Publisher's Synopsis
Communist Europe consisted of 38 subnational territorial units. Almost everywhere, the renaissance of nationalism in late and post-Communist Europe led to a confrontation between the titular ethnic groups' aspirations for national unification of the old and the new nation states, and the objective of the larger ethnic minorities for national autonomy, federalization, or independence. The larger territories, with a majority titular ethnic group, demanded state independence, but this has been denied by the international community. In some cases, they have achieved a de-facto stateness. In other cases, former autonomy has been abolished. In recent times, the smaller national territorial units in Russia are being dissolved, while, at the same time, some new national territorial units have come into being. This volume examines 15 national territories of various types with regard to the central questions about the relationship between state nationalism and ethno-nationalism in the time of upheaval from 1985 to 1995, and its impact on the propensity towards violence and on the unfolding of democracy.
