Title: The Post Soviet nations : perspectives on the demise of the USSR /
Authors: Motyl, Alexander J.
Publisher: Columbia University Press,
Year: 1992
Subjects: Nationalism Soviet Union; Minorities Soviet Union; Soviet Union Ethnic relations.; Soviet Union Politics and government
Abstract: The astonishing disintegration of the U.S.S.R. has left a massive intellectual void, as scholars and journalists scramble to make sense of events transpiring at a dizzying pace. Into this vacuum steps The Post-Soviet Nations, which casts new and desperately needed light on a region that is certain to remain volatile. With the breakup of the Soviet Union and the subsequent creation of the Commonwealth of Independent States, the nationality question has assumed central importance, in this collection of essays, twelve leading specialists approach the current situation with contributions that are at once historical, reflective and topical. The reforms of Mikhail Gorbachev, notes the preface, "transformed, if not indeed destroyed, the Soviet totalitarian state. In so doing, they also destroyed traditional Sovietology. The Post-Soviet Nations aims to revitalize and reconsider Sovietology by integrating nationality concerns into its intellectual agenda, thereby transforming a scholarly field that has largely ignored "non-Russians" in its fascination and overriding concern with Russia. The noted scholar Alexander Motyl has assembled some of the most respected Sovietologists to examine a wide range of topics such as ideology, law, the elite, legitimacy, the police state, class, development and modernization, and their relationship to issues of nationality and ethnicity in the former Soviet Union.
Contents: The "national factor" and the logic of Sovietology / Gregory Gleason -- Soviet policies toward the non-Russian peoples in theoretic and historic perspective: what Gorbachev inherited / Walker Connor -- Ideology and the making of a nationalities policy / Ronald J. Hill -- Legitimations, nationalities, and the deep structure of ideology / Neil Harding -- Managing nationalism: state, law, and the national question in the USSR / John N. Hazard -- Elites and ethnic identities in Soviet and post-Soviet politics / Mark R. Beissinger -- The political police and the national question in the Soviet Union / Amy Knight -- Nations of the USSR: from mobilized participation to autonomous diversity / Theodore H. Friedgut -- Development and ethnicity in the Soviet Union / Zvi Gitelman -- Soviet economic structure and the national question / Richard E. Ericson -- Class, social structure, nationality / Walter D. Connor -- The end of Sovietology: from Soviet studies / Alexander J. Motyl.