ABSTRACT
This chapter explores the outlines of this new phenomenon in the Soviet Union. It suggests some preliminary answers to three major questions. The first question is how have Gorbachev's policies transformed the situation, allowing what had been unthinkable just a few years ago to take place on a regular basis? The second question is what are the resources of and constraints on the major participants, and what strategies has each of them employed to advance its interests in the new environment?. The third question is what forces in the Soviet system tend to buttress the emerging system of ethnic politics, what forces work against it, and how are these likely to play out over the next year? The chapter examines five characteristics of non-Russian ethnic communities in the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics—;; size, institutional completeness, political culture, distinctive problems and goals, and the ability to form alliances via the media and in other ways.
