through a case study of Azerbaijan, I trace the emergence in the 1930s of formal sites of national self-expression and cross-cultural exchange such as dekada festivals of national art in Moscow and all-Union celebrations of national poets, arguing that these activities provided the presenting group a valuable opportunity for national self-definition and affirmation. At the same time, the state-mandated sharing of one nation’s art with the all-Union audience was part of a Soviet agenda to demonstrate the universally accessible essence of all culture and to narrow cultural difference through cross-cultural familiarization. More concretely, these events were a means of generating a Soviet multiethnic artistic canon to be disseminated as the heritage of all Soviet people, binding them together through a common cultural identity. These cultural celebrations depended on a purposeful and mutually reinforcing entwinement of the national and international that I identify as characteristic of the Soviet approach to nation-building. This interconnection is also informed by Russia’s nineteenth- century experience of developing its own national cultural identity, which emphasized foreign (chiefly European) acknowledgment of Russian artistic output. The imposition of a Russian- iii derived model of national cultural development on non-Russian Soviet groups wrought profound change in native cultural production, but the required adaptations could be exploited by clever entrepreneurs of national culture to pursue their own nation-building agendas. Using the example of Azerbaijan, I show how narrowness of vision and cultural knowledge in the center created opportunity for a minority nation to accumulate cultural capital, claim a place in the cultural avant-garde, and raise its cultural profile internationally. By tracing cultural themes across the revolutionary divide and identifying through-lines in Bolshevik nationalities policy from the 1910s to the 1940s, this study challenges previously asserted periodizations and contributes to our understanding of the cultural history of Azerbaijan, Russia, and the Soviet Union as well as to the general scholarship on nation-building. iv ACKNOWLEDGMENTS Because it takes a village to produce a dissertation, I find it strange that when the work is finished, only one person walks away with a degree. I give my sincere thanks to all those who contributed to this project, many of whom are named below. My gratitude extends far beyond the words here. Thank you to Peter Rollberg and the late Richard Stites, who gave so much support and encouragement to my project in embryo. The University of Maryland at College Park and its Department of History, which generously took me in after the loss of Richard Stites. I am grateful for the entire university community in College Park and in particular to Michael David-Fox, Mikhail Dolbilov, Saverio Giovacchini, Ingalisa Schrobsdorff, Sahar Giovacchini, Elizabeth Papazian, Delaram Soltani, Zeynep Karacal, the School of Languages, Literatures and Cultures, the Film Studies Program, McKeldin Library, the Miller Center for Historical Studies, Sarah Cameron, Jodi Hall, Courtney Lanier, and the staff of the History Department. Professors Muriel Atkin, Gábor Ágoston, Sylvia Onder, Marsha Morris, James Millward, Alison Games, Catherine Evtuhov, David Goldfrank, and Jeffrey Herf. My graduate student colleagues, in particular Soha El-Achi; Dakota Irvin; Erina Megowan; Dan Scarborough, Vladimir Ryzhkovskyi, Ivana Bago, and Anton Bago Ryzhkovskyi. The staff at RGALI, GARF, RGASPI, and the Russian State Library. The Azerbaijan Diplomatic Academy, especially Ambassador Hafiz Pashayev, Dr. Anar Valiyev, and Shafaq Mehraliyeva. Director Maarif Teymur, Assistant Director Könül Nəsibova, and the staff of ARDƏIA (Republic of Azerbaijan State Literature and Art Archive named for Salman Mümtaz), especially Vüsalə xanım, Xariqə xanım, and Kəmalə xanım. Director Emin Sərdarov, Assistant Director Sima Babayeva, and the staff of ARDA (State Archive of the Republic of Azerbaijan). Director Mais Böyük Ağa oğlu Bağırov and the staff of ARDSPIHA (Republic of Azerbaijan State Archive of Political Parties and Public Movements), especially Elmira xanım and Lamiyə xanim in the reading room and Rəqibə Məmmədova and staff in the library. Rafael Hüseynov, Director of the Nizami Museum of Azerbaijani Literature. Könül Nasırova and Anastasia Mikhaylenko at the Baku Music Academy. v Sərdar Fərəcov, Director of the Uzeyir Hajibeyov House-Museum in Baku. The staff at the Akhundov National Library of Azerbaijan, especially in the periodical rooms. Professor Altay Göyüşov Professor Cəmil Həsənlı Sevil xanım and the Ismayılzadə family Iradə Vahabova, Fialə Abdullayeva, Jalə Qəribova and Azerbaijan Languages University Nigora Azimova Afa Ibrahimova Tyson Lemons the late Həsən Həsənov Gena Sanford Chiniqua Washington everyone at Lanier Lullabies Carolina Madinaveitia the members of my dissertation committees at the University of Maryland and Georgetown University, and, my adviser, Michael David-Fox. For their invaluable companionship and support, without which this dissertation would not exist, much love and deepest thanks to Ekaterina Volkova Viktoria Imamverdiyeva and Lora Səbinə Əliyeva the Zhdanova-Dolbilov family – Misha, Ira, Sophia, Murka, and the late Ginger the Maniyev family – Viladi, Govsiya, Asim, Jamal, and Fəridə xanım Sparkle, Alex, and the late Grunya and Mukhtar Henry and Miles Hale and, above all, Julie Buckler. Portions of this dissertation were presented in earlier forms at various conferences, and I am grateful to co-panelists, attendees, and discussants Adeeb Khalid, Paul Stronski, Timothy Blauveldt, and Bruce Grant for their comments. Special thanks to Bruce Grant for his mentorship through the ASEEES mentoring program. Language study, research, and writing were supported by the Critical Languages Scholarship program of the U.S. Department of State, a SWSEEL Title VIII fellowship at Indiana University- Bloomington, the Fulbright Program and the International Institute of Education, the Title VIII Research Scholar Program and American Councils for International Education, a Royden B. Davis Fellowship and other assistance from the History Department at Georgetown University. vi NOTES ON TRANSLITERATION, TERMS, AND SOURCES This work uses published and archival sources in Russian and Azerbaijani. For Russian, the Library of Congress transliteration system without diacritics is used except in cases where an alternate spelling is widespread in English. For such terms and names, the conventional English spelling appears in the main text but the Library of Congress system (including diacritics) is followed for bibliographic information. Hence, for example, ‘Maxim Gorky’ is used in the main text and ‘Maksim Gor’kii’ in citations. In addition. for ease of reading, I have dispensed with the extra ‘i’ in place names that end in ‘ия’ (e.g., ‘Turkmenia’ instead of ‘Turkmeniia’). Various terms have been used to refer to the Turkic language spoken in Azerbaijan. From 1918, the language was commonly identified as Turkic (tiurkskii in Russian, türki or türk dili in Azerbaijani), but in the late 1930s Azerbaijani (azerbaidzhanskii , Azərbaycan dili ) became standard usage. ii In this work, the language is referred to as Azerbaijani (except in translations from original sources that use another term), even in historical contexts that precede the widespread use of the word. In addition, Azerbaijani refers here to citizens of Azerbaijan or to denizens of the territory known today as Azerbaijan, regardless of ethnicity. On occasion, Azeri is used here to signal or emphasize a subject’s ethnic Turkic identity as distinct from other ethnic identities present in Azerbaijan. The adoption of various alphabets and changes to the vocabulary, spelling, and grammar of Azerbaijani over the 20 th century complicate transliteration into English. For example, depending on their dates, sources may refer to the Communist Party of Soviet Azerbaijan as Qommunist Firqəsi , Коммунист Партиясы , Коммунист Партиjaсы , or Kommunist Partiyası . I have transliterated material from sources written in the Cyrillic-based Azerbaijani alphabet into the Latin-based alphabet currently used in Azerbaijan. However, to illustrate the rapid changes in printed language in the 1920s and ‘30s, in bibliographic references I have preserved the original orthography of sources in the Latin-based Azerbaijani alphabets used in those years. Names appear in various spellings and forms, depending upon context and