Power and Identity in the Post-Soviet Realm: Geographies of Ethnicity and Nationality After 1991

by Steven Jobbitt (Editor), Zsolt Bottlik (Editor), Marton Berki (Editor)

Overview

With the dissolution of the Soviet Union and the demise of the Cold War’s bipolar world order, Soviet successor states on the Russian periphery found themselves in a geopolitical vacuum, and gradually evolved into a specific buffer zone throughout the 1990s. Focusings on these areas of the post-Soviet realm, this collected volume examines how they have faced multidimensional challenges while pursuing both geopolitics and their place in the world economy. The first section reviews the fundamental elements of the formation of national identity in light of the geopolitical situation both past and present. This includes an examination of the relative strength and shifting dynamics of statehood, the impacts of imperial nationalism, and the changes in language use from the early-modern period onwards. The second section examines the (trans)formation of the identities of small nations living at the forefront of Tsarist Russian geopolitical expansion, in particular in Central Asia, the Caucasus, and the Southern Steppe. Finally, in the third section, the contributors discuss the fate of groups whose settlement space was divided by the external boun¬daries of the Soviet Union, a reality that resulted in the diverging developmental trajectories of the otherwise culturally similar communities on both sides of the border. In these imperial peripheries, Soviet authority gave rise to specifically Soviet national identities amongst groups such as the Azeris, Tajiks, Karelians, Moldavians, and others. The book comprises more than 30 primarily original maps, graphs, and tables and will be of great use not only for human geographers (particularly political and cultural geographers) and historians, but also for those interested in contemporary issues in social science.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9783838213996
Publisher:	ibidem Press
Publication date:	04/06/2021
Series:	Soviet and Post-Soviet Politics and Society
Pages:	320
Product dimensions:	5.83(w) x 8.27(h) x (d)

About the Author

Dr Zsolt Bottlik is Associate Professor at the Institute of Geography and Earth Sciences of Eötvös Loránd University, Budapest. His research focuses on the ethnic background of social conflicts in the Central and Eastern European region.

Dr Márton Berki is Senior Lecturer at the Department of Social and Economic Geography of Eötvös Loránd University, Budapest. His main fields of research include cultural geography, urban geography, socialist and post-socialist urbanism, critical social and spatial theory.

Dr Steven Jobbitt is Associate Professor and Chair of History at Lakehead University in Thunder Bay, Ontario. His research focuses primarily on identity and the history of geography in twentieth-century Hungary.

Table of Contents

Introduction vii

Formation of National Identity 1

The Historical Roots of Regional Inequalities and Their Relationship with Present-Day Peripheries and Conflict Zones in the Post-Soviet Realm (1897-2010) Gábor Demeter 3

The Faces of Russian Nationalism Margit Koszegi 41

Geopolitics and Language in the European Post-Soviet Realm Zsolt Bottlik 59

Russian and Soviet Censuses in Ethnic-National Context Géza Barta Tamás Illés Zsolt Bottlik 91

Local Identities under Russian Rule 111

The Layers of Post-Soviet Central Asian "Nations" Margit Koszegi Zsolt Bottlik 113

Tatars in Russia and the Post-Soviet Realm Margit Koszegi 135

In the Net of Power: Small Nations and Ethnicities on the Black Sea Coast Margit Koszegi 149

Living on the Edge: The Origins and Evolution of the Kalmyk Ethno-Religious Enclave along the Southern Russian Frontier Tamás Illés 169

"Constructed" (Soviet) Ethnicities 181

In the Contact Zone of In-Between Europe and the Post-Soviet Realm - Notions of Karelian Spaces Géza Barta 183

Reseating Moldovan Identities Tamás Illés Zsolt Bottlik 207

The Post-Soviet Azerbaijani National Identity Margit Koszegi Zsolt Bottlik 227

Tajik Identities: Ageless Alternatives to an Unborn Nation Csaba Baroch 245

Bibliography 261

Sources 263

References 266

List of figures 291