The Sorcerer as Apprentice: Stalin as Commissar of Nationalities, 1917-1924

This text suggests that the current struggles over nationality policy in Russia and in neighbouring states are rooted in the history of the Narkomnats and in policies that Stalin established as Commissar. This history, based in large part on primary research, describes the Commissariat of Nationalities from 1917 to 1924, Stalin’s role as its chief and the policies that were the origins of the current ethnic dilemmas throughout the now collapsed Soviet Empire. The book is intended for scholars, students and policy-makers in European history and Slavic studies, and for general readers interested in the background of political and social conflicts in the former Soviet republics today.