Ethnopolitical discrimination in the late imperial and early Soviet periods

Abstract

In Imperial Russia, almost all major non-Russian ethnic groups had their representatives in power structures - in central and local executive bodies, in the courts and in law enforcement agencies, since 1905, in legislative institutions, although in most cases the number of nominees from an ethnic group did not correspond to its population size. In some cases (Jews), this was due to direct discrimination, but more often it was due to a low level of culture, lack of knowledge of the Russian language, lack of professionals, and other factors not directly related to ethnic inequality. You needed the appropriate competence and at least at least a basic education and knowledge of the Russian language in order to participate in the management. As a result, citizens that are more educated also had a higher chance of entering the service of government structures, regardless of ethnicity. Ethnopolitical discrimination in the Empire was not so significant as to be the main cause of the 1917 revolution and the collapse of the Russian Empire. In the first decade of Soviet power, ethnic inequality in the formation of government bodies and power structures decreased, but was eliminated, respectively; the participation of non-Russians in government increased, but has not yet become adequate to their number. As the index of ethnopolitical representativeness shows, the inequality was not yet completely eliminated up to 1926: the index increased from 0.61 to 0.79 for all non-Russian peoples as a whole in 1897–1926, but did not reach 1,00, that is, the democratic norm. This reduction in inequality can be considered significant, but it cannot be called a qualitative leap in overcoming ethnic discrimination.