Multination under Communism

by

Jie Li

PhD Candidate

School of History

University of Edinburgh

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Table of Content

1. Research Background

2. Methodology, Sources, and Order

3. Chinese Analysis on Soviet Nationalities

from Lenin to Gorbachev

4. Soviet Implication on China‟s Nationalities

5. Future Problem of China: the Rise of Internal

Foreigners

6. Bibliography

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1 Research Background

• A chapter from my PhD thesis: “Sovietology in Post-Mao China”.

• Case study approach: the Institute of Russian, Eastern European, and Central

Asian Studies (IREECAS) affiliated with the Chinese Academy of Social Science

in Beijing (http://euroasia.cass.cn ).

• Inspired by David Engerman‟s book of “Know Your Enemy: the Rise and Fall of

America’s Soviet Experts” (Oxford : Oxford University Press, 2009).

• Comparison of ethnic conditions and policies between China and the former Soviet

Union.

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2 Methodology, Sources, and Order

• Bimonthly official IREECAS journal of “Matters of the Soviet Union and

Eastern Europe” (Sulian dongou wenti), which has been renamed as “Study of

Russia, Central Asia, and Eastern Europe” (Eluosi zhongya dongou yanjiu) since

1992 (http://euroasia.cass.cn/news/110450.htm ).

• Thematic Studies from Lenin to Gorbachev.

• Analysis on current China‟s ethnic situation.

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2 Methodology, Sources, and Order (con..)

• Implication of the Soviet disunion on China.

• Interplay of Chinese scholarship and Chinese ethnic politics.

• What China has learned from the Soviet experiences.

• The new phenomenon in China.

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3 Chinese Analysis on Soviet Nationalities from

Lenin to Gorbachev

Vladimir Lenin and Self-determination:

• Chinese opinions are divided on Lenin‟s nationality policies, but as a whole

quite positive.

• Some of them insist that self-determination was a genuine intention for

national salvation.

• Others think it was a strategy for a strong union.

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3 Chinese Analysis on Soviet Nationalities from

Lenin to Gorbachev (con..)

Joseph Stalin’s Oppressiveness:

• Departure from Lenin‟s original, and had nothing to do with genuine

socialism and internationalism based on Marxist principle.

• Although Chinese scholarship from IREECAS admit Stalin‟s barbarous

conduct, but they are shy of using the terms of “genocide” or “massacre” to

describe Stalin‟s crimes.

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3 Chinese Analysis on Soviet Nationalities from

Lenin to Gorbachev (con..)

After Stalin:

• De-Stalinization did not have sufficient positive impact on Soviet

nationality policy.

• The concept of “Soviet people” was equivalent to a renewed form of

Russification.

• National problems were even worse after Stalin.

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3 Chinese Analysis on Soviet Nationalities from

Lenin to Gorbachev (con..)

Mikhail Gorbachev’s Liberalization:

• Pessimistic views on Gorbachev‟s liberal and unrestrained national policies

in the 1980s.

• Gorbachev might be the cause for massive ethnic disturbances which

battered the Soviet state in 1991.

• Gorbachev neglected the economic matter, which was the key for national

unity.

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3 Chinese Analysis on Soviet Nationalities from

Lenin to Gorbachev (con..)

Mikhail Gorbachev’s Liberalization (con..):

• Some of the nationality borders were arbitrarily and unscientifically

demarcated, often without proper ethnic and historical considerations. The

dilemma made the socialist state susceptible to ethnic conflicts and national

split, and even plagued the post-Soviet nations after 1991, like the current

Crimea in the Ukraine.

• Gorbachev‟s new thinking and his reforms were not immune to western

influence and peaceful evolution.

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• Will China lose the grip on its minorities and become another Soviet in

future?

• Absolute national majority of Han; continuing Han Chinese migration;

“ethnic drowning”—a term coined by Timothy Cheek (from Living with

Reform: China since 1989, Black Point: Fernwood, 2006).

• After 1991 Chinese immediately reduced the numbers of minority party

elites in both provincial and state levels (Minglang Zhou, “The Fate of the

Soviet Model of Multinational State-Building in the People's Republic of

China,” in China Learns from the Soviet Union, 1949-Present, eds. Thomas

Bernstein and Hua-yu Li. Lanham: Lexington Books, 2010).

4 Soviet Implication on China’s Nationalities

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4 Soviet Implication on China’s Nationalities (con..)

• The methods of forced emigration and isolation (Graham Fuller and

Jonathan Lipman, “Islam in Xinjiang,” in Xinjiang: China’s Muslim

Borderland, ed. S. Frederick Starr. Armonk, N.Y.: M.E. Sharpe, 2004).

• The strategy of “divide and rule” (Gardner Bovingdon, “Heteronomy and

Its Discontents: „Minzu Regional Autonomy‟ in Xinjiang,” in Governing

China’s Multiethnic Frontiers, ed. Morris Rossabi. Seattle: University of

Washington Press, 2004).

• Close the door of minorities to the outside world.

• The policy of obscurantism.

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5 Future Problem of China: the Rise of Internal

Foreigners

• China may face another nationality adversity which is different with that of

the Soviet empire in the new millennium—the rise of “internal foreigners”

(Dru Gladney, Dislocating China: Reflections on Muslims, Minorities, and

other Subaltern Subjects. Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 2004).

• Han Chinese is actually a group of very diverse peoples with different

cultures and languages.

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5 Future Problem of China: the Rise of Internal

Foreigners (con..)

• Cantonese peoples versus Mandarin speakers (for

political, cultural, and linguistic reasons).

• Others, such as Shanghainess and Hokkiens

(Fujianess), versus Beijing (for political and economic

reasons).

• China must deal with this problem alone in the future.

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Bibliography

Primary Sources

IREECAS Official Bi-Monthly Journal:

Suliandongou wenti [Matters of the Soviet Union and

Eastern Europe], later (after 1991) known as Eluosi

zhongya dongou yanjiu [Study of Russia, Central

Asia, and Eastern Europe]

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Bibliography

Secondary Sources

Chinese Nationalities:

Bernstein, Thomas, and Hua-yu Li, eds. China Learns from the Soviet Union,

1949-Present. Lanham: Lexington Books, 2010.

Cheek, Timothy. Living with Reform: China since 1989. Black Point, N.S.:

Fernwood, 2006.

Dreyer, June. China’s Forty Millions: Minority Nationalities and National

Integration in the People’s Republic of China. Cambridge, Mass.: Harvard

University Press, 1976.

He, Baogang, and Yingjie Guo. Nationalism, National Identity and

Democratization in China. Aldershot; Brookfield USA: Ashgate, 2000.

Rossabi, Morris, ed. Governing China's Multiethnic Frontiers. Seattle:

University of Washington Press, 2004.

Starr, S. Frederick, ed. Xinjiang: China’s Muslim Borderland. Armonk, N.Y.:

M.E. Sharpe, 2004.

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Bibliography

Secondary Sources

Soviet Nationalities:

Fowkes, Ben. The Disintegration of the Soviet Union: A Study in the Rise and

Triumph of Nationalism. New York: St. Martin's Press, 1997.

Gorbachev, Mikhail Sergeevich. Perestroika: New Thinking for Our Country

and the World. London: Fontana, 1988.

Naimark, Norman. Stalin’s Genocides. Princeton, N.J.: Princeton University

Press, 2010.

Rezun, Miron. Nationalism and the Breakup of An Empire: Russia and Its

Periphery. Westport, Conn.: Praeger, 1992.

Laqueur, Walter. The Dream that Failed: Reflections on the Soviet Union.

Oxford: Oxford University Press, 1994.

White, Stephen, Alex Pravda, and Zvi Gitelman, eds. Developments in Russian

& Post-Soviet Politics. Basingstoke: Palgrave, 2001.

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