There are many different ethnic groups present in Russia and the countries of the former Soviet Union today. This diversity has been the source or instigator of conflict for centuries, and remains a major part of Russian political life today. While the Russian Empire, the Soviet Union, and the Russian Federation were each made up of a majority of ethnic Russians, the minority groups have always been present to fight for their own languages, cultures, and religions.[1] There are many different types of ethnic conflict, and the vast majority can only be understood with the help of a historical context.
The policies of Vladimir Lenin designated autonomous republics, provinces, regions, and districts for groups of non-Russian ethnicity. One of the most prominent attempts at resistance to Soviet control was in the Turkestan region of Central Asia by a Muslim guerrilla group called the Basmachi.[1] The Basmachi Rebellion continued from 1918 to 1924, when the Soviet armies finally crushed the revolt with a mixture of military force, concessionary policies, and elimination of the majority of the region’s tribal and nationalist leaders.[2] The leadership of Joseph Stalin reintroduced many of the assimilation policies of the imperial period, urging loyalty to the Soviet Union only. He opposed national autonomy to the extent that he replaced the leaders of each republic with ethnic Russian members of the Communist party and regularly removed leaders of ethnic nations from power. This policy continued through to the leadership of Mikhail Gorbachev, who replaced the first secretary of the Communist Party of Kazakhstan with an ethnic Russian.[3] This initiated the first major instance of ethnic violence, in which riots broke out among demonstrators and ten thousand Soviet troops were deployed to quell the revolt. Other conflicts followed in the late 1980s, including the Armenian–Azerbaijani conflict over the Nagorno-Karabagh region, the Uzbek-Meskhetian Turk conflict over Uzbekistan’s Fergana Valley, and bids by numerous ethnic groups for Soviet republic status.[3]
As the Soviet Union began to collapse, social disintegration and political instability fueled a surge in ethnic conflict.[4] Social and economic disparities, along with ethnic differences, created an upsurge in nationalism within groups and discrimination between groups. In particular, disputes over territorial boundaries have been the source of conflict between states experiencing political transition and upheaval. Territorial conflicts can involve several different issues: the reunification of ethnic groups which have been separated, restoration of territorial rights to those who experienced forced deportation, and restoration of boundaries arbitrarily changed during the Soviet era.[5] Territorial disputes remain significant points of controversy as minority groups consistently oppose election outcomes and seek autonomy and self-determination. In addition to territorial disputes and other structural causes of conflict, legacies from the Soviet and pre-Soviet eras, along with the suddenness of the actual sociopolitical change, have resulted in conflict throughout the region.[5] As each group experiences dramatic economic reform and political democratization, there has been a surge in nationalism and interethnic conflict. Overall, the fifteen independent states that emerged after the collapse of the Soviet Union face problems stemming from uncertain identities, contested boundaries, apprehensive minorities, and an overbearing Russian hegemony.[6]
In particular, the post-Soviet Union territories continue to be especially vulnerable to "triadic" hostilities. Within this analysis, the newly independent states—nationalizing states—are in tension with the "homeland" state of Russia who will attempt to protect Russian ethnic minorities within the new states.[7] Each of the incipient fifteen states except for Armenia had in 1989 substantive Russian minority populations, a cause for conflict between Russia and its former autonomous republics.[7]
There are several stages of ethnic conflict, all of which have been present in the years following the collapse of the Soviet Union. These include claims presented in the form of declarations, introduction to and support of these claims by the masses, conflict not resulting in casualties, conflicts involving casualties, and interethnic wars.[5] Of the total number of recorded ethnic conflicts, 40% remain in one of the first two stages, while 15% have reached the third or fourth stage. Conflicts such as the Armenia–Azerbaijan, Georgia–Ossetia, Georgia–Abkhazia, and Ossetia–Ingushetia conflicts have escalated to final stage, involving warfare.[5] A predominance of these instances of ethnic conflict is located in the Caucasus and the Central Asian regions as a result of territorial disputes and political unrest. In addition, conflict between Russia and other former Soviet states has accounted for a large amount of present conflicts. Hostilities between Russia and grou that remain a large part of social and political relations both among and within each state. Some minor territorial conflicts occur minimally in current times; but has not escalated to a level of concern.
Notes
1 2 Minahan, James (2004). The Former Soviet Union's Diverse Peoples: A Reference Sourcebook (Ethnic Diversity Within Nations). Santa Barbara: ABC-CLIO. ISBN978-1576078235.
↑ Drobizheva, Leokadia; Rose Gottemoeller; Catherine McArdle Kelleher; Lee Walker, eds. (1998). Ethnic Conflict in the Post-Soviet World: Case Studies and Analysis. M.E. Sharpe. ISBN978-1563247415.
Irredentism is one state's desire to annex the territory of another state. This desire can be motivated by ethnic reasons because the population of the territory is ethnically similar to the population of the parent state. Historical reasons may also be responsible, i.e., that the territory previously formed part of the parent state. However, difficulties in applying the concept to concrete cases have given rise to academic debates about its precise definition. Disagreements concern whether either or both ethnic and historical reasons have to be present and whether non-state actors can also engage in irredentism. A further dispute is whether attempts to absorb a full neighboring state are also included. There are various types of irredentism. For typical forms of irredentism, the parent state already exists before the territorial conflict with a neighboring state arises. However, there are also forms of irredentism in which the parent state is newly created by uniting an ethnic group spread across several countries. Another distinction concerns whether the country to which the disputed territory currently belongs is a regular state, a former colony, or a collapsed state.
The Georgian Soviet Socialist Republic, also known as Soviet Georgia, the Georgian SSR, or simply Georgia, was one of the republics of the Soviet Union from its second occupation in 1921 to its independence in 1991. Coterminous with the present-day republic of Georgia, it was based on the traditional territory of Georgia, which had existed as a series of independent states in the Caucasus prior to the first occupation of annexation in the course of the 19th century. The Georgian SSR was formed in 1921 and subsequently incorporated in the Soviet Union in 1922. Until 1936 it was a part of the Transcaucasian Socialist Federative Soviet Republic, which existed as a union republic within the USSR. From November 18, 1989, the Georgian SSR declared its sovereignty over Soviet laws. The republic was renamed the Republic of Georgia on November 14, 1990, and subsequently became independent before the dissolution of the Soviet Union on April 9, 1991, whereupon each former SSR became a sovereign state.
The Nakhichevan Autonomous Soviet Socialist Republic, abbreviated as Nakhichevan ASSR was an autonomous republic within the Azerbaijan SSR, itself a republic within the Soviet Union. It was formed on 16 March 1921 and became a part of the Azerbaijan SSR proper on 9 February 1924.
The republics are one type of federal subject of the Russian Federation. 21 republics are internationally recognized as part of Russia; another is under its de facto control. The original republics were created as nation states for ethnic minorities. The indigenous ethnicity that gives its name to the republic is called the titular nationality. However, due to centuries of Russian migration, a titular nationality may not be a majority of its republic's population.
Korenizatsiia was an early policy of the Soviet Union for the integration of non-Russian nationalities into the governments of their specific Soviet republics. In the 1920s, the policy promoted representatives of the titular nation, and their national minorities, into the lower administrative levels of the local government, bureaucracy, and nomenklatura of their Soviet republics. The main idea of the korenizatsiia was to grow communist cadres for every nationality. In Russian, the term korenizatsiya (коренизация) derives from korennoye naseleniye. The policy practically ended in the mid-1930s with the deportations of various nationalities.
Forced assimilation is the involuntary cultural assimilation of religious or ethnic minority groups, during which they are forced by a government to adopt the language, national identity, norms, mores, customs, traditions, values, mentality, perceptions, way of life, and often the religion and ideology of an established and generally larger community belonging to a dominant culture.
The politics of Europe deals with the continually evolving politics within the continent of Europe. It is a topic far more detailed than other continents due to a number of factors including the long history of nation states in the region as well as the modern day trend towards increased political unity amongst the European states.
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The South Ossetian Autonomous Oblast was an autonomous oblast of the Soviet Union created within the Georgian SSR on April 20, 1922. Its autonomy was revoked on December 11, 1990 by the Supreme Soviet of the Georgian SSR, leading to the First South Ossetian War. Currently, its territory is controlled by the breakaway Republic of South Ossetia.
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In politics, a partition is a change of political borders cutting through at least one territory considered a homeland by some community.
Azerbaijani nationalism, also referred to as Azerbaijanism, started out as a cultural movement among Azerbaijani intellectuals within the Russian Empire during the second half of the 19th century. While initially cultural in nature, it was later developed further into a political ideology which culminated in the establishment of the Azerbaijan Democratic Republic in 1918.
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