Social and Behavioral Sciences Commons^™

The Empire Strikes Out? A Look At The Nationalities Crisis In The Soviet Union, Catherine E. Breen

Honors Theses

My thesis rests on the notion that, because of the increase of freedoms in the Soviet Union today, many republics are demanding that their autonomy be restored and that this nationality crisis, an unforeseen and unwanted byproduct of recent reforms, has grown into such a disaster that it is now actually impairing the whole reform movement in the Soviet Union as civil unrest and strife are beginning to threaten the stability of this huge empire.

Ethnic identity is not something that can be hidden, changed, forced, or converted, nor will national and cultural roots simply disappear over time. Thus, the …