The titular nation is the single dominant

ethnic group An ethnic group or an ethnicity is a grouping of people who identify with each other on the basis of shared attributes that distinguish them from other groups. Those attributes can include common sets of traditions, ancestry, language, history, ...

in a particular state, typically after which the state was named. The term was used for the first time by Maurice Barrès in the late 19th century. Countries

Soviet Union

The notion was used in 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 ...

to denote nations that give rise to titles of autonomous entities within the union: Soviet republics,

autonomous republic An autonomous republic is a type of administrative division similar to a province or state. A significant number of autonomous republics can be found within the successor states of the Soviet Union, but the majority are located within Russia. Man ...

autonomous region An autonomous administrative division (also referred to as an autonomous area, entity, unit, region, subdivision, or territory) is a subnational administrative division or internal territory of a sovereign state that has a degree of autonomy� ...

s, etc., such as

Byelorussian SSR The Byelorussian Soviet Socialist Republic (BSSR, or Byelorussian SSR; be, Беларуская Савецкая Сацыялістычная Рэспубліка, Bielaruskaja Savieckaja Sacyjalistyčnaja Respublika; russian: Белор� ...

for

Belarusians , native_name_lang = be , pop = 9.5–10 million , image = , caption = , popplace = 7.99 million , region1 = , pop1 = 600,000–768,000 , region2 = , pop2 ...

. For an ''ethnos'' to become a Soviet titular nation, it had to satisfy certain criteria in terms of the amount of population and compactness of its settlement. The language of a titular nation was declared an additional (after Russian) official language of the corresponding administrative unit. The notion worked well for the cases of well established, homogeneous and relatively developed nations. In a number of cases, in certain highly multiethnic regions, such as

North Caucasus The North Caucasus, ( ady, Темыр Къафкъас, Temır Qafqas; kbd, Ишхъэрэ Къаукъаз, İṩxhərə Qauqaz; ce, Къилбаседа Кавказ, Q̇ilbaseda Kavkaz; , os, Цӕгат Кавказ, Cægat Kavkaz, inh, ...

, the notion of a titular nation introduced intrinsic inequality between titular and non-titular nations, especially since the introduction of the "

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 ...

" politics, according to which representatives of a titular nation were promoted to management positions.

China

The

People's Republic of China China, officially the People's Republic of China (PRC), is a country in East Asia. It is the world's most populous country, with a population exceeding 1.4 billion, slightly ahead of India. China spans the equivalent of five time zones and ...

government A government is the system or group of people governing an organized community, generally a state. In the case of its broad associative definition, government normally consists of legislature, executive, and judiciary. Government is a ...

has adopted some of the principles behind this Soviet concept in its ''

ethnic minority The term 'minority group' has different usages depending on the context. According to its common usage, a minority group can simply be understood in terms of demographic sizes within a population: i.e. a group in society with the least number o ...

'' policy—see

Autonomous administrative divisions of China Chinese autonomous administrative divisions are associated with one or more ethnic minorities in China, ethnic minorities that are designated as autonomous within the People's Republic of China. These areas are recognized in the Constitution of ...

Yugoslavia

The federal republics of

Socialist Yugoslavia The Socialist Federal Republic of Yugoslavia, commonly referred to as SFR Yugoslavia or simply as Yugoslavia, was a country in Central Europe, Central and Southeast Europe. It emerged in 1945, following World War II in Yugoslavia, World War II, and ...

were perceived as nation-states of the constitutional peoples. After the

breakup of Yugoslavia The breakup of Yugoslavia occurred as a result of a series of political upheavals and conflicts during the early 1990s. After a period of political and economic crisis in the 1980s, constituent republics of the Socialist Federal Republic of Yu ...

, only

Bosnia and Herzegovina Bosnia and Herzegovina ( sh, / , ), abbreviated BiH () or B&H, sometimes called Bosnia–Herzegovina and often known informally as Bosnia, is a country at the crossroads of south and southeast Europe, located in the Balkans. Bosnia and H ...

was not defined in its constitution as a nation-state of its titular nation de jure because of its multi-ethnic society but is de facto separated by 98% in rural areas in the country and 85% in urban areas.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Titular Nation Soviet internal politics Political science terminology Nation Maurice Barrès

Soviet Union

China

Yugoslavia

See also

References