ABSTRACT
Soviets sometimes describe their country as divided into two parts, the center and the periphery. The center means Moscow, although by courtesy the old imperial capital at Leningrad is sometimes included. The periphery includes more than 250 million people who live in different national republics within the USSR and in hundreds of smaller units of government. Most of the Poles in the USSR live, or did live, in the western territories annexed in 1939. The USSR has a national-administrative structure that includes fifty-three national units of various sizes at various levels of cultural and economic development. Just as the United States is divided into fifty states, the USSR is divided into fifteen Soviet socialist republics. Josif Stalin was not willing to grant political independence to the Soviet nationalities, but his policy did allow some autonomy to the national republics in carrying out cultural and educational programs. The most restive nationalities are perhaps the Lithuanians and the western Ukrainians.
