Russia, Ukraine, and the Breakup of the Soviet Union - Softcover

Szporluk, Roman

Softcover

ISBN 10: 0817995420 ISBN 13: 9780817995423

Publisher: Hoover Institution Press, 2000

Synopsis

This book chronicles the final two decades in the history of the Soviet Union and presents a story that is often lost in the standard interpretations of the collapse of communism in Eastern Europe and the USSR. Although there were numerous reasons for the collapse of communism, it did not happen—as it may have seemed to some—overnight. Indeed, says Roman Szporluk, the root causes go back even earlier than 1917. To understand why the USSR broke up the way it did, it is necessary to understand the relationship between the two most important nations of the USSR—Russia and Ukraine—during the Soviet period and before, as well as the parallel but interrelated processes of nation formation in both states. Szporluk details a number of often-overlooked factors leading to the USSR's fall: how the processes of Russian identity formation were not completed by the time of the communist takeover in 1917, the unification of Ukraine in 1939–1945, and the Soviet period failing to find a resolution of the question of Russian-Ukrainian relations. The present-day conflict in the Caucasus, he asserts, is a sign that the problems of Russian identity remain.

About this title

About the Author

Roman Szporluk is professor of history and director of the Ukrainian Research Institute at Harvard University. Szporluk's previous books include The Political Thought of Thomas G. Masaryk and Communism and Nationalism: Karl Marx versus Friedrich List.

Edition details

• Publisher: Hoover Institution Press
• Publication date: 2000
• Language: English
• ISBN 10: 0817995420
• ISBN 13: 9780817995423
• Binding: Paperback
• Edition number: 1
• Number of pages: 488