THE NATIONAL QUESTION AS A FACTOR OF THE COLLAPSE OF THE RUSSIAN EMPIRE. LATVIA AND ESTONIA ON THE ROAD TO INDEPENDENCE. 1914–17

Abstract

The first part of the article outlines the 1914–17 discussion on establishing national autonomies in the non-Russian regions of the Empire when the WWI made the national question extremely urgent both for the central government and national elites. After the collapse of the Empire the Provisional Government did not work out any general programme for solving the problem. The second part analyses the activity of Latvian and Estonian national-democratic leaders for solving the national question in their respective regions. They presented their projects of establishing national autonomies based on democratic principles to the Provisional Government in spring 1917. Although the latter did not approve these programmes in full, the elected National Land Councils started corresponding reforms, while the Bolsheviks who were also present in these Councils made efforts to undermine the creation of autonomies. When Russia was proclaimed the democratic state on September 1 (13), 1917, the federative form of the state was not declared. But despite growing tendency to independence, establishing national autonomies within a Russian Democratic Federal Republic to be proclaimed by the All-Russian Constituent Assembly remained more attractive perspective for the Latvians and Estonians. The dissolution of the Constituent Assembly in January, 1918 marked the end of the hopes for national autonomies within the Russian Democratic Federal Republic. Still, the formation of the Soviet Federative State in spite of the Bolsheviks’ previous idea of a unitary proletarian republic, indicated that the Communist authorities had to take into account the peoples’ desire for national autonomies. This fact highlights the missed opportunities for the Provisional Government to save the project of the Russian democratic state. Ключевые слова /