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How must Sovietology change as a result of the Soviet Union's collapse? Motyl and his colleagues suggest that the first step in reorientation of the field must involve recognizing the non-Russians and their republics as central to both Soviet politics and to the post-Soviet reality.
The authors, all leading Sovietologists, illustrate how nationality interacted with and shaped ideology, law, elite recruitment, political repression, modernization, participation, political economy, and class.
Each of the articles traces the relationship between nationality and aspects of the Soviet system up to the collapse of the USSR and the emergence in its stead of the Commonwealth of Independent States. The contributors not only provide a coherent interpretation of the demise of Soviet Communism, but they also sugest what dangers and opportunities lie in store for the Soviet Union's successor states.
List of contents
The "National Factor" and the Logic of Sovietology, by Gregory Gleason
Soviet Policies Toward the Non-Russian Peoples in Theoretic and Historic Perspective: What Gorbachev Inherited, by Walker Connor
Ideology and the Making of a Nationalities Policy, by Ronald J. Hill
Legitimations, Nationalities, and the Deep Structure of Ideology, by Neil Harding
Managing Nationalism: State, Law, and the National Question in the USSR, by John N. Hazard
Elites and Ethnic Identities in Soviet and Post-Soviet Politics, by Mark R. Beissinger
The Political Police and the National Question in the Soviet Union, by Amy Knight
Nations of the USSR: From Mobilized Participation to Autonomous Diversity, by Theodore H. Friedgut
Development and Ethnicity in the Soviet Union, by Zvi Gitelman
Soviet Economic Structure and the National Question, by Richard E. Ericson
Class, Social Structure, Nationality, by Walter D. Connor
The End of Sovietology: From Soviet Studies to Post-Soviet Studies, by Alexander J. Motyl
About the author
Alexander J. Motyl
Summary
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 analyze the current situation.
