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TheDeclaration of the Rights of the Peoples of Russia (Russian:Деклара́ция прав наро́дов Росси́и,romanized: Deklaratsiya prav narodov Rossii) was a document promulgated by theBolshevik government ofRussia on 15 November 1917 (2 November inJulian calendar) and signed byVladimir Lenin andJoseph Stalin.
The document proclaimed:
The meaning of the Declaration is still disputed in Russian historiography. In 1917 the Bolshevist thinking was still largely idealistic, dominated by vague ideas of "universal happiness". Also, at that moment Bolsheviks believed that theWorld revolution was imminent, so they did not care much about loss of territories. However, in the Western literature, it is often argued that in fact Lenin and Stalin agreed to capture mostly the territories they had no sovereignty over since Russia had lost them toCentral Powers in 1915 and 1916. Many historians suggest that the purpose of the document was to limit the public dissent after Russia lost most of its western areas to the advancing German Empire and try to complicate the matters behind the front lines.
The declaration was an attempt to rally some ethnic non-Russians behind the Bolsheviks.Latvian riflemen were important supporters of Bolsheviks in the early days ofRussian Civil War and Latvian historians recognize the promise of sovereignty as an important reason for that. The anti-revolutionaryWhite Russians did not support self-determination and, as a result, few Latvians fought on the side of the White movement. Intended or not, the declaration's provided right to secede was soon exercised by the nations in the western parts of the formerRussian Empire, part of which had already been under German army's rather than Moscow's control. After the collapse of the Central Powers in late 1918, however,Soviet Russia began attempting to establish Soviet power in as many states as possible. In November 1918, the Red Armylaunched a military campaign in the west, invading and occupyingBelarus and then advancing against the threeBaltic states. In January 1919 the Red Armyinvaded Ukraine and in July 1920invaded Poland. In the south, the Red Armyinvaded the Azerbaijan Democratic Republic in April 1920, theninvaded the Republic of Armenia in September, and finallyinvaded the Democratic Republic of Georgia in early 1921, even though Soviet Russia had nominally agreed to Georgia's independence in theTreaty of Moscow.
The initially successful offensive against theRepublic of Estonia ignited theEstonian War of Independence which ended with the Sovietrecognition of Estonia. Similarly, the campaigns against theRepublic of Latvia andRepublic of Lithuania ultimately failed, resulting in theLatvian–Soviet Peace Treaty andSoviet–Lithuanian Peace Treaty respectively. While Ukraine and Belarus were largely conquered, the Soviets ultimately also failed in their invasion of Poland after they werestopped at Warsaw, and hostilities ended with the signing of theTreaty of Riga of 1921. Therefore, in 1920 and 1921, the Soviet Russia recognized all three Baltic States as well as Poland as independent states. Attempts toconquer the Moldavian Democratic Republic holding Bessarabia and Northern Bukovina also failed, and in 1918 Moldaviaunified with Romania instead. Years later, following the signing of theMolotov-Ribbentrop Pact and subsequent outbreak ofWorld War II, the Soviet Union would attack many of these territories again, as the Red Armyinvaded Poland in 1939 and later occupiedthe Baltic States andBessarabia and Northern Bukovina in 1940. After the conclusion of World War II, the Soviet Union would keep these territories, with the Baltics and Bessarabia annexed to the USSR and Poland forcibly made into aSoviet satellite state. These conquests made by the Red Army between 1918 and 1945 would last until thedissolution of the USSR beginning in 1989, after which all these nations would come to be independent again.
The following countries declared their independence soon after the Bolsheviks' declaration, establishing themselves as non-Communist states. Although the role the declaration played in their independence movements is doubtful, it easedSoviet Russia's recognition of their independence. Except for Finland, all of these areas were outside of Russian sovereignty following the Austro-German successes in theWorld War I and were officially ceded in theTreaty of Brest-Litovsk.
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Finland (6 December 1917)
Lithuania (11 December 1917)
Ukraine (autonomy 22 November 1917, independence 22 January 1918)
Moldavia (autonomy 15 December 1917, independence 6 February 1918, joinedRomania on 9 April 1918)
Belarus (25 March 1918)
Estonia (22 April 1918)
Poland (11 November 1918)
Latvia (18 November 1918)Several other independent republics were proclaimed but were short-lived:
Bashkurdistan (28 November 1917)
Crimea (13 December 1917)
Kuban (16 February 1918)
Transcaucasia (24 February 1918)
Kazan (1 March 1918)
Mountain Republic (11 May 1918)
Don (18 May 1918)
Yekaterinburg (19 August 1918)
Kars (1 December 1918)
Chuvashia (1918)
East Karelia (21 June 1919)
North Ingria (9 July 1919)
Kaluga
Ryazan
OrenburgBolsheviks never formally rejected the idea of self-determination, but Soviet constitutions (of 1924, 1936 and 1977) limited the right of secession to theconstituent republics only.
