When the Soviet Union was founded, it faced the challenge of ethnic problems. The socialist Soviet Union was built on the ruins of the Russian Empire. /kloc-Before 0/4th century, the Russian Empire was originally a Moscow Principality with a single Russian nationality. By the end of15th, a centralized Russian state with Moscow as the center was formed. In the centuries it served, the Russian empire continued to invade and expand outward, conquered more than 100 countries around it, and expanded from a single nation-state to a huge feudal empire across Eurasia. Therefore, it cruelly oppresses and enslaves foreigners, tries its best to incite chauvinism in Great Russia, and incites Russians to despise, hate and oppress non-Russian nations. Lenin once pointed out indignantly: "Russia is a prison for people of all ethnic groups." "Broke the record of national oppression." 19 17 years, Lenin led the October Revolution, destroyed the bourgeois provisional government and established the Russian Soviet Republic. From 19 17 to 192 1, independent Soviet nations such as Ukraine, Belarus, Azerbaijan, Armenia and Georgia were established one after another. The Bolshevik Party headed by Lenin proposed that the Soviet Republic should establish a socialist federal state on the basis of voluntariness, equality and democratic union in order to oppose the armed intervention of imperialism, defend the young proletarian regime, realize the unity of all ethnic groups and adhere to the socialist road.

Two. Loss of central authority

(1) The formal federalism is actually a highly centralized central government, which deepens the rift between the central authority and the local rights of various countries.

In the early years after the revolution, Soviet leaders were in favor of national autonomy. Lenin opposed the establishment of a unified country from the beginning and clearly emphasized his support for federalism. 1922 12.30 The declaration and treaties of the founding of the Soviet Union stipulate that every nation has the right to autonomy, and every country that joins the federation has the right to leave the federation freely. Subsequently, the first Constitution of the Soviet Union in 1924 stipulated that the Soviet Union was an alliance of sovereign Soviet nation states, joined the Republic of * * as a sovereign state, and joined the Republic of * * to independently exercise state rights. The Soviet Union protects the sovereignty and independence of participating countries, and participating countries can freely withdraw from the Soviet Union. 1936 and 1937 have also made the same provision in the Soviet constitution. However, after Lenin, the principle of federalism became an armchair strategist. From the mid-20th century to 1930s, the Soviet Union was surrounded by capitalist countries, and Stalin became the leader of the Soviet Union. He violated Lenin's principle of democratic centralism, gradually strengthened the position of individual centralization, formed a highly centralized leadership system within the party, and applied the highly centralized organizational leadership principle within the party to the state system. As a result, the principle of federalism was destroyed, and the countries that joined the Republic of Korea lost their independent sovereign status and formed a highly centralized system. In fact, it is to establish a unified country with absolute centralization. Under this system, the central government often overemphasizes the national interests of the reunification of the whole Soviet Union and ignores the special interests of ethnic areas.

1998 to 1999, Ye primakov, who served as Russian prime minister and was later dismissed by Yeltsin, pointed out when analyzing the disintegration of the Soviet Union: all affairs or all major affairs of joining the Republic of * * * were subordinate to Moscow. The central government leads everything. Even the construction of some enterprises in various countries is often not based on economic rationality, but on various political reasons. The cadre policy promulgated by the central government is unconditionally implemented as an order. ..... even came up with the idea that Moscow should exclude some "plenipotentiary agents" as the second secretary of the the Central Committee of the Communist Party of China of the participating republics. From time to time, the first secretary of the CPC Central Committee was also sent to * * * and People's Republic of China (PRC).

(b) Human rights crisis-formal equality, unfair treatment in fact, and the disconnection between form and practice.

The Soviet Union decided to implement the equality of all ethnic groups in the form of the Constitution, but in practice, it actively promoted Russianization, treated different ethnic groups in China unequally, violated the taboo of reasonably solving ethnic problems, intensified ethnic conflicts, further weakened the central authority, and lost people's hearts in governance. Astrid S.tuminez also discussed the same view in his paper: "The contradiction between equality in national manifesto and unfair treatment and cruel suppression of all ethnic groups in practice is another factor that has weakened the central authority for a long time." [6]

1. Language policy-Russian implementation

Language policy is the earliest action taken by the Soviet government on ethnic issues, aiming at achieving ethnic equality through equal development of language. The Soviet Constitution stipulates: "Soviet citizens can use their own national language and the languages of other nationalities in the Soviet Union." Lenin once thought that non-Russians would voluntarily use Russian one day, because he thought it was convenient to use Russian and because the original policy allowed these people to develop their own culture freely. The initial policy of the Soviet government was indeed to allow and help large and small ethnic groups, even the weakest ethnic groups, to prosper their language and culture.

2. Serious ethnic discrimination in the Soviet Union.

Tatars in Crimea enjoyed the same status as other ethnic groups at the beginning of the establishment of the Soviet Union, but World War II changed their fate, and equality disappeared, and they were greeted by cruel and unequal reality. From July 1957 to June19610, they submitted six petitions to party and state organs at all levels, and the number of signatories of each petition ranged from 6,000 to 25,000. These petitions have only one demand, that is, to treat them equally with other exiled ethnic groups and restore their political and national rights. However, the Soviet government made no mention of these demands for collective unity, and accused the most active members of inciting "racial hatred" and suppressing it. [x] Jews are also obviously treated unfairly. 1949 65438+ 10 In October, the Soviet Union launched a campaign to criticize "unpatriotic cosmopolitans", aiming at Jews. A group of scientists, teachers and literary and art workers suffered a devastating blow in this movement. 1948 12, the Jewish anti-fascist Committee was dissolved and its activists were arrested; 1949 Soviet people's actor Mikhoels was suppressed. Later, Jewish cultural institutions-theatrical troupes, schools, newspapers and so on. -It's closed. This movement reached its climax in the later period of Stalin. A group of Jewish doctors who treated Gao Qian in the Kremlin hospital were accused of murdering Gao Qian and put in prison. [xi]

Step 3 attach it separately

In the later construction process, Soviet leaders abandoned Lenin's idea of dividing national autonomous units and regional autonomous units according to national characteristics, and established the management scope of autonomous regions, autonomous prefectures and local autonomy; When dividing administrative regions, we should carefully investigate the economic situation and ethnic composition of local residents and fully take care of the boundaries between national history and tradition. However, the problem of ethnic boundaries is forcibly solved by administrative orders, which has buried hidden dangers in inter-ethnic relations and caused dissatisfaction among many ethnic groups. In 1930s, the Soviet Union launched a nationwide purge campaign. After World War II, this great purge has not been abandoned. In addition, the later Soviet Union, especially the leaders in the later period of Stalin and later, tried their best to promote chauvinism in Great Russia, and the equality of all ethnic groups actually became meaningless. All these provide a broad mass base for nationalism and national separatism, and also provide opportunities for western forces to interfere in their internal affairs. Under the combined action of internal and external factors, this separation tendency is becoming more and more serious, and all ethnic groups are more inclined to establish their own completely independent countries.

Three. Gorbachev's reform

When Gorbachev was in power, the contradiction between Russians and non-Russians in the Soviet Union, and the contradiction between the central government of the Soviet Union and countries and regions that joined the Soviet Union had reached a rather intensified state. Explore the reasons why it didn't break out before, because at that time, the * * * Republic was led by the * * * Production Party, and a socialist * * * ideal established by Lenin among all ethnic groups also generally occupied people's ideology. After taking office, Ge promoted reform with "new thinking" and advocated "democratization" and "openness". It can't be denied that the general direction of his reform was right, which was in line with the historical development trend at that time, but it's a pity that he didn't grasp the degree of alienation of rights and publicly criticized Marx, Engels and Lenin, which caused serious ideological confusion and shook the socialist ideals and beliefs that people always adhered to. He advocated political pluralism and shook the core position of the * * * production party. More importantly, in February 1990, the Central Plenary Session of the Soviet Union adopted a multi-party system and agreed to amend Article 6 of the Constitution. The implementation of the multi-party system abolished the leadership position given to the Soviet Union by the Constitution.

Four. general survey

The disintegration of the Soviet Union is the result of the interaction of various internal and external factors, and we cannot simply consider any one factor and completely put aside other factors. The ethnic problems in the Soviet Union have always been intertwined with the separatist movements of all ethnic groups and the loss of the central authority of the Soviet Union. The formation, development and demise of a nation has its own laws and will go through a long historical stage. As long as different ethnic groups exist, new ethnic contradictions and problems will continue to emerge. Therefore, to solve ethnic problems, we must respect the cultures of all ethnic groups and truly implement equality, not just formal equality. As a multi-ethnic country, it is inevitable that the Soviet Union will eventually "fail" in history and policy. The leaders of the Soviet Union put forward a series of unrealistic ideas and theories, which violated the laws of national development, artificially accelerated the process of ethnic proximity and integration, and realized Russianization as soon as possible, leading to many mistakes in dealing with ethnic issues and a profound crisis lurking in ethnic relations. In the end, the central authority of the Soviet Union was almost exhausted, and a large-scale ethnic separatist movement broke out under the guidance of Gorbachev's "new thinking", thus a once great country went to failure.