Resumen de Non-territorial autonomy in Russia during the revolution and the civil war

Irina Nam

• This paper provides an overview of the numerous attempts at implementing the idea of non-territorial autonomy (NTA) during the revolution and civil war in Russia in 1917–1922, when the fate of the disintegrating multinational empire was being discussed. Projects of Russian political parties offered various options for the implementation of NTA—from a universal model for solving national problems to an alternative to the territorial option and to specific projects intended for ethnic minorities only. The Constitutional Democrats, whose main priority was the indivisibility of Russia, saw NTA as a counterweight to the increasingly influential federalist movement. The Socialist parties envisaged the possibility of both territorial and non-territorial solutions to the national question. The idea of NTA was embodied in the projects of the national movements of Jews, Germans and Ukrainians; in the national-religious movement of Muslim Turko-Tatars; and in the activities of the provisional democratic governments in the country's east, that is, the Committee of Members of the Constituent Assembly, the Provisional Siberian Government based in Omsk and the Ministry of National Affairs of the Far Eastern Republic.