New States, New Politics: Building the Post-Soviet Nations

Book Overview

Since its publication in 1993, Nations and Politics in the Soviet Successor-States edited by Ian Bremmer and Ray Taras has established itself internationally as the genuinely comprehensive, systematic and rigorous analysis of the nation- and state-building processes of the fifteen states that grew out of the 1991 collapse of the Soviet Union. New States, New Politics: Building the Post-Soviet Nations was first published in 1997 and succeeds and replaces the editors' earlier book with a fresh collection of specially commissioned studies from the world's foremost specialists. Far from eradicating tensions among the former Soviet peoples, the disintegration of empire saw national minorities rediscovering long-suppressed identities. The contributors to New States, New Politics bring together historical and ethnic backgrounds with penetrating political analysis to offer an intriguing record of the different roads to self-assertion and independence being pursued by these young nations.

• Format: Paperback
• Language: English
• ISBN: 0521577993
• ISBN13: 9780521577991
• Release Date: December 1996
• Publisher: Cambridge University Press
• Length: 796 Pages
• Weight: 2.45 lbs.
• Dimensions: 1.7" x 6.0" x 9.0"

Customer Reviews

Dated but informative

This dated account of the new politics of Russia and the 'near abroad' or post soviet states takes the reader up to 1995, after the Chechnya invasion. It is an excellent study of country by country analysis with a plethora of data on ethnic groups and surveys. Espeically trying to understand the North caucuses and its many 'republics' that exist within the Russian state and Siberia and its many ethnic tribal groups this book is the best on the subject and has not been surpassed or updated by another account. Every state is accounted for and their is a major focus on the ethnic breakdowns of the regions, which is very important in trying to understand places like Tajikistan and Georgia or Abkhazia or Degastan. Most of these places are either so foreign, so marginal or so small that despite press accounts understadning the multi-ethnic dimensions is hard. The author gives a quick history of each place and stresses how the upheavels of the War and Stalins deportations and Lenin's fake national creation policies created nations where non existed before and awakened people hitherto unawakened. TOpics such as literature and language are touched on as is politics. It is fascinating to understand Moldova or the problems of citizenship in latvia, which is 1/3 Russian. Explaining the Russian diaspora is as fascinating and trying to make sense of the assimilated regions of the Volga, including the Tarters. Special emphasis is given to stateless groups such as the Cossacks, and the various bands, Kuban, and Terek are illuminated. Quite possiblyh this is the most masterful account fot he diversity of the old USSR and how the diversity plays out today in rivalries and conflicts. The book is an unbiased as it can be in discussing the Armenian-Azerbaijan war and Chechnya, both touchy unresolved conflicts. A must read for anyone interested in Russia and the near abroad, very helpful to understand today electoral issues in Kyrgistan, Ukraine and Georgia. Seth J. Frantzman