Ethnic Hierarchies and National Identity in a Sovietised Caucasus: Unravelling Cultural Shifts of Soviet Governing during the Lenin and Stalin eras.

This thesis researches the connection between ethnic hierarchies and national identity in the Caucasus region during the Lenin and Stalin eras, focusing on cultural shifts as an effect of Soviet governance while decentralising Russia. The Caucasus region and its people are greatly marginalised within Soviet historiography, as was their position in Soviet society. This can be seen in the way they were forced to assimilate to the Soviet identity, an identity which was closely in line with the Russian identity. The homo sovieticus concept is used as a comparative tool with the Caucasus identity to understand how Soviet Russia enforced this ideological view of the perfect Soviet citizen, and in what ways the Caucasus people fell victim to this mentality. The enforcement of the Soviet identity onto the Caucasus led to the dismissal of Caucasus issues and increased the Russian saviour complex. The need to educate and mediate tensions in the region resulted in the overall resistance to the regime. This resulted in the loss of the Caucasus voice in Soviet scholarship overall, which is why this thesis challenges the dominant role of Russia in historiography throughout the research. By close reading the transcripts from the Harvard Project on the Soviet Social System interviews, the Caucasus voice is uplifted and prioritised in understanding their experiences living in Soviet society. Their experiences are analysed through three themes, which are religion, education and overall living conditions.