Contents
List of Tables and Maps xi
Acknowledgments xiii
Footnote Abbreviations xv
A Note on Style xvii
1. The Soviet Affirmative Action Empire 1
The Logic of the Affirmative Action Empire 2
The Content of the Affirmative Action Empire 9
An Affirmative Action Empire 15
The Party and the Affirmative Action Empire 20
The Geography of the Affirmative Action Empire 23
The Chronology of the Affirmative Action Empire 25

PART ONE
Implementing the Affirmative Action Empire 29
2. Borders and Ethnic Conflict 31
The Emergence of National Soviets in Ukraine 33
National Soviets in Belorussia and the RSFSR 48
National Soviets and Ethnic Conflict in the Soviet East 56
Gonclusion 72
3. Linguistic Ukrainization, 1923-1932 75
The Background to Ukrainization, 19I9-1923 78
Ukrainization, I923-I925 79
Kaganovich's Ukrainization, April 1925-June 1926 84
The Failure of Comprehensive Ukrainization, 1926-1932 98
Conclusion 122
4. Affirmative Action in the Soviet East, 1923-1932 125
East and West 126
The Cultural Fund 129
Mechanical Korenizatsiia, 1923 to 1926 132
Functional Korenizatsiia, 1926 to 1928 139
Affirmative Action and Ethnic Conflict in the Industrial
Work Place
Cultural Revolution and Korenizatsiia in the Soviet East 154 Conclusion: Korenizatsiia in East and West 177
5. The Latinization Campaign and the Symbolic Politics of
National Identity 182
The Latinization Campaign 185
Latinization as Derussification 194
Language and Terror in the Soviet West 204

PART TWO
The Political Crisis of the Affirmative Action Empire 209
6. The Politics of National Communism, I923-I930 211
The Shumskyi Affair 212
Nationality and the Left Opposition 228
The Socialist Offensive and Cultural Revolution 238
The Cultural Revolutionary Show Trial in Ukraine 249
Terror as a System of Signaling 254
Terror and Policy Reversal in Belorussia 260
Conclusion 269
7.The National Interpretation of the 1933 Famine 273
The Piedmont Principle and Soviet Border Disputes 274
The Ukrainian Question in the RSFSR 282
The Kuban Affair 291
The National Interpretation of the Grain Requisitions Crisis 302
Conclusion: The Aftermath of the December 1932 Politburo
Decrees 307

PART THREE
Revising the Affirrmative Action Empire 309
8. Ethnic Cleansing and Enemy Nations 311
The Border Regions 312
The Politics of Immigration 316
Collectivization and Emigration 319
The Ukrainian Crisis 325
Ethnic Cleansing 328
Enemy Nations 335
Conclusion 341
9. The Revised Soviet Nationalities Policy, 1933-1939 344
The Skrypnyk Affair 345
The Greatest-Danger Principle 356
Ukrainization after the Skrypnyk Affair 362
Silent Korenizatsiia in the Soviet East 372
Conclusion 392
10. The Reemergence of the Russians 394
The Awkward Republic: The RSFSR 394
The Internationalization of the RSFSR 401
The Russification of the RSFSR 403
Script Russification and the Symbolic Politics of the Great Retreat 414
Language and the Great Terror 422
Conclusion 429
11. The Friendship of the Peoples 432
The Brotherhood of the Peoples 432
The Friendship of the Peoples 437
Stalinist Primordialism 442
The First among Equals 451
Conclusion 460

Glossary 462

Bibliography 465

Index 483