Did he really do it? Mirsaid Sultan-Galiev, party disloyalty, and the 1923 affair

Abstract

The article uses a variety of documents, published and unpublished, to explore the 1923 arrest, interrogation and 'trial' of Mirsaid Sultan-Galiev, often considered the Bolsheviks' leading expert on Muslim affairs in the early Soviet period. Contrary to the historiography on this crucial moment in the development of Soviet nationality policy, I argue that Sultan-Galiev was not Stalin's 'first victim'. Rather, responding to the vagaries of Soviet nationality policy, he did indeed violate party discipline in a number of ways, and was engaged in developing conspiratorial ties outside of the party. In fact, the party leaders, and Stalin in particular, treated him less severely than they could have.