Ukrainians as “Aliens” (Inorodtsy): Governmental Regulation of Ukrainian Cultural Associations, 1905–17

Abstract

This article presents a history of the imperial government’s regulation of Ukrainian cultural associations, which appeared around the Romanov Empire in the aftermath of the 1905 Revolution. It centers on the prehistory, drafting, and implementation of Circular No. 2 (1910), issued by the Ministry of Internal Affairs and signed by Petr Stolypin on January 20, 1910, which labeled Ukrainian associations “alien.” By studying the document in a wider chronological and geographical context than in previous scholarship, I argue that even though the circular aimed at curbing any non‐Russian nationalist activity irrespective of national group, its more specific goal was to avert a break‐up of the tripartite Russian nation by preventing the inhabitants of the southwestern provinces from becoming Ukrainians. Therefore, the circular’s characterization of Ukrainians as “aliens” was neither an accident nor a bureaucratic mistake, as is suggested in the historiography, but should be considered as a manifestation of the embrace of Russian nationalism by the highest officials of the empire. Additionally, the haphazard implementation of the circular further revealed the multilayered nature of the late imperial bureaucracy, as well as the empire’s inconsistent nationalization on the eve of the First World War.