National policy in the USSR during the Great Patriotic War: from regional history

The article examines the experience of implementing the national policy in the USSR during the Great Patriotic War. In the context of modern instability in the world, complex interethnic and interstate relations, the historical experience of finding ways to cooperate, solving important issues in this area at the regional level can be very much in demand. When developing state programs and strategies, it will allow taking into account not only the useful experience accumulated in the past, but also to avoid repeating mistakes. The war made considerable adjustments to the functioning of the party and state apparatus, the activities of public organizations, the USSR citizens’ lifestyle and spirits. Using documentary sources and the case of the Bashkir ASSR, one of the country regions, the author has carried out an analysis of the socio-political and religious-cultural life of the republic, changes in the national policy and interethnic relations. The paper demonstrates the increased importance of ideological and political education of the population during the war. The author points out new trends in the activities of public and religious organizations and in the local authorities’ work on the national issue in the following areas: in personnel training; in the regulation of interethnic relations, taking into account the arrival of the evacuated population and labor-mobilized citizens of different nationalities from many regions of the country; and activities aimed at lifting up the spirits among the intelligentsia. The national policy pursued in the republic during the period under review is characterized by complexity and contradiction. That was manifested in the fluctuation from weakening at the beginning of the war, and even lack of attention to many issues of national life, to a sharp change towards strict centralization and unification at the end of the war. The study draws attention to the omissions and difficulties in the implementation of the national policy.