Question by Kellyyy.: How did Joseph Stalin shape russian nationalism?
I know he ruled russia as a communist country and forced russia to extreme ultranationalism. But how did Stalin shape how Russia is now?
Answers and Views:
Answer by Trzcina
The nationalism was brought in largely through encouragement and glorification of the Communist Party and through it the Soviet Union (Komsomol and Pioneers) and through the reintroduction of pre-1917 history into schools, although in a very Party-influenced way.
As to how he shaped what Russia is now, many of his projects continue to influence the country. He changed the face of the landscape, ordering new cities built and having old ones changed to suit his wishes. He industrialized the country further than it had been before. He successfully removed the Russian peasant from the picture for the first time in over 1000 years through collectivization. He left a legacy of yet another government of fear and dictatorial leadership. His policies and use of the Red Army decimated a generation of young men. And on and on.
Edit: I did not by any means mean to say that he did only bad (and am thus a bit confused by the thumbs down). Hundreds of thousands of Russians cried at the news of his death. But many of the social issues of today’s Russia are rooted in Stalin’s actions–both in modernizing and industrializing, and in changing the entire structure of society. He did more than most other Soviet leaders. But he didn’t do it gently. Then again, neither did Peter the Great, if we want to discuss long pre-Revolutionary Russian rulers.
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What do you think?
Slava T says
I generally agree with Spellbound that Stalin had nothing to do with the ethnic Russian nationalism (Stalin’s nationalism is oxymoron). Just a few remarks:
1) Stalin superficially used some Russian national symbols and toyed with the superficial tokens of “Russianness” at the time when he really felt threatened and was in need of the ethnic Russian popular support:
a. During his first public speech after the beginning of the war against Nazis he addressed population as “brothers and sisters”. It was EXTREMELY unusual for a communist and atheist to use this kind of language which had heavy Russian Orthodox undertones;
b. During the war Stalin conducted the policy of “rehabilitation” of the Russian Orthodox Church;
c.Stalin re-introduced into the Soviet language words which had been considered as “vestige” of Imperial Russia – “minister” (for commissar); “military officer” (for military commander) etc. Stalin changed Soviet military uniform in a way it started looking very much as Imperial Russian uniform; he sponsored making “historical” films on national Russian figures as a measure to boost up ethnic Russian patriotism (Alexander Nevsky, Ivan the Terrible).
2) At the reception to celebrate the WWII victory in 1945 Stalin toasted to “patient Russian people” (meaning ethnic Russians). It was a Juda’s kiss of a tyrant. It was in line with the Soviet propaganda about “leading role” of the Soviet Russian Republic among other 14 republics of the USSR. This “leading role” included chiefly tasks to provide USSR with cannon fodder for wars, labour force etc. So, Stalin used some elements of nationalism when he thought he needed them to achieve his goals;
3) Stalin literally formed contemporary Russia meaning that his policies formed some behavioral and institutional patterns NOT Russian nationalism. The problem with that is the historical experience of people living in Russia now doesn’t go back deeper than Stalin’s period. It’s a serious obstacle on the way of political and “mental” transformation of contemporary Russia.
Spellbound says
Stalin did not rule Russia, he ruled the Soviet Union – a country made up of 15 republics that all had different languages, histories and cultures. He also did not force Russia into "extreme ultra-nationalism" – communism is an internationalist ideology and is against nationalism.
However, later Soviet practice was to give each republic a party chief of the titular nationality, and his deputy was nearly always a Russian or Ukrainian – the deputy was the person really in charge.
Also Stalin was conscious of "Great Russian Chauvinism" and that, because Marx stated nationalism was a bourgeois construct, then manifestations of nationalism should be limited to cultural and linguistic affairs.
But nationalism was certainly present, and Russia was considered the leading nation among the peoples of the USSR.
How Stalin shaped the Russia of today is by turning a medieval, backwards, peasant based country into an industrial and military superpower within a very short space of time. He did this brutally, with many millions of deaths caused either by the bullet or by starvation and disease. He put in place the mentality to face the privations caused by WWI and the industry to help beat the Nazis.
All of these things are still a source of pride for many Russians – after all, their grandparents took Warsaw, Prague, Budapest and Berlin at great cost. Russians are also proud that under Stalin their country was able to sit at the top table of international diplomacy – the Security Council of the UN.