What are the photos talking and silent about? (1926 in the history of the Soviet ethnopolitical elite)

Abstract

In the mid-1920s, important events took place in the development of Soviet ethnonational politics. They were associated with the active actions of ethnopolitical elites in the center and autonomies of the RSFSR. Following the IV meeting of the Central Committee of the RCP(b) with responsible workers of the national republics and regions in 1923, the adoption of the Constitution of the RSFSR in 1924, the constitutions of the autonomies were developed and legal, organizational and other management mechanisms were clarified. An important role was played by the so-called "Ryskulov meeting" held in Moscow at the end of 1926. It took place during the III session of the Central Executive Committee of the 12th convocation, the participants of which are depicted in two photographs. Having a typical character, the photographs nevertheless capture not only the international composition of the Soviet elite. Despite considerable attention to the publication of visual sources and their involvement in the relevant historical context, much remains "behind the scenes". All the characters in the photographs have not been identified, the event series and the problem field associated with them have not been reconstructed. In combination with the available published and archival sources, their analysis makes it possible to present in more detail the specifics and conflicts of the relationship between the center and the ethnopolitical leaders of the autonomous regions of the RSFSR, as well as the essence of the problems of nation-building, social and economic development that were solved jointly by all parties. Important details of the history of federal construction in the USSR and the contribution of national figures to the development of Soviet statehood are clarified. A large place is devoted to the political consequences of this meeting in the autonomous regions of the RSFSR, including in Kazakhstan.