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The Post-Soviet Nations: Perspectives on the Demise of the USSR
Contributor(s): Motyl, Alexander (Author)

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 ISBN: 0231078943     ISBN-13: 9780231078948
Publisher: Columbia University Press
OUR PRICE: $126.00  

Binding Type: Hardcover
Published: December 1992
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Annotation: The astonishing disintegration of the U.S.S.R. has left a massive intellectual void, as scholars and journalists scramble to make sense of events transpiring at a dizzying pace. Into this vacuum steps The Post-Soviet Nations, which casts new and desperately needed light on a region that is certain to remain volatile. 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 approach the current situation with contributions that are at once historical, reflective and topical. The reforms of Mikhail Gorbachev, notes the preface, "transformed, if not indeed destroyed, the Soviet totalitarian state. In so doing, they also destroyed traditional Sovietology. The Post-Soviet Nations aims to revitalize and reconsider Sovietology by integrating nationality concerns into its intellectual agenda, thereby transforming a scholarly field that has largely ignored "non-Russians" in its fascination and overriding concern with Russia. The noted scholar Alexander Motyl has assembled some of the most respected Sovietologists to examine a wide range of topics such as ideology, law, the elite, legitimacy, the police state, class, development and modernization, and their relationship to issues of nationality and ethnicity in the former Soviet Union.

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Additional Information
BISAC Categories:
- Political Science | World - Russian & Former Soviet Union
- Political Science | International Relations - General
Dewey: 320.540
LCCN: 92-17109
Series: Studies of the Harriman Institute, Columbia University
Physical Information: 0.81" H x 6.14" W x 9.21" L (1.44 lbs) 321 pages
Themes:
- Cultural Region - Russia
 
Descriptions, Reviews, Etc.
Publisher Description:
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.
 
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