The Constitution of the USSR of 1924 and the Solution to the National Question

The text examines the problem of resolving the national question in Russia in the context of the adoption of the USSR Constitution of 1924. The problem is actualized by the centenary anniversary of the first Union Constitution, but also by the fact that in Russian scientific and journalistic discourse there has been a tendency: to look for the causes of interethnic and interstate contradictions in the post-Soviet space, which are constantly escalating, in the national policy of the leadership of the USSR. The study examined the right of nations to self-determination as interpreted by the Bolsheviks and the associated key principles of Soviet nationality policy. As part of the right of nations to self-determination, which is necessarily linked to specific historical conditions, we examined in detail the process of formation of Ukrainian, Belarusian, Georgian, Armenian and Azerbaijani statehood, preceding the proclamation of the USSR. The study found that, firstly, the formation of the USSR and the publication of the Constitution of 1924 had as their main goal the solution of the national question; secondly, the principles of the Bolshevik national policy cannot be considered in isolation from the socialist statehood and the Soviet type of economy, which means that it cannot be judged from the standpoint of the reality of the bourgeois state; thirdly, the implementation of the right of nations to self-determination and the associated principles of indigenization and the principle of balance were the main ways to resolve the national question in the USSR; fourthly, the implementation of the right of nations to self-determination and the national policy of the Soviet leadership as a whole took into account specific historical, economic and other conditions; fifthly, the national question in the USSR was resolved, and its aggravation at the end of the period of the existence of the Soviet Union was associated with a departure from the original principles of national policy and the de-Sovietization of public life.