Cultural backwardness

Soviet political term

Cultural backwardness (Russian: культурная отсталость, romanized: kul'turnaya otstalost') was a term used by Soviet politicians and ethnographers. There were at one point officially 97 "culturally backward" nationalities in the Soviet Union.^[1] Members of a "culturally backward" nationality were eligible for preferential treatment in university admissions.^[2] In 1934 the Central Executive Committee declared that the term should no longer be used, however preferential treatment for certain minorities and the promotion of local nationals in the party structure through korenizatsiya continued for several more years.^[3]

Characteristics

[edit ]

The People's Commissariat for Education listed five official characteristics of culturally backward nationalities:^[4]

An extremely low level of literacy
An extremely low percentage of children in school
Absence of a written script connected to a literary language
Existence of "social vestiges" (oppression of women, racial hostility, nomadism, religious fanaticism)
An extremely low level of national cadres

List of nationalities identified as culturally backward

[edit ]

In 1932 the People's Commissariat for Education published an official list of "culturally backward" nationalities:^[1]

1933 stamp depicting Tungus (Evenks), one of the "culturally backward" peoples. One of the people pictured is reading a newspaper, hinting at the modernization of the Evenks under Soviet rule.

1933 stamp showing Chuvash people; again, modernization is hinted at, with a tractor being used and happy peasants apparently working on a collective farm.

Chechens on a 1933 stamp: they read newspapers and listen to a gramophone.

Oroch
Orochen (Orochon, a tribal division of Evenks)^[7]
Ossetians
Ostyak (Khanty)
Persians
Roma (Gypsies)
Rutuls
Samagir (Nanai)
Shapsugs
Shors
Soyot
Tabasarans
Tajiks
Taranchis
Tats
Tatars (outside of the Tatar ASSR)
Tavgi (Nganasans)
Teptyars (now classified as Bashkirs)^[8]
Teleuts
Tungus (Evenks)
Turkmen
Tuvans
Udege
Udmurts
Ulch
Uyghurs
Uzbeks
Vepsians
Voguls (Mansi)
Votes
Yakuts
Yukaghir

References

[edit ]

^ ^a ^b Martin (2001), p. 167.
^ Martin (2001), p. 56.
^ Martin (2001), p. 374.
^ Martin (2001), p. 166.
^ Wixman (1984), p. 20.
^ Wixman (1984), p. 89.
^ Wixman (1984), p. 149.
^ Wixman (1984), p. 190.

Works cited

[edit ]

Martin, Terry Dean (2001). The Affirmative Action Empire: Nations and Nationalism in the Soviet Union, 1923-1939. United States: Cornell University Press. ISBN 978-0-8014-8677-7.
Wixman, Ronald (1984). The Peoples of the USSR: An Ethnographic Handbook. United States: M. E. Sharpe. ISBN 978-0-87332-506-6.

v t e Culture
Outline
Sciences	Cultural anthropology Cultural astronomy Cultural ecology Cultural geography Cultural neuroscience Cultural studies Culturology Culture theory
Subfields	Bioculture Cross-cultural studies Cross-cultural communication Cross-cultural leadership Cross-cultural psychiatry Cross-cultural psychology Cultural analytics Cultural economics Cultural entomology Cultural history Cultural mapping Cultural mediation Cultural psychology Cultural values Culturomics Intercultural learning Intercultural relations Philosophy of culture Popular culture studies Postcritique Semiotics of culture Sociology of culture Sound culture Theology of culture Transcultural nursing
Types	Constructed culture Dominant culture Folk culture High culture Individualistic culture Legal culture Microculture Official culture Political culture Civic Popular culture Low culture Media culture Recombinant culture Remix culture Trash culture Urban Primitive culture Resistance through culture Subculture Alternative culture Counterculture Fandom Far-right subcultures Underground culture Youth subculture list Super culture Supporter Culture Vernacular culture Culture by location
Aspects	Acculturation Cultural appreciation Cultural appropriation Cultural area Cultural artifact Cultural baggage Cultural bias Cultural capital Cross-cultural Cultural communication Cultural conflict Cultural cringe Cultural dissonance Cultural emphasis Cultural framework Cultural heritage Destroyed Cultural icon Cultural identity Cultural industry Cultural invention Cultural landscape Cultural learning Cultural leveling Cultural memory Cultural pluralism Cultural practice Cultural property Cultural reproduction Cultural system Cultural technology Cultural universal Cultureme Enculturation High- and low-context cultures High-trust and low-trust societies Interculturality Internet culture Manuscript culture Material culture Non-material culture Organizational culture Assessment culture Design culture Journalism culture Print culture Protoculture Relational mobility Safety culture Symbolic culture Technoculture Trans-cultural diffusion Transculturation Visual culture
Politics	Colonial mentality Consumer capitalism Cross cultural sensitivity Cultural assimilation Cultural attaché Cultural backwardness Cultural Bolshevism Cultural conservatism Cultural contracts Cultural deprivation Cultural diplomacy Cultural environmentalism Cultural exception Cultural feminism Cultural genocide Cultural globalization Cultural hegemony Cultural imperialism Cultural intelligence Cultural liberalism Cultural nationalism Cultural pessimism Cultural policy Cultural racism Cultural radicalism Cultural retention Cultural Revolution Cultural rights Cultural safety Cultural silence Cultural subsidy Cultural Zionism Culture change Culture minister Culture of fear Culture war Deculturalization Dominator culture Interculturalism Monoculturalism Multiculturalism Biculturalism Multiracial democracy Pluriculturalism Polyculturalism Transculturism
Religions	Buddhism Christianity Catholicism Cultural Christians Protestantism Role of Christianity in civilization Eastern Orthodoxy Mormonism Cultural Hindus Islam Cultural Muslims Judaism Sikhism
Related	Algorithmic culture Animal culture Archaeological culture Bennett scale Cannabis culture Circuit of culture Civilization Coffee culture Cringe culture Cross-cultural Cultural center Cultural competence Cultural critic Cultural determinism Cultural diversity Cultural evolutionism Cultural homogenization Cultural institution Cultural jet lag Cultural lag Cultural literacy Cultural mosaic Cultural movement Cultural mulatto Cultural probe Cultural relativism Cultural tourism Pop-culture Cultural translation Cultural turn Cultural sensibility Culture and menstruation Culture and positive psychology Culture and social cognition Culture gap Culture hero Culture industry Culture shock Culturgen Children's culture Culturalism Cyberculture Death and culture Disability culture Deaf culture Drinking culture Drug culture Eastern culture Emotions and culture Free-culture movement Historical culture Intercultural communication Intercultural competence Languaculture Living things in culture Media culture Oppositional culture Participatory culture Permission culture Rape culture Tea culture Transformation of culture Urban culture Welfare culture Western culture Youth culture
Category

Stub icon

This Soviet Union–related article is a stub. You can help Wikipedia by expanding it.

v
t
e

Retrieved from "https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Cultural_backwardness&oldid=1291691605"

Characteristics

List of nationalities identified as culturally backward

See also

References

Works cited