Authors

Discussion

Following the death of Stalin and an alleged return to the Leninist principles, while simultaneously implementing various offensives and targeted campaigns against specific minority groups, the Soviet Union's nationality policy became increasingly marked by inconsistency and contradiction. Differential treatment was meted out to individual minority groups. The proclaimed goals of fusion and amalgamation of all peoples into a unified Soviet people, which were dominant tropes, set all anchors on assimilation and unification, yielding the dominance of Russian-influenced culture. 

This paper delves into the strategies employed by diverse non-titular minority groups in defying and resisting to the restrictive and assimilationist policies enforced by Soviet authorities. Through a comparative lens, it examines the specific tactics employed by certain national groups (incl. Jews, Hungarians, Germans and Roma) within the newly absorbed territories of Lviv and Transcarpathia oblasts.

The individual minority communities, whether organized as religious communities or cultural circles, but also as individuals, took various measures to secure their interests and to point out injustices, in contact with kin-states, foreign organizations or directly targeting Soviet authorities through petitions, letters or media. Increasingly, emigration  –  to another state or flight into the seclusion of one’s own community –  morphed into  a response to these policies.