View source for Declaration of the Rights of the Peoples of Russia

{{Short description|1917 Soviet document by Lenin and Stalin}}
{{unreferenced|date=December 2015}}
{{POV|date=June 2023}}
{{Use dmy dates|date=June 2023}}
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The '''Declaration of the Rights of the Peoples of Russia''' ({{langx|ru|Деклара́ция прав наро́дов Росси́и|translit=Deklaratsiya prav narodov Rossii}}) was a document promulgated by the [[Bolshevik]] government of [[Russian Soviet Federative Socialist Republic|Russia]] on 15 November 1917 (2 November in [[Adoption of the Gregorian calendar#Adoption in Eastern Europe|Julian calendar]]) and signed by [[Vladimir Lenin]] and [[Joseph Stalin]].

== Content ==
The document proclaimed:

# Equality and sovereignty of peoples of Russia
# Right of peoples of Russia&nbsp;of a free [[self-determination]], including [[secession]] and formation of a separate state
# Abolition of all national and religious privileges and restrictions
# Free development of national minorities and ethnographical groups populating the territory of Russia.

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 the [[World 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 to [[Central 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 of [[Russian Civil War]] and Latvian historians recognize the promise of sovereignty as an important reason for that. The anti-revolutionary [[White movement|White 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 former [[Russian 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, [[Russian Soviet Federative Socialist Republic|Soviet Russia]] began attempting to establish Soviet power in as many states as possible. In November 1918, the Red Army [[Soviet westward offensive of 1918–1919|launched a military campaign in the west]], invading and occupying [[Belarusian People's Republic|Belarus]] and then advancing against the three [[Baltic states]]. In January 1919 the Red Army [[1919 Soviet invasion of Ukraine|invaded Ukraine]] and in July 1920 [[1919 Soviet invasion of Ukraine|invaded Poland]]. In the south, the Red Army [[Red Army invasion of Azerbaijan|invaded the Azerbaijan Democratic Republic]] in April 1920, then [[Red Army invasion of Armenia|invaded the Republic of Armenia in September]], and finally [[Red Army invasion of Georgia|invaded the Democratic Republic of Georgia]] in early 1921, even though Soviet Russia had nominally agreed to Georgia's independence in the [[Treaty of Moscow (1920)|Treaty of Moscow]]. 

The initially successful offensive against the [[Republic of Estonia]] ignited the [[Estonian War of Independence]] which ended with the Soviet [[Treaty of Tartu (Estonia–Russia)|recognition]] of Estonia. Similarly, the campaigns against the [[Republic of Latvia]] and [[Republic of Lithuania (1918-1940)|Republic of Lithuania]] ultimately failed, resulting in the [[Latvian–Soviet Peace Treaty]] and [[Soviet–Lithuanian Peace Treaty]] respectively. While Ukraine and Belarus were largely conquered, the Soviets ultimately also failed in their invasion of Poland after they were [[Battle of Warsaw (1920)|stopped at Warsaw]], and hostilities ended with the signing of the [[Peace of Riga|Treaty 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 to [[Soviet westward offensive of 1918–1919#Romanian direction|conquer the Moldavian Democratic Republic]] holding Bessarabia and Northern Bukovina also failed, and in 1918 Moldavia [[Union of Bessarabia with Romania|unified with Romania]] instead. Years later, following the signing of the [[Molotov-Ribbentrop Pact]] and subsequent outbreak of [[World War II]], the Soviet Union would attack many of these territories again, as the Red Army [[Soviet invasion of Poland|invaded Poland]] in 1939 and later occupied [[Occupation of the Baltic states|the Baltic States]] and [[Soviet occupation of Bessarabia and Northern Bukovina|Bessarabia 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 a [[Soviet satellite state]]. These conquests made by the Red Army between 1918 and 1945 would last until the [[Dissolution of the Soviet Union|dissolution of the USSR]] beginning in 1989, after which all these nations would come to be independent again.

== List of seceded lands ==
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 eased [[Russian Soviet Federative Socialist Republic|Soviet Russia]]'s recognition of their independence. Except for Finland, all of these areas were outside of Russian sovereignty following the Austro-German successes in the [[World War I]] and were officially ceded in the [[Treaty of Brest-Litovsk]].

* [[File:Flag of Finland 1918 (state).svg|23 px]] [[Finland]] (6 December 1917)
* {{flag|Lithuania}} (11 December 1917)
* {{flagicon image|Flag of Ukraine.svg}} [[Ukrainian People's Republic|Ukraine]] (autonomy 22 November 1917, independence 22 January 1918)
* {{flagicon image|Flag of the Moldavian Democratic Republic.svg}} [[Moldavian Democratic Republic|Moldavia]] (autonomy 15 December 1917, independence 6 February 1918, joined [[Kingdom of Romania|Romania]] on 9 April 1918)
* {{flagicon image|Flag of Belarus (1918, 1991-1995).svg}} [[Belarusian People's Republic|Belarus]] (25 March 1918)
* {{flag|Estonia}} (22 April 1918)
* {{flagicon image|Flag of Poland (1919-1928).svg}} [[Second Polish Republic|Poland]] (11 November 1918)
* {{flag|Latvia}} (18 November 1918)

Several other independent republics were proclaimed but were short-lived:

* {{flagicon image|Flag of Bashkurdistan.svg}} [[Bashkurdistan]] (28 November 1917)
* {{flagicon image|Flag of the Crimean Tatar people.svg}} [[Crimean People's Republic|Crimea]] (13 December 1917)
* {{flagicon image|Flag of Kuban People's Republic.svg}} [[Kuban People's Republic|Kuban]] (16 February 1918)
* [[File: Flag of the Transcaucasian Federation.svg|23 px]] [[Transcaucasian Democratic Federative Republic|Transcaucasia]] (24 February 1918)
* {{flagicon image|Flag of Idel-Ural State.svg}} [[Idel-Ural State|Kazan]] (1 March 1918)
* {{flagicon image|Flag of the Mountain Republic.svg}} [[Mountainous Republic of the Northern Caucasus|Mountain Republic]] (11 May 1918)
* {{flag|Don Republic|name=Don}} (18 May 1918)
* {{flagicon image|Flag of the Provisional Regional Government of the Urals.svg}} [[Provisional Regional Government of the Urals|Yekaterinburg]] (19 August 1918)
* {{flagicon image|Flag of the South West Caucasian Republic.svg}} [[Provisional National Government of the Southwestern Caucasus|Kars]] (1 December 1918)
* {{flagicon image|Flag of Chuvashia in 1918.jpg}} [[Chuvashia]] (1918)
* {{flagicon image|KarelianNationalFlag.svg}} [[Republic of Uhtua#History|East Karelia]] (21 June 1919)
* {{flagicon image|Ingrian people.svg}} [[North Ingria]] (9 July 1919)
* {{flag|Kaluga}}
* {{flag|Ryazan}}
* {{flag|Orenburg}}

==Later developments==
Bolsheviks never formally rejected the idea of self-determination, but Soviet constitutions (of 1924, 1936 and 1977) limited the right of secession to the [[Republics of the Soviet Union|constituent republics]] only.

==See also==
*[[Universal Declaration of the Rights of Peoples]]

==References==
{{reflist}}
{{Wikisourcelang|en|Declaration of the Rights for the Peoples of Russia}}
{{Wikisourcelang|ru|Декларация прав народов России}}
{{Authority control}}

[[Category:Russian Revolution]]
[[Category:Minority rights]]
[[Category:Official documents of the Russian Soviet Federative Socialist Republic]]
[[Category:1917 documents]]
[[Category:1917 in Russia]]
[[Category:November 1917]]
[[Category:Federalism in Russia]]