Nationalism in Late and Post-Communist Europe

Communist Europe consisted of 38 subnational territorial units. Almost everywhere the renaissance of nationalism in late and post-communist Europe led to a confrontation between the titular ethnic groups’ aspirations for national unification of the old and the new nation states, and the objective of the larger ethnic minorities for national autonomy, federalisation or independence. The larger territories with a majority titular ethnic demanded state independence, but this has been denied by the international community. In some cases they have achieved a de-facto stateness. In other cases former autonomy has been abolished. In recent times, the smaller national territorial units in Russia are being dissolved, while at the same time some new national territorial units have come into being.
The present volume examines 15 national territories of various types with regard to the central questions of this work about the relationship between state nationalism and ethno-nationalism in the time of upheavals 1985 – 1995, and its impact on the propensity towards violence and on the unfolding of democracy.