Tsarist Russia was dubbed the "
prison of the peoples" ("тюрьма народов") by
Vladimir Lenin. The
Soviet Union, which replaced the empire, proclaimed that the goal of its national policy was to forge a new national entity, the "
Soviet people". Leading up to and during the establishment of
Bolshevik power, the friendship of peoples narrative limited the scope of Russian exceptionalism, however, throughout
World War II the metaphor experienced a reconfiguration and the leading role of Russians in the
October Revolution, as well as cultural and technological advancements of the
Soviet Union was increasingly emphasized.
Under Joseph Stalin despite the ubiquitous slogan of "friendship of the peoples" between 1939 and 1953 a total of approximately 6 million people from many of the Soviet Union's ethnic minorities (Poles,
Romanians,
Lithuanians,
Latvians,
Estonians,
Volga Germans,
Finns,
Crimean Tatars,
Crimean Greeks,
Kalmyks,
Balkars,
Karachays,
Meskhetian Turks,
Koreans,
Chechens, Ingush, and others) were
forcefully resettled or deported, often to remote locations in the
Far East or
Central Asia, 1.5 million of whom died of disease or hunger, which in some cases made up more than 40 percent of a deported population. The
Constitution of the Soviet Union of 1977 stated: "The union of the working class, the collective farm peasantry and the people's intelligentsia, the friendship of peoples and nationalities of the USSR have been strengthened." Some historians evaluating the Soviet Union as a
colonial empire, applied the "prison of nations" idea to the USSR. Thomas Winderl wrote "The USSR became in a certain sense more a prison-house of nations than the old Empire had ever been." == See also ==