ABSTRACT
Addressing the 24th Congress of the Communist Party of the Soviet Union (CPSU) in the spring of 1971, General Secretary Leonid Brezhnev proudly affirmed the emergence of a new Soviet socialist nation forged from among the ethnic mosaic of the old Russian Empire. Close examination of Soviet society reveals, however, that this statement reflects more official desiderata than reality, for it can be argued that an increasingly assertive ethnic nationalism among the non-Russian minorities of the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics (USSR) has emerged as a major conflict area in Soviet domestic politics. While the political and economic manifestations of nationalism described above are of serious concern to the Soviet central leadership, perhaps the most abrasive and explosive area of national relations in the USSR is that which encompasses nationalistic pressures in the cultural realm. Closely related to the development of cultural-ethnic differentiation has been the continued or increased adherence of minorities to traditional religions.
