ABSTRACT
During the 1930s Soviet nationalities policy lost its internationalist coloring. The reality of Stalin’s plan for “socialism in one country,” discounting the probability of world revolution in the foreseeable future, served to enhance the role of the “leading nation,” namely Russia, and to diminish the relative importance of all others. The non-Russians were no longer viewed as possible bridges to the outside world, whether East or West. The conflict between the internationalists (often non-Russians, and frequently Jews) and the Moscow-centrists began with the struggle for power between Stalin and Trotsky. The liquidation of Soviet officers who had “fulfilled their internationalist duty” aiding loyalist forces during the Spanish Civil War was the last episode in that struggle.
