Transforming the ‘National Question’: New Approaches to Nationalism, Federalism and Sovereignty

The demise of Marxism—Leninism during the last years of the USSR was dramatically manifested in the transformation of Soviet approaches to the ‘national question’. Marxist—Leninist theory, and Soviet ideology, had long treated national identities and loyalties as a relic of the past which would be eradicated under socialism, and viewed the ‘federal compromise’ which had created the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics as a transitional arrangement pending the ultimate fusion of the varied nations and peoples of the USSR in a new socialist community. The accession of Mikhail Gorbachev to the Soviet leadership, and the inauguration of an increasingly far-reaching programme of reforms, radically altered the entire political discourse surrounding issues of national identity, nationalism and federalism, as well as the relative power of central and republic elites. Gorbachev’s reforms not only brought the ‘national question’ to the top of the political agenda; they altered the very premises of the discussion.