Nationalities in the USSR

Annotated Bibliography

  1. Walker, Martin, The Waking Giant: Gorbachev's Russia, New York, NY: Knopf Publishing Group, 1986.
    One of the first journalist's accounts that recognized the significance of the social, cultural, and political changes in the Soviet Union under Gorbachev, although with little attention to the non-Russian nationalities.
  2. Smith, Hedrick, The New Russians, New York, NY: Harper Perennial, 1991.
    In spite of the title, this account by an experienced and respected American reporter offered a startling new perspective on the first signs of the breakup of the Soviet Union.
  3. Suny, Ronald, The Revenge of the Past: Revolution, and the Collapse of the Soviet Union, Palo Alto, CA: Stanford University Press, 1993.
    A major theoretical intervention challenging assumptions of a primordial nationalism and arguing instead for nationalism as an identity defined by circumstances and context.
  4. Gorbachev, Mikhail, Perestroika. New Thinking for Our Country and Our World New York, NY: HarperCollins, 1987.
    A statement from the last leader of the Soviet Union, attempting to reconcile his praise of socialism with the collapse of the communist system.
  5. Olcott, Martha Brill, Central Asia's New States, Washington D.C.: Carnegie Endowment for International Peace, 2005.
    A review of political changes in Central Asia in the first years after the end of the Soviet Union, with particular attention to democratization efforts