In November,
1917, Vladimir Lenin rewarded Joseph
Stalin for his support of the October
Revolution by appointing him Commissar of Nationalities. As a
Georgian and a member of a minority group who had written about the
problems of non-Russian peoples living under the Tsar, Stalin was
seen as the obvious choice as Commissar of Nationalities. It was a
job that gave Stalin tremendous power for nearly half the country's
population fell into the category of non-Russian. Stalin now had the
responsibility of dealing with 65 million Ukrainians, Georgians, Byelorussians,
Tadzhiks, Buriats and Yakuts.
The policy
of the Bolsheviks
was to grant the right of self-determination to all the various nationalities
within Russia. This was reinforced by a speech Stalin made in Helsinki
on November 16th, 1917. Stalin promised the crowd that the Soviet
government would grant: "complete freedom for the Finnish people,
and for other peoples of Russia, to arrange their own life!"
Stalin's plan was to develop what he called "a voluntary and
honest alliance" between Russia and the different national groups
that lived within its borders.
Over the
next couple of years Stalin had difficulty controlling the non-Russian
peoples under his control. Independent states were set up without
his agreement. These new governments were often hostile to the Bolsheviks.
Stalin had hoped that these independent states would voluntarily agree
to join up with Russia to form a union of Socialist States. When this
did not happen Stalin was forced to revise the policy and stated that
self-determination: "ought to be understood as the right of self-determination
not of the bourgeoisie but of the toiling masses of a given nation."
In other words, unless these independent states had a socialist government
willing to develop a union with Russia, the Bolsheviks would not allow
self-determination.
Vladimir
Lenin also changed his views on independence. He now came to the
conclusion that a "modern economy required a high degree of power
in the centre." Although the Bolsheviks
had promised nearly half the Russian population that they would have
self-determination, Lenin was now of the opinion that such a policy
could pose a serious threat to the survival of the Soviet government.
It was the broken promise over self-determination was just one of
the many reasons why Lenin's government became unpopular in Russia.
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