Soviet Russia, Ukraine, and So On: Difference between revisions
→In Soviet Russia, Americans Get Your Name Wrong: Added wikilinks, subheaders
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You will hear hundreds of Westerners in [[Cold War]] contexts (even all sorts of people who should and ''do'' know better) calling the place Russia and its inhabitants Russians. In fact, Russia was only one of the fifteen Soviet Republics that comprised the USSR, and was officially called the Russian Soviet Federative Socialist Republic (RSFSR). Yes, the RSFSR was by far the largest state in the USSR, covering over three quarters of the total land area of the Union and containing about 60% of its population. And Russia was dominant politically and culturally. But it was by no means all of the USSR.
===Famous Soviets ===
While ''Russkie'' certainly ran the show, many of the most famous and infamous Soviets weren't Russian. [[Yakov Smirnoff]] (he of "In Soviet Russia"- when he was most famous he just used "Russia" since it was very much around then) is from [[Ukraine]] (and he was also Jewish - in the USSR Jews were considered an ethnic group, separate from ''Russkie'', Ukrainians and others). [[Nikita Khrushchev]] was not in fact Ukrainian, but having moved there at 14, he was percepted as one. [[Joseph Stalin]] was ''
=== Nationalities ===
Calling many Ukrainians (especially from the Western Ukraine) Russians tends to annoy them a lot. Calling [[Estonia|Estonians]] that (if they're not ''Russkie'') probably annoys them too, since they're not even Slavs. Same goes for the [[Latvia|Latvians]] and [[Lithuania|Lithuanians]] (also not Slavs) who spent quite a bit of time trying to fight off the Russians. It is just like calling an Irishman English. This was true even back in Soviet times. And calling Georgians Russians is a pretty good way to make them dislike and threaten you. Especially since recent events.▼
=== Multinationalism ===
▲Calling many Ukrainians (especially from the Western Ukraine) Russians tends to annoy them a lot. Calling Estonians that (if they're not ''Russkie'') probably annoys them too, since they're not even Slavs. Same goes for the Latvians and Lithuanians (also not Slavs) who spent quite a bit of time trying to fight off the Russians. It is just like calling an Irishman English. This was true even back in Soviet times. And calling Georgians Russians is a pretty good way to make them dislike and threaten you. Especially since recent events.
Officially, the Soviet Union was a multinational state, with no nation given preference over any other (notice the word "Russian" does not appear in the name of the USSR). In practice, it was inevitable that Russians would mostly run the show, given that they vastly outnumbered all the other ethnic groups. On the other hand, because the Soviet constitution had the rights of the republics to secede, even if only on paper, the authorities tended to give much more leeway in running them to avoid problems, especially in the latter periods. During the Stagnation of [[The Seventies]], with its famous shortages, the official state policy was to first fund and supply the national republics to avoid problems, and for Russia proper, especially in the "Flyover Country" provinces, to get the remains and the seconds. Which also contributed to the national tensions, even if from the other side. Other groups also never lost their separate ethnic identities. Some Soviet leaders encouraged these separate identities, while others (most notably Stalin) tried to make everyone Russian.
* However, Stalin's native Georgia was always one of the least Russified Republics - its Russian minority was negligible and the local Party branch conducted all of its business in Georgian, unlike Belarus or Kazakhstan, where the Russian language almost completely displaced the local ones.
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