No CrossRef data available.
Article contents
Border Disputes and Disputed Borders: Border Disputes and Disputed Borders in the Soviet Federal System
Published online by Cambridge University Press: 20 November 2018
Extract
While the national question in the USSR has received much attention in terms both of the regime's ideological approach to it and the nationalist response to that approach, the issue of the actual minority territories created in the period from the 1920s to the 1940s has attracted little attention in recent times. Disputes over the external frontier aspects of some of these territories have certainly become familiar, as in the case of the Baltic states and Moldavia, but it is less widely appreciated that disputed borders were created, and continue to exist, within the USSR itself. A number of factors may account for this. In the first place, frequent disdain has been shown in Western emigre writings toward the very relevance of the Soviet federal system and its division of the country into units based either on ethnic composition or on administratively convenient populations. So readily have these divisions been bypassed by the Communist Party's own organization, the KGB, the military, the economic planning organs, major industrial enterprises and combines, and, increasingly, the legal apparatus, that it seemed legitimate to accord the system little import. Then again, with the passage of time, it has come to be taken almost for granted that such boundaries as have been established are correctly and irrevocably drawn to delineate the peoples therein. Finally, it has often been assumed, not least by Soviet officialdom itself, that the borders are destined to prove more and more irrelevant in an era of increasing personal mobility, urbanization, industralization, mass communications, and, most especially, of progress toward the goal of full communism. Nevertheless, despite the opportunities afforded by the change of constitution in 1977 to eradicate them, the territorial units remain, along with the problems they create, many now of longstanding.
- Type
- Articles
- Information
- Copyright
- Copyright © 1982 by the Association for the Study of the Nationalities of the USSR and Eastern Europe, Inc.
References
Notes
1. On the setting up of the present Central Asian boundaries see particularly Caroe, O., Soviet Empire (London, 1967), pp. 145-49; and R. Vaidyanath, The Formation of the Soviet Central Asian Republics, (New Delhi, 1967), pp. 151–202.Google Scholar
2. Wheeler, G., The Peoples of Soviet Central Asia (London, 1966), p. 69.Google Scholar
3. Ibid., pp. 9, 62, and 69.Google Scholar
4. Itogi vsesoyuznoy perepisi naseleniya 1959 goda, RSFSR (Moscow, 1963), pp. 300-37.Google Scholar
5. See below.Google Scholar
6. Pravda, July 17, 1956.Google Scholar
7. Kolarz, W., The Peoples of the Soviet Far East (1969), pp. 116-17.Google Scholar
8. Indeed, a pan-Mongol congress under Japanese auspices in February 1919 had called for the expulsion of all Russians living east of Lake Baikal.Google Scholar
9. Decree of November 17, 1937.Google Scholar
10. See Khronika Tekushchikh Sobytiy (Moscow), no. 28, December 31, 1972.Google Scholar
11. Private correspondence, confirmed in discussions during a visit to the area by the author in July 1986.Google Scholar
12. Pravda, April 17, 1971.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
13. Wixman, R., The Peoples of the USSR (London, 1984), p. 126.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
14. Arkhiv Samizdata (Munich), doc. no. 4755.Google Scholar
15. Le Monde (Paris), May 24, 1980.Google Scholar
16. Arkhiv Samizdata doc. no. 4755.Google Scholar
17. Le Monde May 24, 1980.Google Scholar
18. Arkhiv Samizdata doc. no. 4755.Google Scholar
19. Le Monde May 24, 1980.Google Scholar
20. On the longstanding animosities see, e.g., Hovannisian, R.G., The Republic of Armenia (Berkeley, 1971), 1: 78–79.Google Scholar
21. Ibid., pp. 79–81.Google Scholar
22. See, e.g., R. D. “The Question of Armenian Boundaries,” The Armenian Review (Winter 1948): 103-07; and Mandalian, J. G., “The Transcaucasian Armenian Irredenta,” The Armenian Review, 14 (Summer 1961).Google Scholar
23. Hovannisian, , The Republic of Armenia, pp. 88–90, 156-89, 356-58; R. G. Hovannisian, “The Armeno-Azerbaijani Conflict over Mountainous Karabagh 1918-1919,” The Armenian Review 24, no. 2 (Summer 1971): 3-39; and A. H. Arslanian, “Britain and the Question of Mountanious Karabagh” unpublished paper presented to the Eleventh Annual meeting of Middle East Studies Association of North America, Los Angeles, 1977.Google Scholar
24. Pravda, December 4, 1920.Google Scholar
25. E.g., Kommunist (Yerevan), April 2, 1921.Google Scholar
26. On the Azeri case, see Hovannisian, , The Republic of Armenia, pp. 81–82 and 90-91; and C. J. Walker, Armenia: The Survival of a Nation (London, 1980), p. 373. The region's hydro-electric potential was hardly an issue then.Google Scholar
27. Armenia has additionally laid claim to Nakhichevan, also from Azerbaidzan, and to Alkhalkalak and Alkhaltzkha, from Georgia. As these no longer contain anything like Armenian majority populations they have been less contentious issues in recent times, not the source of significant internal protest movements as far as is known.Google Scholar
28. Souvarine, B., Stalin (London, 1939), p. 660.Google Scholar
29. American Committee for the Independence of Armenia, “The Problem of Karabagh: Memorandum Addressed to the Soviet Union, the United Nations and the Peoples of the World,” The Hairenik Weekly, Boston, August 24, 1967.Google Scholar
30. Ibid. Google Scholar
31. Cited in Dadrian, V. N., “Inter-Ethnic Conflicts in the Soviet Transcaucasus with Particular Reference to Armenia,” International Review of History and Political Science 6, no. 2 (May 1969): 80–81.Google Scholar
32. Ibid. Google Scholar
33. Text and details in Spuerk (Beirut), December 31, 1963; Haiastan (Paris), May 21, 1964; Alik (Tehran), May 23-25, 1964; L. Mkrtchiyan, Hairenakan dzayner (Munich, 1978), pp. 26-34; Arkhiv Samizdata, doc. no. 1214. See also details in Dadrian, “Inter-Ethnic Conflicts,” p. 81.Google Scholar
34. It has been claimed subsequently that in 1967 mutual lynchings occurred and a number of Armenians were killed when the authorities intervened with force; see “The Problem of Karabagh.”Google Scholar
35. Text in Haratch (Paris), September 1, 1967; Posev (Frankfurt), September 20, 1967; Mkrtchiyan, Hairenakan dzayner, pp. 91-6; Arkhiv Samizdata, doc. no. AS 1215.Google Scholar
36. Hairenik (Boston), October 7, 1965; see also V. N. Dadrian, “The Events of April 24 in Moscow: How They Happened and Under What Circumstances,” The Armenian Review 20, no. 2 (1967): 17.Google Scholar
37. Azdak Shabatoriak (Beirut), no. 6 (1969), p. 95.Google Scholar
38. Mkrtchiyan, , Hairenakan dzayner, pp. 104-10.Google Scholar
39. Bakinskiy rabochiy (Baku), January 11, and October 13, 1973, and April 1, 1975.Google Scholar
40. Ibid., and The New York Times, December 11, 1977.Google Scholar
41. Arkhiv Samizdata, doc. no. 3160 and The New York Times, December 11, 1977.Google Scholar
42. Khronika Tekushchikh Sobytiy, no. 51, December 1, 1978; and “Trial of Robert Nazarian,” Cahiers du Samizdat 64, (November-December 1979): 3-11.Google Scholar
43. For an English translation of this document see ABN Correspondence (Munich) 29, no. 2. (March-April 1978): 16.Google Scholar
44. Problems of Peace and Socialism 20, no. 6 (June 1977).Google Scholar
45. Zartonk (Beirut), October 15, 1977, and Mkrtchiyan Hairenakan dzayner, pp. 128-33. See also G. J. Libaridian, “Armenian and the Armenians: A Divided Homeland and a Disposed Nation,” in W. O. McCagg and B. D. Silver, eds., Soviet Asian Ethnic Frontiers (New York, 1979), pp. 41-42; and Walker, C. J., Armenia: The Survival of a Nation (London, 1980), p. 372.Google Scholar
46. Zartonk, October 15, 1977, and Mkrtchiyan, Hairenakan dzayner, pp. 133-37.Google Scholar
47. Heghapokhakhan Yergaran (Beirut, 1980), pp. 200-01.Google Scholar
48. Ter-Sarkisyants, A. E., “Sovremennye etnicheskie protsessy u armyan Nagorno Karabakha,” in Etnicheskie i Kul'turno-bytovye protsessy na Kavkaze (Moscow, 1978), p. 66, and A. Sheehy, “Data from the Soviet Census of 1979 on the Azeris and the Azerbaijan SSR,” Radio Liberty Research Paper (henceforth RL) 170/80, May 13, 1980.Google Scholar
49. Fuller, E. and Sheehy, A., “Armenia and Armenians in the USSR: Nationality and Language Aspects of the Census of 1979,” RL 208/80, June 11, 1980.Google Scholar
50. Arkhiv Samizdata, doc. no. 1830.Google Scholar
51. Ibid., doc. nos. 4174, 4183, and 4184.Google Scholar
52. Khronika, no. 61, March 16, 1981.Google Scholar
53. Sheehy, A., “Trouble in the Kakhetian Vineyards,” RL 253/78, November 17, 1978.Google Scholar
54. Arkhiv Samizdata, doc. no. 4308.Google Scholar
55. Khronika, no. 61.Google Scholar
56. Khronika, no. 63; and Arkhiv Samizdata, doc. no. 4415.Google Scholar
57. Khronika no. 63.Google Scholar
58. Wixman, R., The Peoples of the USSR (London, 1984), pp. 151-52.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
59. See, e.g., Nekrich, A. M., The Punished Peoples (1978), pp. 149-54, and 184-87.Google Scholar
60. The Guardian, November 12, 1981; Financial Times, November 24, 1981; and The Observer, November 29, 1981.Google Scholar
20, 1967; Mkrtchiyan, Hairenakan dzayner, pp. 91-6; Arkhiv Samizdata, doc. no. AS 1215.Google Scholar
61. Pravda January 16, 1982; Sheehy, A., “North Ossetian First Secretary Fired,” RL 25/82, January 18, 1982; and Le Monde, January 19, 1982.Google Scholar
62. Itogi vsesoyuznoi perepisi nasaleniya 1970 goda, (Moscow, 1973), 4:19.Google Scholar
63. Ibid. Google Scholar
64. See. Dobson, R., “Georgian and Georgians,” in Z. Katz, ed., Handbook of Major Soviet Nationalities (London, 1975), p. 185; and R. Solchanyk and A. Sheeny, “Kapitonov on Nationality Relations in Georgia,” RL 125/78, June 1, 1978.Google Scholar
65. On the historical relations between Georgians and the Abkhaz, see Sheehy, A., “Recent Events in Abkhazia Mirror the Complexities of National Relations in the USSR,” RL 141/78, June 26, 1978.Google Scholar
66. The New York Times, June 25, 1978.Google Scholar
67. Revealed by Party Secretary Kapitonov, Ivan, Zarya Vostoka (Tbilisi), May 26, 1978.Google Scholar
68. The New York Times June 6 and June 25, 1978.Google Scholar
69. Sovetskaya Abkhaziya, May 23, 1978. See also Solchanyk and Sheehy, “Kapitonov.”Google Scholar
70. Zarya Vostoka, May 26, 1978.Google Scholar
71. Ibid. Google Scholar
72. Ibid., June 7, 1978.Google Scholar
73. Ibid. Google Scholar
74. See McAuley, M., “Party Recruitment and the Nationalities in the USSR: A Study in the Centre-Republican Relationships,” British Journal of Political Science, no. 10 (1980): 482.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
75. See Fuller, E., “Moves to Promote Abkhaz-Georgian Cultural Relations,” RL 256/80, July 18, 1980.Google Scholar
76. Zarya Vostoka, June 7, 1978.Google Scholar
77. AFP and Reuter, November 6, 1978; The Guardian, London, November 3, 1978; and Le Monde, November 7, 1978. See also E. Fuller, “Nationalist Protest in Georgia, 1976-81,” RL 28/82, January 19, 1982.Google Scholar
78. Pravda August 16, 1980. See also Sheehy, A., “Continuing Tension in Abkhazia,” RL 294/80, August 20, 1980.Google Scholar
79. Arkhiv Samizdata, doc. no. 4415; see also doc no. 4638.Google Scholar
80. Protests reported in Arkhiv Samizdata, doc. no. 4415.Google Scholar
81. For example, Boris Kakubava, who was sentenced to fourteen years’ deprivation of freedom in September 1980, claims to have been the victim of a fabricated case resulting from his protests against such discrimination; see Arkhiv Samizdata, doc. no. 5232-34.Google Scholar
82. See Arkhiv Samizdata, doc. no. 5623; and Khronika, no. 63, December 31, 1981.Google Scholar
83. Ibid. Google Scholar
84. See Fuller, E., “Georgian Demonstrations,” ABN Correspondence, 32, no. 6 (November-December 1981); “New Samizdat Document Gives Details of Georgian Demonstrations,” RL 360/81, September 11, 1981; and “Nationalist Protest in Georgia, 1976-81,” RL 28/82, January 19, 1982.Google Scholar
85. Arkhiv Samizdata, doc. no. 4415, claims that one of the Georgians there, Arkadi Markozia, was arrested by the KGB in February 1980 on a trumped-up charge of carrying a planted firearm. He was then given a suspended sentence in April 1981.Google Scholar
86. He agreed initially to have a subsequent meeting with the demonstrators, but the meeting failed to materialize; an attempt to read a petition on the matter to a deputy Minister of the Interior at a meeting on March 31 was blocked. Arkhiv Samizdata, doc. no. 4415.Google Scholar
87. Khronika no. 63.Google Scholar
88. See, in particular, Duroselle, J. B., Les frontieres européenes de l'URSS, 1917-1941 (Paris, 1957); and Pakštas, K., “National and State Boundaries,” Lituanus 5, no. 3 (September 1959); 67–72.Google Scholar
89. See samizdat report, “On the Situation of the Lithuanians in the Byelorussian Republic,” 1972 (hereafter Report 1), in Elta Information Bulletin (New York; November 1974—February 1975); “Discrimination of Lithuanians in the Belorussian SSR,” Lituanus 29, no. 1 (Spring 1975); p. 77-74; Arkhiv Samizdata, doc. no. 1849; and abbreviated version in T. Remeikis, “Opposition to Soviet Rule in Lithuania” (Chicago, 1980), pp. 300-21. For a commentary on this see also “Lithuanian Minority in Byelorussia Protests,” RL 438/74, December 27, 1974.Google Scholar
90. See details of the second samizdat report, 1978 (hereafter Report 2) in Remeikis, “Opposition,” pp. 322-23; and “Samizdat Report on the Lithuanian Minority in Byelorussia,” 102/79, March 26, 1979. A further report appeared in the samizdat journal Aušra, no. 32 (August 1982) and no. 33 (October 1982).Google Scholar
91. See Report 1 (1972), which contains the texts.Google Scholar
92. Report 2 (1978).Google Scholar
93. Aušra, no. 33 (October 1982).Google Scholar
94. Report 2.Google Scholar
95. “Twelfth Report on Catholics in the USSR,” Chronicle of the Lithuanian Catholic Church, no. 55 (November 1982).Google Scholar
96. See Aušra, nos. 32 (August 1982) and 33 (October 1982), and “Twelfth Report on Catholics.” For commentary on the latter, see J. Papartis, “The Twelfth Report of the Lithuanian Chronicle on Catholics in the USSR (Byelorussia, the Ukraine and Latvia)”, RL 124/83, March 21, 1983.Google Scholar
97. Aušra, no. 34 (December 1982).Google Scholar
98. Report 2.Google Scholar
99. Report 1. Google Scholar
100. See for example, the specific cases cited and detailed in Khronika, no. 54, November 15, 1979 and Aušra, no. 33 (October 1982).Google Scholar
101. Report 1.Google Scholar
102. Ibid. Google Scholar
103. Report 2.Google Scholar
104. Report 2. Google Scholar
105. Aušra, no. 32 (August 1982).Google Scholar
106. See sources cited by Papartis, , “Twelfth Report.”Google Scholar
107. Khronika, no. 8 (June 30, 1969).Google Scholar
108. See, e.g., Birch, J., The Ukrainian Nationalist Movement in the USSR since 1956 (London, 1971), pp. 13–19.Google Scholar
109. For those objectives, see in particular, Connor, W., The National Question in Marxist Leninist Theory and Strategy (Princeton 1984), especially pp. 300-22.Google Scholar
110. McAuley, M., “Nationalism and the Soviet Multi-Ethnic State,” in Harding, N., ed., The State in Socialist Society (1984), pp. 179–210.Google Scholar