Colonization and Decolonization in the Soviet Union

Dados Bibliográficos

ID10073923
AutoresAlexandre Bennigsen (autor correspondente)
Ano1969
Volume4
Fascículo1
Páginas141-151
Data de publicação1969-01-01
Peer ReviewedSim
Open AccessSim
TipoARTICLE
PeriódicoJournal of Contemporary History (JOURNAL)
Identificadores do periódicoISSN: 0022-0094 • E-ISSN: 1461-7250
EditoraSAGE Publishing (PUBLISHER • US)
DOI10.1177/002200946900400110
OpenAlexW2060099379
IdiomaEN
Citações recebidas12

Discussion of the controversial problem of the relations between the Russian people and the peoples of many different races, languages, and cultures which from the middle of the sixteenth to the end of the nineteenth century were incorporated, for the most part by force of arms, into the multinational Empire dominated by the Russians, presents many difficulties. A passionate and now long-standing polemic on this subject divides not only opponents and supporters of the Soviet regime, but also Russian communist and foreign historians. On the one side are to be found western anti-communist authors, native emigres, and even a few communist non-Russian writers; on the other, Russian or foreign supporters of the Soviet system, joined, paradoxically, by non-communist Russians who refuse to admit the existence of 'colonialism' in old Russia. According to the first group, the relations between the Russians and the native peoples since the days of Ivan the Terrible even to the present day have always been of a more or less marked colonial nature, that is, the Russians exerted political and economic pressure on the conquered peoples. Disagreement arises only on the score of which were the 'colonized' nations in old Russia and which are still 'colonized' today in the USSR. Some authors1 do not hesitate to include in one group all the non-Russian peoples of the Soviet Union, that is, the Slav peoples: Ukrainians and Belorussians; the Balts: Lithuanians, Latvians, and Estonians; the Caucasians: Georgians and Armenians, all peoples with an ancient civilization whose cultural and economic level is in no respect inferior to that of the Russians and

Ancient history · Archaeology · Colonization · Decolonization · Economic history · Political science · Politics · Soviet union · History · Law · Soviet and Russian History