ABSTRACT
The persistence of the Russian multinational empire, which acquired many of its non-Russian territories in the late 1800s as a result of its cabinet's absolutist policy and its simultaneous colonial expeditions, is a remarkable phenomenon within the overall context of twentieth century history. The Russian empire followed the tradition of multinational empires and left the social structures of conquered or annexed peoples and territories relatively intact. However, Soviet collectivization had a more dramatic impact in the Ukraine, in the east, and particularly among the nomadic peoples, than on the Russian villages with their mir tradition. The most important aspect of Soviet modernization was the development of an educational system among the non-Russian peoples that helped recruit new national elites. The 1970s saw a radical change in the way both Soviet and Western scholars assessed the nationalism of non-Russian peoples. However, this "change of paradigms" was more pronounced in the West than in the USSR.
