Central Eurasia in Context

Conceptualizing Power and Identity in the Post-Soviet Realm

Diana T. Kudaibergenova

• Publisher: University of Pittsburgh Press
• Year: 2020
• ISBN:
  9780822987574
• Topic: Histoire
• Subtopic: Histoire de l'Asie centrale

The collapse of the Soviet Union famously opened new venues for the theories of nationalism and the study of processes and actors involved in these new nation-building processes. In this comparative study, Kudaibergenova takes the new states and nations of Eurasia that emerged in 1991, Latvia and Kazakhstan, and seeks to better understand the phenomenon of post-Soviet states tapping into nationalism to build legitimacy. What explains this difference in approaching nation-building after the collapse of the Soviet Union? What can a study of two very different trajectories of development tell us about the nature of power, state and nationalizing regimes of the 'new' states of Eurasia? Toward Nationalizing Regimes finds surprising similarities in two such apparently different countries—one "western" and democratic, the other "eastern" and dictatorial.

Table of contents

• Cover Page
• Title Page
• Copyright Page
• Dedication
• Contents
• Preface
• Acknowledgments
• Introduction
• 1. Nationalizing Regimes: The Study of Power Fields and the Reimagination of the State
• 2. The Archaeology of Nationalizing Regimes: Narratives, Elites, and Minorities
• 3. Appropriating and Contesting the Nation: Power Struggles in Nationalizing Regimes
• 4. “Lost in Translation”: Russian Nationalism, Minority Rights, and Selfhood Outside Russia
• 5. Homogenizing the Nation: Competing Discourses and Popular Support
• Conclusion
• Appendix of Tables
• Notes
• Bibliography
• Index