The Principle of Self-Determination of Peoples High and Low

2021 ◽  
pp. 77-90
Author(s):  
Boris N. Kashnikov ◽  
Keyword(s):  
Soviet Union ◽  
Political Violence ◽  
Self Determination ◽  
Moral Principle ◽  
World War ◽  
Proper Role ◽  
The Soviet Union ◽  
Third Stage ◽  
Normative Logic

The subject matter of this article is the principle of Self-Determination of Peo­ples of the contemporary international law. The principle is scrutinized both his­torically through its inner historical transformation and logically, through the analysis of its inner normative logic. The problem related to this principle is that it belongs simultaneously to three realms, those of politics, law and morals, containing different meanings. These meanings often do contradict each other and it happens differently on different stages of the historical transformation. The three major stages of the development of the principle (from the First World War up to the end of the Second; from the end of the Second World war up to the demise of the Soviet Union; and from the demise of the Soviet Union up to now) were continuously the stages of predominantly political, legal and moral. Each of the stages was reflecting the characteristic illusion of its time and was founded on the unique combination of the dominant meanings of the principle, which was enabling the principle to play its practical role. At the same time there are clear indications that the principle is incapable to play its cardinal proper role of the universal moral principle when it comes to it. This becomes crystal clear at the third stage of the development and which is trigger­ing unprecedented political violence of the contemporary movements of self-determination and secession

scholarly journals Typical Bourgeois Intellectuals and Great Friends of the Soviet Union: Latin American Writers in the USSR during the Khrushchev Thaw

2021 ◽  
Vol 5 (3) ◽  
pp. 162-176
Author(s):  
K. R. Buynova
Keyword(s):  
Soviet Union ◽  
Latin American ◽  
Self Determination ◽  
The Political ◽  
Soviet Regime ◽  
State Archive ◽  
Sensitive Topics ◽  
The Soviet Union ◽  
Russian State

The author studies the Latin American writers’ visits to the USSR from 1954 till beginning of 1960s realized via the Foreign Commission of the Union of Soviet Writers. After Stalin’s death, the activity of all departments of the Commission expanded significantly; the lists of those invited from abroad now included writers who were absolutely loyal to the USSR as well as new and yet unknown names. As a result, the staff of the Foreign Commission had to face an unprecedented pluralism. Based on the Commission’s Spanish and Portuguese translators’ reports, stored in the Russian State Archive of Literature and Art, the study analyses the criteria based on which the stay of a guest was perceived as favorable or undesirable for continuing cooperation in order to improve the image of the USSR in foreign literary circles. The study also analyses somewhat of a loyalty marker, reflecting the guests’ perception of the results of the 20th Congress of the CPSU and the state of Soviet-Chinese relations as sensitive topics important for the political self-determination of communist writers. The study of these new sources allows us to conclude that when choosing new foreign partners, the Foreign Commission often relied on the advice of its’ faithful friends, and the protégés of the latter did not always withstand the test of compatibility with the Soviet regime. At the same time, there was no specific criteria for the new friends’ selection. The translators, who were the first to report on the visit, were invited from outside, sometimes just for one particular job; they did not receive clear instructions from the Commission and were guided by their own ideas about the importance of the writer in their care and the expediency of cooperation with him. Later their opinion could not be taken into account; presumably, it was the journalistic and novelistic production of the invited writers published as a result of the visit to the USSR that was of greater importance to decide whether they were worth further attention. The study reviews Soviet Writers’ Union cooperation with P. Neruda, F. González-Urízar, N. Parra, V. Teitelboim, A. Cassigoli, F. Coloane (Chile), J. Amado, M. Rebelo, E. de Moraes, G. Figueiredo, H. Silveira (Brazil), I. Abirad, J.C. Pedemonte, M. Rosencof (Uruguay), N. Guillen, C. Leante, O. Hurtado, Samuel Feijoo (Cuba), E. Barrios Villa (Bolivia), C.A. Leon (Venezuela).

POST-SOVIET DRAMA OF INTERNATIONAL RELATIONS (IN CONNECTION WITH THE 99TH ANNIVERSARY OF THE FORMATION OF THE USSR AND THE 30TH ANNIVERSARY OF ITS ABOLISHMENT)

2021 ◽  
pp. 62-75
Author(s):  
Aleksandr В. Lyubinin
Keyword(s):  
Soviet Union ◽  
Self Determination ◽  
30Th Anniversary ◽  
The Soviet Union ◽  
Real Process ◽  
Single State ◽  
Constitutional Right ◽  
The Right ◽  
The Relationship

The article was prepared in connection with the 99th anniversary of the formation of the USSR and the 30th anniversary of the termination of its existence. The article reveals the relationship between the norms of the Constitution of the USSR of 1924 (and subsequent versions of the document) on the self-determination of nations and their right to secede from the Union with the real process of destruction of a single state. It is shown that the disintegration of the Union was carried out not in connection with the constitutional right of the union republics to self-determination, not with the observance of the appropriate procedures for leaving the single state, but, on the contrary, on an anti-constitutional basis. The author reveals the artificial and politically motivated nature of the arguments regarding the «mines» laid down in their time by the Bolsheviks under the national state structure of the USSR. This device turned out to be productive both for repelling military aggression and for peaceful construction, because it was formed taking into account the totality of the binding circumstances of its time, on the principles of equality and voluntary self-determination. It has been proven that the absence of the right to secede from parts of a single state does not provide any guarantees against the collapse of this state, an example of which is the European monarchies that ended their journey at the beginning of the 20th century, as well as the events in the USSR and around the Chechen Republic. The fundamental difference between constitutional multinational formations, one of which was the Soviet Union, and formations built on a contractual basis following the example of the Gorbachev SSG, the Belovezhskaya agreement on the creation of the CIS and the Union State of Russia and Belarus, is revealed.

Generals, Statesmen, and International Politics in Europe, 1898-1945The Republic in Danger: General Maurice Gamelin and the Politics of French Defence, 1933-1940 by Martin S. Alexander. New York, Cambridge University Press, 1992. xiv, 573 pp. $94.95 U.S.Churchill, edited by Robert Blake and Wm. Roger Louis. New York, W.W. Norton, 1993. xv, 579 pp. $46.99.Louis Loucheur and the Shaping of Modem France, 1916-1931 by Stephen D. Carls. Baton Rouge, Louisiana, Louisiana State University Press, 1993. xv, 330 pp.Churchill: The End of Glory, A Political Biography by John Charmley. Toronto, MacFarlane Walter and Ross, 1993. viii, 742 pp. $45.00.The French Foreign Office and the Origins of the First World War, 1898-1914 by M. B. Hayne. Don Mills, Ontario, Clarendon Press, 1993. 328 pp. $78.95.When the Soviet Union Entered World Politics by Jon S. Jacobson. Berkeley, California, University of California Press, 1994. xi, 388 pp. $18.00 U.S.Chamberlain and Appeasement: British Policy and the Coming of the Second World War by R.A.C. Parker. London, Macmillan, 1993. 388 pp. £12.99.Dilemmas of Appeasement: British Deterrence and Defense, 1934-1937 by Gaines Post, Jr. Ithaca, New York, Cornell University Press, 1993. xiii, 363 pp. $48.50 U.S.

1995 ◽  
Vol 30 (2) ◽  
pp. 289-321 ◽  
Author(s):  
Michael Jabara Carley
Keyword(s):  
New York ◽  
Soviet Union ◽  
World Politics ◽  
State University ◽  
World War ◽  
Political Biography ◽  
Cornell University ◽  
Louisiana State University ◽  
The Soviet Union ◽  
Foreign Office

Implications

2017 ◽  
Author(s):  
Mark Edele
Keyword(s):  
Soviet Union ◽  
Second World War ◽  
Soviet Regime ◽  
World War ◽  
Ongoing Debate ◽  
Middle Position ◽  
The Soviet Union ◽  
War Effort ◽  
Second World

This chapter turns to the present and explains the implications of the current study for the ongoing debate about the Soviet Union in the Second World War and in particular about the role of loyalty and disloyalty in the Soviet war effort. It argues that this study strengthens those who argue for a middle position: the majority of Soviet citizens were neither unquestioningly loyal to the Stalinist regime nor convinced resisters. The majority, instead, saw their interests as distinct from both the German and the Soviet regime. Nevertheless, ideology remains important if we want to understand why in the Soviet Union more resisted or collaborated than elsewhere in Europe and Asia.

Reform, “Rebirth” and Regret: The Rise and Decline of the Ethnic-German Nationalist Wiedergeburt Movement in the USSR and CIS, 1987–1993

1998 ◽  
Vol 26 (2) ◽  
pp. 215-247 ◽  
Author(s):  
Eric J. Schmaltz
Keyword(s):  
Soviet Union ◽  
Self Determination ◽  
Men And Women ◽  
Political Dissent ◽  
The Soviet Union ◽  
Umbrella Organization

In early 1989, the Soviet Germans established the Wiedergeburt (“Rebirth”) All-Union Society. An umbrella-organization originally designed to protect and advance ethnic-German interests in the USSR, the “Rebirth” Society adopted the most effective legal means by which it could confront the regime—namely, political dissent based on Lenin's notion of national self-determination. The “Rebirth” movement evolved in this context and represented the fifteenth-largest Soviet nationality numbering more than two million in the 1989 Soviet census. By 1993, official membership in the “Rebirth” Society included nearly 200,000 men and women. Ironically, at the very moment the Soviet Germans became more politically conscious, the Soviet Union and the ethnic-German community were disintegrating.

The Anti-Aryan Moment: Decolonization, Diplomacy, and Race in Late Pahlavi Iran

2021 ◽  
Vol 53 (4) ◽  
pp. 691-702
Author(s):  
Firoozeh Kashani-Sabet
Keyword(s):  
South Carolina ◽  
World War Ii ◽  
Cold War ◽  
Soviet Union ◽  
The United States ◽  
World War ◽  
The Soviet Union ◽  
The Us ◽  
Anglo American ◽  
The Cold War

In 1946, the entertainer and activist Paul Robeson pondered America's intentions in Iran. In what was to become one of the first major crises of the Cold War, Iran was fighting a Soviet aggressor that did not want to leave. Robeson posed the question, “Is our State Department concerned with protecting the rights of Iran and the welfare of the Iranian people, or is it concerned with protecting Anglo-American oil in that country and the Middle East in general?” This was a loaded question. The US was pressuring the Soviet Union to withdraw its troops after its occupation of the country during World War II. Robeson wondered why America cared so much about Soviet forces in Iranian territory, when it made no mention of Anglo-American troops “in countries far removed from the United States or Great Britain.” An editorial writer for a Black journal in St. Louis posed a different variant of the question: Why did the American secretary of state, James F. Byrnes, concern himself with elections in Iran, Arabia or Azerbaijan and yet not “interfere in his home state, South Carolina, which has not had a free election since Reconstruction?”

Atskaņotājmākslas attīstība Liepājā un Otrā pasaules kara ietekme uz mūziķu likteņiem

2021 ◽  
pp. 338-351
Author(s):  
Vēsma Lēvalde
Keyword(s):  
World War Ii ◽  
Soviet Union ◽  
Performing Arts ◽  
Symphony Orchestra ◽  
Historical Study ◽  
World War ◽  
National Socialist ◽  
Performing Artists ◽  
Cultural Life ◽  
The Soviet Union

The article is a cultural-historical study and a part of the project Uniting History, which aims to discover the multicultural aspect of performing art in pre-war Liepaja and summarize key facts about the history of the Liepāja Symphony Orchestra. The study also seeks to identify the performing artists whose life was associated with Liepāja and who were repressed between 1941 and 1945, because of aggression by both the Soviet Union and National Socialist Germany. Until now, the cultural life of this period in Liepāja has been studied in a fragmentary way, and materials are scattered in various archives. There are inaccurate and even contradictory testimonies of events of that time. The study marks both the cultural and historical situation of the 1920s and the 1930s in Liepāja and tracks the fates of several artists in the period between 1939 and 1945. On the eve of World War II, Liepāja has an active cultural life, especially in theatre and music. Liepāja City Drama and Opera is in operation staging both dramatic performances, operas, and ballet, employing an orchestra. The symphony orchestra also operated at the Liepāja Philharmonic, where musicians were recruited every season according to the principles of contemporary festival orchestras. Liepāja Folk Conservatory (music school) had also formed an orchestra of students and teachers. Guest concerts were held regularly. A characteristic feature of performing arts in Liepaja was its multicultural character – musicians of different nationalities with experience from different schools of the world were encountered there. World War II not only disrupted the balance in society, but it also had a very concrete and tragic impact on the fates of the people, including the performing artists. Many were killed, many repressed and placed in prisons and camps, and many went to exile to the West. Others were forced to either co-operate with the occupation forces or give up their identity and, consequently, their career as an artist. Nevertheless, some artists risked their lives to save others.

Military Industry Evacuation at the Beginning of World War II and the NKVD

2020 ◽  
Vol 152 ◽  
pp. 142-151
Author(s):  
Uta G. Lagvilava ◽  
Keyword(s):  
World War Ii ◽  
Soviet Union ◽  
Technical Equipment ◽  
World War ◽  
Military Industry ◽  
Emergency Situations ◽  
Military Equipment ◽  
The Soviet Union ◽  
Red Army ◽  
Internal Affairs

A few months after the fascist Germany’s attack on the USSR, under harsh wartime conditions, at the end of 1941 military industry of the Soviet Union began to produce such a quantity of military equipment that subsequently was providing not only replenishment of losses, but also improvement of technical equipment of the Red Army forces . Successful production of military equipment during World War II became one of the main factors in the victory over fascism. One of the unlit pages in affairs of the People’s Commissariat of Internal Affairs (NKVD) is displacement and evacuation of a huge number of enterprises and people to the east, beyond the Urals, which were occupied by German troops at the beginning of the war in the summer of 1941. All this was done according to the plans developed with direct participation of NKVD, which united before the beginning and during the war departments now called the Ministry of Internal Affairs, FSB, SVR, the Russian Guard, Ministry of Emergency Situations, FAPSI and several smaller ones. And all these NKVD structures during the war were headed by Lavrenty Pavlovich Beria.

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