ABSTRACT
Mikhail Gorbachev's reforms have unleashed an unprecedented tide of protests and demonstrations across the U.S.S.R. in which national grievances occupy a central place alongside economic unrest. The Soviet leadership, and Gorbachev in particular, clearly failed to anticipate that the process of reform would inevitably reignite the "nationalities question," and then they underestimated its potential explosiveness. Gorbachev came to power relatively ill prepared—both by personal temperament and by previous political experience—to deal with the nationalities question. The effects of glasnost were given additional impetus by the political "democratization" that by 1988 had come to occupy a central place in Gorbachevs reform program. The Gorbachev coalition is caught between contending forces pressing for and against major changes in nationality policies. The decision to convene a special plenum of the party Central Committee to formulate new directions for Soviet nationality policy was both a response to growing tensions and demands and a catalyst in eliciting alternative proposals.
