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Cultural backwardness

Soviet political term

Summary

Soviet political term

Cultural backwardness () was a term used by Soviet politicians and ethnographers. There were at one point officially 97 "culturally backward" nationalities in the Soviet Union. Members of a "culturally backward" nationality were eligible for preferential treatment in university admissions. In 1934 the Central Executive Committee declared that the term should no longer be used, however preferential treatment for certain minorities and the promotion of local nationals in the party structure through korenizatsiya continued for several more years.

Characteristics

The People's Commissariat for Education listed five official characteristics of culturally backward nationalities:

  • An extremely low level of literacy
  • An extremely low percentage of children in school
  • Absence of a written script connected to a literary language
  • Existence of "social vestiges" (oppression of women, racial hostility, nomadism, religious fanaticism)
  • An extremely low level of national cadres

List of nationalities identified as culturally backward

In 1932 the People's Commissariat for Education published an official list of "culturally backward" nationalities:

  • Abkhaz
  • Adyghe
  • Adjarians
  • Aleut
  • Assyrian
  • Azerbaijanis
  • Avars
  • Baksan (a tribe of Balkars)
  • Balkars
  • Bashkirs
  • Besermyan
  • Bulgarians
  • Buryats
  • Chechen
  • Cherkes (Adyghe)
  • Chinese
  • Chud
  • Chukchi
  • Chuvans
  • Chuvash
  • Dargins
  • Dolgans
  • Dungans
  • Eskimo
  • Giliaks (Nivkhs)
  • Golds (Nanai)
  • Greeks
  • Ingush
  • Izhorians
  • Kabardin
  • Kaitaks (now classified as Dargins)
  • Kalmyks
  • Kamchadals
  • Karachays
  • Karagasy (Tofalars)
  • Kara-nogais
  • Karakalpaks
  • Karelians
  • Kazakhs
  • Kets
  • Khakas
  • Komi-Permyaks
  • Komi-Zyrians
  • Koryaks
  • Koreans
  • Krymchaks
  • Kumandins
  • Kumyks
  • Kurds
  • Kurd-ezid (Yazidis)
  • Kyrgyz
  • Laks
  • Lamuts (Evens)
  • Lezgins
  • Lopars (Sami)
  • Manegry (Evenks)
  • Mari
  • Moldovans
  • Mongols
  • Mordvins
  • Nagaybak
  • Negidals
  • Nenets
  • Nogais
  • Oirats
  • Oroch
  • Orochen (Orochon, a tribal division of Evenks)
  • Ossetians
  • Ostyak (Khanty)
  • Persians
  • Roma (Gypsies)
  • Rutuls
  • Samagir (Nanai)
  • Shapsugs
  • Shors
  • Soyot
  • Tabasarans
  • Tajiks
  • Taranchis
  • Tats
  • Tatars (outside of the Tatar ASSR)
  • Tavgi (Nganasans)
  • (also classified as Bashkirs)
  • Teleuts
  • Tungus (Evenks)
  • Turkmen
  • Tuvans
  • Udege
  • Udmurts
  • Ulch
  • Uyghurs
  • Uzbeks
  • Vepsians
  • Voguls (Mansi)
  • Votes
  • Yakuts
  • Yukaghir

References

Works cited

References

  1. {{harvp. Martin. 2001
Wikipedia Source

This article was imported from Wikipedia and is available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 License. Content has been adapted to SurfDoc format. Original contributors can be found on the article history page.

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