Hostname: page-component-586b7cd67f-g8jcs Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2024-11-28T16:03:14.395Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false

Uninvited guests in the communal apartment: nation-formation processes among unrecognized Soviet nationalities

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  20 November 2018

Ian Appleby*
Affiliation:
Russian Studies, The University of Manchester, UK

Abstract

Following the collapse of the Soviet Union, a body of scholarship arose which effectively bypassed Miroslav Hroch's work on the emergence of small nations. Rogers Brubaker, Yuri Slezkine and Ronald Suny, among others, persuasively argued that Soviet nationalities policies shaped the ethnogeographic make-up of the post-Soviet space some sixty or seventy years later: it had become literally almost unimaginable to conceive of national affiliation outside of institutionalized forms. This analysis also convincingly accounted for the relative weakness of ethnic Russian identity in contrast to the assertive nationalism of non-Russian nationalities around the time of the USSR's collapse. The Kuban’ Cossacks – an ethnocultural community in the south of Russia – never had official recognition as a Soviet nationality. Hroch's framework can be applied to show their clearly national characteristics and, indeed, their progress towards nationhood around the turn of the twentieth century. By reclaiming Hroch's framework for the post-Soviet context, and combining it with later scholarship, we are able to identify this process for the first time, and thus further refine our understanding of the nation-formation processes within Russia following the collapse of the Soviet Union.

Type
Articles
Copyright
Copyright © 2010 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, B. Imagined Communities. London: Verso, 1991. Print.Google Scholar
Appleby, Ian. “Re-imagining the Kuban’ Cossack: Politics of Identity in Post-Soviet Russia.” Thesis. U of Manchester, 2009. Print.Google Scholar
Boeck, B.J.From the Verge of Extinction to Ethnic Distinction: Cossack Identity and Ethnicity in the Kuban’ Region 1991–2002–2.” Ab Imperio 2 (2004). Web. 19 May 2008.Google Scholar
Boeck, B.J.The Kuban’ Cossack Revival (1989–1993): The Beginnings of a Cossack National Movement in the North Caucasus Region.” Nationalities Papers 26.4 (1998): 633–58. Print.Google Scholar
Bondar', N.I. Ethnographer. Personal Interview 1. 6 Sept. 2007.Google Scholar
Bondar', N.I. Ethnographer. Personal Interview 2. 11 Sept. 2007.Google Scholar
Borisov, B., Borisov, G., and Burylev, V.Na perelome (1940–80–e gody).” Iz Istorii kubanskogo kazachego Khora. Ed. Belyi, P.S. Krasnodar: Administratsiia Krasnodarskogo Kraia and GNTU “Kubanskii Kazachii Khor”, 2007. 155–71. Print.Google Scholar
Brubaker, Rogers. “Myths and Misconceptions in the Study of Nationalism.” The State of the Nation. Ed. Hall, J.A. Cambridge: CUP, 2000. 272306. Print.Google Scholar
Brubaker, Rogers. Nationalism Reframed: Nationhood and The National Question in the New Europe. Cambridge: Cambridge UP, 1996. Print.Google Scholar
Burmagin, A.G. Ot Kubanskogo kazach'ego kluba k Kubanskoi kazach'ei rade. Krasnodar: Istoriia Kubanskogo kazachestva, 2009. Print.Google Scholar
Derluguian, G.M., and Cipko, S.The Politics of Identity in a Russian Borderland Province: The Kuban Neo-Cossack Movement, 1989–1996.” Europe-Asia Studies 49.8 (1997): 1485–500. Print.Google Scholar
Dixon, S.The Past in the Present: Contemporary Russian Nationalism in Historical Perspective.” Russian Nationalism, Past and Present. Ed. Hosking, G. and Service, R. London: Macmillan, 1998. 149–78. Print.Google Scholar
Eremenko, I.Kubanskii khor v sovetskie gody.” Iz Istorii kubanskogo kazachego khora. Ed. Belyi, P.S. Krasnodar: Administratsiia Krasnodarskogo Kraia and GNTU “Kubanskii Kazachii Khor”, 2007. 135–54. Print.Google Scholar
Gellner, E.The Coming of Nationalism and Its Interpretation: The Myths of Nation and Class.” Mapping the Nation. Ed. Balakrishnan, G. London: Verso, 1996. 98144. Print.Google Scholar
Hobsbawm, E., and Ranger, T. The Invention of Tradition. Cambridge: CUP, 1983. Print.Google Scholar
Holquist, P.From Estate to Ethnos: the Changing Nature of Cossack Identity in the Twentieth Century.” Russia at a Crossroads: Historical Memory and Political Practice. Ed. Schleifman, N. London: Cass, 1998. 89123. Print.Google Scholar
Hosking, G.Introduction.” Russian Nationalism, Past and Present. Ed. Hosking, G. and Service, R. London: Macmillan, 1998. 16. Print.Google Scholar
Hroch, M.From National Movement to the Fully-formed Nation: The Nation-building Process in Europe.” Mapping the Nation. Ed. Balakrishnan, G. London: Verso, 1996. 78– 97. Print.Google Scholar
Hroch, M. Social Preconditions of National Revival in Europe. New York: Columbia UP, 2000. Print.Google Scholar
Klimov, I. “My pishem novuiu istoriiu kazachestva.” Kubanskie novosti 15 Oct. 2005: 3. Print.Google Scholar
Kokun'ko, G.V.Chernie Doski.” Kubanskii Sbornik. Krasnodar: Volnoe delo, 2006. Print.Google Scholar
Kornblatt, J.D. The Cossack Hero in Russian Literature – A Study in Cultural Mythology. Wisconsin: U of Wisconsin P, 1992. Print.Google Scholar
Korsakova, N.A. Senior Researcher, E.D. Felitsyn Museum. Personal interview. 16 Sept. 2007.Google Scholar
Marchenko, A.T. Deputy Chair, Committee on Cossack Affairs, Krasnodar regional administration. Personal interview. 12 July 2006.Google Scholar
Martin, T. The Affirmative Action Empire: Nations and Nationalism in the Soviet Union, 1923–1939. Cornell UP, 2001. Print.Google Scholar
McAuley, M.The Conservative Borderlands: Krasnodar Krai.” Russia's Politics of Uncertainty. Ed. McAuley, M. Cambridge: Cambridge UP, 1997. 109–55. Print.Google Scholar
O'Rourke, S. The Cossacks. Manchester: Manchester UP, 2007. Print.Google Scholar
Perenizhko, K. Ia., Kuban’ Cossack Host Cultural Spokesman. Personal interview 1. 15 Sept. 2007.Google Scholar
Perenizhko, K. Ia. Personal interview 2. 26 Feb. 2008.Google Scholar
Perenizhko, K. Ia. “Znachenie obrazovatel'noi i kul'turnoi komponent v protsesse vozrozhdeniia kubanskogo kazachestva.” Ocherki traditsionnoi kul'tury kazachestv Rossii. Ed. Bondar', N.I. Moscow, Krasnodar: Kuban Cossack Host, GRTs Russkogo fol'klora, GNTU “Kubanskii Kazachii Khor,” 2005. 583–93. Print.Google Scholar
Ponomarev, V. “Poet Kubanskii kazachii khor.” Sovetskaia Kuban' 18 Oct. 1975: page unknown. Print.Google Scholar
Potsebneva, P. “Sluzhit’ otchizne – na blago Rossii.” Kubanskii kazachii vestnik in Kubanskie novosti. 26 Jan. 2008. Print.Google Scholar
Shchetnev, V.E.Rackazachivanie kak sotsial'no-istoricheskaia problema.” Golos minuvshego 1 (1997): 1822. Print.Google Scholar
Skinner, B.Identity Formation in the Russian Cossack Revival.” Europe-Asia Studies 46.6 (1994): 1017–37. Print.Google Scholar
Slezkine, Y.The USSR as a Communal Apartment, or How a Socialist State Promoted Ethnic Particularism.” Slavic Review 53.2 (1994): 414452. Print.Google Scholar
Smith, A.D. The Ethnic Origins of Nations. Oxford, 1986. Print.Google Scholar
Sukhanov, V.M.Bashkortostan: problemy identichnosti v multikul'turnom prostranstve.” Polis. Politicheskie issledovaniia 4 (2008): n. pag. Web. 5 Feb. 2009.Google Scholar
Suny, R.G. The Revenge of the Past: Nationalism, Revolution, and the Collapse of the Soviet Union. Stanford UP, 1993. Print.Google Scholar
Tereshchenko, I. “Tol'ko v pesne dusha naraspashku.” Selskaya Nov’ Dec. (1994): 2830. Print.Google Scholar
Toje, Hege. “Cossack Identity in the New Russia: Kuban Cossack Revival and Local Politics.” Europe-Asia Studies 58.7 (2006): 1057–77. Print.Google Scholar
Tolz, V. “Conflicting ‘Homeland Myths’ and Nation-State Building in Post-Communist Russia.” Slavic Review 1998: 267–94. Print.Google Scholar
Tolz, V. “Imperial Scholars and Minority Nationalisms in Late Imperial Russia.” Forthcoming article (2006): n. pag. Print.Google Scholar
Tolz, V.The Search for a National Identity in the Russia of Yeltsin and Putin.” Restructuring Post-Communist Russia. Ed. Brudny, Y., Frankel, J., and Hoffman, S. Cambridge: CUP, 2004. 160–78. Print.Google Scholar
Trut, V.P. “Tragediia raskazachivaniia.” Ocherki traditsionnoi kul'tury kazachestv Rossii. Ed. Bondar', N.I. Moscow, Krasnodatr: Kuban Cossack Host, GRTs Russkogo fol'klora, GNTU ‘Kubanskii Kazachii Khor', 2005. 532549. Print…Google Scholar
Vasilevskaia, T.i. “Vstrecha s pesnei.” Komsomolets Kubani 2 May 1985: 4. Print.Google Scholar
Webb, J.Krasnodar: A Case Study of the Rural Factor in Russian Politics.” Journal of Contemporary History 29.2 (1994): 229–60. Print.Google Scholar
Zakharchenko, V.G. “Slovo o G.M. Kontseviche.” Iz Istorii kubanskogo kazachego khora. Ed. Belyi, P.S. Krasnodar: Administratsiia Krasnodarskogo Kraia and GNTU “Kubanskii Kazachii Khor,” 2007. 242–57. Print.Google Scholar