Korenizatsiia

Korenizatsiia (Russian: коренизация, romanized: korenizatsiya, pronounced [kərʲɪnʲɪˈzatsɨjə]; transl. "indigenization" or "nativization") was an early policy of the Soviet Union for the integration of non-Russian nationalities into the governments of their specific Soviet republics. This term comes from the word korennoi in the phrase korennoi narod, which means "native people" or "indigenous population." In the 1920s, the policy promoted representatives of the titular nation, and their national minorities, into the lower administrative levels of the local government, bureaucracy, and nomenklatura of their Soviet republics. The main idea of the korenizatsiia was to grow communist cadres for every nationality. In Russian, the term korenizatsiya (коренизация) derives from korennoye naseleniye (коренное население, "native population"). The policy practically ended in the mid-1930s with the deportations of various nationalities.

Politically and culturally, the nativization policy aimed to eliminate Russian domination and culture in Soviet republics where ethnic Russians did not constitute a majority. This policy was implemented even in areas with large Russian-speaking populations; for instance, all children in Ukraine were taught in the Ukrainian language in school. The policies of korenizatsiia facilitated the Communist Party's establishment of the local languages in government and education, in publishing, in culture, and in public life. In that manner, the cadre of the local Communist Party were promoted to every level of government, and ethnic Russians working in said governments were required to learn the local language and culture of the given Soviet republic.

Lenin believed that nationalism had the potential to attract class allies for the Bolsheviks and that the historical distrust of non-Russian peoples toward Great Russians could be overcome in this way. Korenizatsiia was a preventive policy designed to stop the rise of nationalism among the non-Russian peoples who had been oppressed in the past. The Bolsheviks believed that Great Russian chauvinism was a bigger danger than local national movements. Because of this, korenizatsiia also included criticism of Russian culture and the use of the Russian alphabet, which were linked to the colonial and Russification policies of the former Tsarist regime. Korenizatsiia was also designed to support the decolonization process, which the Bolsheviks saw as unavoidable, while at the same time helping to maintain the territorial unity of the former Russian Empire.