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p Socialist democracy has been most strikingly embodied in the solution of the national question, which is one of the most complex problems of social development.

p In the Soviet Union there are more than 130 nations and nationalities, or more than in any other country, and, naturally, it was vital to find the correct solution to the national question.

p On the eve of the Great October Socialist Revolution tsarist Russia had a population of a little over 159 million, of whom 43 per cent were Russians.

p The peoples of Russia had reached different levels of development. The regions inhabited by non-Russian peoples were virtually colonies or semi-colonies. With the help of the army and the reactionary elements, particularly the feudal and tribal nobility, comprising the upper strata of the backward peoples, tsarism deliberately preserved patriarchal and feudal relations in these regions. For example, the Kirghiz, Kalmyks, Turkmen, the northern nationalities and many other peoples lived in patriarchally ruled clans and had no written language of their own. Forced to live in the steppes, tundra, forests and mountains far away from towns, many of these peoples were ruthlessly oppressed by traders, priests and tsarist officials, and were doomed to hunger, poverty, disease and gradual extinction.

p The tsarist government stirred national strife, encouraging certain nations to enslave others. It forcibly Russified 40 the non-Russian peoples and smashed all rudiments of national statehood, crushing everything that was progressive and keeping the people in darkness and ignorance. Tsarist Russia i’ully deserved the name of the “prison of peoples”.

p Led by the Communist Party the working class denounced the tsarist autocracy’s home policy of disuniting peoples and allowing one nation to oppress another, and raised the question of emancipating the non-Russian peoples and granting them equal rights.

p The Party consistently upheld the well-known Marxist tenet that “no nation can be free when it oppresses other nations”.  [40•* 

p On the national question, the demands of the proletariat and other working people were:

p (1) the granting to all nations the right to self- determination and independent state existence;

p (2) abolition of all forms of coercion with regard to nationalities;

p (3) recognition of the equality and sovereignly of the peoples in deciding their own future;

p (4) recognition of the proposition that a stable union of peoples can be achieved only through co-operation and on a voluntary basis;

p (5) proclamation of the fact that such a union can be achieved only through the overthrow of capitalist rule.

p These demands played a revolutionising role as a factor leading to the establishment of a firm alliance between the workers and peasants of all nationalities for the overthrow of tsarism and capitalism.

p On the question of the national states for the peoples of Russia, Leninism holds that every nation has to decide the question of its state existence in conformity with its specific tasks and interests and has the right to self-determination up to and including secession and the formation of an independent state.

p This solution fully conformed to the principles of proletarian internationalism and international solidarity of the working people, for, as Lenin said, without freedom of secession there can be no freedom of accession, nor genuine unity between nations.

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p Nations can exercise their right to self-determination in one or another way at any lime with due account for Ihe concrete conditions. Every nation itself has to decide its own destiny and choose its own stale system. Absolute freedom in making this choice underlies the principle of respect for the national independence and sovereignty of ever}’ nation.

p A nation has the right to become autonomous and thereby exercise state power within the framework of a given state and within the limits determined by that state; it has the right to establish its own national state and, preserving certain sovereign rights, enter into federal relations with other nations; finally, it has the right to secede and set up its own national sovereign state.

p At the same lime Marxists have always clearly distinguished between the right of nations to self-determination and the advisability of secession at one time or another. The right to secession does not, of course, envisage that a nation must necessarily exercise this right and that secession is always advisable.

p Lenin believed that the more democratic a republic is the mightier will be the force attracting other nations to join such a republic voluntarily, and that the more democracy a country enjoys the greater will be the freedom of the nationalities inhabiting il and the less will be Ihe danger of such a country disintegrating.  [41•*  To offset nationalism, which was sowing discord among nations, the proletariat guided by the Communist Party worked for self-determination for all nations in order to fuse the working people of those nations in the struggle against their common class enemy.

p The October Revolution uprooted all forms of social and national oppression in Russia. It opened the road for the political and economic development of all nationalities and made the formerly downtrodden peoples genuinely free and equal.

p Lenin’s nationalities programme began to be implemented as soon as the October Revolution triumphed.

p In its first acts—the Appeal to Workers, Soldiers and Peasants, and the Decree on Peace—adopted at the Second All-Russia Congress of Soviets on November 7 and 8, 1917, 42 the Soviet Government declared that it was imperative for all the belligerents to conclude peace forthwith without the seizure of foreign land or forcible incorporation of foreign nations, and that it guaranteed “all the nations inhabiting Russia the genuine right to self-determination”.  [42•* 

p On December 19, 1917, the Council of People’s Commissars issued a decree announcing its recognition of the state sovereignty of the Ukraine and on December 25, 1917, the All-Ukraine Congress of Soviets proclaimed the Ukraine a Soviet Socialist Republic. The Congress expressed the will of all workers and peasants in their republic by establishing a close union with Soviet Russia.

p The independence of the Finnish Republic, which was part of tsarist Russia, and the free self-determination of Turkish Armenia, were proclaimed soon afterwards.

p A week after the October armed uprising and the seizure of power by the Soviets, the first Soviet Government headed by Lenin published its Declaration of the Rights of the Peoples of Russia, which proclaimed the basic principles of the Soviet nationalities policy, namely, equality and sovereignty of the peoples of Russia; the right of the peoples of Russia to free self-determination, up to and including secession and the formation of independent states; the abolition of all forms of national and national-religious privileges and restrictions; and the free development of the national minorities and ethnic groups inhabiting Russia.

p The Third All-Russia Congress of Soviets (January 23-31, 1918) summed up the initial results of the extensive work that had been carried out to form the Soviet state and passed the Declaration of the Rights of the Working and Exploited People, which was drawn up by Lenin. This Declaration pointed out that the Soviet Russian Republic was being founded on the basis of a free union of free nations, as a federation of Soviet national republics.

p In an inspired speech at the Congress Lenin uttered the following prophetic words: “I am profoundly convinced that more and more diverse federations of free nations will group themselves around revolutionary Russia. This 43 federation is invincible and will grow quite freely, without the help of lies or bayonets.”  [43•* 

p But many factors prevented the immediate establishment of a federation of Soviet peoples.

p With the victory of the October Revolution, Soviet power fulfilled the primary task of its nationalities policy by emancipating the peoples that had been oppressed by tsarism. Soon afterwards the Soviet republics were attacked by foreign interventionists and their whiteguard henchmen. But in hard-fought battles the Soviet state upheld the gains of the Revolution.

p It also required time for the liberated nations, who were establishing independent states, to become convinced by their own experience of the necessity of forming such a political alliance within the framework of a single federal state, the first of its kind in history. Moreover, the working people of the different nationalities had to be educated in a spirit of friendship and fraternity. It was also essential to study and generalise the experience of state construction in all the national republics. That was why Lenin warned that it was impossible immediately to set up a federal state which would rest on a voluntary union and on complete trust of the peoples. Its formation has to be preceded by thorough and all-round preparations conducted with the greatest of patience and care.

p As a result, five years, during which the necessary preparations were made, separate the establishment of Soviet rule from the formation of the U.S.S.R.

p The world’s first Soviet republic was the Russian Soviet Federative Socialist Republic. Its establishment became a powerful factor stimulating the formation of other Soviet republics. After the R.S.F.S.R. there appeared the Ukrainian and Byelorussian Soviet Socialist Republics and then the Soviet socialist republics in the Transcaucasus.

p Cooperation among the Soviet socialist republics developed and grew stronger in the first years following the establishment of Soviet rule. During the Civil War and the foreign intervention they were united by the common cause of self-defence and under these circumstances their union took the form of a military alliance. In the period of 44 peace that followed the rout of (he interventionists and internal counter-revolutionaries, their primary task hecame to rchahilitate the economy and proceed with peaceful construction. The military alliance was supplemented by an economic alliance. Not only the military forces of the republics, but also their industrial, foreign trade, supply, transport, communications, financial and other bodies became united. This was a new step in the development of the relations between the republics, and it showed that they were drawing closer to each other.

p The union treaties that were concluded between them provided lor the complete equality of their peoples, the independence and sovereignly of all the republics concerned and the unification of their military and economic activity under the guidance of the higher organs of state power of the R.S.F.S.R. which included representatives from every republic. All the independent socialist republics had their representatives on the All-Russia Central Executive Committee of the R.S.F.S.R. and took part in the All-Russia Congresses of Soviets.

p The Russian Federation became the guiding centre rallying and uniting all the equal Soviet socialist republics. This characterised the genuinely socialist nature of the emerging federative relations between the fraternal republics and disclosed the internationalist essence of Soviet rule.

p But in the new conditions of the development of the Soviet republics, treaty relations proved to be inadequate. The people themselves took the initiative in raising the question of uniting their republics into a single federal state.

p What made the Soviet republics take this step and what did the five-year existence of the Soviet state leach in this respect?

p Firstly, that their union was dictated by economic considerations. It would have been impossible to rehabilitate the dislocated economy and ensure the welfare of the people without the formation of a close economic alliance of all the Soviet republics, the pooling of all economic resources, and the consolidation and development of the economic relations that had been established in the past between the different regions of the country.

p Secondly, the Soviet republics had to form a close-knit 45 union in order to strengthen their defences against the hostile capitalist world. Singly, no Soviet republic would have been able to safeguard its independence and repel the armed attacks of the imperialist powers.

p Thirdly, the very structure and Ihe class nature of the Soviet system also prompted the Soviet republics to unite. It is internationalist in substance and this draws nations together and serves as a foundation for their co-operation and mutual assistance.

p Lenin played the leading role in theoretically substantiating the idea of a Union of Soviet Socialist Republics, in evolving the principles underlying this union, and also in translating these principles inlo life.

p The central idea, which became the cornerstone of the union of Soviet republics, was formulated by Lenin in the following words: “We want a voluntary union of nations— a union which precludes any coercion of one nation by another—a union founded on complete confidence, on a clear recognition of brotherly unity, on absolutely voluntary consent.”  [45•* 

p This idea, taken up by the whole population, was mirrored in the decisions taken in the second half of 1922 in accordance with the free will expressed by the peoples of all these republics.

p The Soviet socialist republics, including the R.S.F.S.R., Ihe Ukrainian S.S.R., Ihe Byelorussian S.S.R. and the Transcaucasian Soviet Federation, uniled into a single multinalional Soviet state—the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics—on December 30, 1922, at the First Congress of Soviets of the U.S.S.R., which unanimously endorsed the Declaration and the Union Treaty on the Formation of the U.S.S.R. and elected the Central Executive Committee of the U.S.S.R.

p The formation of a single federal stale was an event of world-wide significance. It was a great victory for the nationalilies policy of Ihe Communist Party and a triumph of Lenin’s ideas; it enormously facilitated the solulion of problems of economic and cultural development in the individual republics and in the country as a whole. It created the prerequisites for the economic and cultural 46 upswing and the all-round growth of the creative abilities of each nation, and ensured the successful building of socialism.

p The Soviet Union continued to expand as new Soviet republics were established.

p In May 1925, the Third Congress of Soviets of the U.S.S.R. legalised the accession of the Uzbek S.S.R. and the Turkmen S.S.R. to the U.S.S.R.

p In December 1929, the Tajik Autonomous Republic became a Union Republic. In 1936, five more Union Republics were formed. They were the Georgian, Azerbaijan and Armenian republics, which had comprised the Transcaucasian Federation, and the Kazakh and Kirghiz Autonomous Republics, which became Union Republics.

p When the new Constitution was adopted in 1936 the Soviet Union was a fully formed and consolidated multinational socialist state.

p The freely expressed will of the peoples of Western Ukraine and Western Byelorussia to reunite with the Ukrainian and Byelorussian peoples was a fresh victory of the Soviet nationalities policy. In conformity with the law passed on November 1, 1939, by the Supreme Soviet of the U.S.S.R., the Western Ukraine was incorporated in the Soviet Union and reunited with the Ukrainian S.S.R. On November 2, 1939, the Supreme Soviet of the U.S.S.R. passed a law admitting Western Byelorussia into the Soviet Union and reuniting it with the Byelorussian S.S.R.

p Bessarabia forcibly severed from the Soviet Union in 1918 and Northern Bukovina inhabited by Ukrainians, were likewise reunited with the U.S.S.R. in 1940 as a result of the peaceful settlement of the conflict with the then boyarruled Rumania. Northern Bukovina and areas of Bessarabia, inhabited by Ukrainians, became part of the Ukrainian Republic. The greater part of Bessarabia, which was inhabited by Moldavians, was reunited with the Moldavian Autonomous Republic which was part of the Ukrainian S.S.R. In accordance with the law passed on August 2, 1940, the Moldavian Autonomous Republic became the Moldavian Soviet Socialist Republic.

p In July 1940, the democratically elected Lithuanian and Latvian sejms and the Estonian State Duma expressing the
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47 CHANGES IN THE COMPOSITION OF THE U.S.S.R. Karelo-Finnish S.S.R.*’ Estonian S.S.R. Lithuanian S.S.R. Latvian S.S.R. Estonian S.S.R. Lithuanian S.S.R. Latvian S.S.R. Moldavian S.S.R. Moldavian S.S.R. Kirghiz S.S.R. Kirghiz S.S.R. Kirghiz S.S.R. Kaiakh S.S.R. Kazakh S.S.R. Kazakh S.S.R. Tajik S.S.R. Tajik S.S.R. Tajik S.S.R. Uzbek S.S.R. Uzbek S.S.R. Uzbek S.S.R. Tajik S.S.R. Turkmen S.S. R. Turkmen S.S.R. Turkmen S.S.R. Uzbek S.S.R. Uzbek S.S.R. Armenian S.S.R. Armenian S.S.R. Armenian S.S.R. Turkmen S.S.R. Turkmen S.S.R. Georgian S.S.R. Georgian S.S.R. Georgian S.S.R. Transcaucasian S.F.S.R. Transcaucasian S.F.S.R. Transcaucasian S.F.S.R Azerbaijan S.S.R. Azerbaijan S.S.R. Azerbaijan S.S.R. Byelorussian S.S.R. Byelorussian S.S.R. Byelorussian S.S.R. Byelorussian S.S.R. Byelorussian S.S.R. Byelorussian S.S.R. Ukrainian S. S. R. R.S. F.S. R. Ukrainian S.S.R. R.S.F.S.R. Ukrainian S.’S.R. R.S.F.S.R. Ukrainian S.S.R. RSFSR Ukrainian S.S.R. R.S.F.S.R. Ukrainian S.S.R. R.S.F.S.R. 1922 1925 1929 1936 1940 1967 * In 1965 in accordance with the wishes of the working people and because of the national composition of the population and the close economic and cultural ties between the Karelo-Finnish S.S.R. and the R.S.F.S.R it was decided that the Karelo-Finnish S.S.R. should be made part of the R.S.F.S.R. thus becoming the Karelian Autonomous Soviet Socialist Republic. 48
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free will of their peoples proclaimed these countries Soviet republic’s and requested Ihe Supreme Soviet of the U.S.S.K. to admit them into the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics.

p In August 1940, this request was granted and the new Soviet Socialist Republics of Lithuania, Latvia and Estonia were admitted into the U.S.S.R.

The growth of the number of Union Republics strikingly showed the viability and attractive force of the great principles underlying the structure of Ihe multinational socialist state.