УДК 93/94
ББК 63.3
Anatoly A. CHERNOBAEV
Key words
People’s Commissariat for Nationalities, the RSFSR, the USSR, national policy, I. Stalin, autonomization, nation building
Abstract
December 30, 2022 marks the 100th anniversary of the formation of the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics. The assessment of events related to the creation of national-territorial entities, autonomization, nation building, acquires obvious relevance in modern conditions of international instability. These processes directly relate to the national policy of the Bolsheviks, which played an important role in the formation of the new state. Its main performer was the political institute formed in 1917 – the People’s Commissariat for Nationalities of the RSFSR. The history of Narkomnats for a long time remained among poorly studied issues. Declassification of documents from Russian archives in the last three decades made it possible to lift the veil of decisive events of the Soviet past. The monograph “The RSFSR Narkomnats and implementation of national policy in the 1917–1920s” (Moscow, 2022) enables to comprehensively disclose the activities of this authority on the basis of a wide range of reliable materials. This book, among other studies, is distinguished by the introduction into scientific circulation of many previously unknown sources identified in more than 15 central and regional archives of Russia. The authors of the book reveal complex processes in formation and development of the national policy of the Soviet government in the 1917–1920s, formation of the USSR. The study makes it possible to identify and interpret in an original way, taking into account the author’s position, the historical experience of forming and developing nation building, assuming not only positive, but negative results and consequences as well. The monograph also covers the issues of national-cultural autonomy, national minorities, korenization, latinisation of languages, to which politicians and scientists are now returning to one degree or another. This study makes a significant contribution to Russian historiography, fills in many gaps in the history of Soviet Russia origin.
References
Information about the author
Anatoly A. Chernobaev – Doctor of Historical Sciences, Professor, Leading Researcher at the Center for the History of Russia in the 19th – Early 20th Centuries, The Institute of Russian History of the Russian Academy of Sciences, Russia, Moscow (aa-istorik@yandex.ru).
For citations
Chernobaev A.A. REVIEW OF THE MONOGRAPH: Mineeva E.K., Ivanova T.N., Zykina A.P., Mineev A.I., Starostin A.N. Narkomnats (People’s Commissariat of Nationalities) of the RSFSR and Implementation of the National Policy in the 1917–1920s. Moscow, Etnosfera Publ., 2022, 552 р. Historical Search, 2022, vol. 3, no. 4, pp. 149–152 (in Russian).
