ABSTRACT
This analysis of German policies toward the Soviet non-Russian nationalities during World War II leads to several conclusions. First, many of the non-Russian national groups of the USSR used the German attack as an opportunity to break away from Russian control. Yet, from the very beginning, German policies toward the Soviet nationalities made it very difficult, if not impossible, to take advantage of this critical structural flaw in the Soviet state. As a result, rather than enhancing the internal cohesion and unity of the Soviet Union, the formidable external threat facing the Soviet multinational state caused significant ethnic fragmentation, which presented considerable military and political exploitation opportunities for the Germans. Despite Nazi brutality and the generally dismal record of German occupation policies in the non-Russian territories, Soviet non-Russians collaborated and fought with the Germans in unprecedented numbers, suggesting that for many of them the Germans remained the lesser of two evils.
