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Winner of the Wayne S. Vucinich Prize given by the American Association for the Advancement of Slavic Studies.


Winner of the 2003 Herbert Baxter Adams Prize given by American Historical Association

The Soviet Union was the first of Europe's multiethnic states to confront the rising tide of nationalism by systematically promoting the national consciousness of its ethnic minorities and establishing for them many of the institutional forms characteristic of the modern nation-state. In the 1920s, the Bolshevik government, seeking to defuse nationalist sentiment, created tens of thousands of national territories. It trained new national leaders, established national languages, and financed the production of national-language cultural products.

This was a massive and fascinating historical experiment in governing a multiethnic state. Terry Martin provides a comprehensive survey and interpretation, based on newly available archival sources, of the Soviet management of the nationalities question. He traces the conflicts and tensions created by the geographic definition of national territories, the establishment of dozens of official national languages, and the world’s first mass "affirmative action" programs.

Martin examines the contradictions inherent in the Soviet nationality policy, which sought simultaneously to foster the growth of national consciousness among its minority populations while dictating the exact content of their cultures; to sponsor national liberation movements in neighboring countries, while eliminating all foreign influence on the Soviet Union's many diaspora nationalities. Martin explores the political logic of Stalin's policies as he responded to a perceived threat to Soviet unity in the 1930s by re-establishing the Russians as the state's leading nationality and deporting numerous "enemy nations."

Reviews

"In the popular imagination, the Soviet Union was always synonymous with Russia, but in the U.S.S.R.'s early days Soviet leaders had a very different idea in mind: they wanted to establish a true multinational, multiethnic empire. . . . Yet, as Martin shows in this fascinating history, simply giving an order was not enough, even in the Stalin years, and the complex relationship between socialism and nationalism in places like Ukraine often frustrated Soviet intentions."--The New Yorker, June 10, 2002

"Martin significantly advances our understanding of the early, formative years of Soviet nationality policy, providing a subtle and lucid reconstruction of its unique conceptual underpinnings and its stormy evolution. . . . Martin's work is more than an important contribution to the field of Soviet history; it is a critical piece in comprehending contemporary Ukrainian and Russian nationality."--Foreign Affairs, May/June 2002

"[T]he real virtue of Martin's book—and all of the best new Soviet scholarship—is not in the theoretical model it propounds, but in the power of its details, gleaned from previously unknown documents. . . . Martin is able, for the first time, to explain what it was that the Soviet Union's leaders actually intended their nationality policy to achieve. . . . Reading Martin's work, . . . one is struck, above all, by how much stranger the Soviet Union is beginning to seem, in retrospect, than we thought it was at the time, and how much more perverse. . . . Reading this history also gives us in the West an insight, however narrow, into the turmoil experienced in the non-Russian lands of the former Soviet Union during the last decade. Ukraine, Belarus, Uzbekistan, Georgia: these are now 'free' and independent states. yet how real is this freedom? Might it not be another illusion, foisted upon them by a still powerful, and still much wealthier, Russian republic."—The New York Review of Books, February 12, 2004

"Martin's book is fascinating and enlightening. . . . After reading Martin's book, one is left with the impression that Stalin's weight in the nationalities debate as a significant factor in his victory."—Michael F. Gretz, New School University, Nationalism and Ethnic Politics 9:1, Spring 2003

"Terry Martin's Affirmative Action Empire is an exceptional and unique book, indispensable for any student of ethnic politics in the Soviet Union and its successor states, notably the Russian Federation. It is unique both in its comprehensive, in-depth treatment of the evolution of the Soviet nationalities policy from its inception until the end of the 1930s and in its reliance on Soviet archival sources that have become accessible only recently. . . . A major contribution to the history of the Soviet Union and to the study of ethnicity."—Teresa Rakowska-Harmstone, Harvard University, Journal of Ukrainian Studies 26:1-2, Summer–Winter 2001

"Terry Martin looks at the nationalities policy of the early Soviet period and offers an insightful, detailed analysis of a problem that Soviet leaders grappled with throughout the twentieth century. As he points out, it was a problem that eventually helped to usher in the end of the USSR."—Amanda Wood Aucoin, New Zealand Slavonic Journal

"The USSR was not only the first major attempt to build a socialist society. It was also a monumental, arguably ingenious (even if fatally flawed) experiment in managing cultural diversity and identity. . . . Terry Martin's ambitious, challenging book represents a quantum leap in our knowledge of the USSR as an empire—or we might say "recovering empire."—Robert Geraci, University of Virginia, The Russian Review 63:2

"Martin's book is brilliantly written and not only gives a coherent analysis and interpretation of the early Soviet nationality policy but also makes a substantial contribution to our understanding of other crucial problems of the period, such as the famine in Ukraine and the Kuban region and the Great Terror, one-third of its victims being members of the 'enemy nations.' Martin's outstanding book is the most differentiated and sophisticated study of the fascinating early Soviet national experiment and its partial revision under Stalin."—Andreas Kappeler, University of Vienna, 76:1, March 2004

"The preponderance of Martin's evidence shows, in a most creative and comprehensive way, how Soviet nationality policy was complex and contentious, how significant centers of power—in central economic planners, in the state security police, and in many party members—devalued the "national" and celebrated Russian core values instead."—Michael G. Smith, Purdue University, Slavic Review, Spring 2003, vol. 62, no. 1

"Since 1988, Michael McFaul has been the western scholar with the closest contacts to Russian political reformers. Not only has he observed them and written about them throughout the period, but, as his footnotes show, he interviewed them as well. His summary history of the period is a welcome addition to the literature. It rises above the polemics of the past and presents a balanced and judicious account of developments. . . . Russia's Unfinished Revolution essentially ends with the 1996 election, but anyone familiar with McFaul's more recent writings knows that he does not think that the obstacles to those promoting democracy have lessened during the presidency of Vladimir Putin. On the contrary, his discussion of the obstacles to democratization foretells the problems of the future."—Jerry F. Hough, Duke University, Slavic Review, Spring 2003, vol. 62, no. 1

“Terry Martin has produced a sophisticated examination of the nationality issue in Soviet Russia. . . . Martin’s outstanding work will be an essential text for graduate students and scholars interested in the development of Soviet nationalities policy.”—Harold J. Goldberg, HISTORY: Reviews of New Books

“By exploring one of the great might-have-beens of European history, Martin has provided a wealth of archival information that, like data on most lost causes, will exercise interpreters for decades to come.”—John A. Armstrong, Canadian Review of Studies in Nationalism, XXX, 2003

“Martin’s contribution goes well beyond filling in the broad and generally accurate picture painted by earlier Western analysts. He offers original, meaningful and generally convincing analytic insights. . . . This book is comprehensive, lucid, original and exciting. No one interested in the evolution of the USSR should ignore it.”—Zvi Gitelman, Nations and Nationalism, Vol. 9, Part 1, January 2003

“Terry Martin’s book presents a courageous survey of Soviet nationality policy, a devilishly complex topic. Filling a significant gap, Martin’s encyclopedic work is based on one of the most intensive research forays into the archives of the former Soviet Union of any Western scholar in recent years, and the wealth of hitherto inaccessible material that the author presents significantly deepens our understanding of Joseph Stalin’s Soviet Union. . . . Martin’s book constitutes a tremendous accomplishment.”—Kees Botherbloem, American Historical Review, October 2002

“Terry Martin’s magnificent book is far richer than this review can indicate. At each stage, he uses his extensive knowledge of party and state documents, correlating them with one another and with archive materials reflecting discussions and lower-level decisions to show how policies in very different areas of administration were interrelated. Thanks to his fine scholarship, we can see properly how national policy was integrated with other issues. And at last we can appreciate how important the Russian question was in the Soviet Union.”—Geoffrey A. Hosking, TLS, 4 October 2002
"Martin has produced the most detailed study of the origin of the Soviet regime's contradictory policies toward its minorities. The Affirmative Action Empire is one of the most important books on Soviet nationalities policies ever published. It will be an instant classic in its field."—Mark R. Beissinger, University of Wisconsin-Madison



"In this important new book, Terry Martin analyzes the emergence of the Soviet multinational state in the 1920 s and Stalin's move to promote the concept of the 'Friendship of the Peoples' in the 1930s. With exhaustive research in theRussian archives, Martin has captured the USSR'S paradoxical policy of fostering the development of its constituent nations, while seeking to bring them under Moscow's strict control."--Norman M.Neimark, Robert and Florence McDonnell Porfessor of East European Studies, Department of History, Stanford University

About the Author

Terry Martin is Associate Professor of History at Harvard University.

Table of Contents (.pdf)

History / Russia & Former U.S.S.R.
Political Science / Russia & Former U.S.S.R.
Race and Ethnicity Studies
Slavic Studies