ABSTRACT
A central myth of the Brezhnev era was that the nationality problem in the USSR had been resolved once and for all and that the construction of a "society of developed socialism" had resulted in the emergence of a "new historical community—the Soviet people." Under glasnost, many regions immediately experienced an abrupt, explosively charged exacerbation of national conflicts that for decades had remained imperceptible. Dark, conservative forces already accuse the forces of renewal of a "weakening of screws," diligently noting in their "register of wisdom" everything that glasnost has brought to the surface that, in their opinion, is "loosening the foundations." The age of glasnost has permitted the Armenian population of Nagornyi Karabakh to publicly raise the issue that has continually disturbed the consciousness of the nation—the reunification of Nagornyi Karabakh with Armenia. Religious conflict served as one of the causes of the massive slaughter of the Armenian population in 1915 carried out by the Turks.
