LGI / Ethnic / Bibliography

No 44	Mythologized Representations in Soviet Thinking on the Nationalities Problem
Publication (Journal)	Anthropology Today 6 no. 2 (April 1990): 2-4
Published in	U.K., 1990
Language	English
Abstract	A description of the highly petrified and ritualized views of the ethnic situation in the USSR held until recently by both officials and the Soviet public. Contradicting Lenin's policy of a multiethnic/-lingual Soviet society, Joseph Stalin introduced the notion of a gradation of peoples and a related differentiation of autonomies. Under his regime, Russia was superior, and the Russian language flourished in the administrations of all Soviet republics. Constitutional rights for autonomy of government and education in mother tongues became illusory under his centralized power. Several mythologies were cast out to support the idea of a harmonious Soviet nation, i.e., the voluntary association of other peoples with the Russians, beneficial results of this association, formal differences between particular cultures as opposed to their common socialist and internationalist essence, growing unification of national culture, and linguistic unity around Russian.
Availability	Library of Ethnographic Museum, Budapest
Discipline(s)	political history , social theory
Source(s)

LGI / Ethnic / Bibliography