ABSTRACT
The First World War precipitated an intense escalation of expectations of change among the diverse ethnic groups of the multinational empires. The rhetoric of national liberation appeared to constitute a common currency – an ideological medium of exchange – among different social strata and political factions within each nationality. This proved to be misleading, as profound social and ideological divisions rapidly manifested themselves over precisely what sorts of changes national self-determination would in fact entail, and over how the territorial, demographic, and cultural boundaries of nationhood were to be determined. Yet the transition from empire was not marked exclusively by varying demands for change. There were also powerful elements of continuity that soon manifested themselves in the newly established states – pre-existent institutional structures and traditional forms of political culture that belied nationalist themes of integration and transformation. This was most apparent in East Central Europe and the Middle East (although it certainly was not absent from the Soviet political scene), and it is on these two regions that this schematic overview of trends during the interwar period will focus.
