The Soviet Union takes another path on the national question.

Apparently, early on the Soviet Union debated how to deal with the nationalism question. Some felt that nationalism had no place in the Soviet Union and so it should not be divided along ethnic lines. Others felt that every nationality should develop separately. How would it be if Lenin and other Soviet leaders decide to pursue a policy less encouraging of local nationalisms in favour of a single Soviet nationalism. Could it happen that the Soviet Union is not internally divided along national lines but into districts that make no attempt to match national boundaries? How might this happen and how might it effect the Unions history (and it's fall if it does fall)?
 
So a New Soviet Man Project which the Party tries to usher into being through deliberate, direct action instead of just believing that it would come about as a result of creating the conditions for it? It would basically have to be a concerted and total Russification program even more so then what the Soviets pursued OTL. In terms of results... well, it would probably result in a larger proportion of the populace who identify as ethnically Russian but we're talking only a few percentage points at most. The Russification of the Uralic and Siberian populations, the most successful instances to date, basically took half-a-millennia.
 
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So a New Soviet Man Project which the Party tries to usher into being through deliberate, direct action instead of just believing that it would come about as a result of creating the conditions for it? It would basically have to be a concerted and total Russification program even more so then what the Soviets pursued OTL. In terms of results... well, it would probably result in a larger proportion of the populace who identify as ethnically Russian but we're talking only a few percentage points at most. The Russification of the Uralic and Siberian populations, the most successful instances to date, basically took half-a-millennia.
The thing I am interested in isn't so much the Soviets pushing Russification. I doubt they will achieve much in the time they have. It is the political consequences of there being no national states within the Union. If there is no Republic of Estonia or Ukraine to act as a focus for nationalism and eventually assume power and no obvious borders to divide along how might this effect any break up for example.
 

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If there is no Republic of Estonia or Ukraine to act as a focus for nationalism and eventually assume power and no obvious borders to divide along how might this effect any break up for example.
So there is no Ukrainization, the Little Russians are not forced to become Ukrainians, are not forced to learn Ukrainian language? I do not know about the future, but the 1920s and 1930s would surely be much better than they were in OTL for millions of people in Little Russia.
 
I think the results would largely depend on the details of this alternate nationality policy. One of the major driving forces of OTL's policy was to prevent political fragmentation during the Russian Civil War. Stalin's nationality policy went a long way towards that end. No action on the Nationality front would likely lead to at the very least independence for Central Asia and perhaps a White victory in the civil war.

I suppose some variant of National Personal Autonomy would be possible though drawing the districts would be an even bigger headache than OTL as you'd want to keep the districts as multi-ethnic as possible. This would exponentially increase the costs of administering the country which would introduce an entirely different set of problems if the Reds emerge victorious. Furthermore the dominance of Russian would cause problems in adapting National Personal Autonomy from Austria Hungary to get USSR. It would basically be seen as a kind of soft Russification due to the greater opportunities afforded to Russian speakers.
 
Bolshevik appeals to nationalism were almost necessary to win the civil war. And they were not all *that* easy to turn off after the war was over. Even Stalin never advocated abolition of the national republics like Ukraine and Beloruissia--though unlike Lenin he favored making them autonomous republics of the RSFSR, like the Bashkir and Yakut republics. The Bolsheviks did believe in centralism but not in crude Russification.
 
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