ABSTRACT
The collapse of the USSR in December 1991 is recognized as a pivotal moment in post-war history. It both ended the Cold War and brought the communist experiment in Europe to a close. Many commentaries attribute the fall of the Soviet Union to popular nationalist forces (see, for example, Diuk and Karatnycky 1993:40). The aim of this chapter is to examine this view critically and to assess the impact of globalization on the process of fragmentation in the USSR. To do this, it is first necessary briefly to consider some relevant issues in the current academic debate on nationalism.
