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previous: Foreword This webpage reproduces a chapter of The Nationality Problem of the Soviet Union by Roman Smal-Stocki published by The Bruce Publishing Company Milwaukee, 1952 The text is in the public domain. This page has been carefully proofread and I believe it to be free of errors. If you find a mistake though, please let me know! next: Acknowledgment

 p. v  Preface

In the face of an imposing mass of contemporary literary output on the Soviet Union it would appear manifestly superfluous to place further emphasis on the critical and urgent need for a comprehensive knowledge and consequent perspectival understanding of the complexities surrounding this forcibly contrived political entity. Mainly because of the direct, mortal threat it presently poses to the institutional framework and foundational values of Western civilization, and in particular to the vibrant national freedom of the United States which in reality represents today the quintessential thread of global salvation from the virulent talons of Soviet Russian imperialism, the Soviet Union in evolving as a prodigious object of curious inquiry has come to absorb the unremitting energies of countless students and observers feverishly engaged in the pursuit of almost every conceivable line of investigation bearing on the nature, composition, and operations of this self-dedicated enemy of the West. Yet despite this evidence, along the broad front of such vigorous research activity there continues to exist a piti­ful and even tragic neglect of one of the most vital, and in several pre‑eminent respects unquestionably the most determining, issues engulfing the continued existence of the Soviet Union, so much so as to provide adequate cause for a sound re‑emphasis on the afore-mentioned need. Indeed, it is no exaggeration that in many American quarters of thought and learning, in addition to those of public authority, a veritable intellectual iron curtain prevails with respect to this important phenomenon, namely, the insoluble nationalities' problem in the Soviet Union.

The crucial importance of comprehending this deep-rooted issue with any measure of significant appreciation finds solid justification not only in the presupposed interests of objective truth but also, and with equal strength, in the current necessities of prudent political action as well as spirited moral motivation. A scrutinous examination of a not unsubstantial portion of the contemporary output dealing with the Soviet Union reveals, sadly enough, a sciolistic ineptitude in the satisfaction of these three fundamental requirements for a sound structural and operational analysis. The uncritical and persistent use of the ethnically baseless term "Russia" when applied to the territorial area of the Soviet Union, the unimpressive farrage of bewildering discourse built on the nonsensical identification of all the inhabitants of the Soviet Union as "Russians," and the chronic, blatant lack of any reasonable acquaintance with the distinctive history, languages, customs, psychological peculiarities, and the heroic features of the invincible liberation movements of the numerous non‑Russian peoples in the Soviet Union can scarcely be said to set the mark of competent scholar­ship in the field. Strange as it may seem, even the celebrated works of several of our accepted American experts on Eastern Europe suffer from these  p. vi standard rudimentary limitations and weaknesses, and inadvertently serve to perpetuate an unwholesome variety of misconceptions founded on misrepresented empirical facts. Fortunately, magna est veritas, et praevalebit.

In failing to portray a complete and true picture of the political, national, and cultural realities abounding in the Soviet Union such inaccurate works naturally fall short of meeting the remaining two requisites demanding our closest attention in the current situation. For instance, it can be forcefully argued that in the formulation of American policy to cope with prevaricating Soviet propaganda in the so‑called battle of ideas no more fertile and explosive area can be effectively exploited by us than that offered by the stern and unyielding opposition of over 100 million non‑Russian Soviet people to the tyrannical yoke of Soviet Russian imperialism. As in the case of all non‑Russian peoples bludgeoned into submission by this modern version of traditional Russian imperialism, this hostile opposition to the Kremlin, as against any that might be generated among the Russians themselves, is peculiarly twofold in substance and character. This fundamental point of distinction cannot be too strongly emphasized. The 45 million Ukrainians, 25 million Moslems, 10 million Byelo-Russians, 3 million Balts, 2 million Georgians, and additional millions of Cossacks, Armenians, Azerbaijani, Tatars, Turkestani, Uzbeks, Kirgizes, etc. — in other words, the restless and liberation-striving non‑Russian peoples in the Soviet Union who inhabit the broad, strategic periphery from the Baltic to the Black Sea to the Pacific and who, since the recent Soviet annexation, constitute now approximately 53 per cent of the total Soviet population — these "majority minorities" concentrate their respective national resistance not only against the totalitarianism of entrenched domestic communism but also, in fact far more so, on the imperialist bondage saddled on them by the despots of Soviet Russia. For success­ful and triumphant political action in peace and obviously in war, an operational recognition of these general facts, as several prominent American political leaders have already seized upon, is plainly sine qua non.

The third requisite of spirited moral motivation is amply satisfied by the striking compatibility of ideals permeating the aspirations of these peoples and those of Americans and others in the basically common struggle against Soviet Russian imperialism and for international comity grounded in a responsible self-determination of peacefully willed peoples. Not only is the Christian conscience in its overwhelming passion of charity gravely aroused by the flagitious acts of Soviet terrorism, inhumanity, and national genocide as are ruthlessly perpetrated upon these victimized and unsupported peoples, but in its formidable passion for justice is quickly drawn to the hopes and yearnings of these courageous souls for individual liberty, national freedom, and universal fellow­ship. Military power alone is surely not the means of salvation from the dehumanizing scourge of Soviet Russian imperialism. As in the historical past, so more now, the moral spirit must be attuned to the perennial advises of civilized life — fiat justitia, ruat caelum.

 p.vii  It is with this balancing orientation that the distinguished and scholar­ly author of this work advances the content and results of his investigation of certain paramount issues pertaining to Soviet thought and practice. Unusually well equipped by a unique background of direct experience with and long study of Russian Bolshevism, not to mention his intimate familiarity and extensive contacts with the many non‑Russian peoples of the Soviet Union and their leading representatives abroad, he is doubtless best fitted to present to the American mind these relatively neglected aspects of the thorniest problem confronting the Soviet oligarchy. This work may well represent that much needed wedge in the numerous iron curtains of thought existing here in America with regard to this weakest link in the Soviet chain of imperialist power, and should certainly stimulate the thought and imagination of every dispassionate student of the Soviet Union as well as those to whom the fateful direction of American foreign policy toward Eastern Europe is entrusted.

Lev E. Dobriansky
Georgetown University

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