Soviet Russia’s Policy Towards Tatar Muslim National Autonomy(1917-1921)

The universal national problems have direct effect on the stability anddevelopment of a nation. Soviet Russia is a multi-nationality country, and its nationalproblem was very serious during the First World War. As Lenin once said “TsaristSoviet Russia is the prison of the people of all nations”, all nations were under theoppression of Tsar. Tatars, as the nation with the largest population in Soviet Russianational minority, and most of them believe in Islam, have played important roles andattracted many powers attention. From the February Revolution in1917to the end ofcivil war in1921, Soviet Russia’s policy towards Tatar Muslim national autonomy, tosome extent, reflected the Soviet Russia government’s policy towards all nations. As towhat the author has known about the research in this field till now, many scholars putthe emphasis on the dissolution of the Soviet Union and nationality policy, but not onthe study of policy towards Tatar Muslim. This article, with Soviet Russia’s policytowards Tatar Muslim national autonomy as the object of study, tries to explicate andevaluate objectively Soviet Russia government’ policy towards Tatar Muslim Left andRight, and Tatar Muslim nationalists.The exploration in this article is from the following three parts:The first part expounds the evolution of Soviet Russia’s policy towards TatarMuslim national autonomy between the February Revolution in1917and1918.It isalso a simple analysis of Soviet Russia’s attitude towards Tatar Muslim Right nationalautonomy and the changing of nationality policy.Between1917and1918, Soviet Russia, under the serious domestic and overseassituation, formulated nationality policy by Congress and Declarations. Firstly, in1917,the nationality policy which supported the equality of nationalities and nationalself-determination was formulated by convening the seventh Congress of RSDLP (Bolshevik) and the announcement of “Declaration of Rights of the peoples of SovietRussia”. This policy also achieved the nations’ help in stepping into power and theconsolidation of power. Secondly, under the nationality policy, the Tatar Muslim Rightlaunched independence movement. In order to achieve independence, Tatar MuslimRight keep neutral attitude towards Soviet Russia government, which is not helpful tothe consolidation of power, thus, this movement was suppressed by Soviet Russiagovernment. At last, faced with the serious domestic and overseas situation, SovietRussia announced “Declaration of Rights of toiling and Exploited People” in1918,gaining the support of Muslim and eliminating the effect of Tatar Muslim Right. SovietRussia’s nationality policy resulted in the independence movements of all nations andtriggered the bleeding war between Muslim and Baku Soviet which broughtunfavorable effect on nationality policy in this period.The second part gives an account of Tatar Muslim Left’s attitude towards SovietRussia government and the methods and strategies in winning over nationalautonomy. This part is also an exposition of the effect of nationality policy formulatedin the eighth Congress of Soviet Russia’s communist party (Bolshevik) on TatarMuslim.The serious domestic and overseas situation gained the alleviation in1918and1919.First, on the first Muslim Congress on May5,1917, Tatar Muslim Left hasshowed its favor to Soviet Russia government. In order to gain the help of SovietRussia government and reach the goal of autonomy, Tatar Muslim Left supportedSoviet Russia government, learning lesson from the failure of Right. Second, Stalinallied with Tatar Muslim Left provisionally to consolidate his position within party andmaintain and consolidate Soviet Russia’s political power. This kind of relationship wasof great mutual assistance and achieved the intended effect. At last, under the conditionof growing national independence movements, the policy that “all nations mustimplement all the resolutions of Soviet Russia’s communist party (Bolsheviks)” wasformulated on the eighth Congress of Soviet Russia’s communist party convened inMarch,1919after the consolidation of power and the alleviation of contradictions. After the changes of Soviet Russia government’s nationality policy, Tatar Muslim Leftbegan to be aloof from Soviet Russia government and strive for national autonomy.The third part mainly states the efforts of Muslim nationalists, with Sultan-Galievas the leader, to win national autonomy and Soviet Russia government” policy fromthe eighth congress of Soviet Russia’s communist party in march,1919to the end ofcivil war in1921First, this part presents the effect on Tatar Muslim’s striving for nationalautonomy of Sultan-Galiev, leader of Muslim nationalists, and the nationalcommunism theory (the Export Revolution to Islam world,1919-1921).Second, thispart is about Sultan-Galiev’s outline of Muslim national autonomy, which laid thefoundation of establishing countries for Tatar Muslim national autonomy. At last, thispart tells the growing centralization of Soviet Russia’s political power, and TatarMuslim national autonomy was opposed and suppressed by Soviet Russia governmenttill the end of civil war in1921.All in all, the evolution of Soviet Russia’s policy towards Tatar Muslim nationalautonomy (1917-1921) showed that Soviet Russia government wanted to lead andreign all nations, as a result, all nations suffered a lot. The evolution of the policy laidgroundwork for the dissolution of the Soviet Union.