2. 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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3. 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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4. 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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5. 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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6. 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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7. 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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8. 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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9. 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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10. 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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11. • 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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12. 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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13. 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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14. 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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15. 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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16. 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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17. 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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