Editing Colonization (section)

===Soviet Union===
[[File:Nyet, nyet, Soviet (12).jpg|thumb|A protest sign from the second half of the 20th century criticising U.N. reaction to Soviet colonial expansion]]
In the 1920s, the Soviet regime implemented the so-called [[korenization]] policy in an attempt to win the trust of non-Russians by promoting their ethnic cultures and establishing for them many of the characteristic institutional forms of the nation-state.<ref name="Terry Martin 2001 1">{{cite book|author=Terry Martin|title=The Affirmative Action Empire: Nations and Nationalism in the Soviet Union, 1923-1939|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=rdlSX2hsb1kC&q=%22institutional+forms+of+the+nation-state%22|year=2001|publisher=Cornell University press|page=1|isbn=0801486777}}</ref> The early Soviet regime was hostile to even voluntary assimilation, and tried to de-Russify assimilated non-Russians.<ref name="Terry Martin 2001 32">{{cite book|author=Terry Martin|title=The Affirmative Action Empire: Nations and Nationalism in the Soviet Union, 1923-1939|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=rdlSX2hsb1kC&q=%22measures+of+derussification%22|year=2001|publisher=Cornell University press|page=32|isbn=0801486777}}</ref> Parents and students not interested in the promotion of their national languages were labeled as displaying "abnormal attitudes". The authorities concluded that minorities unaware of their ethnicities had to be subjected to [[Belarusization]], [[Polonization]], etc.<ref name="Per Anders Rudling 2014 212">{{cite book|author=Per Anders Rudling|title=The Rise and Fall of Belarusian Nationalism, 1906–1931|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=rRrRBgAAQBAJ&q=%22abnormal+attitudes%22|year=2014|publisher=University of Pittsburgh press|page=212|isbn=9780822979586}}</ref>

By the early 1930s, the Soviet regime introduced limited Russification;<ref name="Richard Overy 2004 558">{{cite book|last=Overy|first=Richard|title=The Dictators: Hitler's Germany, Stalin's Russia |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=32Vy2Fj4KFUC&q=%22limited+russification%22 |year=2004 |publisher=W. W Norton Company |page=558 |isbn=9780141912240}}</ref> allowing voluntary assimilation, which was often a popular demand.<ref name="Terry Martin 2001 409">{{cite book|author=Terry Martin|title=The Affirmative Action Empire: Nations and Nationalism in the Soviet Union, 1923-1939|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=rdlSX2hsb1kC&q=%22long-standing+popular+demand%22|year=2001|publisher=Cornell University press|page=409|isbn=0801486777}}</ref> The list of nationalities was reduced from 172 in 1927 to 98 in 1939,<ref name="Richard Overy 2004 556">{{cite book|author=Richard Overy|title=The Dictators: Hitler's Germany, Stalin's Russia|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=32Vy2Fj4KFUC&q=%22limited+russification%22|year=2004|publisher=W.W Norton Company, Inc|page=556|isbn=9780141912240}}</ref> by revoking support for small nations in order to merge them into bigger ones. For example, [[Abkhazia]] was merged into Georgia and thousands of ethnic Georgians were sent to Abkhazia.<ref name="George Hewitt 1999 96">{{cite book|author=George Hewitt|title=The Abkhazians: A Handbook|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=-YUfAgAAQBAJ|year=1999|publisher=Curzon Press|page=96|isbn=9781136802058}}</ref> The [[Abkhaz alphabet]] was changed to a Georgian base, Abkhazian schools were closed and replaced with Georgian schools, the Abkhaz language was banned.<ref>[http://abkhazworld.com/aw/history/643-summary-of-historical-events Summary of Historical Events in Abkhazian History, 1810-1993] ''Abkhaz World'', 15 October 2008, retrieved 11 September 2015.</ref> The ruling elite was purged of ethnic Abkhaz and by 1952 over 80% of the 228 top party and government officials and enterprise managers in Abkhazia were ethnic Georgians (there remained 34 Abkhaz, 7 Russians and 3 Armenians in these positions).<ref>[http://abkhazworld.com/aw/history/499-stalin-beria-terror-in-abkhazia-1936-53-by-stephen-shenfield The Stalin-Beria Terror in Abkhazia, 1936-1953, by Stephen D. Shenfield] ''Abkhaz World'', 30 June 2010, retrieved 11 September 2015.</ref> For [[Königsberg]] area of [[East Prussia]] (modern [[Kaliningrad Oblast]]) given to the Soviet Union at the 1945 [[Potsdam Conference]] Soviet control meant a [[Flight and expulsion of Germans (1944–1950)#Poland, including former German territories|forcible expulsion of the remaining German population]] and mostly involuntary resettlement of the area with Soviet civilians.<ref>{{cite web|last1=Malinkin |first1=Mary Elizabeth |title=Building a Soviet City: the Transform of Königsberg |url=https://www.wilsoncenter.org/article/building-soviet-city-the-transformation-konigsberg |publisher=[[Wilson Center]] |accessdate=2 May 2018 |date=8 February 2016 |quote=Joyous letters were written back home to the collective farms to encourage more people to come, but it was hard to convince people, so the local collective farm boards were given quotas of how many they needed to send to Kaliningrad and other places. They often sent people who were perceived as less useful for the farm – pregnant women, alcoholics, and the less educated, for example.}}</ref>

Russians were now presented as the most advanced and least chauvinist people of the Soviet Union.<ref name="Richard Overy 2004 558"/>

==== Baltic states ====
[[File:Nyet, nyet, Soviet (11).jpg|thumb|A protest sign from the 1980s calling on the United Nations to abolish Soviet colonialism in the Baltic states]]

Large numbers of ethnic Russians and other [[Russian speakers]] were settled in the three Baltic countries – Lithuania, Latvia, and Estonia – after their [[Occupation of the Baltic states|reoccupation in 1944]], while local languages, religion and customs were suppressed.<ref>{{Cite journal |last=Vardys |first=Vytas Stanley |title=Soviet Colonialism in the Baltic States: A Note on the Nature of Modern Colonialism |url=https://www.lituanus.org/1964/64_2_01_Vardys.html |journal=[[Lituanus]] |volume=10 |issue=2 |date=Summer 1964 |issn=0024-5089 |access-date=2021-01-22 |archive-date=2021-11-09 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20211109162257/https://www.lituanus.org/1964/64_2_01_Vardys.html |url-status=dead }}</ref> David Chioni Moore classified it as a "reverse-cultural colonization", where the colonized perceived the colonizers as culturally inferior.<ref>{{cite web |author=David Chioni Moore |title=Is the Post- in Postcolonial the Post- in Post-Soviet? Toward a Global Postcolonial Critique |url=http://monumenttotransformation.org/atlas-of-transformation/html/p/postcolonial-post-soviet/is-the-post-in-postcolonial-the-post-in-post-soviet-toward-a-global-postcolonial-critique-david-chioni-moore.html |publisher=[[Cambridge University Press]] |accessdate=26 January 2021 |date=23 October 2020}}</ref> Colonization of the three Baltic countries was closely tied to mass executions, [[Population transfer in the Soviet Union#Post-war expulsion and deportation|deportations]] and [[repression in the Soviet Union|repression]] of the native population. During both Soviet occupations ([[Soviet occupation of the Baltic states (1940)|1940–1941]]; [[Soviet re-occupation of the Baltic states (1944)|1944–1991]]) a combined 605,000 inhabitants of the three countries were either killed or deported (135,000 Estonians, 170,000 Latvians and 320,000 Lithuanians), while their properties and personal belongings, along with ones who fled the country, were confiscated and given to the arriving colonists – [[Soviet military]] and [[NKVD]] personnel, as well as functionaries of the [[Communist Party of the Soviet Union|Communist Party]] and [[economic migrant]]s from [[kolkhoz]]es.<ref>{{cite book |last1=Abene |first1=Aija |last2=Prikulis |first2=Juris |url=https://okupacijaszaudejumi.lv/content/files/DAMAGE%20CAUSED%20BY%20THE%20%20BALTIC%20STATES.pdf#page=21 |title=Damage caused by the Soviet Union in the Baltic States: International conference materials |publisher= E-forma |date=2017 |location=[[Riga]] |isbn=978-9934-8363-1-2 |pages=20–21|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20230317121932/https://okupacijaszaudejumi.lv/content/files/DAMAGE%20CAUSED%20BY%20THE%20%20BALTIC%20STATES.pdf|archive-date=17 March 2023|url-status=live}}</ref>

The most dramatic case was Latvia, where the amount of ethnic Russians swelled from 168,300 (8.8%) in 1935 to 905,500 (34%) in 1989, whereas the proportion of ethnic Latvians fell from 77% in 1935 to 52% in 1989.<ref>{{cite book |last=Grenoble |first=Lenore A. |author-link=Lenore Grenoble |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=WUeWBwAAQBAJ&pg=PA102 |title=Language Policy in the Soviet Union |publisher=[[Kluwer Academic Publishers]] |date=2003 |location=[[Dordrecht]] |isbn=1-4020-1298-5 |pages=102–103}}</ref> Baltic states also faced intense [[economic exploitation]], with [[Latvian SSR]], for example, transferring 15.961 billion rubles (or 18.8% percent of its total revenue of 85 billion rubles) more to the USSR budget from 1946 to 1990 than it received back. And of the money transferred back, a disproportionate amount was spent on the region's [[militarization]] and funding of repressive institutions, especially in the [[Latvian Soviet Socialist Republic#Stalinism re-imposed, 1945–1953|early years of the occupation]].<ref>{{cite web |last=Krūmiņš |first=Gatis |title=The Investments of the USSR Occupying Power in the Baltic Economies – Myths and Reality |url=https://va.lv/sites/default/files/lv_psrs_norekini2016_final_eng_final.pdf |publisher=[[Vidzeme University of Applied Sciences]] |pages=18–19 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20220408080253/https://va.lv/sites/default/files/lv_psrs_norekini2016_final_eng_final.pdf |archive-date=8 April 2022}}</ref> It has been calculated by a Latvian state-funded commission that the Soviet occupation cost the [[economy of Latvia]] a total of 185 billion euros.<ref>{{cite web |title=Soviet occupation cost Latvian economy €185 billion, says research |url=https://eng.lsm.lv/article/society/society/soviet-occupation-cost-latvian-economy-185-billion-says-research.a178769/ |publisher=[[Public Broadcasting of Latvia]] |agency=[[LETA]] |accessdate=23 October 2020 |date=18 April 2015}}</ref><ref>{{cite magazine |title=Damage to Latvian economy during soviet rule estimated at EUR 185 bln |url=http://www.baltic-course.com/eng/analytics/?doc=119625 |magazine=[[The Baltic Course]] |accessdate=23 October 2020 |date=19 April 2015}}</ref>

Conversely, [[Marxian economics|Marxian economist]] and [[World-systems theory|world-systems analyst]] [[Samir Amin]] asserts that, in contrast to colonialism, capital transfer in the USSR was used to develop poorer regions in the South and East with the wealthiest regions like [[Western Russia]], Ukraine, and the Baltic Republics being the main source of capital.<ref>{{cite book |last1=Amin |first1=Samir |title=Russia and the Long Transition from Capitalism to Socialism |date=Jul 2016 |publisher=NYU Press |isbn=9781583676035 |pages=27–29 |url=https://play.google.com/books/reader?id=nn-tCwAAQBAJ&hl=en&pg=GBS.PA29.w.1.2.31 |quote=The Soviet government did much more: it established a system to transfer capital from the rich regions of the Union (western Russia, Ukraine, Belorussia, later the Baltic countries) to the developing regions of the east and south. |access-date=24 February 2021}}</ref> Estonian researcher [[Epp Annus]] acknowledges that the Soviet rule in the Baltic states did not possess every single characteristic of traditional colonialism since the Baltic states were already modern industrial European [[nation state]]s with an established sense of [[national identity]] and cultural self-confidence prior to their Soviet invasion in 1940 and proposed that the initial Soviet occupation developed into a colonial rule gradually, as the local resistance turned into a hybrid coexistence with the Soviet power. The Soviet colonial rule never managed to fully establish itself and began rapidly disintegrating during ''[[perestroika]]'', but after the restoration of independence, the Baltic states similarly had to deal with problems of a characteristically colonial nature, such as [[pollution]], [[economic collapse]] and demographic tensions.<ref>{{Cite journal |last=Annus |first=Epp |authorlink=Epp Annus |title=The Problem of Soviet Colonialism in the Baltics |journal=[[Journal of Baltic Studies]] |volume=42 |issue=1 |date=March 2012 |pages=21–45 |issn=0162-9778 |doi=10.1080/01629778.2011.628551|s2cid=143682036 }}</ref>

====Jewish oblast====
[[File:Government-hq.jpg|thumb|upright|Sign on the JAO government headquarters]]
In 1934, the Soviet government established the [[Jewish Autonomous Oblast]] in the Soviet Far East to create a homeland for the Jewish people. Another motive was to strengthen Soviet presence along the vulnerable eastern border. The region was often infiltrated by the Chinese; in 1927, [[Chiang Kai-shek]] had ended [[First United Front|cooperation with the Chinese Communist Party]], which further increased the threat. Japan also seemed willing and ready to detach the Far Eastern provinces from the USSR.<ref name="Nora Levin 1990 283">{{cite book|author=Nora Levin|title=The Jews in the Soviet Union Since 1917: Paradox of Survival, Volume 1|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=1Nz0N5GBW6MC|year=1990|publisher=New York University Press|page=283|isbn=9780814750513}}</ref> To make settlement of the inhospitable and undeveloped region more enticing, the Soviet government allowed private ownership of land. This led to many non-Jews to settle in the oblast to get a free farm.<ref name="Richard Overy 2004 567">{{cite book|author=Richard Overy|title=The Dictators: Hitler's Germany, Stalin's Russia|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=32Vy2Fj4KFUC|year=2004|publisher=W.W Norton Company, Inc|page=567|isbn=9780141912240}}</ref>

By the 1930s, a massive propaganda campaign developed to induce more Jewish settlers to move there. In one instance, a government-produced Yiddish film called ''[[Seekers of Happiness]]'' told the story of a Jewish family that fled the [[Great Depression]] in the [[United States]] to make a new life for itself in Birobidzhan. Some 1,200 non-Soviet Jews chose to settle in Birobidzhan.<ref name="jewishmag.com">Arthur Rosen, [www./75mag/birobidzhan/birobidzhan.htm], February 2004</ref> The Jewish population peaked in 1948 at around 30,000, about one-quarter of the region's population. By 2010, according to data provided by the Russian Census Bureau, there were  only 1,628 people of Jewish descent remaining in the JAO (1% of the total population), while ethnic Russians made up 92.7% of the JAO population.<ref name=autogenerated1>{{cite web |url=http://www.gks.ru/free_doc/new_site/population/demo/per-itog/tab7.xls |title=Информационные материалы об окончательных итогах Всероссийской переписи населения 2010 года |access-date=2013-04-19 |archive-date=2012-06-01 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20120601173256/http://www.gks.ru/free_doc/new_site/population/demo/per-itog/tab7.xls |url-status=dead }}</ref> The JAO is Russia's only [[autonomous oblast]]<ref>[[Constitution of the Russian Federation]], Article 65</ref> and, aside of Israel, the world's only Jewish territory with an official status.<ref name=autogenerated4>{{cite journal|author=Спектор Р., руководитель Департамента Евро-Азиатского Еврейского конгресса (ЕАЕК) по связям с общественностью и СМИ|title=Биробиджан — terra incognita?|url=http://www.nasledie-eao.ru/services/nayka/scientific-practical-conference/bir_proekt_konf_2007.pdf#page=18|editor=под ред. Гуревич В.С. |editor2=Рабинович А.Я. |editor3=Тепляшин А.В. |editor4=Воложенинова Н.Ю. |via=Правительство Еврейской автономной области|journal=Биробиджанский проект (опыт межнационального взаимодействия): сборник материалов научно-практической конференции|location=Биробиджан|publisher=ГОУ "Редакция газеты [[Birobidzhaner Shtern]]"|year=2008|page=20}}</ref>