TITOMAn
22nd April 2002, 04:37
The Revolution played a colossally progressive role in awakening national pride. Tsarism, which had enslaved the peoples of the Empire, gave way to the promotion of national freedom and the strengthening of culture. Nations were formed out of races and tribes. Alphabets were invented or replaced for the majority of languages spoken in the USSR, where either none existed or were in aristocratic Asiatic script. Forty-eight languages appeared in the written form for the first time. These included Uzbeks, Turkmen, Kirgizh, and Karakalpak in Central Asia. The same was true of the Moldovians, Chechens and Ingushi. In Bashkiria, a Bashkirian language was fashioned out of Tatar and declared the official state language. After the Revolution Central Asia was generally referred to as Turkestan, although separate nations with their own distinct languages were created in this area. This led to the rapid rise of national consciousness and communication between peoples in writing for the first time.
The modernisation of indigenous languages led to the promotion of the Latin alphabet. This especially affected the 16 Muslim peoples who used the Arabic script. These included the Azeris, Uzbeks, Kazakhs and Tatars. Buryat and Kalmyks, which formally used the Mongolian script, were also Latinised. By 1933, 37.5 per cent of all Soviet newspapers were in non-Russian languages. There were no schools before 1917 which taught in Ukrainian or Belorussian, but by 1927 over 90 per cent of these nationalities were being taught in their mother tongue. The same was true of the other republics. By 1935, primary education was being conducted in eighty languages in the Russian Soviet Federated Socialist Republic. This represented a colossal stride forward. But the national question was still not solved. The bureaucratic totalitarian regime in Moscow could not tolerate the slightest manifestation of independence. In open violation of every principle of Leninism, all the old Tsarist methods were brought back with a vengeance.
Stalin suppressed the slightest "nationalist" deviation. Towards the end of the second word war Stalin banished entire nations on the pretext of alleged collaboration with the Nazis. Collective guilt was the norm. This happened to the Chechens, the Ingushi and the Crimean Tartars. As Khrushchev revealed in 1956:
"All the more monstrous are the acts whose initiator was Stalin and which are rude violations of the basic Leninist principles of the nationality policy of the Soviet state. We refer to the mass deportations from their native places of whole nations together with all Communists and Komsomols without any exception? Thus, already at the end of 1943? a decision was taken and executed concerning the deportation of all the Karachai from the lands on which they lived.
"In the same period, at the end of December 1943, the same lot befell the whole population of the Autonomous Kalmyk Republic. In March 1944, all the Chechen-Ingush peoples were deported and the Chechen-Ingush Autonomous Republic was liquidated. In April 1944, all Balkars were deported to faraway places from the territory of the Kabardino-Balkar Autonomous Republic and the Republic itself was renamed the Autonomous Kabardian Republic. The Ukrainians avoided meeting this fate only because there were too many of them and there was no place to which to deport them. Otherwise, he [Stalin] would have deported them also." (The Khrushchev "Secret Speech" at the 20th Congress of the CPSU, 24-25 February 1956. Quoted in The Moscow Trials--An Anthology, p. 32.)
These crimes and similar measures against the republics stored up enormous resentment and hostility to the Moscow regime. The element of Great-Russian chauvinism against which Lenin had fought all his life was rampant in Stalin's regime, encouraged by the "boss" himself. Although Stalin himself was a Georgian who spoke Russian with a thick accent, he was a fervent upholder of Great Russian chauvinism. This is the rule with members of small nations who rise to power in the government of the oppressor nation. Let us recall that Napoleon Bonaparte was a Corsican, but likewise became an enthusiastic convert to French imperialism and centralisation. Immediately after the war, Stalin made the following speech:
"Let me propose one more toast to you. I would like to drink a toast to the health of our Soviet people, and particularly to the Russian people. I drink to the health of the Russian people because it is the outstanding section among all the nations of the Soviet Union. I drink a toast because not only is the Russian nation the leading nation but its people show a sharp intellect, character and perseverance." (A. Nove, Stalinism and After, p. 169.)
This kind of speech would have been unthinkable when Lenin was alive. Great Russian chauvinism in all its manifestations did colossal damage, undermining the spirit of fraternal solidarity established by October and giving rise to deep resentment among the other nationalities, who felt like second-class citizens. These sentiments remained largely under the surface while the Soviet economy was advancing. The crisis of Stalinism was to release these explosive feelings, which in turn, led to the break-up of the USSR. The policy of Stalinism on the national question flowed inevitably from the totalitarian character of the regime and the bureaucratic concentration of power in Moscow.
With the death of Stalin, Khrushchev attempted to put all the crimes of the past onto Stalin's shoulders. Although reforms were instituted to eliminate the worst features of Stalinism, national oppression, although milder in character, was ever present. It was most graphically illustrated by the anti-Semitism of the regime under the guise of anti-Zionism.
The modernisation of indigenous languages led to the promotion of the Latin alphabet. This especially affected the 16 Muslim peoples who used the Arabic script. These included the Azeris, Uzbeks, Kazakhs and Tatars. Buryat and Kalmyks, which formally used the Mongolian script, were also Latinised. By 1933, 37.5 per cent of all Soviet newspapers were in non-Russian languages. There were no schools before 1917 which taught in Ukrainian or Belorussian, but by 1927 over 90 per cent of these nationalities were being taught in their mother tongue. The same was true of the other republics. By 1935, primary education was being conducted in eighty languages in the Russian Soviet Federated Socialist Republic. This represented a colossal stride forward. But the national question was still not solved. The bureaucratic totalitarian regime in Moscow could not tolerate the slightest manifestation of independence. In open violation of every principle of Leninism, all the old Tsarist methods were brought back with a vengeance.
Stalin suppressed the slightest "nationalist" deviation. Towards the end of the second word war Stalin banished entire nations on the pretext of alleged collaboration with the Nazis. Collective guilt was the norm. This happened to the Chechens, the Ingushi and the Crimean Tartars. As Khrushchev revealed in 1956:
"All the more monstrous are the acts whose initiator was Stalin and which are rude violations of the basic Leninist principles of the nationality policy of the Soviet state. We refer to the mass deportations from their native places of whole nations together with all Communists and Komsomols without any exception? Thus, already at the end of 1943? a decision was taken and executed concerning the deportation of all the Karachai from the lands on which they lived.
"In the same period, at the end of December 1943, the same lot befell the whole population of the Autonomous Kalmyk Republic. In March 1944, all the Chechen-Ingush peoples were deported and the Chechen-Ingush Autonomous Republic was liquidated. In April 1944, all Balkars were deported to faraway places from the territory of the Kabardino-Balkar Autonomous Republic and the Republic itself was renamed the Autonomous Kabardian Republic. The Ukrainians avoided meeting this fate only because there were too many of them and there was no place to which to deport them. Otherwise, he [Stalin] would have deported them also." (The Khrushchev "Secret Speech" at the 20th Congress of the CPSU, 24-25 February 1956. Quoted in The Moscow Trials--An Anthology, p. 32.)
These crimes and similar measures against the republics stored up enormous resentment and hostility to the Moscow regime. The element of Great-Russian chauvinism against which Lenin had fought all his life was rampant in Stalin's regime, encouraged by the "boss" himself. Although Stalin himself was a Georgian who spoke Russian with a thick accent, he was a fervent upholder of Great Russian chauvinism. This is the rule with members of small nations who rise to power in the government of the oppressor nation. Let us recall that Napoleon Bonaparte was a Corsican, but likewise became an enthusiastic convert to French imperialism and centralisation. Immediately after the war, Stalin made the following speech:
"Let me propose one more toast to you. I would like to drink a toast to the health of our Soviet people, and particularly to the Russian people. I drink to the health of the Russian people because it is the outstanding section among all the nations of the Soviet Union. I drink a toast because not only is the Russian nation the leading nation but its people show a sharp intellect, character and perseverance." (A. Nove, Stalinism and After, p. 169.)
This kind of speech would have been unthinkable when Lenin was alive. Great Russian chauvinism in all its manifestations did colossal damage, undermining the spirit of fraternal solidarity established by October and giving rise to deep resentment among the other nationalities, who felt like second-class citizens. These sentiments remained largely under the surface while the Soviet economy was advancing. The crisis of Stalinism was to release these explosive feelings, which in turn, led to the break-up of the USSR. The policy of Stalinism on the national question flowed inevitably from the totalitarian character of the regime and the bureaucratic concentration of power in Moscow.
With the death of Stalin, Khrushchev attempted to put all the crimes of the past onto Stalin's shoulders. Although reforms were instituted to eliminate the worst features of Stalinism, national oppression, although milder in character, was ever present. It was most graphically illustrated by the anti-Semitism of the regime under the guise of anti-Zionism.