Nationalist Mobilization and the Collapse of the Soviet State

• Author(s): Mark R. Beissinger,
• Publisher: Cambridge University Press
• Pages: 503
• ISBN_10: 052100148X
  ISBN_13: 9780521001489
  
• Language: en
• Categories: History / Military / Revolutions & Wars of Independence , History / Russia / General , History / Russia / Soviet Era , Political Science / General , Political Science / Political Ideologies / Communism, Post-Communism & Socialism , Political Science / History & Theory , Political Science / Public Policy / Economic Policy , Political Science / Political Ideologies / Nationalism & Patriotism , Political Science / Political Freedom , Social Science / Sociology / General , Social Science / Race & Ethnic Relations ,

Description:... This study examines the process by which the seemingly impossible in 1987--the disintegration of the Soviet state--became the seemingly inevitable by 1991. It provides an original interpretation of not only the Soviet collapse, but also of the phenomenon of nationalism more generally. Probing the role of nationalist action as both cause and effect, Beissinger utilizes extensive event data and detailed case studies from across the U.S.S.R. during its final years to elicit the shifting relationship between pre-existing structural conditions, institutional constraints, and event-generated influences in the massive nationalist explosions that brought about the collapse of the Soviet Union.