Nation-Building: Identity Policies in Post-Soviet States

Abstract

Denis Letnyakov — Candidate of Political Sciences, Researcher, Russian Presidential Academy of National Economy and Public Administration. Address: bldg. 82, Vernadskogo Pr., Moscow, 119571, Russian Federation. E-mail: letnyakov@mail.ru

Nation-building was one of the main problems faced by post-Soviet states after the collapse of the USSR. Many of these states did not have a long tradition of nationhood, and they were not ethno-culturally homogeneous. In some cases the political independence which came with the fall of the Soviet Union was not even the result of a nation-wide struggle (e.g. in Central Asia and Belorussia). All of this created a serious challenge for the political and intellectual elites who had to legitimize the sovereignty of their societies. This article explores different policies of nation-building in the post-Soviet space. Among them are the invention (or fundamental revision) of the historical narrative, the invention of a particularist cultural and political tradition, the active use of postcolonial discourse and an ideology of ethnical nationalism. In addition, the article deals with other aspects of the nation-building process, such as identity conflicts within societies (e.g. the East and West divide in Ukraine and Belarus, and the Moldavanian-Roumanian divide in Moldova) and ‘memory wars’—conflicts between different interpretations of history. The article concludes that identity policies in post-Soviet states were largely successful, because none of the newly independent states became a failed state. On the other hand, nation-building in these states has not been fully accomplished, which manifests itself in the weak loyalty of citizens. In addition, some post-Soviet states have so far proven unable to maintain a nationwide discourse which would include ethnic, linguistic and other minorities.