Russia, Ukraine, and the Breakup of the Soviet Union

Roman Szporluk

• Publisher: Hoover Institution Press
• Year: 2020
• Topic: History
• eBook ISBN:
  9780817995485
• Subtopic: Russian History
• Index: History

This book chronicles the final two decades in the history of the Soviet Union and presents a story that is often lost in the standard interpretations of the collapse of communism in Eastern Europe and the USSR. Although there were numerous reasons for the collapse of communism, it did not happen—as it may have seemed to some—overnight. Indeed, says Roman Szporluk, the root causes go back even earlier than 1917. To understand why the USSR broke up the way it did, it is necessary to understand the relationship between the two most important nations of the USSR—Russia and Ukraine—during the Soviet period and before, as well as the parallel but interrelated processes of nation formation in both states. Szporluk details a number of often-overlooked factors leading to the USSR's fall: how the processes of Russian identity formation were not completed by the time of the communist takeover in 1917, the unification of Ukraine in 1939–1945, and the Soviet period failing to find a resolution of the question of Russian-Ukrainian relations. The present-day conflict in the Caucasus, he asserts, is a sign that the problems of Russian identity remain.

Table of contents

• Front Cover
• Title Page
• Half Title
• Copyright
• Dedication
• Contents
• Foreword Wayne S. Vucinich
• Acknowledgments
• A Note on Transliteration
• Introduction
• 1. Nationalities and the Russian Problem in the USSR: A Historical Outline
• 2. The Nations of the USSR in 1970
• 3. Russians in Ukraine and Problems of Ukrainian Identity in the USSR
• 4. West Ukraine and West Belorussia: Historical Tradition, Social Communication, and Linguistic Assimilation
• 5. Urbanization in Ukraine since the Second World War
• 6. History and Russian Nationalism
• 7. Dilemmas of Russian Nationalism
• 8. The Imperial Legacy and the Soviet Nationalities Problem
• 9. The Soviet West—or Far Eastern Europe?
• 10. The Press and Soviet Nationalities: The Party Resolution of 1975 and Its Implementation
• 11. The Strange Politics of Lviv: An Essay in Search of an Explanation
• 12. Nation-Building in Ukraine: Problems and Prospects
• 13. Reflections on Ukraine after 1994: The Dilemmas of Nationhood
• 14. After Empire: What?
• 15. Ukraine: From an Imperial Periphery to a Sovereign State
• 16. The Fall of the Tsarist Empire and the USSR: The Russian Question and Imperial Overextension
• Index
• About the Author