On Internationality Relations

Nineteenth All-Union Conference of the CPSU, Resolution on Internationality Relations. July 5, 1988

This 1988 CPSU conference resolution captured the official language of perestroika at its most optimistic: a renewed federation, wider republican rights, cultural revival, and “Leninist” internationalism cleansed of coercion and chauvinism. It mattered for Shevardnadze’s resignation because it showed what his reform camp claimed to be building, and what was already slipping away. By late 1990, the nationality question was no longer a program to be managed with new committees and budget rules. It had become a crisis that empowered hardliners and made “union” sound like force.

Original Source: Pravda, 5 July 1988, p. 3.

1. The Soviet socialist state which V. I. Lenin founded embodied the revolutionary will and desires of a multinational family of equal peoples. The community of their historical fate is the basis of international socialist fraternity. As a result of the efforts of many generations of Soviet people there has arisen a unique union of republics. On its banner is inscribed the international unity of the working people of all Soviet nations and nationalities, the right of nations to self-definition, the revival and advancement of national cultures, the accelerated progress for formerly backward national regions, and the elimination of strife between nations. An integral economic complex has emerged, serving as the material foundation of the unity of the peoples of the Soviet Union. The economic, cultural, and manpower potential of all the republics and autonomous regions has risen immeasurably. A new historical community, the Soviet people, has come into being. A natural growth of national self-awareness is taking place.

At the same time the dynamism witnessed during the initial stage of the formation of the multinational Soviet state was substantially undermined by departure from Leninist principles of nationality policy, by breaches of the rule of law during the period of the cult of personality, and by the ideology and psychology of stagnation. The results achieved in solving the nationality question were made absolute. It was claimed that there were no problems in the relations among nationalities. The need for the social, economic, and cultural development of certain republics, autonomous regions, and ethnic groups were not considered sufficiently. Many difficult questions arising from the course of development of nations and national groups were not resolved promptly enough. This led to social dissatisfaction, which at times assumed a character of conflict. Facts of national egoism and arrogance, attitudes of dependence and local chauvinism continue to be in place. Negative phenomena which have accumulated for decades were ignored for a long time, were chased inside and were not given the necessary Party evaluation. Restructuring, democratization, and glasnost' have exposed these phenomena and at the same time have created the necessary conditions for their democratic suppression.

2. The Party conference considers it a task of historical importance to affirm insistently and to develop creatively the Leninist norms and principles of nationality policy, decisively cleansing them of artificial additions and deformations. The basis for doing so is the political course elaborated at the Twenty-seventh Congress of the CPSU, which collates satisfaction of the interests of all nations and national groups with the general interests and needs of the country, an internationalist ideology which is incompatible with any varieties of chauvinism or nationalism.

The Party sees development of the independence of the union republics and autonomous regions as inseparably linked with their responsibility for strengthening and advancing our multinational state. The socialist ideal is not a deadening unification but the full-blooded, dynamic unity of national variety.

3. The Party Conference considers that within the framework of restructuring of the political system it is necessary to create timely measures for the further development and strengthening of the Soviet federation on the basis of democratic principles. Primarily under discussion is broadening of the rights of the union republics and autonomous regions by demarcation of the purviews of the USSR and the Soviet republics, by decentralization and transfer to the localities of a number of administrative functions, by strengthening home rule and responsibility in the spheres of the economy, social and cultural development, and preservation of nature.

One of the central tasks is to create conditions for greater home rule in the regions, to create forms of cooperation in which each republic would have an interest in improving the ultimate results of their economic activity as a basis for their own well-being, increasing the general wealth and power of the Soviet state. Radical economic reform and the process of democratization open broad expanses for the optimal coordination of both national-state formations and of the country as a whole. Business must be so set that that working people know well how much the republic or oblast produces, what contribution it makes to the economy of the country, and how much they receive. The idea of transferring regions and republics to principles of self-financing, with precise calculation of their contribution to completing the all-union program deserves attention.

Internationalization of the economy and of all of social life is a proper process. Any attempt at national exclusivity can lead only to economic and spiritual impoverishment.

A qualitatively new mechanism of drawing up republic and local budgets must be legislated, greatly increasing their role in deciding questions of the social and economic development of the regions. The effective cooperation of territorial administrative bodies with the ministries and offices of the USSR, and with enterprises under all-union control, must be guaranteed, and the responsibility of both republic level and union-level administrative bodies for the comprehensive development of each region must be strengthened. Questions of development of direct connections between the union republics demand profound legal elaboration and practical decisions.

Those institutes of the political system through which national interests must be revealed and reconciled must be activated. Of primary significance in this connection is increasing the role of the Congress of People's Deputies, especially of the Council of Nationalities of the Supreme Soviet of the USSR, its standing committees, and also the government of the USSR. The creation of standing committees on questions of inter-nationality relations in the Supreme Soviet of the USSR, the Supreme Soviets of the union and autonomous republics, and of the local Soviets where necessary would be useful. It would also be worth considering the question of forming a special government body for nationality affairs and nationality relations. The conference recommends realizing development and renewal of legislature, taking account of new realities, about the union and autonomous republics, the autonomous oblasts and okrugs, and more fully reflecting their rights and responsibilities, realizing principles of self-government and representation of all national groups in the bodies of power in the center and in the localities. This will require making the corresponding changes in the Constitution of the USSR, and in the constitutions of the union and autonomous republics.

4. It is important that in every national region economic and social progress is accompanied by spiritual progress, based upon the cultural uniqueness of the nations and national groups. Socialist cultural, evolving as it is in a multinational way must also remain in the future a powerful factor in the ideological and moral consolidation of our society.

Care must be taken that nationalities living outside the boundaries of their state and territorial formations, or which do not have them, receive greater opportunities for realization of national and cultural needs, particularly in the sphere of education, communication, native art, as well as of the creation of centers of national culture, of use of the mass media, and satisfaction of religious needs.

A most important principle of our multinational state is the free development and use in equal right by all citizens of the USSR of native languages and mastery of Russian, which Soviet people undertake voluntarily, in its aspect as a means of internationality communication. All conditions must be created to let national language Russian bilingualism develop harmoniously and naturally, with consideration of the peculiarities of every region, free from formalism. More care should be shown for the active functioning of national languages in various spheres of state, public, and cultural life. Study of the language for whom the republic is named should be encouraged for citizens of other nationalities living in its territory, especially for children and young people. None of this should contradict the democratic principles of free choice in the language of school instruction.

5. Every generation of Soviet people passes through the school of patriotism and internationalism in its own way. It is important that as early as the person's very first social experiences, beginning with the family and school, the Pioneer and Komsomol organizations organically includes these values, that they should emerge as an indivisible whole, excluding both national nihilism and national isolationism. The sources of the friendship of our peoples must be discovered, a culture of internationality communication must be actively formed, and respect for the traditions, language, art, and history of the peoples of the country, and of other peoples of the world must be inculcated. Service in the ranks of the Armed Forces of the USSR must become a true school of internationalism.

The Conference considers that the social and political significance of the all-union holiday on the anniversary of the formation of the USSR must be increased.

Life has shown convincingly that where the practice of Soviet patriotism and socialist internationalism has grown anemic national limitations and chauvinistic arrogance begin to become active. The struggle with this monstrous deviations and elimination of the causes which give rise to them are the civic duty of every Soviet person. Any action which alienates nations and national groups, any attempts to limit the rights of citizens of any nationality must be seen as morally unacceptable and counter to the interests of the Soviet state.

It is necessary to learn to distinguish true national interests from their nationalist distortions. Any pretensions to national exclusivity are impermissible and shameful, including for the people in whose name they are being expressed. In the spirit of the Leninist tradition it is necessary to struggle first of all with the nationalism and chauvinism of one's own nationality, and representatives of the corresponding nationalities must do so first of all.

6. The conference notes that multinationalism in the conditions of our country is a mighty source for the development and mutual spiritual enrichment of peoples. Formation of the socialist, internationalist form of life is the business of the whole Party, and of all Soviet people. For this must be mobilized the political experience, the laboring morale, and moral potential of the working class, the peasants, and the intelligentsia, their deep commitment to the neighborly coexistence of various peoples. A particular role in this work falls to the Soviet intelligentsia. The general climate of nationality relations to an enormous extent depends upon their civic maturity and the depths of their understanding of the fundamental interests of their own peoples and of society as a whole.

All nationality problems require a balanced, comprehensive approach, on the basis of deep analysis and objective evaluations of every concrete situation. They must be solved calmly, with extraordinary responsibility, within the frameworks of socialist democracy and legality, first of all by means of coming part way to meet one another, taking account of the expanded processes of revolutionary renewal, without harm to the international solidarity of the Soviet people. Matters must tend toward creation of a civic atmosphere in which a person of any nationality would feel himself at home in any part of our socialist Motherland.

7. Contemporary nationality policy needs profound scientific and theoretical reworking. This is a social order of responsibility to the scientific establishments and specialists. For successful completion the corresponding organizational and cadre prerequisites must be created, uniting the efforts of the scientific community. It is worth considering the question of whether to create an all-union level scientific center for the comprehensive study of pressing problems of national relations, and to increase the scientific research and informational work in this area.

8. The Party organizations and Communists of all nationalities are called to be the cementing force, the soul of the socialist union of peoples, active carriers of internationalism. With all their actions they must guarantee the solidarity of working people around the tasks of restructuring, must create healthy public opinion, and must lead the people. It is necessary in the spirit of Leninist demands to adopt a policy to have in Party, state, trade union, Komsomol, and economic bodies, including at the union level, representatives of all nations and national groups, so that the composition of the administrative cadre will more fully reflect the national structure of Soviet society.

The Conference supports the proposal of the Politbiuro of the Central Committee of the CPSU to hold a Plenum of the Central Committee on questions of nationality relations.

The Conference expresses the firm conviction that the consolidation and unity of all Soviet people is our present and our future. The patriotic and international duty of every citizen, of every communist, is to preserve and multiply everything that serves the unity of Soviet society as the bases of the free development and flourishing of all peoples of the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics, that serves to strengthen the might of our common Fatherland. V. 1. Lenin asked us to do this, and by this path the Communist Party will travel.

Source: Reprints from the Soviet Press (15 August 1988), pp. 11-16.