Solution of the national question in the USSR. Problems of interethnic relations in the context of the crisis of the union state

Synopsis on the history of Russia

As perestroika developed, the importance of national problems. Moreover, national contradictions and clashes were often artificially inflated by politicians from various camps who tried to use tension to solve certain problems.

With the beginning of democratization and the restoration of historical truth, the accumulated long years the tension was discharged in the rapidly growing centrifugal forces. So, the anniversary of the signing Soviet-German pact of 1939 (for the first time in many years it was in the center of attention of the press) became an occasion for mass demonstrations on August 23, 1987 in the capitals of the three Baltic republics. These speeches marked the beginning of a process that ended later with the declaration of independence of these republics.

Ethnic tensions arose in almost all the republics. She touched on a variety of issues, from the requirements for the recognition of the state status of the national language (formulated first in the Baltic republics, then in Ukraine, Georgia, Moldova, Armenia, and, ultimately, as the movement expanded and deepened, put forward in other republics: RSFSR, Belarus, Azerbaijan and Muslim republics Central Asia) until the deported peoples return to their historical homeland.

The national problems that have become the focus of attention have led to an aggravation of conflicts between Russian “colonizers” and representatives of “indigenous” nationalities (primarily in Kazakhstan and the Baltic states) or between neighboring nationalities (Georgians and Abkhazians, Georgians and Ossetians, Uzbeks and Tajiks, Armenians and Azerbaijanis). etc.). The conflict between Armenians and Azerbaijanis over Nagorno-Karabakh, which was annexed to Azerbaijan in 1923, took the most tragic forms, despite the Armenian majority of its population. In February 1988, the Armenians of this autonomous region As part of Azerbaijan, they officially demanded reunification with Armenia. Due to the ambiguous position of the union government and the resistance of the leadership of Azerbaijan, the conflict escalated, and the pogrom of Armenians carried out by the Azerbaijanis in Sumgayit became a prologue to a real war between Armenia and Azerbaijan.

In 1989 and especially in 1990-1991. happened bloody clashes in Central Asia(Fergana, Dushanbe, Osh and a number of other regions). National minorities, which included the Russian-speaking population, were especially affected. The region of intense ethnic armed conflicts was the Caucasus, primarily South Ossetia and Abkhazia. In 1990-1991 in South Ossetia, in essence, there was a real war in which only heavy artillery, aircraft and tanks were not used. Clashes, including with the use of firearms, also took place between various mountain peoples.

The confrontation also took place in Moldova, where the population of the Gagauz and Transnistrian regions protested against the infringement of their national rights, and in the Baltic states, where part of the Russian-speaking population opposed the leadership of the republics. These confrontations were supported and provoked by part of the central leadership of the USSR and the CPSU.

In the Baltic republics, in Ukraine, in Georgia, sharp forms are taken struggle for independence for seceding from the USSR. In early 1990, after Lithuania declared its independence and negotiations over Nagorno-Karabakh stalled, it became clear that the central government was unable to use economic ties in the process of a radical revision of federal relations, which was the only way to prevent, or even to stop the decay Soviet Union.

Education of the USSR. National relations and nation-state construction in the 1920s. At the beginning of the 20th century, Russia was a multinational empire. The national liberation movement was an important integral part revolutionary movement in the country. Various political forces developed their own programs for solving the national question - from a single indivisible unitary Russia to federal, etc.

In November 1917, the Soviet government adopted the "Declaration of the Rights of the Peoples of Russia", which proclaimed the equality and sovereignty of the peoples of Russia, their right to self-determination up to secession, the abolition of national-religious privileges and restrictions. This right was used by Ukraine, Finland, Poland, Estonia, Lithuania, Latvia, Belarus. The program of the Bolshevik Party on the national question greatly contributed to their victory in the civil war. But, while proclaiming the right of nations to self-determination, the Bolsheviks did not seek to split Russia. On the contrary, they sought to preserve its integrity as much as possible.

In the years civil war and foreign military intervention, a military-political alliance was formed between the Soviet republics. Russia, Ukraine and Belarus have also pooled their resources, transport, finance, economic bodies maintaining autonomy in matters relating to inner life republics. This type of national-state structure is called a confederation. The republican communist parties were included in the RCP(b) as regional party organizations.

At the end of the civil war, all Soviet republics concluded bilateral agreements on economic and diplomatic union among themselves and with the RSFSR. The number of all-Union departments has increased. In March 1922 Azerbaijan, Armenia and Georgia formed the Transcaucasian Soviet Socialist Federation.

The tasks of restoring and developing the economy and socialist reorganization required the improvement of existing treaty-federative relations. Absence legal regulations regulating relations between central and local authorities, caused conflicts between them. In the spring of 1922, the Central Committee of the Communist Party of Ukraine and Belarus raised the issue of contractual relations.

The Politburo of the Central Committee of the RCP (b) created a commission to prepare a draft law on new form state association. I. Stalin, People's Commissar for Nationalities, became the chairman of the commission. He owned the idea of ​​"autonomization", i.e. the entry of the Soviet republics into the RSFSR and their subordination to a single center. Some republics rejected this idea, because. it infringed on their sovereignty. The proposal of V.I. Lenin on the creation of a federal state.

December 30, 1922 in Moscow, the First All-Union Congress of Soviets approved the Declaration and the Treaty on the formation of the USSR as part of the Russian SFSR, Ukrainian SSR, Byelorussian SSR and Transcaucasian SFSR. The Declaration proclaimed the principles of voluntary association, equality of the republics and the right of their free secession from the Union. The treaty defined the system of federal authorities, their competence and relations with the republican administrative structures.

The legal basis of the USSR was the Constitution adopted in January 1924. II Congress of Soviets of the USSR. She proclaimed the creation of a unified union state as a federation of sovereign Soviet republics. The republics were in charge of domestic policy, justice, education, health and welfare. Questions foreign policy, transport, communications were decided at the union level. The All-Union Congress of Soviets became the supreme legislative body, and in the intervals between congresses, the bicameral Central Executive Committee: the Council of the Union and the Council of Nationalities. executive power belonged to the Council People's Commissars THE USSR. Moscow was declared the capital of the USSR. The Constitution of the USSR retained the principles of the Constitution of the RSFSR of 1918 in the field of electoral law. The multi-stage system of elections, open voting, the advantages of the working class, the deprivation of voting rights of exploitative elements and ministers of religious cults were preserved.

National politics in the USSR was aimed at overcoming the historically established inequality of peoples in the economic, social and cultural spheres.

The Union included new republics: in 1924-1925. on the territory of the Turkestan Autonomous Soviet Socialist Republic, the Bukhara and Khorezm People's Republics, the Uzbek and Turkmen SSRs were created. In 1929, the Tajik ASSR was transformed into a union republic.

The territorial and administrative division of the country has changed: provinces, counties, volosts were transformed into regions, districts, village councils. National regions, districts, districts were created. Boundaries were clarified. The not always well-thought-out national-state delimitation carried out in the 1920s gave rise to hotbeds of future ethnic conflicts.

In the mid 80s. on the initiative of the party and state leaders, the renewal of the economic foundations, the political structure and the spiritual life of society began. Fundamental changes in the conditions for the development of production and methods of managing the economy of transformation in the socio-political sphere have gone beyond the limits outlined by "perestroika". They led to the collapse of the Soviet system that had existed for more than seven decades.

March 1985 General Secretary M.S. Gorbachev became the Central Committee of the CPSU. The Council of Ministers of the USSR was headed by N.I. Ryzhkov. MS Gorbachev and the radical politicians who supported him came up with the initiative to "renew socialism." The essence of the "renewal of society" is its initiator M.S. Gorbachev saw in the combination of socialism and democracy.

Democratization public life could not help but touch the sphere interethnic relations.

The first open mass demonstrations took place as a sign of disagreement with the number of national schools declining from year to year and the desire to expand the scope of the Russian language.

Gorbachev's attempts to limit the power of national elites provoked even more vigorous protests in a number of republics. The country's leadership turned out to be unprepared to solve the problems caused by interethnic and interethnic conflicts and the growth of the separatist movement in the republics.

In 1986, mass rallies and demonstrations against Russification took place in Alma-Ata (Kazakhstan). open molds accepted public discontent in the Baltic republics, Ukraine, Belarus. Armed clashes on the basis of interethnic conflicts have become more frequent.

In 1988, hostilities began between Armenia and Azerbaijan over Nagorno-Karabakh, a territory populated predominantly by Armenians, but which was part of the AzSSR. An armed conflict between Uzbeks and Meskhetian Turks broke out in Fergana. New Uzen (Kazakhstan) became the center of interethnic clashes. The appearance of thousands of refugees - this was one of the results of the conflicts that took place. In April 1989, mass demonstrations took place in Tbilisi for several days. The main demands of the demonstrators were the implementation of democratic reforms and the independence of Georgia. The Abkhaz population spoke out for revising the status of the Abkhaz ASSR and separating it from the Georgian SSR.

Against the backdrop of the impotence of the allied authorities in May 1988, popular fronts were created in Latvia, Lithuania, and Estonia. If at first they spoke "in support of perestroika", then after a few months they announced secession from the USSR as the ultimate goal.

The requirement to introduce the mother tongue in state and educational institutions sounded in Ukraine, Belarus, Moldova.

In the Central Asian republics, for the first time in many years, there was a threat of penetration of Islamic fundamentalism.

In Yakutia, Tataria, and Bashkiria, movements were gaining momentum that demanded that these autonomous republics be given union rights.

Gorbachev's "team" was not ready to offer ways out of the "national impasse" and therefore constantly hesitated and was late in making decisions. The situation gradually began to get out of control.

The situation became even more complicated after the holding in early 1990. elections in the Union republics on the basis of the new electoral law. Almost everywhere the leaders of the national movements won.

The “parade of sovereignties” began: on March 9, the declaration of sovereignty was adopted by the Supreme Council of Georgia, March 11 - Lithuania, March 30 - Estonia, May 4 - Latvia, June 12 - RSFSR, June 20 - Uzbekistan, June 23 - Moldova, July 16 - Ukraine , July 27 - Belarus.

All this made Gorbachev belatedly announce the start of the development of a new Union Treaty. This work began in the summer of 1990.

The main idea embodied in the draft of this document was the idea of ​​broad rights for the union republics, primarily in economic sphere. However, it soon became clear that Gorbachev was not ready to go for that either. Since the end of 1990 The union republics, which now had great independence, decided to act at their own discretion: a series of bilateral agreements were concluded between them in the field of the economy.

On March 17, 1991, a referendum was held on the fate of the USSR. 76% of the population of a vast country spoke in favor of maintaining a single state.

In the summer of 1991, the first presidential elections in the history of Russia took place. During election campaign the leading "democratic" candidate, Yeltsin, actively played the "national card," suggesting that Russia's regional leaders take as much sovereignty as they "can eat." This largely ensured his victory in the elections. Gorbachev's position weakened even more.

In the summer, Gorbachev agreed to all the conditions and demands made by the Union republics. According to the draft of the new treaty, the USSR was supposed to turn into a Union of Sovereign States, which would include both former union and autonomous republics on equal terms.

In the absence of Gorbachev in Moscow on the night of August 19, a State Committee under the state of emergency (GKChP), who, in his absence, removed Gorbachev from power.

The State Emergency Committee introduced a state of emergency in certain regions of the country; declared disbanded the power structures that acted contrary to the Constitution of 1977; suspended the activities of opposition parties; banned rallies and demonstrations; established control over the funds mass media; sent troops to Moscow.

On the morning of August 19, the leadership of the RFSFR issued an appeal to the citizens of the republic, in which they regarded the actions of the State Emergency Committee as coup d'état and declared them illegal.

On August 22, members of the GKChP were arrested. One of the decrees of B.N. Yeltsin stopped the activities of the CPSU. On August 23, its existence as a ruling state structure was put an end to.

An attempt by the members of the GKChP to save the USSR led to the opposite result - the disintegration of a single country accelerated.

Latvia and Estonia declared independence on August 21, Ukraine on August 24, Belarus on August 25, Moldova on August 27, Azerbaijan on August 30, Uzbekistan and Kyrgyzstan on August 31, Tajikistan on September 9, Armenia on September 23, and Turkmenistan on October 27 .

In December 1991 in Belovezhskaya Pushcha(BSSR) a meeting of the leaders of the three sovereign states of Russia (B.N. Yeltsin), Ukraine (L.M. Kravchuk) and Belarus (S.S. Shushkevich) was held. On December 8, they announced the termination of the union treaty of 1922 and the termination of the activities of the state structures of the former Union. Instead, the Commonwealth of Independent States (CIS) was created, which initially united 11 former Soviet republics (excluding the Baltic states and Georgia). On December 27, Gorbachev announced his resignation. Union of Soviet Socialist Republics ceased Existence.

The "perestroika", conceived and carried out by some of the party and state leaders with the aim of democratic changes in all spheres of society, has ended. Its main result was the collapse of the once mighty multinational state and completion Soviet period in the history of the Fatherland.

The policy of perestroika and glasnost, announced by the country's leadership headed by M. S. Gorbachev, led from the mid-80s. to a sharp aggravation of interethnic relations and a genuine explosion of nationalism in the USSR. These processes were based on underlying causes, rooted in the distant past. Even in the conditions of Brezhnev's splendor and window dressing, the crisis phenomena in the sphere of interethnic relations in the 60-70s. gradually gained strength. The authorities did not study interethnic and national problems in the country, but fenced off from reality with ideological guidelines about a “close-knit family of fraternal peoples” and a new historical community created in the USSR - the “Soviet people” - the next myths of “developed socialism”.

Since the mid 80s. as part of the process of democratization, interethnic problems in the USSR, in fact, came to the fore. One of the first menacing signs of disintegration processes and manifestations of national separatism was the unrest in Central Asia caused by the purges of the party leadership of the Brezhnev draft, accused of bribery and corruption. When D. A. Kunaev was replaced in Kazakhstan as the leader of the republic by V. G. Kolbin, who launched a campaign to strengthen “socialist legality” and combat manifestations of nationalism in the republic, real riots broke out in a number of cities. They took place under national-Islamic slogans, and their main participants were representatives of the youth. In December 1986, large-scale unrest took place in Alma-Ata for three days, which could only be “pacified” with the help of troops. Subsequently (1987-1988) major clashes on ethnic grounds, accompanied by numerous casualties, broke out in Fergana (against the Meskhetian Turks) and in the Osh region (against immigrants from the Caucasus who settled here).

At first national movements in the Soviet republics they acted within the framework of the popular fronts that arose during this period. Among them, the popular fronts of the Baltic republics were the most active and organized (already on August 23, 1987, a protest action took place in connection with the 48th anniversary of the "Ribbentrop-Molotov Pact"). After the start of political reform in the USSR, when, thanks to changes in electoral system were held alternative elections deputies of the revived congresses of people's deputies of the USSR, the popular fronts of Lithuania, Latvia and Estonia, as well as Armenia and Georgia, demonstrated that their candidates enjoy much more confidence and popularity among voters than representatives of the party-state bureaucracy. Thus, alternative elections to the highest bodies of power in the USSR (March 1989) served as an important impetus for the start of a "quiet" mass revolution against the omnipotence of the party-state apparatus. Discontent grew throughout the country, spontaneous unauthorized rallies were held with increasingly radical political demands.

Already on next year during the elections of people's deputies to republican and local authorities, a stable majority in the Supreme Soviets of Lithuania, Latvia, Estonia, Armenia, Georgia and Moldova received national radical forces opposed to the CPSU and the Union Center. They were now openly declaring the anti-Soviet and anti-socialist nature of their program guidelines. In the context of the growing socio-economic crisis in the USSR, national radicals advocated the implementation of full state sovereignty and the implementation of fundamental reforms in the economy outside the framework of the all-union state.

Along with the national separatism of the union republics, the national movement of peoples who had the status of autonomies within the USSR was gaining strength. Due to the fact that the small peoples who had the status of autonomous republics, or ethnic minorities that were part of the union republics, in the conditions of the adoption of a course towards the acquisition of state sovereignty by the republican titular nations, were under pressure of a kind of "little power", their national movement had, as it were, a defensive character. . They considered the union leadership as the only defense against the expansion of nationalism of the republican ethnic groups. The inter-ethnic conflicts, which sharply escalated under the conditions of perestroika, were based on deep historical roots. One of the first turning points in the perestroika process in the spring of 1988 was the Karabakh crisis. It was caused by the decision of the newly elected leadership of the autonomous Nagorno-Karabakh region to secede from Azerbaijan and transfer the Karabakh Armenians to the jurisdiction of Armenia. The growing inter-ethnic conflict soon turned into a long-term armed confrontation between Armenia and Azerbaijan. At the same time, a wave of ethnic violence swept through other regions of the Soviet Union: a number of republics of Central Asia, Kazakhstan. There was another explosion of Abkhaz-Georgian contradictions, and then bloody events in Tbilisi followed in April 1989. In addition, the struggle for the return to the historical lands of the Crimean Tatars, Meskhetian Turks, Kurds and Germans of the Volga region, repressed in Stalin's times, intensified. Finally, in connection with the granting of the status state language in Moldova, the Romanian (Moldovan) language and the transition to the Latin script, the Transnistrian conflict broke out. Its peculiar difference was that the population of Transnistria acted as a small nation, two-thirds consisting of Russians and Ukrainians.

At the turn of the 80-90s. the former Soviet republics not only ceased to function as a single national economic complex, but often, not only for economic, but also for political reasons, blocked mutual deliveries, transport links, etc.

The tragic events in Vilnius and Riga in January 1991 prompted M. S. Gorbachev and his associates from among the reformers in the union leadership to organize all-union referendum on the preservation of the USSR (the referendum took place on March 17, 1991 in 9 out of 16 republics). Based on the positive results of the popular vote, a meeting was held with the leaders of Russia, Ukraine, Belarus, Kazakhstan, Uzbekistan, Turkmenistan, Kyrgyzstan, Tajikistan and Azerbaijan, which ended with the signing of the "Statement 9 + I", which declared the principles of the new Union Treaty. However, the process of forming the renewal of the Union of Sovereign States was interrupted by the August putsch.

The collapse of the USSR entered a decisive stage in August 1991. The Baltic republics announced their withdrawal from it. On December 1, a referendum was held in Ukraine, in which the population of the republic voted for its independence. On December 8, the leaders of Russia, Ukraine, Belarus B. Yeltsin, L. Kravchuk, S. Shushkevich signed Belovezhskaya agreement about the denunciation of the Union Treaty of 1922 and announced the creation of the CIS. On December 21, in Alma-Ata, Azerbaijan, Armenia, Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Moldova, Tajikistan, Turkmenistan and Uzbekistan joined the CIS. Thus, the fact of the collapse of the Soviet Union as a single state was confirmed. December 25, 1991 M.S. Gorbachev resigned from the post of President of the USSR in connection with the disappearance of this state.

The reforms, which consequently led to the democratization of public life, could not but affect interethnic relations. The Yakuts were the first to openly defend their national freedoms. In early 1986, a series of protests were held in Yakutsk, where demonstrators demanded that the massive closure of Yakut schools be cancelled.

The ruling elite of local self-government bodies and state power. So, for example, M. Gorbachev was forced to change the chairman of the Central Committee of the Communist Party of Kazakhstan, who actively supported and encouraged popular protests.

After G. V. Kunaev took the post, a wave of protests swept across the country, which for the first time began to be of a revolutionary nature. They wanted to restore their autonomy Crimean Tatars, Germans of the Volga region, however, Transcaucasia became the territory of the most acute conflict on a national basis.

Formation of national movements

Taking advantage of the beginning of conflicts in the Transcaucasus, popular fronts were actively created in the Baltic countries, the purpose of which was the withdrawal of Lithuania, Latvia and Estonia from the USSR.

At the initial stages of their activities, the radical nationalist organizations of the Baltic States were able to get the Supreme Councils of the republics to proclaim national languages ​​as the only state languages. Already in the middle of 1989, the Russian language was deprived of the status of the state language in these countries.

Following the example of the Baltic States, the requirements to introduce national languages ​​into government institutions were nominated by Moldova, Belarus and Ukraine. The populations of Tataria, Bashkiria and Yakutia demanded the immediate recognition of their republics as full members of the Union.

"Parade of sovereignties"

In the first half of 1990, national movements and government attempts to solve economic and social issues on their own without the participation of the Center led to the adoption of sovereignty in many union republics.

became sovereign states the Russian Federation, Ukraine, the Baltic countries, Georgia, Moldova, Uzbekistan and Belarus. The reaction of the top of the Central Committee of the CPSU was sharp and economic sanctions were applied to many states.

Much belatedly, Gorbachev began to develop a new union treaty, which still failed to save the Soviet state.

The government's attempt to save the collapsing state with the help of the State Emergency Committee led to the opposite result. During the period August-October 1991 declarations of state independence were adopted in the Baltic States, Ukraine, Moldova, Belarus, Uzbekistan and Kyrgyzstan, Armenia and Turkmenistan.

The existence of the Soviet state became possible only in the status of a confederation. In September 1991, the USSR State Council recognized independence Union republics that was the beginning of the end of the existence of the Soviet Union.

Already on December 8, at the official meeting of the presidents of Russia, Ukraine and Belarus, the liquidation of the USSR as a subject of international law and the cessation of its geopolitical existence.

The final collapse of the USSR became apparent on December 27, 1991, when the last Soviet General Secretary, M. Gorbachev, resigned. So hastily ended the history of the once one of the most powerful world powers. The dreams of the fathers of communism were buried under the ruins of the state of the Soviets.