After the U. S. S. R.: Ethnicity, Nationalism, and Politics in the Commonwealth of Independent States

ohn A. Hall, author of Powers and Liberties
"A major book from one of the greatest social scientists now at work. An astonishing amount of anthropological fieldwork married to first-hand experience of life under communist rule makes this the most authoritative book now available on its subject. This important contribution to modern social understanding should be required reading for policy makers."-John A. Hall, author of Powers and Liberties


M. Crawford Young, author of The Politics of Cultural Pluralism
"This book will at once win acclaim as one of the ablest and most authoritative treatments of the 'national question' ever written."-M. Crawford Young, author of The Politics of Cultural Pluralism


From Book News, Inc.
Anthropologist Khazanov (now U. of Wisconsin, but formerly a senior scholar at the Soviet Institute of Ethnography and Anthropology) is particularly qualified to provide this analysis of the interconnections between nationalism, ethnic relations, and political process in the waning days of the USSR and in the new independent states. Includes history and analysis of the war in Chechnia. Annotation c. by Book News, Inc., Portland, Or.


Leonard Plotnicov, editor of Ethnology
"After the USSR is a brilliant analysis of the conditions contributing to the resurgent nationalism that presaged and followed the dissolution of the Soviet Union. Liberally seeded with wit and biting irony, it illuminates the importance of Russian territorial and cultural imperialism, the sacrifice of the Soviet economy to sustain a competing military force in the Cold War, and the weakness of communist political ideology in the face of ethnic and class interests. Khazanov's 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


Book Description
A major book from one of the greatest social scientists now at work.John A. Hall, author of Powers and Liberties 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

FROM THE PUBLISHER

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.

FROM THE CRITICS

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