Integration of the Dagestan Autonomous Soviet Socialist Republic into the North Caucasus Region (1931): Preparation of Political Decisions and Their Consequences

This article explores the pressing issue of the search for an effective federal structure for Soviet Russia and identifies the procedures for preparing and the consequences of political decisions. The integration of the Dagestan Autonomous Soviet Socialist Republic into the North Caucasus Region provides an extensive source material for a comparative historical study of the arguments of the authorities, understanding the concept of modernization of the agrarian regions of the North Caucasus. The aim of the article is to establish procedures for preparing and making political decisions on the entry of the Dagestan Autonomous Soviet Socialist Republic into the North Caucasus Region in 1931, as well as arguments in favor of integration. The research methodology involves the use of historical-systemic, structural-functional and institutional approaches. The source base of the article includes documents from the collections of the Russian State Archive of Socio-Political History (RGASPI), the Center for Documentation of the Modern History of the Rostov Region (CDNIRO) and the State Archive of the Rostov Region (GARO). The author concludes that the initiative of Dagestan’s entry into the North Caucasus Region in 1931 was formulated by the Politburo of the Central Committee of the CPSU(b) and supported by the North Caucasus Regional Committee of the CPSU(b). The leadership of the Dagestan ASSR did not resist integration, since the autonomous republic lagged behind the region in terms of socio-economic development. Joining the region made it possible to solve the problems of the growth of industry, agriculture and culture, and the training of senior personnel in the Dagestan ASSR. At the same time, the industrialization and collectivization of the republic was hampered by the weakness of the party and state bodies, which led to the institution of “patronage” of cities and districts of the North Caucasus Region over the areas of Dagestan.