The establishment of national territory autonomy of the Mari, Mordva and Chuvash peoples

The paper is devoted to the problems of ethnic groups in the first years of the Soviet regime from both theoretical and practical point of view. The author shows that Lenins doctrine, first Decrees, Declarations and the Constitution of the Soviet Republic constituted the law base of the Soviet national policy. The development and the activity of the departments of the Peoples Commissariat of Nationalities of the RSFSR are analyzed. Some peculiarities of the establishment of national territory autonomy in the Middle Volga region are discussed in the paper.