1921-1924 - Impact on National Minorities

• Following the Civil War, the USSR was formally established.
• Stalin favoured a centralised approach which would have asserted Russian control across the new state.

  • Lenin disagreed and favoured a union of autonomous Soviet Socialist Republics who had "voluntarily" chosen to become part of the new USSR.
• The reality of the new state was that the USSR was dominant in its size, economy and power.
• The Communist parties in each of the SSRs were subservient to the Russian Communist Party in Moscow.
• The tolerant cultural and political atmosphere of the NEP period extended to the Jewish population.
• During the NEP period, the rights of Soviet Jews were protected and a "national homeland" was created in the far east of Russia where Jews would be free to maintain their cultural heritage.
• All anti-Semitic laws were abolished and Yiddish was accepted as a language.