Interethnic Relations and Nationality Policy in Post-Soviet Russia: Western Scholarship Since 1991

Abstract

This essay reviews the copious scholarship on nationality policies and interethnic relations in Russia that has been published in the West since the fall of the USSR. Emphasizing English-language scholarship, the article examines the influential conceptual frameworks and key themes taken up by North American and Western European specialists in the study of Russian nationality questions, both in regard to the Russians themselves as well as the other nationalities living within the Russian Federation. The principal conclusion offered is that Western scholarship on nationality issues in post-Soviet Russia underscores the profoundly ambiguous legacy left by the Soviet period in the national arena.