Paul
Goble
Staunton, August 5 – An essential
source for the study of development of Moscow’s nationality policy in the first
years of Soviet power is the newspaper, then journal of Stalin’s Peoples
Commissariat for Nationality Affairs (“Narkomnats”), Zhizn natsionalnostyei
(“The Life of the Nationalities”) which appeared between November 1918 and
1924.
In 1992 following the demise of the
USSR and the establishment of a State Committee for Nationality Policy, a
journal under the same title appeared; but when that body was disbanded, it
continued to appear, albeit often irregularly, as a result of the efforts of
its editorial staff.
Khuseyn Mestoyev, the new editor of the
new online edition, introduced the journal at a meeting this week at which
participants promised to produce articles on nationality groups from across the
Russian Federation and, by do doing, to promise dialogue between Moscow and
these peoples (6portal.ru/posts/жизнь-национальностей-есть-ли-будуще/).
The first issue is “North Caucasus
heavy,” with all eight articles covering issues in that region rather than more
generally (swoedelo.ru/nacionalnosti/);
but these are all high quality and contain information not found or easily
found anywhere else. Three are especially interesting:
·
Makka
Albogachiyeva on the role of Islam among the Ingush (swoedelo.ru/wp-content/uploads/2020/06/3_Албогачиева.pdf),
·
Dmitry
Gevorkyan on Armenians in Derbent and southern Daghestan (swoedelo.ru/wp-content/uploads/2020/06/5_Геворкьян.pdf),
and
·
Naima
Neflyasheva on the tradition of close ties among men in the Caucasus
nationalities (swoedelo.ru/wp-content/uploads/2020/06/6_Нефляшева.pdf).
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