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Ethnonationalism and Political Stability: The Soviet Case
Published online by Cambridge University Press: 13 June 2011
Abstract
While the Soviet system has demonstrated an unusual degree of immunity to the worldwide upsurge of ethnic self-assertion, rising national consciousness among both Russian and non-Russian populations poses a growing, although not necessarily unmanageable, problem for the Soviet leadership. Several issues bearing directly on the resources, power, and status of different nationalities lie at the heart of current debates: the nature and future of the federal system; the pace and pattern of economic development; access to positions of political power; demographic policy; and cultural and linguistic status. Over the long term, the political mobilization of ethnicity is likely to be constrained by both intrinsic and systemic factors, encouraging national elites to focus on strategies and goals that will enhance their power within the system rather than challenging it directly.
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References
1 Typical of a voluminous body of such writings is the assertion that the U.S.S.R. has created a “fundamentally new social and international community … a single and friendly family of over 100 nationalities jointly building communism,” based on “friendship, equality, multi-faceted fraternal cooperation and mutual assistance.” Fedoseev, P. N., Leninizm i natsional'nyi vopros v sovremennykh usloviiakh [Leninism and the National Question in Contemporary Conditions] (Moscow: Politizdat, 1974), 357–58.Google Scholar All translations are by the author unless otherwise noted.
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