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The Influence of Early Military Decisions upon the National Structure of the Soviet Union

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  25 January 2017

Bertram D. Wolfe
Bertram D. Wolfe*
Affiliation:
Russian Institute, Columbia University
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Extract

The transformation of the Soviet Union from a federation of theoretically autonomous republics and regions, each having the full “right of self-determination even to the point of separation” into a highly centralized state, is a complicated development. This steady growth in centralization is attributable to a number of factors, ranging from the ambivalence of Lenin's attitude towards centralism and self-determination to the overriding effect of such centralizing forces as economic planning; a highly centralized single Ail-Union Communist Party, whose constituent “national parties” soon became mere propaganda sections; a centralized All-Union police; and finally, a series of purges for “nationalist deviations.”

Type
Research Article
Information
American Slavic and East European Review , Volume 9 , Issue 3 , October 1950 , pp. 169 - 179
Copyright
Copyright © Association for Slavic, East European, and Eurasian Studies 1950

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References

1 Under the latter head are included excerpts of Central Committee minutes which were forwarded to Trotsky or to his deputy Skljanskij, and one long document drafted for the Central Committee, apparently by Lenin, and then turned over to Trotsky and Rakovskij for editing and implementation.

2 At first there was considerable controversy as to the degree of autonomy of the Ukrainian Communist Party. The documents cited in this article reflect the rapid “settlement“ of this controversy along the lines of strict centralism.

3 Delo “iskhodjaščie bumagi za 1919 g. c. No. 1 po 500” Polevoi Kanceljarii poezda Pred. R.V.S.R., p. 36.

4 The Ukrainian Directory was the first government set up by Petljura and Vinničenko after the German-sponsored Ukrainian Government of Skoropadskij fell.

5 Delo “iskhod. hfronjannye telegrammy %a 1919 g.” Sekretariata Tarn. Predr R.V.S.R., p. 19. On it is written in Lenin's hand instructions to give it to Skljanskij for his archives, from which archives most of the documents dealing with military matters are derived. The words “written in Lenin's hand” are derived from a note on the “certified” typewritten copy in the Harvard Library.

6 The words “written in Lenin's hand” are noted on the typewritten copy in the Harvard Library.

7 The Kamenev referred to here is the military man, Sergej Sergeevič Kamenev, not the Bolshevik leader.