An Ethnohistorical Dictionary of the Russian and Soviet Empires . Edited by James S. Olson. Greenwood Press, Westport, Connecticut, 1994. This is an excellent guide to the many ethnic groups of the Russian Empire and the Soviet Union. Each entry begins by placing the ethnic group geographically and linguistically, followed by a brief history and description of conditions at the time of the dissolution of the Soviet Union.
Short bibliographies complete each entry.
The volume has many useful appendixes including a statistical profile of the ethnic populations of the Soviet Union, a brief history of Islam, Soviet residence patterns by nationality group, and a chronology of the Russian and Soviet Empires. An excellent resource to track down information on all of the ethnic groups that have emerged since 1991. Arranged alphabetically by ethnic group, the index also has some cross-references. Although a bit nationalistic and ethnocentric, this is an excellent historical and literary resource on Ukraine. The Penguin Historical Atlas of Russia .