The Geography of Nationalism in Russia and the USSR / / Robert J. Kaiser.

• VerfasserIn: Kaiser, Robert J.,
• Place / Publishing House: Princeton, NJ : : Princeton University Press, , [2017]; ©1994
• Year of Publication: 2017
• Language: English
• Series: Princeton Legacy Library ; 5178
• Physical Description: 1 online resource (496 p.)

The Geography of Nationalism in Russia and the USSR is an important addition to the small library of essential works on the collapse of the Soviet empire. The first attempt to construct and test broad theoretical propositions about "place" and "territoriality" in the making of nations, it examines the critical social processes underlying the formation of nations and homelands in Russia and the USSR during the nineteenth and twentieth centuries. Robert Kaiser finds that for the most part national self-consciousness was only beginning to supplant a localist mentality by the time of World War I. The national problem faced by Lenin was fundamentally different from the more difficult nationalist challenge that confronted Gorbachev. In Kaiser's place-based theory, the homeland, once created in the imaginations of the indigenous masses, powerfully structured national processes and international relations. "Indigenization" from below became an active competitor with nationality policies that promoted Russification, resulting in the restructuring of ethnic stratification to favor indigenes in their own respective home republics and to challenge Russian dominance outside Russia. The revolutionary changes occurring since 1989, Kaiser argues, should therefore be seen as part of a longer process of indigenization.Originally published in 1994.The Princeton Legacy Library uses the latest print-on-demand technology to again make available previously out-of-print books from the distinguished backlist of Princeton University Press. These editions preserve the original texts of these important books while presenting them in durable paperback and hardcover editions. The goal of the Princeton Legacy Library is to vastly increase access to the rich scholarly heritage found in the thousands of books published by Princeton University Press since its founding in 1905.

Table of Contents

Frontmatter -- Contents -- Key to Map "Ethnonational Communities of the USSR" -- List of Maps -- List of Tables -- Preface -- Acknowledgments -- Part One: Theoretical and Historical Framework -- Chapter One. The Meaning of Homeland in the Study of Nationalism -- Chapter Two. The Making of Nations in Tsarist Russia -- Chapter Three. National Consolidation and Territoriality during the Interwar Period -- Part Two: National Territoriality in the Postwar USSR -- Chapter Four. Population Redistribution and National Territoriality, 1959-1989 -- Chapter Five. Social Mobilization and National Territoriality -- Chapter Six. The Ethnocultural Transformation of Soviet Society: Russification versus Indigenization -- Chapter Seven. Political Indigenization and the Disintegration of the USSR -- Chapter Eight. Conclusions and Implications -- Appendix A: Evolution of the Soviet Federal System -- Appendix B: Native Language Instruction in the USSR -- Bibliography -- Index