ABSTRACT

Nationalism increasingly dominates the Soviet political landscape, nowhere more forcefully than in the definition of new unofficial groups competing for power. This chapter looks at the structural elements which have made nationality so central to Soviet political development in the Mikhail Gorbachev era, examining the way in which nationality was incorporated within the formal political structure and subsequently repressed by Stalin, exacerbated by social and political change prior to Gorbachev. It examines its level as an unintended consequence of Gorbachevs specific approach to the problem of nationalism. The chapter considers the way in which these groups have arisen, the forces that have led some to become fronts and others issue groups, and the balances in each case between a variety of forces that are acting on the Soviet polity. Many people both in the Soviet Union and abroad have been surprised by the upsurge of nationalist unrest and political activism in the Soviet Union.