People's Commissariat for Nationalities
The People's Commissariat of Nationalities of the RSFSR (
Russian nationalities. Its head, Joseph Stalin, as the People's Commissar of Nationalities (1917–23), served as a member of the Council of People's Commissars
.
Origins
It was established even before the
Russian Revolution
:
- complete civil equality for all citizens
- the right to use the mother tongue in official business, on par with Russian
- the formation of a Soviet of nationality affairs – Narkomnats.
This decision was made in response to the crisis triggered by the
Bolsheviks opposed any national autonomy; however, on 13 August, Joseph Stalin published a tract that floated the idea of the Party might set up an agency for nationality affairs.[3]
This came at a time when Kerensky and Mensheviks like Nikolay Chkheidze were arguing for a unified state. Kerensky told Latvian representatives that they could only hope for the status of Zemstvo.[4]
In 1918 Joseph Stalin as commissar presided over five or six of the first seven meetings of the Narkomnats Collegium, but failed to attend the next twenty one.[5]
- Belnatskom was the Belarusian commissariat established 31 January 1918[6]
- Evkom was the Jewish commissariat[7]
- Muslim commissariat, chaired by Mullanur Waxitov
- Volga Commissariat for German Affairs, charter approved by Narkomnat on May 29, 1918[8]
References
- ^
Hirsch, Francine (8 August 2007). "State and Evolution: Ethnographic Knowledge, Economic Expediency, and the Making of the USSR, 1917–1924". In Burbank, Jane; ISBN 9780253219114. Retrieved 2015-07-23.
The new Soviet constitution of 1924 dissolved Narkomnats [...].
- ^ Petrogradskii Sovet Rabochikh i Soldatskikh Deputatov: Protokoly Zasedanii (Moscow: Gosudarstvennoe Izdatel'stvo, 1935).
- ^ Revoliutsionnoe Dvizhenie v Rossii v Avgust' 1917 Goda: Protokoly (Moscow: Izdatel'stvo Akademii Nauk SSR, 1959) This text was omitted from the collected Works of Stalin)
- ^ Revoliutsionnoe Dvizhenie v Rossii v Mae-Iun' 1917 g., III (Moscow: Izdatel'stvo Akademii Nauk SSR, 1959).
- ^ 'Stalin as Commissar of Nationalities' by Jeremy Smith in Stalin: A New History by Sarah Davies (Editor), James Harris (Editor), 2005, p. 55, DOI: https://doi.org/10.1017/CBO9780511614897.006
- ^ The Sorcerer as Apprentice: Stalin as Commissar of Nationalities 1917–1924 by Stephen Blank, Greenwood Press 1995, p. 20.
- ^ Zvi Y. Gitelman, Jewish Nationality and Soviet Politics: The Jewish Sections of the CPSU, 1917-1930 (1972).
- ^ "Право.ru: законодательство, судебная система, новости и аналитика. Все о юридическом рынке". ПРАВО.Ru (in Russian). ПРАВО.Ru. Retrieved 9 June 2023.
Further reading
- James R. Millar, Encyclopedia of Russian History (2004) 3: 1000–1027, 1158–59.