ABSTRACT
The collapse of the Soviet Union has thrown into bold relief the major problem that confronts all multicultural societies: the interaction between the center and the periphery. 1 The center is defined in spatial and cultural terms. It occupies the geographical core of the empire inhabited by the dominant ethnic group, which at times may only be a plurality, as in the Russian Empire in 1914, rather than a majority of the population. Dominance is measured then in political and military terms, that is, as the coercive power of the state. Cultural and economic dominance may be less strong, more disputed, and consequently may become highly politicized. Such was frequently the case in the Russian Empire, where commercial and even industrial activity on the periphery was technically superior, and cultural life, at least in the eyes of the non-Russians, more highly developed than at the center.
