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Published online by Cambridge University Press: 20 November 2018
On the theatrical stage, the term “dénouement“ refers to the resolution of a dramatic complication. On the stage of world events, few historical periods can rival the present situation in the Soviet successor states for satisfying this definition more exactly. On December 21, 1991, eleven men—all, ironically, former communist party officials—signed an agreement in Alma-Ata, Kazakhastan, resolving that the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics “henceforth will cease to exist.” With this announcement, the “Soviet experiment” came to an end and a new world, inchoate and uncertain, began to emerge.
1 Ostankino television interview of May 24, 1992.Google Scholar
2 Elizabeth Teague and Vera Tolz, “The Civic Union: The Birth of a New Opposition in Russia?” RFE/RL Research Report Vol. 1, No. 30 (24 July 1992): 1–12.Google Scholar
3 National self-determination was heralded as a common goal by the 35 signatory countries–the USSR among them–of the Helsinki Final Act. Principle VII of the Helsinki Final Act maintains that “the participating States on whose territories national minorities exist will respect the right of persons belonging to such minorities to equality before the law, will afford them the full oppportunity for the actual enjoyment of human rights and fundamental freedoms, and will in this manner, protect their legitimate interests in this sphere.” Principle VIE asserts that “the participating States will respect the equal rights of peoples and their right to self-determination.”Google Scholar
4 Elie Kedourie, Nationalism London: Hutchinson & Co., 1960, p. 138.Google Scholar
5 Adam B. Seligman, The Ideal of Civil Society New York: The Free Press, 1992.Google Scholar
6 See Alexander J. Motyl, Sovietology, Rationality, Nationality: Coming to Grips with Nationalism in the USSR (New York: Columbia University Press, 1990); Alexander J. Motyl, ed., Thinking Theoretically About Soviet Nationalities: History and Comparison in the Study of the USSR (New York: Columbia University Press, 1992); Alexander J. Motyl, ed., The Post Soviet Nations: Perspectives on the Demise of the USSR (New York: Columbia University Press, 1992). Also see the special issues of Nationalities Papers (1989), (1990) and (1991).Google Scholar