ABSTRACT
A good deal of the pent-up anger was directed at the central authorities, and since the Russians had historically been the dominant group, opposition took on an anti-Russian coloring. The fiercest and bloodiest example of rising ethnic consciousness, however, occurred in the Caucasus. Independence by no means meant the end of ethnic tensions and violence. Smaller incidents of violence and ethnic tensions were seen in the other former Soviet republics. Religion is one of the most common and enduring aspects of ethnicity. The potential of regional and ethnic problems generated by economic dislocation has retarded Ukrainian reform efforts. Moldova, Armenia, Azerbaijan and Georgia have seen their economic reform efforts stall. The east/west linguistic, ethnic and economic divisions in Ukraine are paralleled by a Uniate-Catholic/Orthodox division. The price Moscow would pay for this, however, was a keener national and ethnic consciousness and a revival of traditional social structures that competed with official ideology and organizations for popular allegiance.
