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The Importance of Being Ethnic: Minorities in Post-Soviet States—The Case of Russians in Kazakstan

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  20 November 2018

Sue Davis  and
Steven O. Sabol
Sue Davis
Affiliation:
Grand Valley State University, U.S.A.
Steven O. Sabol
Affiliation:
University of Northern Carolina at Charlotte, U.S.A.
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Extract

Introduction

The fall of the Soviet Union prompted an outpouring of concern over borders, identity, and stability. Many students of the region predicted that the breakup would lead to violence and instability. Scholars of the Soviet region emphasized cultural pluralism—in particular ethnic and religious pluralism or the “national question”—as the ultimate lesson of the Gorbachev era. In other words, ignore ethnicity at your own peril. To this point, that has not been the case. There have been only a few areas where instability, ethnic strife, and violence have been rampant—the Transdniestr region, Tajikistan, and Chechnia in particular. Why has this been the case? The lack of ethnic violence and severe ethnic tensions in this diverse region should lead one to reconsider the role of ethnicity in politics.

Type
Articles
Information
Nationalities Papers , Volume 26 , Issue 3 , September 1998 , pp. 473 - 491
Copyright
Copyright © 1998 Association for the Study of Nationalities 

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References

Notes

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