Updating of the national question in the USSR under conditions of social-political transformations in the second half of the 1980s

The aim of the study was to identify the main conditions and factors of actualization of the national question in the Soviet Union in the second half of 1980-ies. To achieve objectives it is necessary to solve following research tasks: to consider initiatives of the authorities aimed at the solution of the national question in the country; to explore the process of mobilization and politicization of the national movements; to determine the vectors of the national question. The methodological basis of research are the principles of historicism (review events and developments in the interrelationship and interdependence in the concrete historical situation and in chronological order), objectivity (the desire to make the study reliable) and the principle of consistency (the events and phenomena of the past are seen as links in a system). Source base of the research consists of party materials (party program, the resolutions and decisions of the Plenum, party platforms, etc.). Source analysis of documents of the Communist party allows reconstructing the political-ideological attitudes, and directing their implementation. Appeal to party documentation as a historical source is extremely important for reliably convincing historical reconstruction of the investigated events of the Soviet era, creating a holistic and dynamic picture of it. Also the reports of the Secretary-General of the CPSU Central Committee M.S. Gorbachev, which reflected large-scale changes in ideology, economy and political life of the country, were used. The analysis of the research problems led to the following conclusions: 1. The national question had taken a key role in public-political life of the USSR in the second half of the 1980s, because it appeared as a major threat to the whole system of the existing government. This caused a revision of the theoretical foundations of the party's national policy and the abandonment of the thesis of the final solution. Thus, the national question was recognized, though with obvious delay, priority for the management. 2. Initiatives of the party and state leadership, aimed at stabilizing the ethno-political life of the country, provoked the emergence of the national question to the fore. 3. The two vectors of the national question were designated. On the one hand, in the framework of updating of the Russian state, the national question was reduced to the determination of the powers of the Centre and republics, to seek to raise the level of their national-state status. The "vertical" dimension of the national question has not boded any complications between the parties. On the other hand, the process of ethnic mobilization has translated the national question in the "horizontal" plane - worsened inter-ethnic relations.

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