ABSTRACT
The massive nationalist demonstrations that erupted in Soviet Armenia in February 1988 surely surprised Mikhail Sergeyevich Gorbachev as much as they perturbed him. For seven decades, the Armenians had all the makings of a model Soviet nationality. If as many as 1 million Armenian demonstrators were manifestly infected by nationalism, then it is likely that the virus is much more virulent than Soviet officials have been willing to admit. Rather, the importance of the demonstrations lies in what they hold for Gorbachev's program of restructuring the Soviet system. Western policymakers, scholars, and journalists have often treated the Soviet national question as a peripheral concern. If any sphere of Soviet politics illustrates both the manner in which Mikhail Gorbachev has learned while in office and the difficulties attendant upon learning about difficult subjects, it is the national question. The side effects of perestroika represent a political and economic dilemma for the Soviet Union, they confront the West with a moral one.
