Soviet patriotism

Soviet patriotism is the socialist patriotism involving emotional and cultural attachment of the Soviet people to the Soviet Union as their homeland.[1] It has been referred to as "Soviet nationalism". However, the concept of "Soviet nationalism" is claimed to be a misnomer and inaccurate because Vladimir Lenin and the Bolsheviks were officially opposed to nationalism as being reactionary, a bourgeois creation, and contrary to the interests of proletarian class struggle and communist revolution.[2] Under the outlook of international communism that was especially strong at the time, Lenin separated patriotism into what he defined as proletarian, socialist patriotism from bourgeois nationalism.[3] Lenin promoted the right of all nations to self-determination and the right to unity of all workers within nations, but he also condemned chauvinism and claimed there were both justified and unjustified feelings of national pride.[4] Lenin explicitly denounced conventional Russian nationalism as "Great Russian Chauvinism", and his government sought to accommodate the country's multiple ethnic groups by creating republics and sub-republic units to provide non-Russian ethnic groups with autonomy and protection from Russian domination.[2] Lenin also sought to balance the ethnic representation of leadership of the country by promoting non-Russian officials in the Communist Party to counter the large presence of Russians in the Party.[2] However, even at this early period the Soviet government appealed at times to Russian nationalism when it needed support - especially on the Soviet borderlands in the Soviet Union's early years.[2]

Flag of the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics.

Stalin emphasized a centralist Soviet socialist patriotism that spoke of a "Soviet people" and identified Russians as being the "elder brothers of the Soviet people".[2] During World War II, Soviet socialist patriotism and Russian nationalism merged, portraying the war not just as a struggle of communists versus fascists, but more as a struggle for national survival.[2] During the war, the interests of the Soviet Union and the Russian nation were presented as the same, and as a result Stalin's government embraced Russia's historical heroes and symbols, and established a de facto alliance with the Russian Orthodox Church.[2] The war was described by the Soviet government as the Great Patriotic War.[2] After the war, however, the use of Russian nationalism dramatically decreased and emphasis returned again to Marxist–Leninist ideology.

Nikita Khrushchev moved the Soviet government's policies away from Stalin's reliance on Russian nationalism.[2] Khrushchev promoted the notion of the people of the Soviet Union as being a supranational "Soviet People" that became state policy after 1961.[5] This did not mean that individual ethnic groups lost their separate identities or were to be assimilated but instead promoted a "brotherly alliance" of nations that intended to make ethnic differences irrelevant.[6] At the same time, Soviet education emphasized an "internationalist" orientation.[6] Many non-Russian Soviet people suspected this "Sovietization" to be a cover for a new episode of "Russification", in particular because learning the Russian language was made a mandatory part of Soviet education, and because the Soviet government encouraged ethnic Russians to move outside of Russia.[6]

Efforts to achieve a united Soviet people were severely damaged by the severe economic problems in the Soviet Union in the 1970s and 1980s resulting in a wave of anti-Soviet sentiment among non-Russians and Russians alike.[6] Mikhail Gorbachev presented himself as a Soviet patriot dedicated to resolving the country's economic and political problems, but he was unable to restrain the rising regional and sectarian ethnic nationalism, with the USSR breaking up in 1991.[6]

See also

References
  1. The Current digest of the Soviet press , Volume 39, Issues 1-26. American Association for the Advancement of Slavic Studies, 1987. Pp. 7.
  2. Motyl 2001, pp. 501.
  3. The Current digest of the Soviet press , Volume 39, Issues 1-26. American Association for the Advancement of Slavic Studies, 1987. Pp. 7.
  4. Christopher Read. Lenin: a revolutionary life. Digital Printing Edition. Oxon, England, UK; New York, New York, USA: Routledge, 2006. Pp. 115.
  5. Motyl 2001, pp. 501-502.
  6. Motyl 2001, pp. 502.

Bibliography
  • Motyl, Alexander J. (2001). Encyclopedia of Nationalism, Volume II. Academic Press. ISBN 0-12-227230-7.
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