Hostname: page-component-cd9895bd7-mkpzs Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2024-12-24T06:22:48.408Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false
  • English
  • Français

Nationalism in the USSR: a historical and comparative perspective

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  20 November 2018

Andrey Shcherbak Open the ORCID record for Andrey Shcherbak [Opens in a new window]
Andrey Shcherbak*
Affiliation:
Laboratory for Comparative Social Research, National Research University Higher School of Economics (HSE), 55–2 Sedova str., St.-Petersburg 190068, Russia
*
* Email: [email protected]
Get access Rights & Permissions [Opens in a new window]

Extract

The late 1980s and early 1990s were characterized by the sudden rise of nationalist movements in almost all Soviet ethnic regions. It is argued that the rise of political nationalism since the late 1980s can be explained by the development of cultural nationalism in the previous decades, as an unintended outcome of Communist nationalities policy. All ethnic regions are examined throughout the entire history of the USSR (49 regions, 1917–1991), using the structural equation modeling (SEM) approach. This paper aims to make at least three contributions to the field. First, it is a methodological contribution for studying nationalism: a “quantification of history” approach. Having constructed variables from historical data, I use conventional statistical methods such as SEM. Second, this paper contributes to the theoretical debate about the role of cultural autonomy in multiethnic states. Finally, the paper statistically proves that the break between early Soviet and Stalinist nationalities policy explains the entire Soviet nationalities policy.

Keywords

nationalismethnicitycultureUSSRSEM
Type
Articles
Information
Nationalities Papers , Volume 43 , Issue 6 , November 2015 , pp. 866 - 885
Copyright
Copyright © 2015 Association for the Study of Nationalities 

Access options

Get access to the full version of this content by using one of the access options below. (Log in options will check for institutional or personal access. Content may require purchase if you do not have access.)

References

Anderson, Benedict. 2006. Imagined Communities. London: Verso.Google Scholar
Baberowski, Joerg. 2006. “Stalinizm i natsiia: Sovetskii Soiuz kak mnogonatsional'noe gosudarstvo, 1917–1953.” Ab Imperio 1: 177–196.Google Scholar
Beissinger, Mark. 2009. “Nationalism and the Collapse of Soviet Communism.” Contemporary European History 18 (3): 331–347.Google Scholar
Bollen, Kenneth, and Scott Long, J., eds. 1993. Testing Structural Equation Models. Newbury Park, CA: Sage.Google Scholar
Brandenberger, David. 2000. “Proletarian Internationalism, Soviet Patriotism, and the Rise of Russocentric Etatism during the Stalinist 1930s.” Left History 6 (2): 80–100.Google Scholar
Brubaker, Rogers. 1994. “Nationhood and National Question in the Soviet Union and post-Soviet Eurasia: An Institutionalist Account.” Theory and Society 23: 47–78.Google Scholar
Brubaker, Rogers. 1996. “Nationalizing States in the old ‘New Europe’ – and the New.” Ethnic and Racial Studies 19 (2): 411–437.Google Scholar
Bunce, Valerie. 1983. “The Political Economy of the Brezhnev Era: The Rise and Fall of Corporatism.” British Journal of Political Science 13 (2): 129–158.Google Scholar
Darden, Keith. 2013. Resisting Occupation: Mass Schooling and the Creation of Durable National Loyalties. New York: Cambridge University Press.Google Scholar
Dinamika naseleniia SSSR 1960–80 gg. 1985. Moscow: Finansy i statistika.Google Scholar
Etkind, Alexander. 2013. Vnutrennaia kolonizatsiia. Imperskii opyt Rossii. Moscow: Novoe literaturnoe obozreniie.Google Scholar
Gellner, Ernest. 2008. Nations and Nationalism. Ithaca, NY: Cornell University Press.Google Scholar
Gorenburg, Dmitry. 2001. “Nationalism for the Masses: Popular Support for Nationalism in Russia's Ethnic Republics.” Europe-Asia Studies 53 (1): 73–104.Google Scholar
Gorenburg, Dmitry. 2003. Minority Ethnic Mobilization in the Russian Federation. New York: Cambridge University Press.Google Scholar
Giuliano, Elise. 2011. Constructing Grievances. Ethnic Nationalism in Russia's Republics. Ithaca NY: Cornell University Press.Google Scholar
Hajda, Lubomyr. 1993. “Ethnic Politics and Ethnic Conflict in the USSR and Post-Soviet States.” Humboldt Journal of Social Relations 19 (2): 193–278.Google Scholar
Hirsch, Francine. 1997. “The Soviet Union as a Work-in-Progress; Ethnographers and the Category Nationality in the 1926, 1937 and 1939 Censuses.” Slavic Review 56: 251–278.Google Scholar
Hroch, Miroslav. 2000. Social Preconditions of National Revival in Europe: A Comparative Analysis of the Social Composition of Patriotic Groups among the Smaller European Nations. New York: Columbia University Press.Google Scholar
Joereskog, Karl Gustav. 1973. “Analysis of Covariance Structures.” In Multivariate Analysis, edited by Krishnaiah, P. R., vol. 3, 263–285. New York: Academic Press.Google Scholar
Laitin, David. 1998. Identity in Formation: The Russian-speaking Populations in the Near Abroad. Ithaca NY: Cornell University Press.Google Scholar
Laitin, David. 2007. Nations, State and Violence. New York: Oxford University Press.Google Scholar
Laitin, David, Petersen, Roger, and Slocum, John. 1992. “Language and the State: Russia and the Soviet Union in Comparative Perspective.” In Thinking Theoretically About Soviet Nationalities: History and Comparison in the Study of the USSR, edited by Motyl, Alexander J., 129–168. New York: Columbia University Press.Google Scholar
Lapidus, Gail. 1984. “Ethnonationalism and Political Stability: The Soviet Case.” World Politics 36 (4): 555–580.Google Scholar
Martin, Terry. 2001. The Affirmative Action Empire: Nations and Nationalism in the Soviet Union, 1923–1939. Ithaca, NY: Cornell University Press.Google Scholar
Mahoney, James, and Schensul, Daniel. 2006. “Historical Context and Path Dependence.” In The Oxford Handbook of Contextual Political Analysis, edited by Goodin, Robert E. and Tilly, Charles, 454–471. New York: Oxford University Press.Google Scholar
Mahoney, James. 2000. “Path Dependence in Historical Sociology.” Theory and Society 29: 507–548.Google Scholar
Miller, John. 1977. “Cadres policy in Nationalities Areas. Recruitment of CPSU First and Second Secretaries in Non-Russian Republics of the USSR.” Soviet Studies 29 (1): 3–36.Google Scholar
Narodnoe khoziaystvo SSSR v 1970 godu. Statisticheskii ezhegodnik. 1971. Moscow: Statistika.Google Scholar
Narodnoe khoziaystvo RSFSR za 50 let. Statisticheskii sbornik. 1967. Moscow: Statistika.Google Scholar
Narodnoe khoziaystvo RSFSR za 70 let. Statisticheskii ezhegodnik. 1987. Moscow: Finansy i statistika.Google Scholar
Naseleniie SSSR. 1974. Spravochnik. Moscow: Politizdat.Google Scholar
Naseleniie SSSR. Po dannym vsesoiuznoi perepisi naseleniia 1989 g. 1990. Moscow: Finansy i statistika.Google Scholar
Pipes, Richard. 1992. “The Establishment of the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics.” In The Soviet Nationality Reader: The Disintegration in Context, edited by Denber, Rachel, 35–86. Boulder, CO: Westview Press.Google Scholar
Pod'iachikh, Piotr. 1961. Naseleniie SSSR. Moscow: Glavnoe izdatel'stvo politicheskoi literatury.Google Scholar
Roeder, Philip. 1991. “Soviet Federalism and Ethnic Mobilization.” World Politics 43 (2): 196–232.Google Scholar
Silver, Brian. 1974. “The Status of National Minority Languages in Soviet Education: An Assessment of Recent Changes.” Soviet Studies 26 (1): 28–40.Google Scholar
Silver, Brian. 1974a. “Social Mobilization and the Russification of Soviet Nationalities.” The American Political Science Review 68 (1): 45–66.Google Scholar
Slezkine, Yuri. 1994. “The USSR as a Communal Apartment, or How a Socialist State Promoted Ethnic Particularism.” Slavic Review 53 (2): 414–452.Google Scholar
Solchanyk, Roman. 1982. “Russian Language and Soviet Politics.” Soviet Studies 34 (1): 23–42.Google Scholar
Suny, Ronald. 1989. “Nationalist and Ethnic Unrest in the Soviet Union.” World Policy Journal 6 (3): 503–528.Google Scholar
Suny, Ronald. 1993. The Revenge of the Past. Nationalism, Revolution and the Collapse of the Soviet Union. Stanford, CA: Stanford University Press.Google Scholar
Treisman, Daniel. 1997. “Russia's ‘Ethnic Revival': The Separatist Activism of Regional Leaders in a Post-Communist Order.” World Politics 49 (2): 212–249.Google Scholar
Vujacic, Veljko. 2007. “Stalinism and Russian Nationalism: A Reconceptualization.” Post-Soviet Affairs 23 (2): 156–183.Google Scholar
Supplementary material: File

Shcherbak supplementary material

Supplementary Material

Download Shcherbak supplementary material(File)
File 259.1 KB