ABSTRACT
The former union republics of the USSR are themselves multiethnic: they harbor minorities within their borders, not least among them Russians. In some cases, these “non-titular” nationalities are nations that occupy their own historic homelands, but were considered too small in size to qualify for union-republic status. In other cases, these are large nations, but they are densely intermingled with the “titular” nationality, or encircled by the latter’s territory, preventing a clear-cut separation between the two. During Stalin’s time, such “minority” nations, depending on their size and demographic situation, were sometimes granted a lesser national-territorial status as autonomous republics, autonomous regions, or national districts (in descending order of rank). This was not done in matrëshka-doll fashion, with units of decreasing size located within each other; rather, each nationality within a union republic had (or lacked) its own territorial status. The largest of all the union republics, the RSFSR (the Russian Federation), housed a score of autonomous republics, regions, and districts, while some other union republics contained none.
