Published online by Cambridge University Press: 20 November 2018
The general picture of early Soviet nationality policy has been one in which Moscow embarked on an inexorable path of centralization immediately after 1917. While there is much truth to this portrait it ignores the persistent rivalries within local party organizations and among the non-Great Russian nationalities. Bashkiria in the years 1917-23 is a case in point. The struggles over the creation and development of a Soviet Bashkiria touched off an intense round of acrimonious conflicts there and in Moscow among Great Russian, Bashkir, and Tatar cadres that was only resolved by the imposition of centralized authority during the twenties. The significance of this experience lies not only in its typifying the complex mosaic out of which Soviet nationality policy evolved, but also in the profound impact the question of Bashkiria had for the development of the Sultangalievist national deviation in the middle twenties.
1. Atnagulov, S., Bashkiria (Moscow: 1925), p. 41. Cf. also Pipes, Richard, “The First Experiment in Soviet Nationality Policy: The Bashkir Republic, 1917-1920,” Russian Review, IX:4, 1950, p. 305.Google Scholar
2. Ibid. Google Scholar
3. Makarova, G. P., Iz istorii natsional' no-osvoboditel 'nogo dvizheniia v Rossii v 1917gg-Vostochnye raiony (Moscow: Nauka, 1979), p. 74. Cf. also Pipes, loc. cit.; Ocherki po Istorii Bashkirskoi ASSR, II (Ufa: Bashkirskoe Knizhnoe Izdatel'stov, 1966), p. 28; E. H. Carr, “Some Notes on Soviet Bashkiria,” Soviet Studies, VIII:3, (January, 1957), p. 220.Google Scholar
4. Saidgaliev, S., “Tatar respublika i tovarishch Lenin,” Porletarskaia Revolutsiia, 9:44 (September, 1925), pp. 112–113.Google Scholar
5. , Carr, p. 223; Makarova, pp. 146-148.Google Scholar
6. , Pipes, p. 307.Google Scholar
7. Ocherki istorri Bashkirskoi Organizatsii KPSS (Ufa: Bashkirskoi Knizhnoe Izdatel'stvo, 1973), p. 149.Google Scholar
8. Ibid., p. 154.Google Scholar
9. Ocherki istorii Bashkirskoi ASSR, p. 43–44.Google Scholar
10. Aminev, Z. A., “Bol'sheviki Bashkirii v bor'be za pobedu Velikoi Oktaibr'skoi Sotsialisticheskoi Revoliutsii (Mart'-Oktiabr' 1917g.),” Iz istorii Bashkirii (Ufa: Bashkirskii Gos. Universitet, 1963), p. 30.Google Scholar
11. Ganeev, R. G., “Orbrazovanie Bashkirskoi Oblastnoi Partiinoi Organizatsii i razgrom kontrrevoliutsionnoi validovshchiny,” Uchenye Zapiski Ufimskogo Bashkirskogo Gosudarstvennogo Universiteta (Ufa: 1970), p. 6.Google Scholar
12. Tagirov, I. R., Revoliutsionnaia bor'ba i natsional'no-osvoboditel'noe dvizhenie (Kazan: Izd. Kazanskogo Universiteta, 1977), pp. 104–106.Google Scholar
13. Raimov, R. M., Obrazovanie Bashkirskoi Avtonomnoi Sovetskoi Sotsialisticheskoi Respubliki (Moscow: Izd. AN SSSR, 1952), p. 94; Almaeva, L. A., “Deiatel'nost Bol'shevikov Iuzhnogo Urala po osushchestvleniiu Leninskoi natsional'noi politiki v 1917-1920gg,” Nekotorye voprosy partiinogo rukovodstva revoliutsionym dvizheniem i sotsialisticheskiim stroitel'stvom, vypusk 4 (Cheliabinsk: Gos. Ped. Institut, 1969), pp. 101-102; Ocherki po istorii Bashkirskoi ASSR, pp. 46–47.Google Scholar
14. Perepiska Sekretariata s mestnimi partiinymi organizatsiiami (Moscow: 1957), II, pp. 176–177, letter of January 20, 1918 to an unnamed comrade.Google Scholar
15. Keep, John L. H., The Russian Revolution: A Study in Mass Mobilization (New York: W. W. Norton, 1976), p. 286.Google Scholar
16. Zenkovsky, Serge, Pan-Turkism and Islam in Russia (Cambridge: Harvard Univ. Press, 1967), pp. 161–169.Google Scholar
17. Khasanov, Mansur, Galimdzhan Ibragimov (Kazan: Tatarskoe Knizhnoe Izd., 1969), pp. 163-4.Google Scholar
18. Ibidem. Google Scholar
19. , Zenkovsky, loc. cit. Google Scholar
20. Khairutdinov, R. G., Na putiakh k Sovetskoi avtonomii (Kazan: Izd. Kazanskogo Universiteta, 1972), pp. 7–24; Mansetov, N., “Velikaia Oktiabr'skaia Sotsialisticheskaia Revoliutsiia i sozdanie Narodnogo Kommissariata po Delam National'nostei,” Voprosy Istorii, (August, 1949), 8, pp. 9-29.Google Scholar
21. , Khasanov, op. cit. Google Scholar
22. From the words of a Tatar writer of the twenties as cited in Kedourie, Elie, Islam in the Modern World (New York: Holt, Rinehart ∧ Winston, 1981), pp. 26–27.Google Scholar
23. Obrazovanie Bashkirskoi Avtonomnoi Sovetskoi Sotsialisticheskoi Respubliki: Sbornik dokumentov i materialov (Ufa: Bashkirskoe Izd., 1959), pp. 83–84.Google Scholar
24. Pipes, Richard, The Formation of the Soviet Union: Nationalism and Communism, 1917-1923, rev. ed., (New York: Atheneum, 1964), p. 156.Google Scholar
25. Raimov, R., pp. 110–112, 121, 152-7; “K Istorii obrazovaniia avtonomnoi Sovetskoi Sotsialisticheskoi Respublikiiz,” Voprosy Istorii, (April, 1948), 4, p. 31; Kuzeev, R. G., Iuldashbaev, B. Kh., eds., Oktiabr'skaia Revoliutsiia i rozhdenie sovetskoi bashkiri (Ufa: AN SSSR Bashkirskii Filial, Institut Istorii, Iazyka, i Literaturi, 1959), pp. 119-141.Google Scholar
26. Ibid., p. 139.Google Scholar
27. Perepiska Sekretariata, III, pp. 30–31.Google Scholar
28. , Khasanov, pp. 174–175.Google Scholar
29. , Zenkovsky, p. 175.Google Scholar
30. Ibid., p. 173; Grazhdanskaia voina v Povol'zhe 1918-1920 (Kazan: Tatarskoe Knizhnoe Izd., 1974), p. 380-381; A. Tarasov, Razgrom kontrrevoliutsionnoi avantury tatarskoi burzhuazii v nachale 1918g. v gorode Kazana (Kazan: Tatknigosizdat, Sektor Politicheskoi Literatury, 1940), pp. 16–17; Obrazovanie Tatarskoi ASSR: Sbornik dokumentov i materialov (Kazan: Tatarskoe Knizhnoe Isdatel'stvo, 1963), pp. 5, 35; Zhizn' Natsional'nostei, 24 (November 5, 1921), pp. 2-3.Google Scholar
31. , Zenkovsky, p. 176.Google Scholar
32. Vestnik Nauchnogo Obshchestva Tatarovedeniia (Kazan: 1925), III, p. 29; Alexandre Bennigson, Chantal Lemercier-Quelquejay, Les Mouvements Nationaux Chez les Musulmans de Russie: Le Sultangalienvisme au Tatarstan (Paris, The Hague: 1960), pp. 112-129.Google Scholar
33. Vestnik Nauchnogo Obshchestva Tatarovedeniia, p. 30.Google Scholar
34. Grazhdanskaia Voina …, p. 340.Google Scholar
35. Sharapov, Ia. Sh., Natsional'nye sekstii RKP(b) (Kazan: Izd, Kazankogo Universiteta, 1967), p. 81; Mukhariamov, M. K., Oktiabr' i natsional'nogosudarstvennoe stroitel'stvo v Tatarii, (Moscow: Nauka, 1969), p. 119.Google Scholar
36. , Shaparov, p. 83; Tatariia v period Velikogo Oktiabr'ia: Sbornik statei (Kazan: 1970), pp. 93–94.Google Scholar
37. Ocherki istorii partiinoi organizatsii Tatarii, (Kazan: Tatarskoe Knizhnoe Izd., 1973), p. 248.Google Scholar
38. Lenin i Tatariia (Kazan: Tatarskoe Knizhnoe Izd., 1964, 1970), II, p. 60.Google Scholar
39. Kalinin, N. F., Kazan: istoricheskii ocherk (Kazan: Vtoroe, Ispravlennoe Izd.: Tatknigizdat., 1955), p. 208; Davletshw, T., Sovietskii Tatarstan (London: Our Word Publishers, 1974), p. 175.Google Scholar
40. Obrazovannie Bashkirskoi ASSR, p. 146.Google Scholar
41. Ocherki po istorii Bashkirskoi ASSR, p. 90.Google Scholar
42. Blank, Stephen, “Soviet Politics and the Iranian Revolution, 1919-1921,” Cahiers du Mone Russe et Sovietique, XXI: 2 (Avril-Juin, 1980), pp. 173–194.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
43. Zenkovsky, Serge, “The Tataro-Bashkir Feud of 1917-1920,” Indiana Slavic Studies, III (1958), p. 60.Google Scholar
44. Pestkovskii, S. S., “Vospomianiia o rabote v narkomnatse,” Proletarskaia Revoliutsiia, 6, 101 (1930), pp. 126-7; Pipes, “The First Experiment,” p. 309.Google Scholar
45. Ibidem; Raimov, p. 188.Google Scholar
46. Stalin, I. V., Sochineniia (Moscow: 1946-51), IV, pp. 88–89.Google Scholar
47. Saidsheva, M. D., Lenin i sotsialisticheskoe stroitel'stvo v Tatarii, 1918-1923 (Moscow: Izd. Politicheskoe Literatury, 1973), p. 69; Obrazovanie Tatarskoi ASSR, p. 5.Google Scholar
48. Bennigsen and Lemercier-Quelquejay, passim; Blank, Stephen, “The Unknown Commissariat: The Soviet Commissariat of Nationalities (Narkomnats), 1917-1924,” Unpublished , University of Chicago, 1979.Google Scholar
49. Ocherki Bashkirskoi Organizatsii KPSS, p. 216.Google Scholar
50. V. I. Lenin i Bashkiriia; dokumenty, materialy, vospominaniia (Ufa: Bashkirskoe Knizhnoe Izd., 1970), pp. 48–49.Google Scholar
51. , Zenkovsky, “Tataro-Bashkir Feud,” p. 46.Google Scholar
52. Ganeev, R. G., “Rol' V. I. Lenina v obrazovanii Bashkirskoi ASSR,” Voprosy Istorii Bashkirii, Vypusk 2 (Ufa: 1972), p. 10.Google Scholar
53. , Pipes, “Formation,” p. 162; Zenkovsky, “Tataro-Bashkir Feud,” pp. 46–47; F. Samoilov, “Malaia Bashkiria v 1918-1920 gg,” Proletarskaia Revoliutsiia, No. 11 (1926), pp. 198-199.Google Scholar
54. Ibid., p. 201 ff; Pipes, “First Experiment,” p. 311.Google Scholar
55. , Blank, “Unknown Commissariat,” pp. 254–286; Bennigson and Lermercier-Quelquejay, pp. 126-175; R. G. Khairutdinov, Osushchestvlenie Kommunisticheskoi Partii leninskoi programmy po natsional'nomu voprosu v 1917-1920gg (Po materialam Povolzhiia i Priural'ia (Kazan: Izd, Kazankogo Universiteta, 1976), pp. 77–78.Google Scholar
56. Togan, Zeke Validi (Akhmed Zeke Validov), Turkestan Today, Unpublished and anonymous English translation in Houghton Library, Harvard University, (1940), p. 37.Google Scholar
57. , Khairutdinov, p. 119; V. I. Lenin i Bashkiriia, p. 312.Google Scholar
58. Ganeev, R. G., “Obrazovanie Bashkirskoi Oblastnoi,” loc. cit. Google Scholar
59. , Pipes, “First Experiment,” p. 312.Google Scholar
60. , Blank, “Unknown Commissariat,” passim.Google Scholar
61. Dimanshtein, S. M., “Bashkiriia v 1918-1920gg.,” Proletarskaia Revoliutsiia 5:76 (1927), p. 143.Google Scholar
62. , Pipes, “First Experiment,” p. 313.Google Scholar
63. “V. I. Lenin i Bashkiria,” p. 279.Google Scholar
64. , Ganeev, “Obrazovanie Bashkirskoi Oblastnoi,” p. 7.Google Scholar
65. , Kedourie, pp. 13–14.Google Scholar
66. “V. I. Lenin i Bashkiria,” pp. 282–283; Zenkovsky, “Tataro-Bashkir Feud,” pp. 48–49; Ocherki po istorii Bashkirskoi ASSR, p. 150.Google Scholar
67. , Blank, “Unknown Commissariat,” pp. 256–286; Djunusov, M. S., “Soviet Autonomy and the Vestiges of Nationalism,” Soviet Sociology, II:1 (Summer, 1963), p. 14.Google Scholar
68. Obrazovanie Bashkirskoi ASSR, pp. 322–344.Google Scholar
69. Kuzeev and Iuldashbaev, pp. 161-2.Google Scholar
70. , Ganeev, “Obrazovanie Bashkirskoi Oblastnoi,” pp. 10–11.Google Scholar
71. Ocherki po istorii Bashkirskoi ASSR, p. 148.Google Scholar
72. , Togan, pp. 462-3. These plans included an independent army, joint political statehood, and nationally united parties.Google Scholar
73. Kuzeev, and Iuldashbaev, , pp. 163-4.Google Scholar
74. Liubimov, Iu. and Iuldashbaev, B., Lenin i samoopredelenie natsii (Cheboksary: Chuvashkoe Izd., 1967), p. 129.Google Scholar
75. Kuzeev, and Iuldashbaev, , pp. 164–165.Google Scholar
76. Ibid.; Said-Galiev, passim.Google Scholar
77. Kuzeev, and Iuldashbaev, , p. 168.Google Scholar
78. Said-Galiev, passim; Sh. Khafizov, Obrazovanie Tatarskoi ASSR (Kazan: Tatarskoe Knizhnoe Izd., 1960), p. 44.Google Scholar
79. , Blank, “Unknown Commissariat,” pp. 256–286.Google Scholar
80. , Djunusov, p. 14.Google Scholar
81. Ocherki po istorii Bashkirskoi ASSR, pp. 155-6; Ganeev, “Obrazovanie Bashkirskoi Oblastnoi,” p. 12.Google Scholar
82. Ibid., p. 13; Pipes, “First Experiment,” p. 314; Pipes, The Formation, p. 165.Google Scholar
83. Ibid.; Zenkovsky, Pan-Turkism, p. 204.Google Scholar
84. Samoilov, F. N., Malaia Bashkiria v 1918-1920gg (Moscow: 1933), pp. 65–72.Google Scholar
85. , Khairutdinov, pp. 91–92.Google Scholar
86. Ibid. Google Scholar
87. , Ganeev, “Obrazovanie Bashkirskoi oblastnoi,” pp. 14–24.Google Scholar
88. , Samoilov, pp. 65–72; Raimov, Obrazovanie BASSR, p. 321.Google Scholar
89. , Togan, pp. 494–495.Google Scholar
90. , Zenkovsky, Pan-Turkism, pp. 205-6. Additionally the fact that the 1920 statute was a unilateral one blatantly contravening the freely negotiated statute of 1919 refutes Carr's contention that the 1920 statute was a standard treaty for all autonomous republics (cf. Carr, pp. 224-225).Google Scholar
91. , Ganeev, “Obrazovanie Bashkirskoi Oblastnoi,” p. 24.Google Scholar
92. Dekrety sovetskoi vlasti, VIII (Moscow: Izd. Politicheshkoi Literatury, 1976), pp. 309–310.Google Scholar
93. Dakhshleiger, G. F., V. I. Lenin i problemy kazakhstanskoi istoriografii (Alma Ata: Nauka Kazakhskoi SSR, 1973), pp. 186-7.Google Scholar
94. , Pipes, “First Experiment,” p. 318.Google Scholar
95. Obrazovanie Bashkirskoi ASSR, pp. 599–609.Google Scholar
96. Pavlov, A. S., “Bor'ba partii bol'shevikov s velikoderzhavnym shauvinizmom i menstnym natsionalizmom v vosstanovitel'nom periode,” Avtoreferat Kandidatskoi Dissertatsii (Moscow: 1971), pp. 13–14.Google Scholar
97. Ibid., pp. 11–12.Google Scholar
98. Obrazovanie Bashkirskoi ASSR, pp. 603–606.Google Scholar
99. Ibid. Google Scholar
100. Grishchuk, I. T., Partiia oranizator bratskogo sotrudnichestva narodov RSFSR (1921-1925) (Voronezh: Izd. Voronezhskogo Universiteta, 1976), p. 32.Google Scholar
101. Mordvintsev, G. V., “Chistka partii 1921 g. i eyo rol' v ukreplenii riiadov partiinoi organizatsii,” Istoriia Partiinykh Organizatsii Povolzh'ia Google Scholar
102. Ibid., passim; Carr, E. H., The Interregnum, 1923-1924 (Harmondsworth, Middlesex: Penguin Books, 1968), p. 363.Google Scholar
103. , Grishchuk, p. 34.Google Scholar
104. , Blank, “Unknown Commissariat,” passim.Google Scholar
105. Begian, A. Z., Lenin i sovetskaia natsional'naia gosudarstvennost', (Evervan: Aiastan, 1974), p. 196.Google Scholar
106. Drap, I. P., “Bor'ba partiinykh organizatsii v Bashkirii protiv trotskiizma za leninskoe edinstvo partii (1921-1925 gg).” Partiia v Bor'beza Sotsial'no-Ekonomicheskoe Preobrazovaniia v Bashkirii: Sbornek Statei (Ufa: Bashkirskii Gos. Universitet, 1968), pp. 18–19.Google Scholar
107. , Grishchuk, p. 48.Google Scholar
108. Abullin, M. I., “Bor'ba bashkirskoi partiinoi organizatsii za ukreplenie sovetskogo gos. apparata (1922-1926),” Uchenye Zapiski (Sterlitamakskago God. Ped. Instituta, Vypusk 4, 1961), pp. 59–60.Google Scholar
109. Kruikova, I. G., “O natsional'nykh momentakh v partiinom stroitel'stve v gody vosstanovleniia narodnogo khoziastva 1921-1922 gg,” Iz istorii bor'by KPSS za pobedu sotsialisticheskoi revoliutsii i postroenie kommunisticheskogo obshchestva (Moscow: Izd. Moskovskogo Gos. Universiteta, 1974), Vypusk 4, pp. 168-9.Google Scholar
110. , Drap, pp. 28–29.Google Scholar
111. Idem., “Deiatel'nost bashkirskoi oblastnoi partiinoi oranizatsii po internatsional'nomu splocheniiu svoiikh riadov (1921-1925gg),” Rastsvet i sblizhenie sotsialisticheskikh natsii (Ufa: 1971), pp. 224–227.Google Scholar
112. Blank, , “Unknown Commissariat,” chapter 9.Google Scholar