Soviet people ( rus, сове́тский наро́д, r=sovyétsky naród), or citizens of the USSR ( rus, гра́ждане СССР, grázhdanye SSSR), was an
umbrella
An umbrella or parasol is a folding canopy supported by wooden or metal ribs that is usually mounted on a wooden, metal, or plastic pole. It is designed to protect a person against rain or sunlight. The term ''umbrella'' is traditionally use ...
demonym for the population of the
Soviet Union
The Soviet Union,. officially the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics. (USSR),. was a transcontinental country that spanned much of Eurasia from 1922 to 1991. A flagship communist state, it was nominally a federal union of fifteen national ...
.
Nationality policy in the Soviet Union
During the
history of the Soviet Union
The history of Soviet Russia and the Soviet Union (USSR) reflects a period of change for both Russia and the world. Though the terms "Soviet Russia" and "Soviet Union" often are synonymous in everyday speech (either acknowledging the dominance ...
, different doctrines and practices on ethnic distinctions within the Soviet population were applied at different times. Minority national cultures were never completely abolished. Instead the Soviet definition of national cultures required them to be "
socialist
Socialism is a left-wing economic philosophy and movement encompassing a range of economic systems characterized by the dominance of social ownership of the means of production as opposed to private ownership. As a term, it describes the ...
by content and national by form", an approach that was used to promote the official aims and values of the state. The goal was always to cement the nationalities together in a common state structure. In the 1920s and the early 1930s, the policy of
national delimitation was used to demarcate separate areas of national culture and the policy of
korenizatsiya
Korenizatsiya ( rus, wikt:коренизация, коренизация, p=kərʲɪnʲɪˈzatsɨjə, , "indigenization") was an early policy of the Soviet Union for the integration of non-Russian nationalities into the governments of their speci ...
(indigenisation) was used to promote federalism and strengthen non-Russian languages and cultures. By the late 1930s, however, the policy was changed to a more active promotion of the
Russian language
Russian (russian: русский язык, russkij jazyk, link=no, ) is an East Slavic languages, East Slavic language mainly spoken in Russia. It is the First language, native language of the Russians, and belongs to the Indo-European langua ...
and later to more overt
Russification, which accelerated in the 1950s, especially in
Soviet education. Although some assimilation did occur, it did not on the whole succeed. The continued development of the many national cultures in the Soviet Union led to the drafting of the
New Union Treaty
The New Union Treaty (russian: link=no, Новый союзный договор, Novyy soyuznyy dogovor) was a draft treaty that would have replaced the 1922 Treaty on the Creation of the USSR to salvage and reform the Soviet Union. A ceremony ...
in 1991 and the subsequent
dissolution of the Soviet Union.
Researchers' assessments
Assessments of the success of the creation of the new community are divergent. On the one hand, the ethnologist V. A. Tishkov and other historians believe that "for all the socio-political deformities, the Soviet people represented a civil nation." The philosopher and sociologist B. A. Grushin noted that sociology in the USSR "recorded a unique historical type of society that had already gone into oblivion". At the same time, according to the sociologist T.N. Zaslavskaya, it "did not solve the main task associated with the typological identification of Soviet society".
In an interview with
Euronews in 2011, Russian President Dmitry Medvedev recalled the use of the term "Soviet people" as a "single community" in the Soviet Union but added that "these constructions were largely theoretical".
Russian researchers have also paid attention to the topic of the formation and functioning of the consciousness of the Soviet people.
Post-Soviet Russia
In contrast to Soviet national identity politics, which declared the Soviet people as an international and supranational community, the post-Soviet
Russian Constitution
The Constitution of the Russian Federation () was adopted by national referendum on 12 December 1993. Russia's constitution came into force on 25 December 1993, at the moment of its official publication, and abolished the Soviet system of gov ...
speaks of a "multinational people of the
Russian Federation
Russia (, , ), or the Russian Federation, is a transcontinental country spanning Eastern Europe and Northern Asia. It is the largest country in the world, with its internationally recognised territory covering , and encompassing one-eig ...
". From the outset, the idea of the
Russian nation as a community of all
Russian citizens
Russian citizenship law details the conditions by which a person holds citizenship of Russia. The primary law governing citizenship requirements is the federal law "On Citizenship of the Russian Federation", which came into force on 1 July 2002.
...
has met with opposition.
In December 2010,
Russian President
The president of the Russian Federation ( rus, Президент Российской Федерации, Prezident Rossiyskoy Federatsii) is the head of state of the Russian Federation. The president leads the executive branch of the federal ...
Dmitry Medvedev pointed out the lack of an all-Russian unifying idea as a problem during a discussion in the State Council and proposed "all-Russian patriotism" as a replacement for the idea of "the Soviet people".
See also
*
Demographics of the Soviet Union
According to data from the 1989 Soviet census, the population of the USSR was 70% East Slavs, 17% Turkic peoples, and all other ethnic groups below 2%. Alongside the atheist majority of 60% there were sizable minorities of Russian Orthodox Christ ...
*
Homo Sovieticus
''Homo Sovieticus'' ( Dog Latin for "Soviet Man") is a pejorative for an average conformist person in the Soviet Union and other countries of the Eastern Bloc. The term was popularized by Soviet writer and sociologist Aleksandr Zinovyev, who ...
*
Melting pot
*
New Soviet man
The New Soviet man or New Soviet person (russian: новый советский человек ''novy sovetsky chelovek''), as postulated by the ideologists of the Communist Party of the Soviet Union, was an archetype of a person with specific ...
*
Orthodoxy, Autocracy, and Nationality
Orthodoxy, Autocracy, and Nationality (russian: Правосла́вие, самодержа́вие, наро́дность, Pravoslávie, samoderzhávie, naródnost'), also known as Official Nationality,Riasanovsky, p. 132 was the dominant imper ...
– the ideological doctrine of Russian emperor Nicholas I
*
Rootless cosmopolitan
Rootless cosmopolitan () was a pejorative Soviet epithet which referred mostly to Jewish intellectuals as an accusation of their lack of allegiance to the Soviet Union, especially during the antisemitic campaign of 1948–1953. This campaign ...
*
Russification
*
Zhonghua minzu
''Zhonghua minzu'' (, ) is a political term in modern Chinese nationalism related to the concepts of nation-building, ethnicity, and race in the Chinese nationality.
''Zhonghua minzu'' was established during the early Beiyang (1912� ...
– the equivalent notion in the People's Republic of China
*
Yugoslavs
Yugoslavs or Yugoslavians ( Bosnian and Croatian: ''Jugoslaveni'', Serbian and Macedonian ''Jugosloveni''/Југословени; sl, Jugoslovani) is an identity that was originally designed to refer to a united South Slavic people. It has b ...
References
External links
*
The Soviet People—A New Historical Community', a Soviet work from 1974 expounding on the concept
*
Present-Day Ethnic Processes in the USSR', a Soviet work from 1982
{{Authority control
Soviet people
Demographics of the Soviet Union
Propaganda in the Soviet Union
Soviet ethnic policy