how to make money on the side
the
postwar period saw the rise of underground nationalist movements of
varying intensity. the crimean tatars and the germans voiced demands
for the restoration of their territorial autonomies. although their
volga autonomy was not reinstated, tens of thousands of ethnic
germans were able to emigrate to west germany beginning in the
1970s. similarly, the american patronage of the demands of the
soviet jewry for the right of emigration helped to reach the level
of over 200,000 jewish emigrants leaving the soviet union by 1981. |

however, the crimean tatars, german, and jewish cases were special,
as these were nation groups without territorial jurisdictions. in
union republics nationalist activities of titular nationalities were
usually limited to small circles of intellectuals. opposition groups
in georgia, armenia, estonia, and latvia focused primarily on
language and cultural issues. only lithuania evolved a mass national
movement in the 1960s and 1970s backed by the catholic hierarchy.
some of the lithuanian petitions to soviet leaders contained over
100,000 signatures. nationalism was also rife in west ukraine,
搑eunited?with the rest of the republic during the second world
war. many of its citizens sought to preserve and protect the uniate
church banned by the soviet authorities in 1946. national
aspirations of the ukrainians were stamped out relentlessly for
obvious reasons: the republic抯 demographic, economic, and
geostrategic importance for the communist empire was second only to
russia.
however, until the mid-1980s none of the national movements had
sufficient strength to threaten the stability of the soviet regime.
to many observers, the cpsu抯 management of nationality relations
looked successful enough to give credence to the soviet leaders?
claim that the 搉ationalities question?was close to being finally
resolved. the last general secretary to rule over the soviet union,
mikhail gorbachev, revealed astonishing complacency of the party
leadership on this score. at the party congress in 1986 he claimed
emphatically that the 搉ationalities question in the ussr had been
settled once and for all.?few people could foresee that in two
years the soviet federation would implode and the 搉ationalities
question?would become utterly unmanageable. in practice, the
assimilation of the various ethnic groups had not materialized in
the way intended by soviet leaders. as long as the central
party-state authorities retained their coercive grip over society,
it proved possible to prevent ethnic contradictions and tensions
from getting out of hand. but once gorbachev抯 liberalization began
to undermine the power and authority of central institutions, the
concealed ethnic divisions suddenly erupted to the surface.
how to make money on the side
nationalities |
in
millions |
percentage |
entire population |
285,7 |
100,00 |
russians |
145,2 |
50,8 |
ukrainians |
44,2 |
15,5 |
uzbek |
16,7 |
5,84 |
byelorussians |
10,0 |
3,5 |
kazakh |
8,1 |
2,85 |
azerbaijanis |
6,8 |
2,37 |
volga tatars |
6,6 |
2,3 |
armenians |
4,6 |
1,62 |
tadjik |
4,2 |
1,48 |
georgians |
4,0 |
1,39 |
moldavians |
3,5 |
1,22 |
lithuanians |
3,0 |
1,07 |
turkmen |
2,7 |
0,96 |
kirgiz |
2,5 |
0,89 |
germans |
2,0 |
0,71 |
chuvash |
1,8 |
0,64 |
bashkirs |
1,4 |
0,51 |
jews |
1,4 |
0,51 |
latvians |
1,4 |
0,51 |
estonians |
1,0 |
0,36 |
|