Bolshevik nationality policies and the formation of the USSR: the Bolsheviks dispute national policy
Journal: Cambridge University Press eBooks
Year: 2013

In the chaotic conditions of the Civil War, the gap between central Bolshevik policies and local implementation was most often played out in the form of undisciplined Russian soviets and Red Army bodies acting in ways that antagonised the local population. But as Soviet power became more secure, it emerged that there were real differences, based on a mixture of prejudice and ideology, which divided the Party both in the regions and at the centre. It was rarely the case that competing positions w