Explaining the Formation of the Soviet National Model: An Economic Perspective

Luyang Zhou, Zhejiang University

This article provides an economic account for the formation of the Soviet national model. The Soviet model has been widely interpreted as a failed experiment that institutionally cultivated nationalist sentiment and secessionism. The research question is thus derived: why did the builders of the Soviet Union reorganize the imperial territory into a union of nation-states rather than make it a new Russia? Existing literature considers the ideological zeal for ethnic equity, the geopolitical calculation for making a world revolution, and Russia’s foreign relations with neighbors. This article probes an understudied role: the Bolshevik revolutionaries’ economic thought. By interpreting the biographical data of revolutionary elites, it shows that the Bolsheviks’ conception of economic determinism led them to believe that a highly integrated all-Soviet economy would suffice to preclude any national secessionism in political and cultural dimensions. This article elaborates the sources of such an outlook: the Marxist economic theory, a longstanding overestimation of Russia’s development, limited technical knowledge on the difficulties of infrastructure-building, observations of peripheral economies, experiences of hyper-centralization during the Civil War, and, the industry-centered advice provided by contemporary professional economists which commonly lacked an ethno-geographic perspective.

No extended abstract or paper available

 Presented in Session 54. States, Elite, and Capital