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{{Short description|Citizens and nationals of the Soviet Union}}
'''Soviet nation''' ({{lang-ru|Советский народ}}<ref>{{lang-uk|Радянський народ}}; {{lang-be|Савецкий народ}}; {{lang-kk|Совет халқы}}</ref>) was an ideological [[demonym]] and proposed [[ethnonym]] for the population of the [[Soviet Union]]. It first appeared in official usage in the 1970's.
{{Redirect|Soviets|the bygone political organizations in Russia|Soviet (council)|5=Soviet (disambiguation)}}
{{Infobox ethnic group
| group = Soviet people
⚫
| native_name = Советский народ
| native_name_lang = ru
| flag = Flag of the Soviet Union.svg
| flag_caption = [[Flag of the Soviet Union]]
| image = Soviet Union Administrative Divisions 1989.jpg
| image_caption = Map of the country's constituent [[Republics of the Soviet Union|Union Republics]] in 1989
| population = 286,730,819 ([[1989 Soviet census|1989 census]])
| languages = [[Russian language|Russian]],<ref>{{cite web|url=http://ccat.sas.upenn.edu/~haroldfs/540/handouts/ussr/soviet2.html|title=Language Policy in the former Soviet Union|work=H. Schiffman|publisher=[[University of Pennsylvania]]|date=19 November 2002}}</ref> [[Ukrainian language|Ukrainian]], [[Belarusian language|Belarusian]], [[Kazakh language|Kazakh]], [[Azerbaijani language|Azerbaijani]], [[Georgian language|Georgian]], [[Armenian language|Armenian]], [[Uzbek language|Uzbek]], [[Kyrgyz language|Kyrgyz]], [[Tajik language|Tajik]], [[Turkmen language|Turkmen]], [[Latvian language|Latvian]], [[Estonian language|Estonian]], [[Romanian language|Romanian]], [[Lithuanian language|Lithuanian]], others (see: ''[[Languages of the Soviet Union]]'')
| religions = [[Christianity in the Soviet Union|Christianity]], [[Islam in the Soviet Union|Islam]], [[History of the Jews in the Soviet Union|Judaism]], [[Buddhism in Russia|Buddhism]], [[Atheism]], others (see: ''[[Religion in the Soviet Union]]'')
| related_groups = Citizens of the [[post-Soviet states]]
}}
{{Culture of the Soviet Union}}
The '''Soviet people''' ({{langx|ru|сове́тский наро́д|sovetsky narod}}) were the [[Demographics of the Soviet Union|citizens and nationals of the Soviet Union]]. This [[demonym]] was presented in the ideology of the country as the "new historical unity of peoples of [[National delimitation in the Soviet Union|different nationalities]]" ({{langx|ru|новая историческая общность людей различных национальностей|label=none}}).<ref>''[[Great Soviet Encyclopedia]]'', article "Советский народ" by {{ill|Suren Kaltakhchian|ru|Калтахчян, Сурен Тигранович}}</ref>


==Nationality policy in the Soviet Union==
==History==
Through the [[history of the Soviet Union]], both doctrine and practice regarding ethnic distinctions within the Soviet population varied over time. Minority national cultures were not completely abolished in the Soviet Union. By Soviet definition, national cultures were to be "[[socialist]] by content and national by form", to be used to promote the official aims and values of the state.While the goal was always to cement the nationalities together in a common state structure, as a pragmatic step in the 1920's and early 1930's under the policy of [[korenizatsiya]] (indigenization) the leaders of the Communist Party promoted federalism and the strengthening of non-Russian languages and cultures (see [[national delimitation in the Soviet Union]]). By the late 1930's, however, policy shifted to more active promotion of Russian language and later still to more overt [[Russification]] efforts, which accelerated in the 1950's especially in areas of [[Education in the Soviet Union|public education]]. Although some assimilation did occur, this effort did not succeed on the whole as evidenced by developments in many national cultures in the territory after the [[collapse of the Soviet Union]] in [[1991]].
During the [[history of the Soviet Union]], different doctrines and practices on ethnic distinctions within the Soviet population were applied at different times. Minority national cultures were never completely abolished. Instead the Soviet definition of national cultures required them to be "[[socialist]] by content and national by form", an approach that was used to promote the official aims and values of the state. The goal was always to cement the nationalities together in a common state structure. In the 1920s and the early 1930s, the policy of [[National delimitation in the Soviet Union|national delimitation]] was used to demarcate separate areas of national culture into territorial-administrative units, and the policy of [[korenizatsiya]] (indigenisation) was used to promote involvement non-Russian nationalities in government on all levels and strengthen non-Russian languages and cultures. By the late 1930s, however, the policy was changed to a more active promotion of the [[Russian language]] and later to more overt [[Russification]], which accelerated in the 1950s,{{citation needed|date=December 2010}} especially in [[Education in the Soviet Union|Soviet education]]. Although some assimilation did occur, it did not on the whole succeed. The continued development of the many national cultures in the Soviet Union led to the drafting of the [[New Union Treaty]] in 1991 and the subsequent [[dissolution of the Soviet Union]].<ref>{{cite book|first1=Barbara A.|last1=Anderson|first2=Brian D.|last2=Silver|chapter=Some Factors in the Linguistic and Ethnic Russification of Soviet Nationalities: Is Everyone Becoming Russian?|editor1-first=Lubomyr|editor1-last=Hajda|editor2-first=Mark|editor2-last=Beissinger|title=The Nationality Factor in Soviet Politics and Society|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=0kyfDwAAQBAJ|publisher=Routledge|year=2019|isbn=9781000303766|pages=95–130}}</ref>


==Researchers' assessments==
Reinforcing the distinctions in national identities, the Soviet state maintained information about "nationality" on many administrative records, including school, work, and military records, as well as in the periodic censuses of population. The infamous "fifth record" ({{lang-ru|пятая графа}}, ''pyataya grafa'') was the section of the obligatory [[Passport system in the Soviet Union|internal passport]] document which stated the citizen's ethnicity ({{lang-ru|национальность}}, ''natsionalnost''). In some cases, this official nationality served as a basis for discrimination.
Assessments of the success of the creation of the new community are divergent. On the one hand, the ethnologist V. A. Tishkov and other historians believe that "for all the socio-political deformities, the Soviet people represented a civil nation."<ref>{{Cite web|date=2007-06-19|title=Российский народ и национальная идентичность|url=https://iz.ru/news/325722|access-date=2021-08-09|website=Известия|language=ru}}</ref><ref>{{Cite web|last=admin|title=СОВЕТСКИЙ НАРОД: ГОСУДАРСТВЕННО-ПОЛИТИЧЕСКИЙ КОНСТРУКТ {{!}} Аналитика культурологии|url=http://analiculturolog.ru/route/route.php?journal/archive/item/769-18.html|access-date=2021-08-09|website=analiculturolog.ru|language=ru-RU}}</ref> The philosopher and sociologist B. A. Grushin noted that sociology in the USSR "recorded a unique historical type of society that had already gone into oblivion". At the same time, according to the sociologist T.N. Zaslavskaya, it "did not solve the main task associated with the typological identification of Soviet society".


Some historians evaluating the Soviet Union as a colonial [[Soviet Empire|empire]] ([[Soviet empire]]), applied the "[[prison of nations]]" idea to the USSR. Thomas Winderl wrote: "The USSR became in a certain sense more a prison-house of nations than the old Empire had ever been."<ref name=":0">{{Cite book |last=Bekus |first=Nelly |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=DiwPRpRYt2kC |title=Struggle Over Identity: The Official and the Alternative "Belarusianness" |date=2010-01-01 |publisher=Central European University Press |isbn=978-963-9776-68-5 |pages=42 |language=en}}</ref>
⚫
==Soviet People==


In an interview with [[Euronews]] in 2011, Russian President [[Dmitry Medvedev]] recalled the use of the term "Soviet people" as a "unified community" in the Soviet Union but added that "these constructions were largely theoretical".<ref>{{Cite web|last=ГРИШИН|first=Александр|date=2011-09-10|title=Дмитрий Медведев: "Термин "советский народ" оказался теоретическим"|url=https://www.kp.ru/daily/25751/2737536/|access-date=2021-08-09|website=kp.ru|language=ru}}</ref>
The new term "Soviet nation" ({{lang-ru|Советский народ}}) first appeared in official statements at the 24th [[Congress of the Communist Party of the Soviet Union|Party Congress]] in 1971, and was later incorporated into the [[Soviet Constitution of 1977]].<ref>Shtromas, A. (1978) [http://links.jstor.org/sici?sici=0036-0341(197807)37%3A3%3C265%3ATLPOSN%3E2.0.CO%3B2-Q The Legal Position of Soviet Nationalities and Their Territorial Units according to the 1977 Constitution of the USSR]. ''[[Russian Review]]'' 37 (3), 265-272.</ref> However, the concept of Soviet nation did not literally use the term that had heretofore been used for a "nation" (natsiya) but rather the word for a people (narod). Although this word had an ethnic connotation, official doctrine had not yet reached the point that all prior Soviet nations and nationalities (Russians, Ukrainians, Estonians, Uzbeks, and so on) were to merge into a single all-Soviet nation (natsiya). But that single all-Soviet entity (Soviet people -- narod) was definitely attributed characteristics that official doctrine had formerly ascribed to the nations (natsii) and nationalities (natsionalnosti) of the multi-national Soviet state. As a project, the construction of a Soviet people proved ended when the Soviet Union (the Soviet state) was dismantled in 1991.

⚫
==Post-Soviet Russia==
In contrast to Soviet national identity politics, which declared the Soviet people as a supranational community, the post-Soviet [[Constitution of Russia|Russian Constitution]] speaks of a "multinational people of the [[Russia|Russian Federation]]". From the outset, the idea of the "Russian nation" as a community of all [[Russian citizens]] has met with opposition.<ref>{{Cite journal|last=Malinova O.|title=Symbolic politics and the construction of macropolitical identity in post-Soviet Russia|journal=Polis. Political Studies|volume=2|pages=90–105}}</ref>

In December 2010, Russian President [[Dmitry Medvedev]] pointed out the lack of an all-Russian unifying idea as a problem during a discussion in the [[State Council (Russia)|State Council]] and proposed multiethnic patriotism as a replacement for the idea of "the Soviet people".<ref>{{Cite web|date=2010-12-27|title=Власти РФ предлагают укреплять общество "общероссийским патриотизмом"|url=https://ria.ru/20101227/314197013.html|access-date=2021-08-09|website=РИА Новости|language=ru}}</ref>


==See also==
==See also==
* [[New Soviet man]]
* [[Demographics of the Soviet Union]]
* [[Homo soveticus]]
* [[Homo Sovieticus]]
* [[Melting pot]]
* [[Melting pot]]
* [[New Soviet man]]
* [[Orthodoxy, Autocracy, and National Character]]
* [[Orthodoxy, Autocracy, and Nationality]] – the ideological doctrine of Russian emperor Nicholas I
* [[Rootless cosmopolitan]]
* [[Rootless cosmopolitan]]
* [[Russification]]
* [[Russification]]
* [[Zhonghua minzu]] – the equivalent notion in the People's Republic of China
* [[Yugoslavs]]

==References==
{{Reflist}}


==Footnotes==
==External links==
* ''[https://archive.org/details/sovietpeople1974 The Soviet People—A New Historical Community]'', a Soviet work from 1974 expounding on the concept
<references/>
* ''[https://archive.org/details/presentdayethnicprocessesussr Present-Day Ethnic Processes in the USSR]'', a Soviet work from 1982


[[Category:Soviet phraseology]]
{{Soviet Union topics}}
{{Authority control}}


[[Category:Soviet people]]
[[de:Sowjetvolk]]
[[Category:Demographics of the Soviet Union]]
⚫
[[ru:Советский народ]]
[[Category:Propaganda in the Soviet Union]]
[[uk:Радянський народ]]
[[Category:Soviet ethnic policy]]

Latest revision as of 19:22, 20 October 2024

"Soviets" redirects here. For the bygone political organizations in Russia, see Soviet (council). For other uses, see Soviet (disambiguation).
Soviet people
Советский народ
Flag of the Soviet Union
Map of the country's constituent Union Republics in 1989
Total population
286,730,819 (1989 census)
Languages
Russian,[1] Ukrainian, Belarusian, Kazakh, Azerbaijani, Georgian, Armenian, Uzbek, Kyrgyz, Tajik, Turkmen, Latvian, Estonian, Romanian, Lithuanian, others (see: Languages of the Soviet Union)
Religion
Christianity, Islam, Judaism, Buddhism, Atheism, others (see: Religion in the Soviet Union)
Related ethnic groups
Citizens of the post-Soviet states
Part of a series on the
Culture of the Soviet Union
Culture of the Soviet Union
History
People
Languages
Traditions
Cuisine
Festivals
Religion
Art
Literature
Music
Media
Sport
Monuments
Symbols

The Soviet people (Russian: сове́тский наро́д, romanized: sovetsky narod) were the citizens and nationals of the Soviet Union. This demonym was presented in the ideology of the country as the "new historical unity of peoples of different nationalities" (новая историческая общность людей различных национальностей).[2]

Nationality policy in the Soviet Union

[edit]

During the history of the Soviet Union, different doctrines and practices on ethnic distinctions within the Soviet population were applied at different times. Minority national cultures were never completely abolished. Instead the Soviet definition of national cultures required them to be "socialist by content and national by form", an approach that was used to promote the official aims and values of the state. The goal was always to cement the nationalities together in a common state structure. In the 1920s and the early 1930s, the policy of national delimitation was used to demarcate separate areas of national culture into territorial-administrative units, and the policy of korenizatsiya (indigenisation) was used to promote involvement non-Russian nationalities in government on all levels and strengthen non-Russian languages and cultures. By the late 1930s, however, the policy was changed to a more active promotion of the Russian language and later to more overt Russification, which accelerated in the 1950s,[citation needed] especially in Soviet education. Although some assimilation did occur, it did not on the whole succeed. The continued development of the many national cultures in the Soviet Union led to the drafting of the New Union Treaty in 1991 and the subsequent dissolution of the Soviet Union.[3]

Researchers' assessments

[edit]

Assessments of the success of the creation of the new community are divergent. On the one hand, the ethnologist V. A. Tishkov and other historians believe that "for all the socio-political deformities, the Soviet people represented a civil nation."[4][5] The philosopher and sociologist B. A. Grushin noted that sociology in the USSR "recorded a unique historical type of society that had already gone into oblivion". At the same time, according to the sociologist T.N. Zaslavskaya, it "did not solve the main task associated with the typological identification of Soviet society".

Some historians evaluating the Soviet Union as a colonial empire (Soviet empire), applied the "prison of nations" idea to the USSR. Thomas Winderl wrote: "The USSR became in a certain sense more a prison-house of nations than the old Empire had ever been."[6]

In an interview with Euronews in 2011, Russian President Dmitry Medvedev recalled the use of the term "Soviet people" as a "unified community" in the Soviet Union but added that "these constructions were largely theoretical".[7]

Post-Soviet Russia

[edit]

In contrast to Soviet national identity politics, which declared the Soviet people as a supranational community, the post-Soviet Russian Constitution speaks of a "multinational people of the Russian Federation". From the outset, the idea of the "Russian nation" as a community of all Russian citizens has met with opposition.[8]

In December 2010, Russian President Dmitry Medvedev pointed out the lack of an all-Russian unifying idea as a problem during a discussion in the State Council and proposed multiethnic patriotism as a replacement for the idea of "the Soviet people".[9]

See also

[edit]

References

[edit]
  1. ^ "Language Policy in the former Soviet Union". H. Schiffman. University of Pennsylvania. 19 November 2002.
  2. ^ Great Soviet Encyclopedia, article "Советский народ" by Suren Kaltakhchian [ru]
  3. ^ Anderson, Barbara A.; Silver, Brian D. (2019). "Some Factors in the Linguistic and Ethnic Russification of Soviet Nationalities: Is Everyone Becoming Russian?". In Hajda, Lubomyr; Beissinger, Mark (eds.). The Nationality Factor in Soviet Politics and Society. Routledge. pp. 95–130. ISBN 9781000303766.
  4. ^ "Российский народ и национальная идентичность". Известия (in Russian). 2007-06-19. Retrieved 2021-08-09.
  5. ^ admin. "СОВЕТСКИЙ НАРОД: ГОСУДАРСТВЕННО-ПОЛИТИЧЕСКИЙ КОНСТРУКТ | Аналитика культурологии". analiculturolog.ru (in Russian). Retrieved 2021-08-09.
  6. ^ Bekus, Nelly (2010-01-01). Struggle Over Identity: The Official and the Alternative "Belarusianness". Central European University Press. p. 42. ISBN 978-963-9776-68-5.
  7. ^ ГРИШИН, Александр (2011-09-10). "Дмитрий Медведев: "Термин "советский народ" оказался теоретическим"". kp.ru (in Russian). Retrieved 2021-08-09.
  8. ^ Malinova O. "Symbolic politics and the construction of macropolitical identity in post-Soviet Russia". Polis. Political Studies. 2: 90–105.
  9. ^ "Власти РФ предлагают укреплять общество "общероссийским патриотизмом"". РИА Новости (in Russian). 2010-12-27. Retrieved 2021-08-09.
[edit]
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