Constructing Ethnopolitics in the Soviet Union

1. Front Matter

   Pages i-xi

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2. Introduction: Theoretical Perspective and Focus of Inquiry

   • Dina Zisserman-Brodsky

   Pages 1-18

3. Soviet Nationality Policy: Theory and Practice

   • Dina Zisserman-Brodsky

   Pages 19-33

4. The Modernization Process and Ethnonationalism

   • Dina Zisserman-Brodsky

   Pages 35-67

5. Relative Deprivation and the Politicization of Ethnic Groups

   • Dina Zisserman-Brodsky

   Pages 69-110

6. Ethnic Organizations, Programs, and Demands

   • Dina Zisserman-Brodsky

   Pages 111-156

7. Legitimizing Sources of Ethnic Politics

   • Dina Zisserman-Brodsky

   Pages 157-168

8. The Problem of Orientation: Ethnocentrism-Polycentrism

   • Dina Zisserman-Brodsky

   Pages 169-183

9. Samizdat and Ethnic Mobilization

   • Dina Zisserman-Brodsky

   Pages 185-193

10. Conclusion

    • Dina Zisserman-Brodsky

    Pages 195-202

11. Back Matter

    Pages 203-294

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The 'nationality question' was long central to Soviet thought and policy, and the failure to provide a convincing answer played a major role in the break-up of the Soviet Union into ethnically or nationally defined states. Zisserman-Brodsky explores various explanations of nationalism and its resurgence through a close and unprecedented examination of dissident writings of diverse ethnic groups in the former Soviet Union, thereby bridging macro-theory with micro-politics. Dissident ethnic networks were a crucial independent institution in the Soviet Union, and a basis of civil society. Voicing the discontent and resentment of the periphery at the policies of the centre or metropole, the dissident writings, known as samizdat highlighted anger at deprivations imposed in the political, cultural, social and economic spheres. Ethnic dissident writings drew on values both internal to the Soviet system and international as sources of legitimation; they met a divided reaction among Russians, with some privileging the unity of the Soviet Union and others sympathetic to the rhetoric of national rights. This focus on national, rather than individual, rights helps explain developments since the fall of the Soviet Union, including the prevalence of authoritarian governments in newly independent states of the former Soviet Union.

• government
• Institution
• nation
• nationalism
• Policy
• Russia
• Soviet Union
• Union of Soviet Socialist Republics (USSR)

"A first rate piece of scholarship that provides useful background to recent developments in ethnonationalism in the former Soviet Union." - John Ishiyama, Truman State University

"This book makes a substantial contribution to the study of the Soviet nationality issues, helping fill a gap by showing how the ethno-nationalist dissident movements of the Soviet era helped formulate the programs of ethnopolitics adopted in many of the new states that seceded from the Soviet Union." - Anatoly M. Khazanov, Ernest Gellner Professor of Anthropology, University of Wisconsin-Madison

DINA ZISSERMAN-BRODSKY is a lecturer in the Department of Russia and Slavic Studies at the Hebrew University in Jerusalem.

Policies and ethics