|
the russian imperial mentality underpinned the nationalities
policy of the ruling circles and of the imperial government,
which was built on the principles of great-power chauvinism.
the russian language was made the official language of state
and orthodoxy claimed the status of the empire抯 ruling
religion. the russian officialdom treated non-russians
patronizingly and contemptuously as 慳borigines?and
慳liens? |
the
conservative era of alexander iii saw the introduction of a
particularly harsh and systematic policy of russification. based on
the chauvinistic idea of superiority of all things slavic in general
and russian in particular, the enforced russification could hardly
cement together a multiethnic empire like russia, where ethnic
russians, at the end of the nineteenth century, made up only 45
percent of the whole population. jews, polish catholics, baltic
protestants, central-asian muslims - all fell victim in a greater or
lesser degree to this ill-conceived policy.
a whole
battery of discriminatory legislation was aimed at eradicating
various manifestations of non-russian national identity and
un-orthodox religious practices. the use of the russian language was
imposed in schools, courts of law and government offices in
non-russian ethnic areas. centers of minority cultures, such as
theatres and publishing houses were shut down. even the east slavs,
ukrainians and belorussians, who were ethnically and culturally most
close to great russians (i.e., ethnic russians), were denied their
cultural identity and were officially regarded as 慠ussians? while
their language and culture were not recognized as being separate
from russian.
the
toughening of the russification policy at the end of the nineteenth
- early twentieth centuries was also caused by the government抯
concern over the rise of nationalist movements in regions like the
ukraine, the caucasus, poland, the baltic, and finland. the
authorities were increasingly alarmed at the drive for national
rights among millions of non-russians. yet, the government抯 policy
of systematic russification not only failed to stem the tide of
nationalist unrest, but actually stimulated ever stronger demands
for greater cultural and political autonomy.
oppressive
russification generated a vicious circle. on the one hand, the
ethnic minorities whose national feelings were offended, developed a
natural grudge against the tsarist authorities and were forced to
protest against the discrimination. the ever growing number of
representatives of national minorities such as poles, balts,
georgians, armenians and jews joined russian radicals and played a
prominent role in the revolutionary movement in russia. on the other
hand, the active involvement of ethnic minorities in the activities
of the radicals scared the government into adopting even sterner
discriminatory measures.
