Soviet Union or Soviet Russia: Patterns of Russian Colonialism in the U.S.S.R.
Joseph E. Fallon
Volume 1, Number 1 (1985) 1 (1): 11-32
Keywords Soviet Union, Russia, Sliyanie, Cultural Fusion, Genocide of Ukranians, Russification
Abstract
This article critically examines the USSR’s federalist rhetoric, exposing it as a façade for a centralized Russian colonial state. Although the Soviet Union claimed to support ethnic identities under the slogan "national in form, socialist in content," real authority was concentrated in Moscow. Key ministries and the military were overwhelmingly dominated by Slavs, marginalizing minority groups like Muslims. The policy of sliyanie (cultural fusion) masked forced Russification through mass deportations (e.g., Crimean Tatars, Meskhetians), the genocide of Ukrainians during the 1932–33 famine, and the suppression of regional autonomies. Certain exceptions, such as Armenians and Georgians, were maintained for geopolitical purposes. Symbolic "rehabilitations," like that of the Crimean Tatars in 1967, perpetuated Russification rather than reversed it.
Joseph E. Fallon
Published September 1, 1985
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivatives 4.0 International License.
Copyright (c) 2025 Joseph E. Fallon (Author)
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