Why Lenin created the Russian Republic in the USSR

History 21/03/20 Why Lenin created the Russian Republic in the USSR

it would Seem that such a question was not supposed to occur. Russia initially viewed the Bolsheviks as a state created by Russian, in which all other Nations and peoples are in a depressed condition. So one of the first documents of Soviet power – the “Declaration of the rights of the peoples of Russia”, signed by Lenin and Stalin 2 (15) November 1917, proclaimed the right of all Russian nationalities to political self-determination up to the formation of an independent state. The implication was that the Russian government have already there.

However, this question, however, arose a theoretical plane during the creation of the USSR in late 1922. Prior to that, in addition to the RSFSR, there were several independent Soviet republics, and the RSFSR – numerous Autonomous Soviet Republic. The main issues that were discussed in the Communist leadership in this regard – what will be the Union of the Soviet republics, the Republic and what it will be.

the people’s Commissar for nationalities of the RSFSR, Stalin proposed a plan (known as the “autonomy plan”), under which Ukraine, Belarus, Georgia, Armenia, Azerbaijan, Bukhara, Khorezm, and the far Eastern Republic (DDA) was supposed to join the RSFSR as Autonomous republics like Tatar, Bashkir, etc. In contrast, many Ukrainian and Georgian Communists rejected the idea of a formal Union of the Soviet republics, insisting on their independence. Lenin chose a compromise position by which the Union of Republics was formed on an equal basis to the four constituent entities of the Russian Federation, Ukraine, Belarus and the Transcaucasian Federation. Question about the DDA has disappeared in connection with its merger with the RSFSR in November 1922, and the question of the occurrence of the Khorezm and Bukhara in the Soviet Union was temporarily postponed.

In December 1922, was proclaimed the Declaration on the formation of the USSR, but stille was to develop and sign a Treaty of Alliance (first Constitution of the USSR). In this context Stalin in February 1923, was sent to Politburo of the Central Committee of the RCP(b) a note, which pointed to the uncertainty of the current situation of the republics. It was unclear whether Georgia, Armenia, Azerbaijan and Autonomous Republic within the Russian Federation constituent entities of the Union, or these are the Caucasus and the Russian Federation, not the Republic in their composition. Stalin argued: if we accept that the Caucasian republics are eligible to become members of the Union separately, and not through the Federation, this means that Tatarstan, Bashkiria, Kazakhstan (then known as Kyrgyzstan), Yakutia and the Crimea have the same right. According to Stalin, it demanded the abolition of the Federation and the creation in its place of several national republics, including Russian, which he considered totally unacceptable.

Thus, the question of the Russian Republic was put by Stalin in the theoretical plane only to have his example to justify the need to preserve as of the RSFSR and the Transcaucasian Federation, in the new Union. The possibility of creating a Russian Republic on a par with other national republics in the former Russian Empire rejected the internationalist ideology of the Communist party. At the XII Congress of the RCP(Bolshevik) in April 1923, where it was fiercely debated the national question and the principles of organization of the Union, all speakers party leaders sharply attacked the “great Russian chauvinism” regarding combating to complete eradication the main purpose of the construction Union.

this is the Most complete General line of the party was expressed by N. And. Bukharin in these words: “we can’t even be approached here from the point of view of equality of Nations and Lenin repeatedly proves it. On the contrary, we must say that we [Russian – Y. B.] as the former great power nation have to go across to the nationalist aspirations and put themselves at a disadvantage in terms of more concessions to national trends. Only with such a policy, …when we put ourselves artificially in a position lower than other, only this price we can buy ourselves a real trust before oppressed Nations”.

In this case N. And. Bukharin just told the thesis of V. I. Lenin from his notes, “the question of nationalities or “autonomy”,” written on the 31st of December 1922: “Internationalism from the side of the oppressor or the so-called “great” nation… must consist not only in observing formal equality, but also in such inequality which would compensate for the side of the oppressor nation, the great nation, the inequality that is emerging in my life actually”. It would seem that the October revolution had eliminated the exploiting classes, but no: according to the leadership of the Communists, the Russian worker and peasant somehow exploited the non-Russian workers and peasants and therefore, were not to have the Soviet Union of the fullness of rights which was supposed to rest… As clearly expressed by A. I. Mikoyan, anticipating the policy of dispossession: “chauvinism is, while the peasantry.”

At the XII Congress of the RCP(b) has been harshly attacked for their “great Russian chauvinism” even very moderate proposal of Stalin to ensure that those regions of the RSFSR, which are not included in the national republics (i.e., with a predominantly Russian population), representation in the Council of nationalities of the Union of the CEC (the Soviet “Parliament”). What here to speak about the project of the Russian Republic that the Bolsheviks could appear only as something deliberately “absurd,” for example, you could criticize any other offer – as did Stalin, had recourse to this analogy to “justify” not independent of the occurrence of the republics of the Russian and Transcaucasian federations in the Soviet Union.

Yaroslav Butakov

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