In the aftermath of the coup of August 19,1992, the Ukrainian Supreme Soviet or Verkhovna Rada passed a Declaration of Independence whose approval was to be put to a referendum three months later. Shortly thereafter, as happened in many other republics, the local Communist Party was banned. Even though its organizational existence may have been snuffed out, its representatives continued to live on in posts both in the Ukrainian Supreme Soviet and within the state and economic structures. Throughout the fall of 1991, Ukraine attempted to steer clear of participation in the decaying structures of central power, seeking to remain aloof from the Nova Ogoreva process that sought to fashion a new Union Treaty. Ukrainian elites pursued such a course even though the newly envisioned Union would provide the republics with powers beyond those that were ceded to the republics under the previous Union Treaty of Sovereign States. The ostensible reason for their political demurral was the unwillingness of Ukrainian elites to compromise the forthcoming referendum on independence by getting involved in any organization or structures that would unduly constrain the exercise of independence. On December 1, 1991, the referendum on Ukrainian national independence was finally held. As far as Ukrainian nationalists were concerned, the referendum was a great success: with strong support not only where one would expect it, i.e., in the Western and Central Ukraine, but also in regions considered most likely to fear, and thus least likely to support, Ukrainian independence—Russians in Eastern and Southern Ukraine. Russians in Crimea, and Ruthenians, Hungarians, and Romanians in Western Ukraine. The strong support of these minorities notwithstanding, it is not a forgone conclusion that secessionist politics within Ukraine (rather than of Ukraine) has been finally been put to rest. In fact, this trend bears watching in coming years in Ukraine.

As elsewhere in the world, most societal problems in the USSR, including nationalism, have a demographic and geographic dimension. My purpose today is to investigate some of the more prominent changes in the ethnic composition of the USSR that occurred between 1979 and 1989. The effect of changing ethnic composition depends on the geographic scale because overall changes have less effect than regional changes. Thus, I will consider various geographic scales of analysis.

On 26 February 1925, the Soviet government, or the Presidium of the Central Executive Committee of the USSR, passed a resolution that, in effect, ensured the continuation of the separate development of the southern and the northern Komi, that is, the Komi-Permiaks and the Komi-Zyrians. In more detail, the Presidium decided,

This article examines how gender equality activists in postsocialist Latvia negotiate national and transnational frameworks in their campaigns. The case study for this analysis is the 15-year evolution of one gender equality non-governmental organization (NGO), the Resource Center for Women, Marta, in Riga. RCW Malta's work has resulted in significant steps in policy reform and broader social awareness regarding questions of gender equality. In doing so, it bridges essentialist, patriarchal conceptions of the Latvian nation-state and a transnational European feminist narrative. The experience of RCW Marta affirms the continued relevance of the nation, though a redefined one, within transnationalism, which in turn contributes to a rethinking of post-socialism as a spatial and analytic category.

Is there is specific Jewish literature in France? The study of Jewish authors and their writing is not sufficient grounds to indicate that such a group exists as a sociohistoriacal entity; that their existence is real and not merely nominal. The question of the existence of Jewish literature — not to be confused with Jewish writing — is a central preoccupation of the community press, in which preferred answers are formulated with reference to an organised group of artists rather than in terms of artistic expression. We will attempt to show how and by what devices the position adopted by the press in question, often lacking in coherence and sufficient justification, has influenced that adopted by certain writers and academics.

To many in both the East and the West it seemed axiomatic that the collapse of the Soviet Union in 1991 was due to “nationality reasons,” which were viewed as a natural process in the last empire's decline. Then, during the democratic reform of a totalitarian state, ethnic minority rights were first spoken of, and the growth of national self-awareness appeared to be an integral part of society's liberalization. Time has since shown that liberal changes in the economy and in the political and social spheres are not always accompanied by the establishment of social justice; indeed, it has frequently been minorities who are among the most unfortunate and marginalized groups in society. Defending the rights of minorities and combating ethnic and racial discrimination remains one of the most relevant issues in practically all post-socialist countries of the former Soviet Union and Eastern and Central Europe.

In October 1966, a conference of Czech, Slovak, and Magyar historians discussed in Bratislava (Czechoslovakia) the characteristics of Fascism in their respective countries. The nature of Slovak nationalism caught the attention of the participants. While mainly analysing Slovak-Magyar relations, the scholars touched only slightly on some of the other ethnic groups living in Slovakia, Germans, Ukrainians, Poles, Gypsies, and Jews. In order to study and understand Slovak nationalism during the Second World War, problems and conditions of each of the above-metnioned groups should be studied. A mutual comparison might assist in the creation of a substantive summary. Yet even a most thoroughgoing analysis of the relations between a dominant nation and the subjected minorities would not provide us with a comprehensive definition of Slovak nationalism.

This article introduces a thematic issue consisting of five articles, which analyze the complex interrelations between gender norms and representations and the construction of nationalism in the post-Soviet republics of Central Asia. Drawing from gender and feminist studies, the first section explores how Central Asian nationalisms have promoted hierarchized gender roles to reinforce their legitimacy, noticeably invoking the authority of “tradition.” The second section examines not only how the Soviet period continues to shape contemporary nation-building processes in the region, but also how the latter has been creating new historical references to emancipate them from the Soviet legacy - and from the Soviet policy toward women in particular. The third section examines how gender norms promoted by Central Asian states may affect women in their everyday life and how they may negotiate, refuse, or promote these norms. In the final section, we show how “gender equality” has become a watchword of international organizations’ agendas and we analyze the production and implementation of this international agenda setting in a specific national context.

“For what we all are, really, is elegant scarecrows on fields of words.” Gabriel Liiceanu's metaphor of “discourse” is particularly revealing for the case of the Moldavian nation. When the field is already covered with scarecrows, a new one will have trouble finding a free spot and functioning properly. Rivaling nationalist and communist interpretations of Moldavian history have left little free space for an original view: historical facts have been interpreted and reinterpreted time and time again, so it has become increasingly difficult to create new meanings and to find fresh words.