Towards a More Perfect Union? Anastas Mikoyan and Nationality Policy Reform in the Soviet Union, 1954–1964

Europe-Asia Studies. 2025. P. 1–21.

Pietro A. Shakarian

Veteran Soviet statesman Anastas Ivanovich Mikoyan (1895–1978) is best known as a master of international diplomacy and culinary policy. Less well-known is the fact that Mikoyan served as the Kremlin’s leading authority on nationality matters under Nikita Khrushchev (1894–1971). A native son of Sanahin, Armenia, Mikoyan believed that the ethnic diversity of the USSR was a strength that should be embraced, not a danger to be suppressed. This position informed his contributions to post-Stalin nationality policy reform, which represented a trend towards more, not less, decentralisation, and a rejection of assimilationist approaches by the CPSU.

Keywords: Кавказ, Армения, политическая реформа, Закавказье, Caucasus, десталинизация, Armenia, political reform, de-stalinization, Национальный вопрос в СССР, Хрущевская Оттепель, советская национальная политика, Nikita Khrushchev, Н.С. Хрущев, Soviet nationality policy, Transcaucasia, Khrushchev thaw, Anastas Mikoyan, National question in the USSR, Soviet Armenia, А.И. Микоян, Армянская ССР