ABSTRACT
The dissolution of the Soviet Union in 1991 was to a great extent the consequence of a long lasting conflict between the Great Russians-the ‘core nation’ of the empire-on the one hand, and the dominant ethnic groups of the other fourteen national Soviet republics, on the other hand. The latter viewed the Union as an instrument in the hands of the Great Russians to oppress and exploit other nations, whereas Russian-minded people like A.Solzhenitsyn claimed that the Russians had suffered more than any other nation under the Soviet regime (cf., Solzhenitsyn 1974, 117). The latter viewpoint implies that the Soviet Union was a non-Russian creation.
