Acceso usuarios
The article explores imperial uses of non-territorial autonomy in the works of international lawyers André Mandelstam and Boris Nolde, which they wrote before the collapse of the Russian Empire. Although written in different contexts, their projects for non-territorial autonomy departed from other similar plans proposed in the Russian Empire. Rather than an attempt to secure the status and the interests of ethno-national groups within the framework of a multinational state, they pursued the goal of imperial domination and regarded the rights of minorities as a pretext for imposing limitations on other states (or states in the making). The project of André Mandelstam was a part of Russia's Plan of Reforms for the Ottoman Empire produced in 1913/1914, which aimed to protect its Armenian population, yet severely restricted the sovereignty of the Sultan. Written in July 1917, Boris Nolde's project developed the programme of the Constitutional Democratic Party on the national question. He was particularly concerned with the recognition of Ukrainian national-territorial autonomy by the Provisional Government. For him, non-territorial autonomy was an instrument of undermining the claims of the Ukrainian national movement and retaining control over Ukraine.
