The Soviet Union was the last great world empire. Its borders stretched
from Europe to Asia, from the Arctic Ocean to the Pacific Ocean.
Within these borders lived 120 different ethnic groups divided into
fifteen republics and various autonomous regions. Lenin believed
nationalism would disappear under communism and a Soviet people
would emerge. This proved to be fundamentally false and Russian
nationalism and beliefs of superiority set the stage for ethnic
conflict within the USSR.
The USSR was built on roughly the same territory as the Tsarist
Russian empire. Joseph Stalin through brute force and the slaughtering
of national elites welded together the different ethnic groups.
The map shows that although a vast country over half the USSR was
sparsely settled or uninhabited. During World War Two whole races
were moved to uninhabited areas on suspicion of co-operating with
the Nazis. This can be seen on the map by Germans (number 33) living
in Central Asia. A total of 60 million people lived outside their
republics. The roots of the Armenian - Azerbaijani conflict over
the territory of Nagorno - Karabakh can also be seen clearly from
the map. A pocket of Armenian people (31) is surrounded on all sided
by Azerbaijani. The Soviet Union had a diverse range of ethnic peoples
between its borders.
With a multicultural society, individual republic's demands for
independence where always going to cause chaos in the USSR. Gorbachev
could not let one territorial adjustment take place as there were
120 changes wanted by various ethnic groups. He often allowed the
groups to fight it out sending in the army only when the demonstrators
started demanding independence. It was to stop anti Soviet demonstrations
that the military entered Baku leaving over 100 dead. Stained with
the blood of its own citizens the military lost much moral authority.
The violence only hardened the resolve of the republics to break
away from Moscow. Independence demands often followed a pattern.
Problems of language and culture were first followed by the truth
about the past, then the environment, then the economy, then political
autonomy, then the goal of sovereignty and finally independence.
In this way the republics could build support for independence without
having to face the full wrath of Moscow.
With a large number of people and entire races living outside their
homelands ethnic conflict in the USSR only needed a spark to ignite.
The spark was the economy's collapse. People became jealous and
selfish of what other republics enjoyed. Russians realised they
were one of the poorest people and started to complain. As did wealthier
republics like the Baltic states who correctly suspected that they
were being dragged down by the rest of the union. Such realisations
could only in the long run lead to demands for independence.
