Russification from 1855 to 1964

OCR History Level Russia and its Rulers

The origins of Russification

The start of Russification is seen as the Polish Revolt of 1863

Under AII and NII, russification spread through areas deemed to accept it without too much opposition

Russification was continued by Lenin, Stalin and Khrushchev, mainly through constitutional changes

Constitutions and national minorities

Constitutions created by the communists

* 1918: **created the RSFSR** (Russia but including parts of central Asia, such as Turkmenia and Kazakhstan)
* 1924: **formally created the USSR**. Each republic was allowed its own government and flags, but they were still governed by the Sovnarkom
* 1936 Stalin Constitution: Added Kirghizia and Tajikistan to the list of states given full republic statis. Created a system that appeared to allow greater representation of the interests of separate nation states in the centralised government of the USSR. **It also gave members the right to secede from the union**

Stalin was more controlling over the national minorities than the Tsars. Khrushchev reverted back to Lenin’s model in the 1920s- which shows that Stalin’s approach was negative for the countries

Repression and National Minorities

* Under the Tsars, minorities were controlled through a mixture of reforms and military force (Poland in the mid 1860s)
* Under the communists, especially Stalin, there was a tendency to promise reforms but then to focus more repression to gain obedience, i.e in 1941, Stalin accused a number of National Minorities of collaboration (Tatars) and then deported them to remote areas of Central Asia

Russo-Finish relations

* Alexander II granted the separate Finnish parliament (Diet) in 1863
* Also granted a constitution in 1865
* Nicholas II appointed Nikolei Bobrikov as governor general of Finland in 1898
* Finnish separate army was disbanded, the Finnish State Secretariat was abolished and Russian became the main language
* This led to the assassination of Bobrikov in 1904
* In 1905 Finland was given full autonomy only to find out that Stolypin had revoked it in 1905
* The Treaty of Brest-Litovsk granted Finland independence
* At the start of WW2, Finland refused a request from Stalin to allow the Soviet Union to set up military bases on Finnish territory
* In November 1939-March 1940, Winter War, this started due to Stalin’s order to bomb Helsinki. 50,000 Soviet deaths
* In 1948 Finland signed a Treaty of Friendship, Co-operation and Mutual Assistance with Russia. Finland gained a neutral status

The Baltic provinces (Estonia, Latvia and Lithuania)

* As the Russian economic influence increased, Russification followed, which resulted in the use of Russian language and the renaming of various educational institutions
* During the early years of WW2, the Baltic states were annexed to the federal system of Russian government created under the 1936 constitution
* They faced mass deportations due to a fear that many were collaborating with the Nazis

The Ukrainians

* Alexander issued decrees (1863 and 1876) which forbade the publication and import of books written in Ukrainian
* The Treaty of Brest-Litovsk granted them independence
* The Ukrainians faced the worst treatment in terms of dekulakisation
* Under 1936 they regained their status
* Supposed Ukrainian collaborators that were found guilty were either executed or transported to the far north

The Caucasians (Armenians, Georgians, Azeris, Chechens)

Georgia gained independence in 1920 but was retaken by the Red Army in 1921

The Jews

* Before Alexander II, they lived in the Pale of Settlement
* Alexander allowed members of the Pale to migrate to other regions
* Alexander III believed Jews were responsible for all of the negative influences from the west.
* A pogrom took place in the Pale
* From 1882 onwards, the Jews were once more confined to the Pale of Settlement. Jews were banned from trying to purchase land in prosperous rural areas, restricted access to senior positions in the military or medicine and removed from the electoral register of the Zemstva
* Under Nicholas II, he allowed Jews to sit on the Duma
* Under the communists, there was a ban on the Jewish religion, the closure of Jewish institutions and a ban on specialist publications
* Under Stalin there was the Doctors Plot 1953 (Nine doctors who had worked alongside a US Jewish group to murder high-ranking Soviet officials. Seven of the doctors were Jews) which ended in 15 Jewish leaders being tried and executed
* Khrushchev- a number of prominent Jewish technical specialist being executed for anti-communist activity