The Consti-
tution includes special provisions concerning this matter.
tution includes special provisions concerning this matter.
Soviet Union - 1952 - Soviet Civilization
In the fall of 1941, when the Nazi
armies were rapidly advancing, the Soviet Government
abolished this Volga German Republic on the grounds
that a dangerous proportion of its citizens were fifth-
columnists for Adolf Hitler; and moved all of its German
inhabitants to a remote, though fertile, region in south
central Siberia.
Siberia in general, that place of exile and evil repute
under the Tsars, the Soviet regime has transformed into
a flourishing empire of industrial and agricultural pro-
ductivity. Many of the indigenous peoples of this largest
section of Soviet Asia are [Mongols^in origin and are
of the same ethnic stock as the Mongols to the south in
China. (The word Mongol is derived from mong, mean-
ing brave. ) Prominent among the Soviet Mongolian
100
? ? Generated for (University of Chicago) on 2014-06-10 17:29 GMT / http://hdl. handle. net/2027/mdp. 39015020686591 Public Domain, Google-digitized / http://www. hathitrust. org/access_use#pd-google
? SOVIET ETHHIC DEMOCRACY
groups are the Buryat-Mongols who have their own
Autonomous Soviet Socialist Republic in southeastern
Siberia. Nomadic for centuries past, the Buryats are
yellow-skinned and slant-eyed, with broad noses and high
cheek-bones.
They are one of the several Siberian peoples who re-
semble the American Indian in facial and physical char-
acteristics, in certain customs, songs and religious cere-
monies, and in basic living habits such as the use of tents
or wigwams constructed from a framework of poles
covered with skins or bark. All this is not surprising
when we consider that, according to the best scientific
opinion, distant ancestors of the Indians migrated from
Asia across Bering Strait, which is only fifty-six miles wide
and interspersed with islands, or across a vanished land
bridge in that vicinity. The noted anthropologist, the
late Professor Franz Boas of Columbia University, states:
"The physical relationship of the American native to the
east Asiatic is closer than that to any other race. Straight,
dark hair; wide, rather flat face; heavy nose; tendency to
a Mongoloid eye are common to both of them. Locally,
types are found that are so much alike that it would be
rather difficult to say whether an individual is an Asiatic
or an American. "4
Small Siberian tribes clearly akin to the American
Indiansjare the Evenkis and Nenets up north near the
Arctic Circle and the Far Eastern Luoravetlans of the
Bering Strait region. Each of these peoples is organized
into a National Area, the smallest nationalities subdivi-
sion mentioned in the Soviet Constitution. National
Areas are represented by one deputy apiece in the Soviet
of Nationalities. The few Soviet Eskimos are also ethni-
cally close to the American Indian and are racial brothers
101
? ? Generated for (University of Chicago) on 2014-06-10 17:29 GMT / http://hdl. handle. net/2027/mdp. 39015020686591 Public Domain, Google-digitized / http://www. hathitrust. org/access_use#pd-google
? SOVIET CIVILIZATIOH
of the North American and Greenland Eskimos. Eskimos
today live on both sides of Bering Strait and are nearly
identical in physique, customs and language.
The Soviet North and the Soviet Far East, both fasci-
nating subjects of study in themselves, contain a number
of other small peoples whom I shall not try to treat of
here. For further details of this kind I must refer the
reader to my earlier book, The Peoples of the Soviet
Union. Some of the smaller tribal groupings in the U. S.
S. R. number but a few thousands, like those of the
Dagestan Autonomous Republic in the Caucasus, or even
a few hundred, like the Aleuts living on the bleak Ko-
mandorskie Islands of the Pacific. \Of the 177 ethnic
groups that make up the Soviet population only ninety-
It is important to realize, too, that all of the main
ethnic territorial divisions have within their borders a
minority or minorities other than the predominant one.
Thus in the Ukrainian Republic there are some 3,000,000
Russians, and several hundred thousand each of Belorus-
sians, Bulgarians and Greeks. At the same time, several
million Ukrainians live outside the borders of the Ukrai-
nian S. S. R. in other Union Republics. Practically every
Union Republic, Autonomous Republic and Autonom-
ous Region includes substantial numbers of Russians.
The policy of the Soviet regime toward national and
racial minorities constitutes a direct antithesis to the
Tsarist attitude, which won for pre-revolutionary Russia
the label "prison of nations. " The old Russian Empire
contained practically all of the same peoples who live
today in the Soviet Union, although its minorities of
2. The Soviet Minorities Policy
102
? ? Generated for (University of Chicago) on 2014-06-10 17:29 GMT / http://hdl. handle. net/2027/mdp. 39015020686591 Public Domain, Google-digitized / http://www. hathitrust. org/access_use#pd-google
? SOVIET ETHNIC DEMOCRACY
Finns and Poles were much larger. |__The absolutistic
Russian monarchy functioned frankly under the twin
slogans of "One Tsar, one religion, one language" and
"Autocracy, orthodoxy, nationalism. " For the minority
groups in general this meant political oppression, eco-
nomic exploitation and enforced (if superficial) Russifi-
cation.
TheTsarist Government filled official positions in the
minority territories almost exclusively with Russians and
made every effort to suppress and destroy the indigenous
cultures and languages of non-Russian peoples. Through-
out the Empire the Russian language became the sole
medium of the courts, the government schools and official
business, the use of other tongues being severely discour-
aged or forbidden. For example, "A Kalmyk boy caught
speaking his own dialect in class or school had to wear
round his neck the sign, 'It is forbidden to speak Kal-
myk,' and go without dinner. "
The ruling class of Russians viewed with open con-
tempt the subject peoples, who hated them bitterly in
return. The relation existing between the imperial
government and the Kazakhs was quite typical. As one
Tsarist official put it, "There is no other way to manage
the Kazakhs except through massacres. " The Kazakhs, on
the other hand, had a well-known proverb, "If a Russian
travel with you, hold an ax in readiness. " The Tsars
followed the well-established imperialist policy of "divide
and rule," stirring up inter-racial animosities whenever
and wherever possible: Poles against Ukrainians, Ar-
menians against Georgians, everyone against the Jews.
Indicative of the Minorities policy of the Tsars was
their ferocious anti-Semitism,^ which became a scandal
throughout the civilized world. I have already called
103
? ? Generated for (University of Chicago) on 2014-06-10 17:29 GMT / http://hdl. handle. net/2027/mdp. 39015020686591 Public Domain, Google-digitized / http://www. hathitrust. org/access_use#pd-google
? SOVIET CIVILIZATION
attention to the horrible pogroms, promoted and pro-
tected by both the government and the official Orthodox
Church. The Jews were compelled to live in the so-
called Pale of Settlement and were therefore barred,
except under special regulations, from many cities and
districts of imperial Russia. They were also excluded,
unless they adopted Christianity, from all public adminis-
trative posts and from most professions. Numerous
restrictions limited their attending educational institu-
tions and engaging in agriculture.
But beyond all this the Jews under the Tsarist regime
were subject to organized raids and massacres in which
thousands upon thousands -- men, women and children
-- were brutally slain or driven from their plundered
homes. These appalling slaughters of the innocent (pre-
views of what the more efficient Nazis would later do)
were called pogroms in Russian; and this word of awful
import has been taken over intact into English and other
languages. The official anti-Semitism of the Tsarist
regime, which included refusal of passports to American
Jewish citizens, aroused intense indignation in the United
States during the first two decades of the twentieth cen-
tury and led the American Government in 1913 to let
lapse a commercial treaty with Russia (the 1832 Treaty
of Commerce and Navigation) of eighty years' standing.
To all acts of ethnic discrimination, whether against
the Jews or other minorities, the Soviet Republic has put
an end. Typical of the drastic change in viewpoint was
Joseph Stalin's statement on the Jewish question in 1931.
"National and racial chauvinism," he said, "is a remnant
of man-hating customs characteristic of the era of canni-
balism. Anti-Semitism is an extreme expression of racial
chauvinism and as such is the most dangerous survivor
104
? ? Generated for (University of Chicago) on 2014-06-10 17:29 GMT / http://hdl. handle. net/2027/mdp. 39015020686591 Public Domain, Google-digitized / http://www. hathitrust. org/access_use#pd-google
? SOVIET ETHHIC DEMOCRACY
of cannibalism. It is useful to the exploiter, for it serves
as a lightning rod enabling capitalism to evade the blows
of the toilers. . . In the U. S. S. R. anti-Semitism is prose-
cuted most severely as a phenomenon profoundly inimical
to the Soviet system. "5
It is of considerable significance that Premier Stalin
himself, more than any other top Soviet leader, has been
responsible for both the theoretical and practical develop-
ment of the minorities policy. This has helped to give
to the policy additional authority and prestige throughout
the Soviet Union. Stalin's Marxism and the National
Question is the outstanding Soviet book on the subject.
Also during the formative years of the Soviet regime,
from 1917 to 1923, Stalin specialized in this field and did
yeoman work as the first and only Soviet Commissar of
Nationalities. This post was eliminated in 1923 as no
longer necessary, since plans were already advanced, and
were soon embodied in the Soviet Constitution of 1924,
to establish a special Chamber of Nationalities which
would concentrate upon the interests of the minority
groups.
As we saw in discussing the present Soviet Constitu-
tion,* (Article 123 makes a sweeping guarantee of racial
and national democracy and penalizes by law "any ad-
vocacy of racial or national exclusiveness or hatred and
contempt/j The enlightened Soviet minorities policy
runs as a major motif right through the Constitution. Re-
garding the Soviet of Nationalities, which is so important
in the political set-up, Article 35 provides that it be
elected "on the basis of twenty-five deputies from each
Union Republic, eleven deputies from each Autonomous
Republic, five deputies from each Autonomous Region
? See pp. 79-80.
105
? ? Generated for (University of Chicago) on 2014-06-10 17:29 GMT / http://hdl. handle. net/2027/mdp. 39015020686591 Public Domain, Google-digitized / http://www. hathitrust. org/access_use#pd-google
? SOVIET CIVILIZATIOH
and one deputy from each National Area. " With fifty-
one national divisions concerned, this adds up to a total
of 631 representatives. * For the Presidium of the Su-
preme Soviet, chosen at a joint sitting of the Soviet of
the Union and the Soviet of Nationalities, sixteen Vice-
Chairmen are designated, one from each Union Republic.
The electoral provisions for the Soviet of National-
ities mean that all the main national groups organized
in territories of their own have adequate representation
in the central Soviet Congress. The Armenian Soviet
Republic, for instance, with a population of about 1,350,-
000 sends the same number of delegates as the Russian
Soviet Republic, with a population of more than 114,-
000,000. The Yakut Autonomous Republic, with ap-
proximately 400,000 people, elects the same number as
the Tatar Autonomous Republic, with over 3,000,000
people. And each of the Autonomous Regions, ranging
in population from around 86,000 to 284,000, gets a voice
in the Supreme Soviet with five representatives. It is
only in a very limited sense, however, that the Soviet of
Nationalities can be said to correspond with the United
States Senate and the Soviet of the Union with the House
of Representatives.
All of the fifty-one national divisions of the U. S. S. R.
have control over purely local affairs in general, but they
must conform in all ways to the socialist principles laid
down in the Soviet Constitution. Naturally the Union
Republics possess greater power than the various ethnic
subdivisions within them. The Supreme Soviet of the
U. S. S. R. made important amendments to the Constitu-
tion in 1944, giving to all Union Republics "the right to
enter into direct relations with foreign states, to conclude
? Cf. p. 58.
106
? ? Generated for (University of Chicago) on 2014-06-10 17:29 GMT / http://hdl. handle. net/2027/mdp. 39015020686591 Public Domain, Google-digitized / http://www. hathitrust. org/access_use#pd-google
? SOVIET ETHHIC DEMOCRACY
agreements with them and exchange diplomatic and con-
sular representatives with them" (Article 18A); and the
right to have their own republican military formations
as component parts of the Soviet army (Article 18B).
These war-time amendments were a logical develop-
ment in the Soviet minorities policy in the direction of
democratic functioning and administrative decentrali-
zation. And they showed that cooperation and confidence
among the different peoples of the Soviet Union had
become still further tempered in the crucible of Hitler's
invasion. It is to be remembered, however, that the
federal state retains the responsibility of establishing the
general pattern of foreign relations for the U. S. S. R. and
its constituent Republics; and of organizing the defense
of the country and formulating the guiding principles
for the organization of all military units.
The first Union Republics to set up their own Minis-
tries of Foreign Affairs were those of the Ukraine and
Belorussia. At the San Francisco Conference in the
spring of 1945, the representatives of the United Nations
voted to admit the Ukrainian and Belorussian Republics
as participants in the Conference and as initial members
of the General Assembly. Thus the Soviet Union as a
whole, the Ukrainian Republic and the Belorussian Re-
public each has a vote in the U. N. Assembly, as distinct
from the Security Council where the chief and ultimate
power lies. In appealing for separate representation for
the Ukraine and Belorussia, Soviet spokesmen stressed
the great contributions and sacrifices which these two
nations had made in the war against Nazi Germany and
their direct involvement all the way through.
The unity in diversity which the Soviet Union and
its many nationalities have achieved is the resultant of
107
? ? Generated for (University of Chicago) on 2014-06-10 17:29 GMT / http://hdl. handle. net/2027/mdp. 39015020686591 Public Domain, Google-digitized / http://www. hathitrust. org/access_use#pd-google
? SOVIET CIVILIZATION
several interacting factors. One of the most weighty has
been the Communist Party, whose influence extends to
every nook and cranny of the U. S. S. R. It is well organ-
ized in every Union Republic and other national division.
In the Soviet of Nationalities, as well as in the legislative
bodies and governments of the different ethnic groups,
a high proportion of the members ordinarily belong
to the Communist Party. The various nationalities on
their part are well represented in the Communist Party
Congresses, in the Party's Central Committee and in the
inner Politburo. The Soviet Communist Party acts as
a most potent force in welding the races, nations and
tribes of the U. S. S. R. into a vast and harmonious whole.
Turning from the political to the cultural, we find
that under the Soviet minorities policyjthe cultures of
the various ethnic groups follow the basic formula of
"national in form and socialist in content" as distin-
guished from "national in form and bourgeois or capital-
ist in content. " YThis means that literature, art, drama,
journalism, science and other expressions of culture are
free to develop in the native languages and national
forms, but must stay within the limits of fundamental
socialist and Marxist principles in what they say. And
they are subject to the general controls of Communist
censorship in effect throughout the Soviet Union^
In the definitive volume by Stalin that I cited earlier,
the author describes a nation as "a historically evolved,
stable community of language, territory, economic life
and psychological make-up manifested in a community
of culture. "6 In practice in Soviet Russia language has
been the most important single element in the determi-
nation of nationality. The role of language in the exis-
tence and development of nationhood can hardly be over-
108
? ? Generated for (University of Chicago) on 2014-06-10 17:29 GMT / http://hdl. handle. net/2027/mdp. 39015020686591 Public Domain, Google-digitized / http://www. hathitrust. org/access_use#pd-google
? SOVIET ETHHIC DEMOCRACY
estimated. Without a native tongue, spoken or written,
it is difficult, if not impossible, for any people to achieve
the spirit of self-consciousness characteristic of a nation.
From the start the Soviets have been aware of the
primary place of ^language] in the life of the different
peoples and have officially recognized in each minority
area the primacy of its predominant tongue.
The Consti-
tution includes special provisions concerning this matter.
Thus, Article 121 provides that instruction in schools
is to be "conducted in the native language"; and Article
40 that "laws passed by the Supreme Soviet of the U. S.
S. R. are published in the language of the Union Repub-
lics. " Article 110 is also revealing: "Judicial proceedings
are conducted in the language of the Union Republic,
Autonomous Republic or Autonomous Region, persons
not knowing this language being guaranteed every op-
portunity of fully acquainting themselves with the ma-
terial of the case through an interpreter and likewise the
right to use their own language in court. " With few
exceptions, Russian is the second language taught among
the minorities and is the common medium for com-
munication.
Since the Revolution of 1917 Soviet experts have
drawn up written alphabets, grammars and dictionaries
for sixty-seven of the smaller peoples who possessed only
oral languages. A number of additional groups have
substituted simplified alphabets for the complicated
Arabic or Mongolian scripts upon which they previously
relied. Soviet schools use at least seventy languages alto-
gether; books are printed in no less than 110. The
encouragement and teaching of the native vernacular
has been of enormous assistance in reducing the high rate
of illiteracy among formerly backward races and national-
109
? ? Generated for (University of Chicago) on 2014-06-10 17:29 GMT / http://hdl. handle. net/2027/mdp. 39015020686591 Public Domain, Google-digitized / http://www. hathitrust. org/access_use#pd-google
? SOVIET CIVILIZATIOH
ities; and in advancing their general cultural level.
An outstanding feature of the cultural renaissance
among minorities has been the progress of women. In the
Tsarist Empire women led an even harder existence
among the subject nationalities, especially in Moham-
medan areas, than among the Russians themselves. Since
1917 women in typically Moslem districts, such as the
Caucasus and Central Asia, have gone far toward attain-
ing equality with men. The Soviet Government, so often
pictured abroad as bent on destroying the institution of
monogamy, has put into effect strict laws throughout the
U. S. S. R. against bigamy and polygamy. It has also for-
bidden by law other traditional practices spelling indig-
nity and suffering for the female sex, such as child mar-
riage, bride abduction and bride purchase. Bride pur-
chase, in which prospective wives were regarded as chat-
tels and literally sold to their future husbands, brought
many flagrant evils in its train and was probably the worst
of the old Mohammedan marriage customs.
In the long crusade for the emancipation of women
in the Soviet East the most intense and dramatic struggles
revolved around the wearing of the veil, visible and ever-
present symbol of the Moslem woman's inferior lot, as
well as a hateful, unhealthy instrument in her spiritual
and physical degradation. By 1924 "Away with the
Veil! " had become the fighting slogan of hundreds of
thousands of women in the Mohammedan areas. Natur-
ally the forces of religious reaction bitterly resisted the
campaign against the veil. Hundreds of women became
martyrs to the cause, as many as 500 being killed by their
enraged husbands or other men. But as time went on the
anti-veil cohorts, with the full backing of the Soviet
110
? ? Generated for (University of Chicago) on 2014-06-10 17:29 GMT / http://hdl. handle. net/2027/mdp. 39015020686591 Public Domain, Google-digitized / http://www. hathitrust. org/access_use#pd-google
? SOVIET ETHHIC DEMOCRACY
regime, won out, so that today relatively few women in
the U. S. S. R. adhere to the ancient practice of the veil.
Women's life, among the minorities has also greatly
improved because of the general cultural and economic
advances under the Soviets. Soviet stress on the aboli-
tion of illiteracy, the care of mother and child, the spread
of science and the betterment of material conditions have
wrought tremendous benefits for the female sex. In every
part of the old Empire the large majority of the inhabi-
tants were positively medieval in their treatment of
disease and their ignorance of the simplest laws of hy-
giene. All but universal was the reliance on spells, incan-
tations, witch doctors, faith healing, or the magic powers
of icons and holy water. The far-flung system of (public
health^ including insistence upon elementary cleanliness,
has resulted in the establishment of up-to-date medical
techniques among ethnic minorities formerly quite prim-
itive in their living habits.
As for material progress in the large, whereas the
Tsars consciously held back the economic development
of the subject nationalities, so that their labor and raw
materials could be better exploited, the Soviet Govern-
ment has furthered to the best of its ability the develop-
ment of well-rounded economies in each Union Republic.
The Five-Year Plans have reached out to the most distant
and undeveloped regions, investing huge amounts of
capital, stimulating increased production in industry
and agriculture, providing for education in scientific
methods and machine techniques. The Soviet planners
have paid particular attention to the poorer, more back-
ward sections of the country and thus allocated, in the
nation-wide federal budgets, especially large increases in
111
? ? Generated for (University of Chicago) on 2014-06-10 17:29 GMT / http://hdl. handle. net/2027/mdp. 39015020686591 Public Domain, Google-digitized / http://www. hathitrust. org/access_use#pd-google
? SOVIET CIVILIZATION
expenditures for the Union Republics of the Transcau-
casus and Central Asia.
The prodigious task in 1917 was to lead the minori-
ties from feudal, patriarchal and nomadic forms of life
to the advanced stage of a socialist system, without their
passing through a transitional period of industrial capi-
talism. Actually, in the thirty-five years since they as-
sumed power, the Soviets have accomplished this end
amongst all but a fraction of the peoples of the U. S. S. R.
3. Summary and Evaluation
We can summarize the basic principles behind the
Soviet minorities policy under five main headings:
First, cultural. The Soviets believe that the many
diverse national cultures of the U. S. S. R. have ample scope
for self-expression and development in functioning ac-
cording to the maxim of "national in form and socialist
in content. " The "national in form" lays stress on the
native languages and folk traditions, while the "socialist
in content" refers to the new economic, social and polit-
ical ideology and institutions characteristic of socialism.
In the very distant future this cultural pluralism may give
way to a qualitatively different sort of civilization in
which the various national cultures, after fulfilling their
greatest promise, merge into a single common culture
with a single common language. But this outcome will
take place, according to Communist theory, only after
mankind as a whole adopts socialism. The final result
in the world at large is to be the disappearance of national
languages through gradual desuetude and the coming
into being of a new international language. These vague
and far-off possibilities I look upon as purely speculative.
Second, economic. The Soviet theory is that the fun-
112
? ? Generated for (University of Chicago) on 2014-06-10 17:29 GMT / http://hdl. handle. net/2027/mdp. 39015020686591 Public Domain, Google-digitized / http://www. hathitrust. org/access_use#pd-google
? SOVIET ETHHIC DEMOCRACY
damental roots of national and racial prejudice and per-
secution are economic. When these roots have been eradi-
cated through the abolition of poverty, depression and
unemployment, so that different peoples do not fear one
another as economic competitors, then the traditional
hatreds and antagonisms tend to die out. Social psychol-
ogists, both Communist and non-Communist, have long
pointed out the extent to which group as well as indi-
vidual tensions result from economic insecurity. In an
economy of scarcity, one racial or national unit may have
real reason to dread the competition of another for the
limited supply of jobs and material goods available. And
a group with a sense of rancor or of inferiority arising
from constant want and exploitation is only too likely to
work out its frustrations in hostile attitudes and actions
toward other groups.
From the Soviet viewpoint, the planned socialist sys-
tem of the U. S. S. R. has eradicated the basic causes of
inter-racial and inter-national friction by ensuring eco-
nomic security for everyone from birth to death; by in-
stilling a new unity among the Soviet nationalities with
the great common aim of socialism; and by providing the
Soviet peoples as a whole, in the nation-wide campaigns
to put across the Five-Year Plans, with the sort of peace-
time dedication of energy and idealism that the Ameri-
can philosopher, William James, envisaged as "the moral
equivalent of war. "
Third, scientific. Biology, anthropology and related
sciences have shown that all the peoples of this planet
have a common origin; and that there are no inherently
superior races or nations. Modern science declares that
neither the shape of the head nor the texture of the hair,
the color of the skin nor the color of the eyes, the weight
113
? ? Generated for (University of Chicago) on 2014-06-10 17:29 GMT / http://hdl. handle. net/2027/mdp. 39015020686591 Public Domain, Google-digitized / http://www. hathitrust. org/access_use#pd-google
? SOVIET CIVILIZATION
of the brain nor the height of the body, make one ethnic
group generally superior or inferior to another. On the
basis of such scientific findings, Soviet thinkers assert that
the retarded socio-cultural level of any national group at
any period of history is not a reliable index of its native
abilities, but can be explained primarily in terms of the
total environmental situation and more particularly in
terms of economic causation.
The Soviet socialist system throughout rests upon a
profound belief in the general educability of human na-
ture; it consciously pursues this principle in regard to
nationalities as well as individuals and classes. It is a car-
dinal point in the minorities policy to deny the existence
of unalterable socio-cultural traits and to affirm the influ-
ence of education and environment. The progress of the
Soviet nationalities bears out the claim of the Soviet
leaders, in their earliest period of power, that the back-
ward minority peoples could, if given a proper opportun-
ity, catch up with the more advanced peoples of the
U. S. S. R.
Fourth, democratic. Soviet theory and practice up-
hold the right of all racial and national groups to
freedom and equality. The Soviet people are perfectly
clear that without full ethnic democracy no country
containing substantial minorities can be considered truly
democratic. To paraphrase the American Declaration of
Independence, the Soviets take the stand that not only
all individuals, but also all nations "are created equal,
that they are endowed . . . with certain unalienable rights,
that among these are Life, Liberty and the pursuit of
Happiness. "
Fifth, ethical and international. The professed ethical
aim is the freedom and welfare of all individuals and
114
? ? Generated for (University of Chicago) on 2014-06-10 17:29 GMT / http://hdl. handle. net/2027/mdp. 39015020686591 Public Domain, Google-digitized / http://www. hathitrust. org/access_use#pd-google
? SOVIET ETHNIC DEMOCRACY
ethnic groups within the U. S. S. R. , irrespective of nation
or race. This ethical attitude extends to mankind as a
whole and includes the hope that all the manifold peoples
of the earth, in whatever country or continent, may live
together in peace and equality. The ideal of eventual
international brotherhood is a part of Soviet philosophy,
although this feeling of good will does not apply to ex-
ploiting or war-making classes or groups. It does em-
brace, however, the masses of the people even in fascist
countries; and it is significant that during the height of
the Second World War the Soviet leaders never de-
nounced the German people, but always the Nazis, the
Hitlerites, the German invaders or the German imperi-
alists.
In a war-torn, hate-filled era during which the rise of
arrogant and aggressive nationalism has given undue
emphasis to the differences between races and nations,
it is of singular purport that the Soviet experience should
bring out the similarities between races and nations. In
this process the Soviets have underlined the great truth
that all peoples are part of the same human family and
possess common needs and aspirations.
Proceeding to an evaluation of the Soviet minorities
policy, we must be careful not to claim too much for it.
It would be an exaggeration to say and Utopian to expect
that all racial and national prejudice has disappeared
from Soviet Russia. Lingering traces of the old antipathies
and suspicions undoubtedly still exist, particularly among
the older generation; and we know that the Nazis were
able to rekindle some of the old racial antagonisms in
the occupied areas. When the Soviet authorities re-
gained control of these regions they undertook vigorous
and successful counter-measures against the Hitlerite
115
? ? Generated for (University of Chicago) on 2014-06-10 17:29 GMT / http://hdl. handle. net/2027/mdp. 39015020686591 Public Domain, Google-digitized / http://www. hathitrust. org/access_use#pd-google
? SOVIET CIVILIZATIOH
propaganda. Rumors in the anti-Soviet press of officially
condoned or encouraged anti-Semitism in the U. S. S. R.
in the post-war period are not, so far as I can discover,
founded on fact.
Typical of newspaper misrepresentations was an
article by Mr. Harry Schwartz in The New York Times
of April 20, 1949, charging that the Soviet satirical
weekly, Krokodil, had run a cartoon in its issue of March
20, 1949, of an anti-Semitic character. The Times story
stated: "One cartoon on the front page of Krokodil
juxtaposes the name of Lippmann, which is usually
Jewish in the Soviet Union, with the word Zhid, a de-
risive Russian term for Jews used by Russian-speaking
anti-Semites. " But it turned out that the cartoon was
one satirizing "bourgeois cosmopolitanism" and that in
doing so it specified certain foreign writers, among them
the American, Walter Lippmann, and the Frenchman,
Andre Gide, whose name in Russian is spelled Zhid.
The Times' error was the more inexcusable because
Gide's first name as well as last was clearly printed in the
cartoon.
In this same unscrupulous press war against Soviet
Russia Newsweek of May 2, 1949, published a layout of
five Soviet cartoons, including the one mentioned by the
Times, under the heading: "Poison in Pen and Ink: the
Soviet Anti-Semitic Campaign. " The text claimed that
these cartoons, all of them satirizing "homeless cosmo-
politans," were anti-Semitic because the main figures in
them were drawn with deliberately emphasized "hooked
noses. " However, anyone who is familiar with Soviet
cartoons and posters knows that one of the favorite
methods used by Soviet artists to ridicule a type or char-
acter is to make him resemble a bird with a beak or a
116
? ? Generated for (University of Chicago) on 2014-06-10 17:29 GMT / http://hdl. handle. net/2027/mdp. 39015020686591 Public Domain, Google-digitized / http://www. hathitrust. org/access_use#pd-google
? SOVIET ETHHIC DEMOCRACY
fantastic bird-animal combination. Soviet cartoonists
often depicted the Nazi Goebbels, for instance, as a long-
beaked, humpbacked crow or vulture. The cartoons
reproduced by Newsweek simply continued this tradi-
tion and gave long predatory beaks, not noses at all, to
the characters satirized.
It is significant also that in 1949, 1950 and 1951 a con-
siderably larger percentage of the annual Stalin awards
for noteworthy achievement in the arts and sciences
went to Soviet Jews than the proportion of Jews -- some
2 percent -- to the total population.
It cannot be denied, however, that the traditional
aspects of Jewish culture -- in religion, literature and
social custom -- have been declining. This apparently
is due to the fact that the Soviet Jews, finally living in
full equality, with racial discrimination and persecution
ended, and having become an integral part of a great
new social movement, in considerable numbers no longer
feel the urge to preserve their special identity as a people
and to maintain in their daily lives the historic character-
istics of Jewry.
In summarizing the minorities situation, we can ob-
jectively state that over its whole vast area the numerous
Soviet peoples, regardless of race or color, nationality or
physiognomy, mingle with one another at will, attend
the same educational institutions, sit next to one another
at theatres and other places of amusement, travel and
eat together, have rooms at the same hotels or clubs,
participate on equal terms in the same crafts or profes-
sions, join the same trade unions and cultural associations,
and possess the same rights of suffrage and of election or
appointment to public office. No persons in the Soviet
Union can be barred, on account of race or nationality,
117
? ? Generated for (University of Chicago) on 2014-06-10 17:29 GMT / http://hdl. handle. net/2027/mdp. 39015020686591 Public Domain, Google-digitized / http://www. hathitrust. org/access_use#pd-google
? SOVIET CIVILIZATION
from a hospital or hotel, from a vacation resort or bathing
beach, from a restaurant or inn, from some section of a
train or trolley, or from a special residential district in
town or city.
Soviet men and women of whatever nationality marry
if there is mutual love; and marital intermixture does
constantly take place. The opinion of foreign visitors to
Soviet Russia is almost unanimous in testifying that the
various peoples associate freely together in every visible
way. In large cities like Moscow and Kiev there are
always a considerable number of Soviet citizens from the
minority Republics of the Volga, the Transcaucasus or
Asia. And one of the best means of obtaining a sense of
the multi-national character and racial equality of the
Soviet commonwealth is to see, as I have seen, the polyglot
audiences at the theatre, opera, ballet and motion picture.
During the strain of the Nazi invasion several cracks
appeared in the structure of Soviet inter-ethnic harmony.
I have already told of the abolition of the German Volga
Republic in the first few months of Hitler's assault, be-
cause its population failed to maintain its loyalty to the
Soviet federation. * For the same reason the Soviet Gov-
ernment during the war years dissolved the Chechen-
Ingush, Crimean and Kalmyk Autonomous Republics,
and the Karachai Autonomous Region. The German
aggressors penetrated to all of these territories and re-
ceived extensive aid and comfort from fifth-columnists or
collaborationists among their peoples. The disloyalty
and dissolution of five national divisions during the war
period must be counted as a disturbing failure in the
Soviet minorities policy.
armies were rapidly advancing, the Soviet Government
abolished this Volga German Republic on the grounds
that a dangerous proportion of its citizens were fifth-
columnists for Adolf Hitler; and moved all of its German
inhabitants to a remote, though fertile, region in south
central Siberia.
Siberia in general, that place of exile and evil repute
under the Tsars, the Soviet regime has transformed into
a flourishing empire of industrial and agricultural pro-
ductivity. Many of the indigenous peoples of this largest
section of Soviet Asia are [Mongols^in origin and are
of the same ethnic stock as the Mongols to the south in
China. (The word Mongol is derived from mong, mean-
ing brave. ) Prominent among the Soviet Mongolian
100
? ? Generated for (University of Chicago) on 2014-06-10 17:29 GMT / http://hdl. handle. net/2027/mdp. 39015020686591 Public Domain, Google-digitized / http://www. hathitrust. org/access_use#pd-google
? SOVIET ETHHIC DEMOCRACY
groups are the Buryat-Mongols who have their own
Autonomous Soviet Socialist Republic in southeastern
Siberia. Nomadic for centuries past, the Buryats are
yellow-skinned and slant-eyed, with broad noses and high
cheek-bones.
They are one of the several Siberian peoples who re-
semble the American Indian in facial and physical char-
acteristics, in certain customs, songs and religious cere-
monies, and in basic living habits such as the use of tents
or wigwams constructed from a framework of poles
covered with skins or bark. All this is not surprising
when we consider that, according to the best scientific
opinion, distant ancestors of the Indians migrated from
Asia across Bering Strait, which is only fifty-six miles wide
and interspersed with islands, or across a vanished land
bridge in that vicinity. The noted anthropologist, the
late Professor Franz Boas of Columbia University, states:
"The physical relationship of the American native to the
east Asiatic is closer than that to any other race. Straight,
dark hair; wide, rather flat face; heavy nose; tendency to
a Mongoloid eye are common to both of them. Locally,
types are found that are so much alike that it would be
rather difficult to say whether an individual is an Asiatic
or an American. "4
Small Siberian tribes clearly akin to the American
Indiansjare the Evenkis and Nenets up north near the
Arctic Circle and the Far Eastern Luoravetlans of the
Bering Strait region. Each of these peoples is organized
into a National Area, the smallest nationalities subdivi-
sion mentioned in the Soviet Constitution. National
Areas are represented by one deputy apiece in the Soviet
of Nationalities. The few Soviet Eskimos are also ethni-
cally close to the American Indian and are racial brothers
101
? ? Generated for (University of Chicago) on 2014-06-10 17:29 GMT / http://hdl. handle. net/2027/mdp. 39015020686591 Public Domain, Google-digitized / http://www. hathitrust. org/access_use#pd-google
? SOVIET CIVILIZATIOH
of the North American and Greenland Eskimos. Eskimos
today live on both sides of Bering Strait and are nearly
identical in physique, customs and language.
The Soviet North and the Soviet Far East, both fasci-
nating subjects of study in themselves, contain a number
of other small peoples whom I shall not try to treat of
here. For further details of this kind I must refer the
reader to my earlier book, The Peoples of the Soviet
Union. Some of the smaller tribal groupings in the U. S.
S. R. number but a few thousands, like those of the
Dagestan Autonomous Republic in the Caucasus, or even
a few hundred, like the Aleuts living on the bleak Ko-
mandorskie Islands of the Pacific. \Of the 177 ethnic
groups that make up the Soviet population only ninety-
It is important to realize, too, that all of the main
ethnic territorial divisions have within their borders a
minority or minorities other than the predominant one.
Thus in the Ukrainian Republic there are some 3,000,000
Russians, and several hundred thousand each of Belorus-
sians, Bulgarians and Greeks. At the same time, several
million Ukrainians live outside the borders of the Ukrai-
nian S. S. R. in other Union Republics. Practically every
Union Republic, Autonomous Republic and Autonom-
ous Region includes substantial numbers of Russians.
The policy of the Soviet regime toward national and
racial minorities constitutes a direct antithesis to the
Tsarist attitude, which won for pre-revolutionary Russia
the label "prison of nations. " The old Russian Empire
contained practically all of the same peoples who live
today in the Soviet Union, although its minorities of
2. The Soviet Minorities Policy
102
? ? Generated for (University of Chicago) on 2014-06-10 17:29 GMT / http://hdl. handle. net/2027/mdp. 39015020686591 Public Domain, Google-digitized / http://www. hathitrust. org/access_use#pd-google
? SOVIET ETHNIC DEMOCRACY
Finns and Poles were much larger. |__The absolutistic
Russian monarchy functioned frankly under the twin
slogans of "One Tsar, one religion, one language" and
"Autocracy, orthodoxy, nationalism. " For the minority
groups in general this meant political oppression, eco-
nomic exploitation and enforced (if superficial) Russifi-
cation.
TheTsarist Government filled official positions in the
minority territories almost exclusively with Russians and
made every effort to suppress and destroy the indigenous
cultures and languages of non-Russian peoples. Through-
out the Empire the Russian language became the sole
medium of the courts, the government schools and official
business, the use of other tongues being severely discour-
aged or forbidden. For example, "A Kalmyk boy caught
speaking his own dialect in class or school had to wear
round his neck the sign, 'It is forbidden to speak Kal-
myk,' and go without dinner. "
The ruling class of Russians viewed with open con-
tempt the subject peoples, who hated them bitterly in
return. The relation existing between the imperial
government and the Kazakhs was quite typical. As one
Tsarist official put it, "There is no other way to manage
the Kazakhs except through massacres. " The Kazakhs, on
the other hand, had a well-known proverb, "If a Russian
travel with you, hold an ax in readiness. " The Tsars
followed the well-established imperialist policy of "divide
and rule," stirring up inter-racial animosities whenever
and wherever possible: Poles against Ukrainians, Ar-
menians against Georgians, everyone against the Jews.
Indicative of the Minorities policy of the Tsars was
their ferocious anti-Semitism,^ which became a scandal
throughout the civilized world. I have already called
103
? ? Generated for (University of Chicago) on 2014-06-10 17:29 GMT / http://hdl. handle. net/2027/mdp. 39015020686591 Public Domain, Google-digitized / http://www. hathitrust. org/access_use#pd-google
? SOVIET CIVILIZATION
attention to the horrible pogroms, promoted and pro-
tected by both the government and the official Orthodox
Church. The Jews were compelled to live in the so-
called Pale of Settlement and were therefore barred,
except under special regulations, from many cities and
districts of imperial Russia. They were also excluded,
unless they adopted Christianity, from all public adminis-
trative posts and from most professions. Numerous
restrictions limited their attending educational institu-
tions and engaging in agriculture.
But beyond all this the Jews under the Tsarist regime
were subject to organized raids and massacres in which
thousands upon thousands -- men, women and children
-- were brutally slain or driven from their plundered
homes. These appalling slaughters of the innocent (pre-
views of what the more efficient Nazis would later do)
were called pogroms in Russian; and this word of awful
import has been taken over intact into English and other
languages. The official anti-Semitism of the Tsarist
regime, which included refusal of passports to American
Jewish citizens, aroused intense indignation in the United
States during the first two decades of the twentieth cen-
tury and led the American Government in 1913 to let
lapse a commercial treaty with Russia (the 1832 Treaty
of Commerce and Navigation) of eighty years' standing.
To all acts of ethnic discrimination, whether against
the Jews or other minorities, the Soviet Republic has put
an end. Typical of the drastic change in viewpoint was
Joseph Stalin's statement on the Jewish question in 1931.
"National and racial chauvinism," he said, "is a remnant
of man-hating customs characteristic of the era of canni-
balism. Anti-Semitism is an extreme expression of racial
chauvinism and as such is the most dangerous survivor
104
? ? Generated for (University of Chicago) on 2014-06-10 17:29 GMT / http://hdl. handle. net/2027/mdp. 39015020686591 Public Domain, Google-digitized / http://www. hathitrust. org/access_use#pd-google
? SOVIET ETHHIC DEMOCRACY
of cannibalism. It is useful to the exploiter, for it serves
as a lightning rod enabling capitalism to evade the blows
of the toilers. . . In the U. S. S. R. anti-Semitism is prose-
cuted most severely as a phenomenon profoundly inimical
to the Soviet system. "5
It is of considerable significance that Premier Stalin
himself, more than any other top Soviet leader, has been
responsible for both the theoretical and practical develop-
ment of the minorities policy. This has helped to give
to the policy additional authority and prestige throughout
the Soviet Union. Stalin's Marxism and the National
Question is the outstanding Soviet book on the subject.
Also during the formative years of the Soviet regime,
from 1917 to 1923, Stalin specialized in this field and did
yeoman work as the first and only Soviet Commissar of
Nationalities. This post was eliminated in 1923 as no
longer necessary, since plans were already advanced, and
were soon embodied in the Soviet Constitution of 1924,
to establish a special Chamber of Nationalities which
would concentrate upon the interests of the minority
groups.
As we saw in discussing the present Soviet Constitu-
tion,* (Article 123 makes a sweeping guarantee of racial
and national democracy and penalizes by law "any ad-
vocacy of racial or national exclusiveness or hatred and
contempt/j The enlightened Soviet minorities policy
runs as a major motif right through the Constitution. Re-
garding the Soviet of Nationalities, which is so important
in the political set-up, Article 35 provides that it be
elected "on the basis of twenty-five deputies from each
Union Republic, eleven deputies from each Autonomous
Republic, five deputies from each Autonomous Region
? See pp. 79-80.
105
? ? Generated for (University of Chicago) on 2014-06-10 17:29 GMT / http://hdl. handle. net/2027/mdp. 39015020686591 Public Domain, Google-digitized / http://www. hathitrust. org/access_use#pd-google
? SOVIET CIVILIZATIOH
and one deputy from each National Area. " With fifty-
one national divisions concerned, this adds up to a total
of 631 representatives. * For the Presidium of the Su-
preme Soviet, chosen at a joint sitting of the Soviet of
the Union and the Soviet of Nationalities, sixteen Vice-
Chairmen are designated, one from each Union Republic.
The electoral provisions for the Soviet of National-
ities mean that all the main national groups organized
in territories of their own have adequate representation
in the central Soviet Congress. The Armenian Soviet
Republic, for instance, with a population of about 1,350,-
000 sends the same number of delegates as the Russian
Soviet Republic, with a population of more than 114,-
000,000. The Yakut Autonomous Republic, with ap-
proximately 400,000 people, elects the same number as
the Tatar Autonomous Republic, with over 3,000,000
people. And each of the Autonomous Regions, ranging
in population from around 86,000 to 284,000, gets a voice
in the Supreme Soviet with five representatives. It is
only in a very limited sense, however, that the Soviet of
Nationalities can be said to correspond with the United
States Senate and the Soviet of the Union with the House
of Representatives.
All of the fifty-one national divisions of the U. S. S. R.
have control over purely local affairs in general, but they
must conform in all ways to the socialist principles laid
down in the Soviet Constitution. Naturally the Union
Republics possess greater power than the various ethnic
subdivisions within them. The Supreme Soviet of the
U. S. S. R. made important amendments to the Constitu-
tion in 1944, giving to all Union Republics "the right to
enter into direct relations with foreign states, to conclude
? Cf. p. 58.
106
? ? Generated for (University of Chicago) on 2014-06-10 17:29 GMT / http://hdl. handle. net/2027/mdp. 39015020686591 Public Domain, Google-digitized / http://www. hathitrust. org/access_use#pd-google
? SOVIET ETHHIC DEMOCRACY
agreements with them and exchange diplomatic and con-
sular representatives with them" (Article 18A); and the
right to have their own republican military formations
as component parts of the Soviet army (Article 18B).
These war-time amendments were a logical develop-
ment in the Soviet minorities policy in the direction of
democratic functioning and administrative decentrali-
zation. And they showed that cooperation and confidence
among the different peoples of the Soviet Union had
become still further tempered in the crucible of Hitler's
invasion. It is to be remembered, however, that the
federal state retains the responsibility of establishing the
general pattern of foreign relations for the U. S. S. R. and
its constituent Republics; and of organizing the defense
of the country and formulating the guiding principles
for the organization of all military units.
The first Union Republics to set up their own Minis-
tries of Foreign Affairs were those of the Ukraine and
Belorussia. At the San Francisco Conference in the
spring of 1945, the representatives of the United Nations
voted to admit the Ukrainian and Belorussian Republics
as participants in the Conference and as initial members
of the General Assembly. Thus the Soviet Union as a
whole, the Ukrainian Republic and the Belorussian Re-
public each has a vote in the U. N. Assembly, as distinct
from the Security Council where the chief and ultimate
power lies. In appealing for separate representation for
the Ukraine and Belorussia, Soviet spokesmen stressed
the great contributions and sacrifices which these two
nations had made in the war against Nazi Germany and
their direct involvement all the way through.
The unity in diversity which the Soviet Union and
its many nationalities have achieved is the resultant of
107
? ? Generated for (University of Chicago) on 2014-06-10 17:29 GMT / http://hdl. handle. net/2027/mdp. 39015020686591 Public Domain, Google-digitized / http://www. hathitrust. org/access_use#pd-google
? SOVIET CIVILIZATION
several interacting factors. One of the most weighty has
been the Communist Party, whose influence extends to
every nook and cranny of the U. S. S. R. It is well organ-
ized in every Union Republic and other national division.
In the Soviet of Nationalities, as well as in the legislative
bodies and governments of the different ethnic groups,
a high proportion of the members ordinarily belong
to the Communist Party. The various nationalities on
their part are well represented in the Communist Party
Congresses, in the Party's Central Committee and in the
inner Politburo. The Soviet Communist Party acts as
a most potent force in welding the races, nations and
tribes of the U. S. S. R. into a vast and harmonious whole.
Turning from the political to the cultural, we find
that under the Soviet minorities policyjthe cultures of
the various ethnic groups follow the basic formula of
"national in form and socialist in content" as distin-
guished from "national in form and bourgeois or capital-
ist in content. " YThis means that literature, art, drama,
journalism, science and other expressions of culture are
free to develop in the native languages and national
forms, but must stay within the limits of fundamental
socialist and Marxist principles in what they say. And
they are subject to the general controls of Communist
censorship in effect throughout the Soviet Union^
In the definitive volume by Stalin that I cited earlier,
the author describes a nation as "a historically evolved,
stable community of language, territory, economic life
and psychological make-up manifested in a community
of culture. "6 In practice in Soviet Russia language has
been the most important single element in the determi-
nation of nationality. The role of language in the exis-
tence and development of nationhood can hardly be over-
108
? ? Generated for (University of Chicago) on 2014-06-10 17:29 GMT / http://hdl. handle. net/2027/mdp. 39015020686591 Public Domain, Google-digitized / http://www. hathitrust. org/access_use#pd-google
? SOVIET ETHHIC DEMOCRACY
estimated. Without a native tongue, spoken or written,
it is difficult, if not impossible, for any people to achieve
the spirit of self-consciousness characteristic of a nation.
From the start the Soviets have been aware of the
primary place of ^language] in the life of the different
peoples and have officially recognized in each minority
area the primacy of its predominant tongue.
The Consti-
tution includes special provisions concerning this matter.
Thus, Article 121 provides that instruction in schools
is to be "conducted in the native language"; and Article
40 that "laws passed by the Supreme Soviet of the U. S.
S. R. are published in the language of the Union Repub-
lics. " Article 110 is also revealing: "Judicial proceedings
are conducted in the language of the Union Republic,
Autonomous Republic or Autonomous Region, persons
not knowing this language being guaranteed every op-
portunity of fully acquainting themselves with the ma-
terial of the case through an interpreter and likewise the
right to use their own language in court. " With few
exceptions, Russian is the second language taught among
the minorities and is the common medium for com-
munication.
Since the Revolution of 1917 Soviet experts have
drawn up written alphabets, grammars and dictionaries
for sixty-seven of the smaller peoples who possessed only
oral languages. A number of additional groups have
substituted simplified alphabets for the complicated
Arabic or Mongolian scripts upon which they previously
relied. Soviet schools use at least seventy languages alto-
gether; books are printed in no less than 110. The
encouragement and teaching of the native vernacular
has been of enormous assistance in reducing the high rate
of illiteracy among formerly backward races and national-
109
? ? Generated for (University of Chicago) on 2014-06-10 17:29 GMT / http://hdl. handle. net/2027/mdp. 39015020686591 Public Domain, Google-digitized / http://www. hathitrust. org/access_use#pd-google
? SOVIET CIVILIZATIOH
ities; and in advancing their general cultural level.
An outstanding feature of the cultural renaissance
among minorities has been the progress of women. In the
Tsarist Empire women led an even harder existence
among the subject nationalities, especially in Moham-
medan areas, than among the Russians themselves. Since
1917 women in typically Moslem districts, such as the
Caucasus and Central Asia, have gone far toward attain-
ing equality with men. The Soviet Government, so often
pictured abroad as bent on destroying the institution of
monogamy, has put into effect strict laws throughout the
U. S. S. R. against bigamy and polygamy. It has also for-
bidden by law other traditional practices spelling indig-
nity and suffering for the female sex, such as child mar-
riage, bride abduction and bride purchase. Bride pur-
chase, in which prospective wives were regarded as chat-
tels and literally sold to their future husbands, brought
many flagrant evils in its train and was probably the worst
of the old Mohammedan marriage customs.
In the long crusade for the emancipation of women
in the Soviet East the most intense and dramatic struggles
revolved around the wearing of the veil, visible and ever-
present symbol of the Moslem woman's inferior lot, as
well as a hateful, unhealthy instrument in her spiritual
and physical degradation. By 1924 "Away with the
Veil! " had become the fighting slogan of hundreds of
thousands of women in the Mohammedan areas. Natur-
ally the forces of religious reaction bitterly resisted the
campaign against the veil. Hundreds of women became
martyrs to the cause, as many as 500 being killed by their
enraged husbands or other men. But as time went on the
anti-veil cohorts, with the full backing of the Soviet
110
? ? Generated for (University of Chicago) on 2014-06-10 17:29 GMT / http://hdl. handle. net/2027/mdp. 39015020686591 Public Domain, Google-digitized / http://www. hathitrust. org/access_use#pd-google
? SOVIET ETHHIC DEMOCRACY
regime, won out, so that today relatively few women in
the U. S. S. R. adhere to the ancient practice of the veil.
Women's life, among the minorities has also greatly
improved because of the general cultural and economic
advances under the Soviets. Soviet stress on the aboli-
tion of illiteracy, the care of mother and child, the spread
of science and the betterment of material conditions have
wrought tremendous benefits for the female sex. In every
part of the old Empire the large majority of the inhabi-
tants were positively medieval in their treatment of
disease and their ignorance of the simplest laws of hy-
giene. All but universal was the reliance on spells, incan-
tations, witch doctors, faith healing, or the magic powers
of icons and holy water. The far-flung system of (public
health^ including insistence upon elementary cleanliness,
has resulted in the establishment of up-to-date medical
techniques among ethnic minorities formerly quite prim-
itive in their living habits.
As for material progress in the large, whereas the
Tsars consciously held back the economic development
of the subject nationalities, so that their labor and raw
materials could be better exploited, the Soviet Govern-
ment has furthered to the best of its ability the develop-
ment of well-rounded economies in each Union Republic.
The Five-Year Plans have reached out to the most distant
and undeveloped regions, investing huge amounts of
capital, stimulating increased production in industry
and agriculture, providing for education in scientific
methods and machine techniques. The Soviet planners
have paid particular attention to the poorer, more back-
ward sections of the country and thus allocated, in the
nation-wide federal budgets, especially large increases in
111
? ? Generated for (University of Chicago) on 2014-06-10 17:29 GMT / http://hdl. handle. net/2027/mdp. 39015020686591 Public Domain, Google-digitized / http://www. hathitrust. org/access_use#pd-google
? SOVIET CIVILIZATION
expenditures for the Union Republics of the Transcau-
casus and Central Asia.
The prodigious task in 1917 was to lead the minori-
ties from feudal, patriarchal and nomadic forms of life
to the advanced stage of a socialist system, without their
passing through a transitional period of industrial capi-
talism. Actually, in the thirty-five years since they as-
sumed power, the Soviets have accomplished this end
amongst all but a fraction of the peoples of the U. S. S. R.
3. Summary and Evaluation
We can summarize the basic principles behind the
Soviet minorities policy under five main headings:
First, cultural. The Soviets believe that the many
diverse national cultures of the U. S. S. R. have ample scope
for self-expression and development in functioning ac-
cording to the maxim of "national in form and socialist
in content. " The "national in form" lays stress on the
native languages and folk traditions, while the "socialist
in content" refers to the new economic, social and polit-
ical ideology and institutions characteristic of socialism.
In the very distant future this cultural pluralism may give
way to a qualitatively different sort of civilization in
which the various national cultures, after fulfilling their
greatest promise, merge into a single common culture
with a single common language. But this outcome will
take place, according to Communist theory, only after
mankind as a whole adopts socialism. The final result
in the world at large is to be the disappearance of national
languages through gradual desuetude and the coming
into being of a new international language. These vague
and far-off possibilities I look upon as purely speculative.
Second, economic. The Soviet theory is that the fun-
112
? ? Generated for (University of Chicago) on 2014-06-10 17:29 GMT / http://hdl. handle. net/2027/mdp. 39015020686591 Public Domain, Google-digitized / http://www. hathitrust. org/access_use#pd-google
? SOVIET ETHHIC DEMOCRACY
damental roots of national and racial prejudice and per-
secution are economic. When these roots have been eradi-
cated through the abolition of poverty, depression and
unemployment, so that different peoples do not fear one
another as economic competitors, then the traditional
hatreds and antagonisms tend to die out. Social psychol-
ogists, both Communist and non-Communist, have long
pointed out the extent to which group as well as indi-
vidual tensions result from economic insecurity. In an
economy of scarcity, one racial or national unit may have
real reason to dread the competition of another for the
limited supply of jobs and material goods available. And
a group with a sense of rancor or of inferiority arising
from constant want and exploitation is only too likely to
work out its frustrations in hostile attitudes and actions
toward other groups.
From the Soviet viewpoint, the planned socialist sys-
tem of the U. S. S. R. has eradicated the basic causes of
inter-racial and inter-national friction by ensuring eco-
nomic security for everyone from birth to death; by in-
stilling a new unity among the Soviet nationalities with
the great common aim of socialism; and by providing the
Soviet peoples as a whole, in the nation-wide campaigns
to put across the Five-Year Plans, with the sort of peace-
time dedication of energy and idealism that the Ameri-
can philosopher, William James, envisaged as "the moral
equivalent of war. "
Third, scientific. Biology, anthropology and related
sciences have shown that all the peoples of this planet
have a common origin; and that there are no inherently
superior races or nations. Modern science declares that
neither the shape of the head nor the texture of the hair,
the color of the skin nor the color of the eyes, the weight
113
? ? Generated for (University of Chicago) on 2014-06-10 17:29 GMT / http://hdl. handle. net/2027/mdp. 39015020686591 Public Domain, Google-digitized / http://www. hathitrust. org/access_use#pd-google
? SOVIET CIVILIZATION
of the brain nor the height of the body, make one ethnic
group generally superior or inferior to another. On the
basis of such scientific findings, Soviet thinkers assert that
the retarded socio-cultural level of any national group at
any period of history is not a reliable index of its native
abilities, but can be explained primarily in terms of the
total environmental situation and more particularly in
terms of economic causation.
The Soviet socialist system throughout rests upon a
profound belief in the general educability of human na-
ture; it consciously pursues this principle in regard to
nationalities as well as individuals and classes. It is a car-
dinal point in the minorities policy to deny the existence
of unalterable socio-cultural traits and to affirm the influ-
ence of education and environment. The progress of the
Soviet nationalities bears out the claim of the Soviet
leaders, in their earliest period of power, that the back-
ward minority peoples could, if given a proper opportun-
ity, catch up with the more advanced peoples of the
U. S. S. R.
Fourth, democratic. Soviet theory and practice up-
hold the right of all racial and national groups to
freedom and equality. The Soviet people are perfectly
clear that without full ethnic democracy no country
containing substantial minorities can be considered truly
democratic. To paraphrase the American Declaration of
Independence, the Soviets take the stand that not only
all individuals, but also all nations "are created equal,
that they are endowed . . . with certain unalienable rights,
that among these are Life, Liberty and the pursuit of
Happiness. "
Fifth, ethical and international. The professed ethical
aim is the freedom and welfare of all individuals and
114
? ? Generated for (University of Chicago) on 2014-06-10 17:29 GMT / http://hdl. handle. net/2027/mdp. 39015020686591 Public Domain, Google-digitized / http://www. hathitrust. org/access_use#pd-google
? SOVIET ETHNIC DEMOCRACY
ethnic groups within the U. S. S. R. , irrespective of nation
or race. This ethical attitude extends to mankind as a
whole and includes the hope that all the manifold peoples
of the earth, in whatever country or continent, may live
together in peace and equality. The ideal of eventual
international brotherhood is a part of Soviet philosophy,
although this feeling of good will does not apply to ex-
ploiting or war-making classes or groups. It does em-
brace, however, the masses of the people even in fascist
countries; and it is significant that during the height of
the Second World War the Soviet leaders never de-
nounced the German people, but always the Nazis, the
Hitlerites, the German invaders or the German imperi-
alists.
In a war-torn, hate-filled era during which the rise of
arrogant and aggressive nationalism has given undue
emphasis to the differences between races and nations,
it is of singular purport that the Soviet experience should
bring out the similarities between races and nations. In
this process the Soviets have underlined the great truth
that all peoples are part of the same human family and
possess common needs and aspirations.
Proceeding to an evaluation of the Soviet minorities
policy, we must be careful not to claim too much for it.
It would be an exaggeration to say and Utopian to expect
that all racial and national prejudice has disappeared
from Soviet Russia. Lingering traces of the old antipathies
and suspicions undoubtedly still exist, particularly among
the older generation; and we know that the Nazis were
able to rekindle some of the old racial antagonisms in
the occupied areas. When the Soviet authorities re-
gained control of these regions they undertook vigorous
and successful counter-measures against the Hitlerite
115
? ? Generated for (University of Chicago) on 2014-06-10 17:29 GMT / http://hdl. handle. net/2027/mdp. 39015020686591 Public Domain, Google-digitized / http://www. hathitrust. org/access_use#pd-google
? SOVIET CIVILIZATIOH
propaganda. Rumors in the anti-Soviet press of officially
condoned or encouraged anti-Semitism in the U. S. S. R.
in the post-war period are not, so far as I can discover,
founded on fact.
Typical of newspaper misrepresentations was an
article by Mr. Harry Schwartz in The New York Times
of April 20, 1949, charging that the Soviet satirical
weekly, Krokodil, had run a cartoon in its issue of March
20, 1949, of an anti-Semitic character. The Times story
stated: "One cartoon on the front page of Krokodil
juxtaposes the name of Lippmann, which is usually
Jewish in the Soviet Union, with the word Zhid, a de-
risive Russian term for Jews used by Russian-speaking
anti-Semites. " But it turned out that the cartoon was
one satirizing "bourgeois cosmopolitanism" and that in
doing so it specified certain foreign writers, among them
the American, Walter Lippmann, and the Frenchman,
Andre Gide, whose name in Russian is spelled Zhid.
The Times' error was the more inexcusable because
Gide's first name as well as last was clearly printed in the
cartoon.
In this same unscrupulous press war against Soviet
Russia Newsweek of May 2, 1949, published a layout of
five Soviet cartoons, including the one mentioned by the
Times, under the heading: "Poison in Pen and Ink: the
Soviet Anti-Semitic Campaign. " The text claimed that
these cartoons, all of them satirizing "homeless cosmo-
politans," were anti-Semitic because the main figures in
them were drawn with deliberately emphasized "hooked
noses. " However, anyone who is familiar with Soviet
cartoons and posters knows that one of the favorite
methods used by Soviet artists to ridicule a type or char-
acter is to make him resemble a bird with a beak or a
116
? ? Generated for (University of Chicago) on 2014-06-10 17:29 GMT / http://hdl. handle. net/2027/mdp. 39015020686591 Public Domain, Google-digitized / http://www. hathitrust. org/access_use#pd-google
? SOVIET ETHHIC DEMOCRACY
fantastic bird-animal combination. Soviet cartoonists
often depicted the Nazi Goebbels, for instance, as a long-
beaked, humpbacked crow or vulture. The cartoons
reproduced by Newsweek simply continued this tradi-
tion and gave long predatory beaks, not noses at all, to
the characters satirized.
It is significant also that in 1949, 1950 and 1951 a con-
siderably larger percentage of the annual Stalin awards
for noteworthy achievement in the arts and sciences
went to Soviet Jews than the proportion of Jews -- some
2 percent -- to the total population.
It cannot be denied, however, that the traditional
aspects of Jewish culture -- in religion, literature and
social custom -- have been declining. This apparently
is due to the fact that the Soviet Jews, finally living in
full equality, with racial discrimination and persecution
ended, and having become an integral part of a great
new social movement, in considerable numbers no longer
feel the urge to preserve their special identity as a people
and to maintain in their daily lives the historic character-
istics of Jewry.
In summarizing the minorities situation, we can ob-
jectively state that over its whole vast area the numerous
Soviet peoples, regardless of race or color, nationality or
physiognomy, mingle with one another at will, attend
the same educational institutions, sit next to one another
at theatres and other places of amusement, travel and
eat together, have rooms at the same hotels or clubs,
participate on equal terms in the same crafts or profes-
sions, join the same trade unions and cultural associations,
and possess the same rights of suffrage and of election or
appointment to public office. No persons in the Soviet
Union can be barred, on account of race or nationality,
117
? ? Generated for (University of Chicago) on 2014-06-10 17:29 GMT / http://hdl. handle. net/2027/mdp. 39015020686591 Public Domain, Google-digitized / http://www. hathitrust. org/access_use#pd-google
? SOVIET CIVILIZATION
from a hospital or hotel, from a vacation resort or bathing
beach, from a restaurant or inn, from some section of a
train or trolley, or from a special residential district in
town or city.
Soviet men and women of whatever nationality marry
if there is mutual love; and marital intermixture does
constantly take place. The opinion of foreign visitors to
Soviet Russia is almost unanimous in testifying that the
various peoples associate freely together in every visible
way. In large cities like Moscow and Kiev there are
always a considerable number of Soviet citizens from the
minority Republics of the Volga, the Transcaucasus or
Asia. And one of the best means of obtaining a sense of
the multi-national character and racial equality of the
Soviet commonwealth is to see, as I have seen, the polyglot
audiences at the theatre, opera, ballet and motion picture.
During the strain of the Nazi invasion several cracks
appeared in the structure of Soviet inter-ethnic harmony.
I have already told of the abolition of the German Volga
Republic in the first few months of Hitler's assault, be-
cause its population failed to maintain its loyalty to the
Soviet federation. * For the same reason the Soviet Gov-
ernment during the war years dissolved the Chechen-
Ingush, Crimean and Kalmyk Autonomous Republics,
and the Karachai Autonomous Region. The German
aggressors penetrated to all of these territories and re-
ceived extensive aid and comfort from fifth-columnists or
collaborationists among their peoples. The disloyalty
and dissolution of five national divisions during the war
period must be counted as a disturbing failure in the
Soviet minorities policy.
