USSR ETHNIC POLICY IN PRE-WAR PERIOD (1938-1941)

In the article the author analyses the main aspects of the Soviet ethnic policy course during the period preceding the Great Patriotic War (1938-1941): strengthening of the Russian ethnic factor, formation of the ‘Soviet patriotism’concept, propaganda of ‘the friendship of peoples’, as well as the conjugation of the new directions of the ethnic policy and ‘the proletarian internationalism’. The author shows that the ethnic policy implemented during the mentioned period laid the basis for moral mobilizing of the Soviet people during the war, though this policy was not brought to the conclusion.

USSR, ethnic policy, ethnic relations, Soviet patriotism, Great Patriotic War