After the USSR : ethnicity, nationalism, and politics in the Commonwealth of Independent States

Khazanov's Astute Assessments Of Ethnic And Political Strife In Russia, In Chechnia, In Central Asia, In Kazakhstan, Among The Meskhetian Turks, And Among The Yakut Of Eastern Siberia Illuminate The Interconnections Between Nationalism, Ethnic Relations, Social Structures, And Political Process In The Waning Days Of The Ussr And In The New Independent States. Exploring The Soviet Nationality Policy And Its Failure To Satisfy National Aspirations, Khazanov Demonstrates The Fatal Flaws Of Totalitarian Rule And The Impossibility Of Reforming It. Khazanov Cautions That The Liberal Democratic Direction Of Current Transformations In The Former Soviet Union Should Not Be Taken For Granted. For Most Of The Independent States, He Points Out, Departing From Totalitarianism Requires Creation Of A Civil Society For The First Time In Their History. The State's Partial Retreat From The Public Sphere Leaves A Dangerous Institutional Vacuum, In Which Nationalism Is Emerging As The Dominant Ideology. He Warns That This New, Post-totalitarian Society Is Still A Far Cry From A Genuine Liberal Democracy And, Despite Its Inherent Instability, May Turn Out To Be A Long-lasting Phenomenon. 1. The Collapse Of The Soviet Union: Nationalism During Perestroika And Afterwards (1985-summer 1992) -- 2. The Verse And Prose Of Post-totalitarianism (the Ex-soviet Union In 1992-1994) -- 3. Ethnic Minorities, Totalitarianism, And Democracy -- 4. Central Asia On A Path From The Second To The Third World -- 5. Ethnic Stratification And Ethnic Competition In Kazakhstan -- 6. Yakutian Nationalism In A Search For Identities -- 7. People With Nowhere To Go: The Plight Of The Meskhetian Turks -- 8. A Last-minute Postscript: The Chechen Crisis (as Of May 21, 1995). Anatoly M. Khazanov. Includes Bibliographical References (p. 272-298) And Index. CONTENTS Maps Tables and Figures Preface Acknowledgments 1. The Collapse of the Soviet Union: Nationalism during Perestroika and Afterwards (1985-Summer 1992) 2. The Verse and Prose of Post-Totalitarianism (The ex-Soviet Union in 1992-1994) 3. Ethnic Minorities, Totalitarianism, and Democracy 4. Central Asia on a Path from the Second to the Third World 5. Ethnic Stratification and Ethnic Competition in Kazakhstan 6. Yakutian Nationalism in a Search for Identities 7. People with Nowhere To Go: The Plight of the·Meskhetian Turks 8. A Last-Minute Postscript: The Chechen Crisis (as of May 21, 1995) Conclusion Tables and Figures Appendix: Ethnic composition of the Soviet Union, by 1989 References Index A world-renowned anthropologist, Anatoly M. Khazanov offers a witty, insightful, and cautionary analysis of ethnic nationalism and its pivotal role in the collapse of the Soviet empire. Khazanovs encyclopedic knowledge of the history and culture of post-Soviet societies, combined with field research there since the 1960s, informs the case studies with a singular authoritative voice. This volume is destined to be an absolutely necessary reference for the understanding of ethnic relations and the politics of minorities in the ex-USSR into the next century.Leonard Plotnicov, editor of Ethnology First Paperback Edition A study of the fate of ethnic communities in the former Soviet Union, showing the interconnections between nationalism, ethnic relations, social structure and the ongoing political process. Included are studies of the situations in Central Asia, Kazakhstan and of the Yakut and Meskhetian Turks.