page_title: Siberian minorities in the Soviet era
section_title: Border division
hierarchical_section_title: Siberian minorities in the Soviet era / Border division
caption_attribution_description: English: The pyramid structure of the National Soviet System, first established in the 1930's.
context_page_description: The formation of the Soviet Union corresponded to a drastic re-structuring of the lives of many of the indigenous peoples of Siberia. The Soviet vision was often not compatible with tribal life, and many changes were enacted upon the native framework. This process is often called "Sovietization." It is a type of acculturation using political influence. In the success of such a process, the result is neither total assimilation nor total acculturation. National groups have a political identity and operate inside of the Moscow political structure yet maintain aspects of their culture. In practice however, reactions to such policies garnered a wide spectrum of reactions, with some groups in support and others in opposition. The new Soviet lifestyle made it "illegal for individuals to own means of production, exchange and communication."
context_section_description: Outside the collective structure, the Soviets attempted to institute a larger system of ethnic organization. In the 1920s, the oblast/okrug system was used to divide the Soviet Union into smaller provinces. Inside the larger oblasts were often autonomous okrugs: regions where native groups could freely exist. This however did not adequately solved the widespread division of nomadic peoples, and on July 30, 1930, the oblast system was dissolved. The Soviets rejected the idea of a single national majority with internal minorities, which was seen as a capitalist model.
  In the next development phase, they tried to create an overarching federal structure with a large number of national territories.
  
  This strategy was called ethno-territorial proliferation. 
   National-territorial units were expanded into smaller and smaller units called national soviets. The structure resembled a pyramid, with the number of units growing until reaching the bottom layer, the individual, with a fixed national identity. Tens of thousands of national borders were drawn and re-drawn, forcing everyone to choose a national identity and a set territory corresponding to that identity. This caused a large amount of ethnic conflict. Minorities wanted national soviets, yet even after this division, often remained the minority in a national soviet belonging to another group. The majority of such a soviet did not look kindly on its minority and often actively tried to expel them, by any means possible.
  Inside these national soviets, efforts were made to unite the national group and Russians living in the territory. Though active resistance against the Russians was small, both Russians and native groups self-segregated, living in ethnic neighborhoods in the collective center. Russians attempted to isolate themselves just as much the natives, through intermarriage and ethnically-homogenous villages.
caption: A breakdown of the National Soviet System
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