Russian Nationalism: the Failed Political Project.
My concern, though, is with the political use of nationalism in the post-Soviet context, although it must be viewed with the horizon of history in mind if the themes are to unfold in their entirety. The theme I will develop here is one of repression, of violence between the core/periphery divide of Russia and its 'subordinate' non-Russian provinces. The paper has two main objectives: first, to briefly sketch the impact of nationalism on the political system of post-Soviet Russia; and second, to describe how competing groups (vis-a-vis Russia) define themselves and use nationalism to legitimize their political aims, and sometimes also the crimes and brutalities that are spin-offs of the actualizing process. 10 pgs. 14 f/c. 11b.
