Stalin’s concept of the problem of national minorities – theory and practice.

The late 16th century witnessed the beginning of the definition of boundaries in Western Europe and, concurrently, the growth of the national state. With few exceptions the boundaries enclosed populations of the same ethnic origins and similar cultural and linguistic backgrounds. When the parallel process was initiated in Central and Eastern Europe the boundaries tended to enclose within one state several heterogeneous groups, widely divergent ethnically and culturally. Such states were faced with the problem of the relationship between the dominant nationality and the national minorities