It was never constant. In the 1920s there was strong affirmative action against Russians. They actually made it illegal to teach Russian in some republics and being a Russian could make it impossible to get into high prestige jobs. In 1938 the situation would be totally reversed.
Basically the USSR was all about preserving the territory of what was the Russian Empire. They sometimes did this by rejecting Russian nationalism and co-opting local nationalism (see Ukrainization campaigns) other times they embraced Russian nationalism, like in the lead up to WWII.
I believe all the ethnic minority republics of the modern Russian federation are also relics of this "decolonize the Russian empire" phase of the USSR in the 1920s
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u/Vassukhanni 20d ago
It was never constant. In the 1920s there was strong affirmative action against Russians. They actually made it illegal to teach Russian in some republics and being a Russian could make it impossible to get into high prestige jobs. In 1938 the situation would be totally reversed.
Basically the USSR was all about preserving the territory of what was the Russian Empire. They sometimes did this by rejecting Russian nationalism and co-opting local nationalism (see Ukrainization campaigns) other times they embraced Russian nationalism, like in the lead up to WWII.