Hostname: page-component-848d4c4894-pftt2 Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2024-05-20T23:48:04.171Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false

The Struggle for Soviet Bashkiria 1917-1923

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  20 November 2018

Stephen Blank*
Affiliation:
University of Texas, San Antonio

Extract

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.

Type
Articles
Copyright
Copyright © 1983 by the Association for the Study of the Nationalities (USSR and East Europe) Inc. 

Access options

Get access to the full version of this content by using one of the access options below. (Log in options will check for institutional or personal access. Content may require purchase if you do not have access.)

References

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. 112113.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. 4344.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. 104106.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. 176177, 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. 161169.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. 724; 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. 2627.Google Scholar

23. Obrazovanie Bashkirskoi Avtonomnoi Sovetskoi Sotsialisticheskoi Respubliki: Sbornik dokumentov i materialov (Ufa: Bashkirskoe Izd., 1959), pp. 8384.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. 110112, 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. 3031.Google Scholar

28. , Khasanov, pp. 174175.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. 173194.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. 8889.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. 4849.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. 254286; 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. 7778.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. 1314.Google Scholar

66. V. I. Lenin i Bashkiria,” pp. 282283; Zenkovsky, “Tataro-Bashkir Feud,” pp. 48–49; Ocherki po istorii Bashkirskoi ASSR, p. 150.Google Scholar

67. , Blank, “Unknown Commissariat,” pp. 256286; 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. 322344.Google Scholar

69. Kuzeev and Iuldashbaev, pp. 161-2.Google Scholar

70. , Ganeev, “Obrazovanie Bashkirskoi Oblastnoi,” pp. 1011.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. 164165.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. 256286.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. 6572.Google Scholar

85. , Khairutdinov, pp. 9192.Google Scholar

86. Ibid. Google Scholar

87. , Ganeev, “Obrazovanie Bashkirskoi oblastnoi,” pp. 1424.Google Scholar

88. , Samoilov, pp. 6572; Raimov, Obrazovanie BASSR, p. 321.Google Scholar

89. , Togan, pp. 494495.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. 309310.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. 599609.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. 1314.Google Scholar

97. Ibid., pp. 1112.Google Scholar

98. Obrazovanie Bashkirskoi ASSR, pp. 603606.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. 1819.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. 5960.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. 2829.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. 224227.Google Scholar

112. Blank, , “Unknown Commissariat,” chapter 9.Google Scholar