Chuvash nationalism
The movement, which originated in the 16th century, has included the evasion of taxes and duties, local armed actions, petitions to the authorities, withdrawal to regions weakly controlled by the state, participation in large-scale anti-government protests, and persistent resistance to mass Christianization.
[1] The reforms of Alexander II and related socioeconomic, political and religious changes began a new era for the peoples of the Volga region.
A significant factor in the national mobilization of the Chuvash people was the liberalization of social and political life in the legal and educational spheres.
Socioeconomic changes during the second half of the 19th century formed the basis of Chuvash nationalism and its slogans, political interests, and demands.
A. Abramov, N. P. Efremov, D. A. Kushnikov, K. V. Lavrsky, I. I. Sokolov, Z. M. Talantsev and A. F. Fedorov, regardless of party affiliation, encouraged education and national equality.
The overthrow of the Russian Republic and the transfer of power into the hands of a coalition of Bolsheviks and Left Socialist-Revolutionaries in October 1917 reconfigured political forces in the country.
The Russian Soviet Federative Socialist Republic proclaimed in its decrees the de jure right of the peoples of Russia to self-determination until the formation of an independent state.
In discussions about its creation, the main requirements of the Chuvash representatives were the equality and sovereignty of the nation and cultural autonomy; the state was seen as part of Russia, and its administrative unit as a regional federal republic.
The final position in disputes about the Tatar-Bashkir Soviet Republic was expressed at the June 1918 all-Chuvash workers and peasants congress, which opposed the inclusion of the Chuvash people.
Between February and March 1918, there was a split in the Chuvash national movement between left- and right-wing groups which ended in a leftist victory.
In 1918–19 in Kazan, Simbirsk, Samar and Saratov provinces, Chuvash sub-departments arose in the provincial departments of the Soviet executive committees and created corresponding sections in the provincial committees of the RCP(b); the Chuvash sections also operated in the political departments of Red Army headquarters and revolutionary military councils.
Chuvash national administrative-territorial units were formed in Bashkiria, Simbirsk province, Tatar ASSR, Saratov Governorate, Kazakhstan, and Siberia.
The abandonment of the New Economic Policy and Joseph Stalin's rise to power were accompanied by the reduction of democratic processes, and the prevailing trend since the early 1930s was towards unification; nationalism was discouraged.
One of its forms was the Coordination Center for Support of Creative Youth (CSCY) at the Chuvash regional Committee of the Komsomol, established in April 1987.
Cultural organisations were founded in Moscow and St. Petersburg, in the CIS countries (Kazakhstan, Moldova, Ukraine) and the Baltic states (Latvia and Estonia).
