Abstract
The Soviet Union is the world’s largest multinational state. Its 280 million inhabitants are constantly assured that the ‘nationalities problem’ inherited from the Tsarist Empire has long since been solved and that a harmonious, supranational community, the so-called Soviet people, has been formed. Despite this rosy official assessment, there is no shortage of evidence indicating that the management of relations among the more than 100 nationalities constituting the ethnic mosaic that is the Soviet Union remains a crucial and intractable issue on the Soviet political agenda. What are the salient features of the nationalities question in the 1980s, and what is likely to be the general direction of nationalities policy under Gorbachev?
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© 1987 School of Slavonic and East European Studies University of London
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Nahaylo, B. (1987). Nationalities. In: McCauley, M. (eds) The Soviet Union Under Gorbachev. Studies in Russia and East Europe. Palgrave Macmillan, London. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-1-349-18648-8_5
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-1-349-18648-8_5
Publisher Name: Palgrave Macmillan, London
Print ISBN: 978-0-333-43912-8
Online ISBN: 978-1-349-18648-8
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