ABSTRACT
The primary legacy of empire in the Soviet Union is a peculiar system of ethnic stratification—one which today has come under severe stress and increasing attack. With the decline of Marxist-Leninist ideology, Russian nationalism increasingly became the legitimizing principle of the Soviet system. Modern nationalism was closely connected with the ideas of self-determination and the sovereignty of the nation-state. A decline in economic performance, a growing list of untended social ills, and a political stagnation and corruption that gripped the entire administrative hierarchy also led to the emergence or sharpening of crises of penetration, participation, distribution, and legitimacy. The central concern of Russian imperial nationalism has traditionally been the backwardness of Russia and the need to modernize the empire in order to maintain it. In groping toward a non-imperial formula for legitimacy, Soviet leaders will encounter serious obstacles in nearly every realm of policy making.
