RELIGION, ETHNIC IDENTITY AND THE UNIFIED STATE POLITICAL DEPARTMENT (OGPU): ON THE ISSUE OF NATION-BUILDING FACTORS IN THE USSR IN THE 1920s.

Sukhova Olga Aleksandrovna, Doctor of historical sciences, professor, sub-department of Russian history, local history and history teaching technique, Penza State University (40 Krasnaya street, Penza, Russia), suhhov747@yandex.ru
Yagov Oleg Vasilevich, Doctor of historical sciences, professor, dean of the Faculty of History and Philology, Penza State University (40 Krasnaya street, Penza, Russia), yagovdom@mail.ru

947.084.5

10.21685/2072-3024-2016-3-7

Background. Studying the experience of national and religious policies during the initial stages of the Soviet state history is crucial for the development of domes-tic policy in Russia today. It allows to identify the factors that influenced the course and its effectiveness. The study is aimed at exploring ideological policies of the state structure in the conditions of Russia’s withdrawal from the Civil War and the for-mation of a one-party Soviet state which could provide the necessary level of social and political stability.
Materials and methods. The research strategy was based on the analysis of documents, extracted from the funds of the Russian State Archive of Contemporary History and the State Archive of the Russian Federation, as well as on data from other historiographic sources on the issue. The methodological basis of the research included hermeneutics as a method of text interpretation, allowing to indicate objective information of the ideological framework and avoid repetition of historiographic clichés, as well as the historical and situational method, revealing cause-and-effect relationships based on the real historical situation, the analysis of the world picture, authenticity of the social community of the period in consideration.
Results. The authors examined the policy of the Soviet state addressing national construction and management of secularization of public consciousness in the 1917–1920s. The study indicated the ratio of declared principles and those already included in the content of power-political regulation. The research has revealed a di-rect correlation between the factors reinforcing the vertical of power and its legiti-mation, and the need to develop programs of federalization and liberalization of relationships between the church and the state.
Conclusions. The analysis of the implementation of the policy of national and religious self-determination of peoples in the first post-revolutionary decade has shown that the model that was established by trial and error and incorporated ele-ments of a positive ethnic identity in the ideology of the ruling party became the main method of legitimizing the power of the Russian Communist Party (b) in the 1920s. At the same time, the weakening of class content and abandonment of the world revolution, internationalization of social relations were temporary and limited. The structure, which controlled permissible concessions in matters of self-determi-nation of citizens, was OGPU.

nation-building, religion, ethnic identity.

1. Khobsbaum E. D. Natsii i natsionalizm posle 1780 goda [Nations and nationalism after 1780]. Saint-Petersburg: Aleteyya, 1998, 305 p.
2. Brubeyker R. Mify i zabluzhdeniya v izuchenii imperii i natsionalizma [Myths and misconceptions in the study of empires and nationalism]. Moscow: Novoe izdatel'stvo, 2010, pp. 110–129.
3. Brubeyker R., Kuper F. Mify i zabluzhdeniya v izuchenii imperii i natsionalizma [Myths and misconceptions in the study of empires and nationalism]. Moscow: Novoe izdatel'stvo, 2010, pp. 130–170.
4. Sukhova O. A., Yagov O. V. Izvestiya vysshikh uchebnykh zavedeniy. Povolzhskiy re-gion. Gumanitarnye nauki [University proceedings. Volga region. Humanities]. 2015, no. 3 (35), pp. 52–61.
5. Sbornik materialov po rayonirovaniyu s 1917 po 1925 god [Zoning materials collection of 1917–1925]. Ed. by K. D. Egorov. Moscow; Leningrad: Gosplan SSSR: Planovoe khozyaystvo, 1925, 307 p.
6. Gosudarstvennyy arkhiv Rossiyskoy Federatsii [State Archive of the Russian Federa-tion] (GARF). F. R. 5677. Op. 1. D. 7.
7. GARF. F. R. 6984. Op. 1. D. 1.
8. Rossiyskiy gosudarstvennyy arkhiv noveyshey istorii [Russian State Archive of Contemporary History] (RGANI). F. 3. Op. 32. D. 4.
9. RGANI. F. 3. Op. 32. D. 2.
10. RGANI. F. 3. Op. 32. D. 5.
11. RGANI. F. 3. Op. 32. D. 18.
12. RGANI. F. 3. Op. 60. D. 12.