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Soviet Russia, Ukraine, and So On: Difference between revisions
Soviet Russia, Ukraine, and So On (view source)
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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.
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). Khrushchev was not in fact Ukrainian, but having moved there at 14, he was percepted as one. Stalin was ''Georgian'' (although he somewhat renounced that one when ruling the upper echelons of the country, his economic policy still favored Georgia, which led to magnificient rise of popularity in the region - with statues of Stalin being protected even after the Destalinization) and so was his chief of the NKVD, Lavrenty Beria. The popular singer-songwriter Bulat Okudzhava was ''also'' Georgian (although he was born in Moscow and some of his most famous songs are about [
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.
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There were some other republics, but they were fairly short-lived, such as the Transcaucasian SFSR (one of the four founding republics, broken-up into the Georgian, Armenian and Azerbaijan SSRs in 1936), the Karelo-Finnish SSR (created in 1940 from conquered Finnish land, incorporated into Russia in 1956) and a number of republics that were proclaimed during the Civil War but did not survive until the establishment of the Soviet Union. There was even a government plan on creating a Jewish SSR, but then [[Useful Notes/Israel|Israel]] was established in the Middle-East and the Soviet Jews moved there instead.
The Russian Federation, Ukraine, Belarus and the Transcaucasian Federation were the first four republics when the USSR was proclaimed in 1922. All the others were either carved out of them or established on annexed territories. Constitutionally every SSR had the right to secede, but in practice secession was not a real option before the Perestroika. At first the creation of new republics followed three rules: the republic had to have an international border or a seashore (hence [
What did not happen to Kazakhstan, but had long-standing repercussions, were the numerous autonomous republics, regions and areas (''oblasts'). Defined by geographic size and population, Tatarstan, Chechnya and Abkhazia are the famous autonomous SSR's, and Ossetia is probably the most famous oblast in the west. Depending on their size, they had smaller but symbolically very important representation than the SSR's in the Supreme Soviet. When the USSR ended, the status of autonomous republics and regions almost immediately became a serious [[Balkanize Me|point of contention]]--they didn't become independent countries like the republics, but part of their nearest neighbors. Seeing them as interference from Moscow, the non-Russian republics frequently struck away the autonomy the regions and republics had become accustomed to or considered merging them with other countries (considered in the case of Transnistria), leading the residents to resist--usually successfully, strangely enough.
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Ukraine and Belarus had membership in the United Nations, but this was just a diplomatic concession to ensure "balance" in the General Assembly, as the US had many, many more allies than the USSR in 1945; Ukraine and Belarus both toed the Moscow line perfectly. Stalin had originally wanted to have all sixteen (at the time) Union Republics admitted to the UN, on the grounds that they were sovereign states, until [[Harry Truman]] pointed out that by that logic, all ''forty eight'' [[American Federalism|United States]] (and, by implication, all six [[Australian Politics|Australian states]], all ten [[Canadian Politics|Canadian provinces]], all twenty-five Brazilian states, etc., etc., etc....) would have to be members, as well.
** To be fair, the difference is the US didnt let its member states secede, and Brazil did the same for its southern states. The Soviet Union had that in its constitution though.
*** Interestingly enough, the US started out as 13 independent republics that eventually became more centralized. This was the basis for the US allowing their own states into the UN if the USSR was allowed to do the same (constitutionally, the Soviet Republics were allowed to secede. However, [[But Thou Must!|as mentioned above...]] On the other hand, they ultimately did secede!). Also, interestingly enough, Canada's provinces tend to have far more autonomy in international affairs than other similar subnational entities, and would likely have pushed for the same status if America and the Soviet Union were allowed to.
Estonia, Latvia and Lithuania were independent between 1918 and 1940, before being annexed by the USSR. The United States never recognized (and much of the rest of the western world merely ''de facto'' rather than ''de jure'') the annexation of the Baltic states, and considers their current governments to be continuations of the inter-war republics.
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[[Category:Useful Notes/Russia]]
[[Category:Soviet Russia Ukraine And So On]]
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