Separatist and autonomy movements in the Soviet Union (TheodoresTomfooleries)

The Soviet Union hosts a variety of different secessionist, separatist, and autonomy movements. These movements widely differ in their goals, popularity, and reasoning for their activities. Most of these movements are based on ethnic issues, although some of them are based in national, religious, or political issues as well.

Separatism

Separatism in the Soviet Union entails movements seeking either to a. separate from the Soviet Union (often to form an independent country), or b. to separate from a republic/territorial entity within the Soviet Union. Most separatist movements fall within the former option and often overlap with secessionist movements. Separatist movements are usually based on ethnic and or national issues.

Baltic states

The Baltic states, referring to Estonia, Latvia and Lithuania, are currently de-facto members of the Soviet Unions as union republics. The Baltic states were formerly independent countries during the interwar period, all gaining independence from the collapsing Russian Empire throughout 1917 and 1918. The Molotov-Ribbentrop pact signed by the Soviet Union and Nazi Germany placed the Baltic states in the Soviet sphere of influence. Throughout 1940, Soviet ultimatums resulted in the resignation of the governments of these countries and the establishment of short-lived Soviet puppet states who would join the Soviet Union only a few days after. The annexation of the Baltic states by the Soviet Union is not recognized by the United Nations, and the United States asserts that the Soviet Union is illegally occupying the Baltic states. Many of the governments of the Baltic states fled during the Soviet occupation and during the German occupation, but only the Estonian government currently retains all functions, whereas the Latvian government's only functioning service is its diplomatic service, and Lithuania has no diplomatic entity representing it whatsoever. Most of the separatist movements in the Baltic states call for the independence of the three republics and the return of sovereignty over to the pre-war republics of Estonia, Latvia, and Lithuania

Ukraine

Ukraine has featured a variety of different separatist movements throughout the country's history. Ukraine was formerly a part of the Russian Empire, forming the regions of Malorossiya and Novorossiya. The synthesization of the Ukrainian identity throughout the 19th and 20th centuries culminated in the declaration of autonomy of Ukraine by the Central Rada within Russian after the February revolution, before declaring independence in full as the Ukrainian People's Republic. The signing of the Treaty of Brest-Litovsk resulted in the German Empire gaining control over the region, and they installed the Ukrainian lieutenant-general Pavlo Skoropadskyi as Hetman of the Ukrainian State. Following the armistice in November 1918 and the end of German support to the country, the Ukrainian People's Republic regained control. Competing with control over Ukraine was the Bolsheviks, who had previously set up soviet republics in the form of the Ukrainian People's Republic of Soviets, Odesa Soviet Republic and the Donetsk-Krivoy Rog Soviet Republic. The Bolsheviks had previously been forced to withdraw from Ukraine as part of the Treaty of Brest Litovsk as well as the ongoing civil war. The collapse of the Ukrainian State and the revocation of German forces however provided an opportunity for the Bolsheviks to re-establish control over Ukraine, and by the end of 1919 the Bolshevik Ukrainian Soviet Republic had gained control over most of the country. Resistance by the UPR would continue in Ukraine up until 1921, after which the Central Rada went into exile. Unlike the Soviet annexation of the Baltic states however, Ukraine is currently recognized as a legal member of the Soviet Union by the international community.

The Organization of Ukrainian Nationalists (OUN) is most notoriously associated with the Ukrainian nationalist movement in the Soviet Union. The Organization of Ukrainian Nationalists notably collaborated with Nazi Germany following Operation Barbarossa, and they directly assisted with the Holocaust in Ukraine and Poland. The Banderite faction of the OUN would later found and head the Anti-Bolshevik Bloc of Nations (ABN), who notoriously host members of other Nazi collaboration groups. The death of most of the pre-war and war leadership and membership has resulted in the OUN moderating its image, but the memory of the massacres it committed remain fresh in the minds of most Ukrainians.