Issue 2 (63)
| “EASTERN MARGINS”AS AN OBJECT OF STUDY OF THE EASTERN DEPARTMENT OF THE GPU — OGPU (1922–1923) | |||
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| Year | 2019 | Number | 2(63) |
| Pages | 104-111 | Type | scientific article |
| UDC | 94(470)“1922/1923” | BBK | 63.3(2)613 |
| Authors | Khristoforov Vasiliy S. |
Topic | CENTER AND PERIPHERY IN THE SYSTEM OF GOVERNMENT |
| Summary | The article analyzes the information and analytical aspects of the soviet intelligence services work in the early 1920s in the “eastern margins”: Central Asia and Kazakhstan, the Crimea, the North Caucasus and Transcaucasia. Based on the analysis of original archival documents of the Eastern Department of the OGPU, conclusions are drawn about priorities in gathering information, main areas of analytical work of the Soviet intelligence service in these regions. Relying on the general party directions on implementation of the “awakening the East” strategy, the OGPU, nevertheless, had very specific interpretation of them and formulated own tasks in this process. The obvious priority of the special services work was to keep the “eastern margins” under the influence of Moscow. Achieving this goal required identifying historical and current forms of their activity at local and global scales; opposing “eastern counter-revolutionary organizations”; surveilling and influencing national intelligentsia and the Muslim clergy as the most authoritative social groups. Such directions were at odds with the party line on the inclusion of the most active and loyally-minded part of local elites into local and global political processes. The documents demostrate that the focus of attention of the “eastern counter-intelligence” was on analyzing historical and modern forms of the national religious movement in these regions. The historical background of their development was weakly elaborated, but the current circumstances of their existence were assessed objectively in many respects: forms of organization and activities were considered diverse, relationships between groups, organizations and movements were assessed as contradictory. The author concludes that the imbalance of information support, the inheritance of ideological attitudes of the civil confrontation period will provide the OGPU Eastern Department of with a great scope for analytical generalizations weakly connected with the real situation in the regions. | ||
| Keywords | Joint State Political Directorate, Eastern Department of OGPU, “eastern marginsˮ, Central Asia, Kazakhstan, Crimea, Northern Caucasus, Transcaucasia, Tatarstan, Bashkiriya, islam in Soviet Russia, Soviet national policy | ||
| References |
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