Table Of ContentNation-Building and Identity
in the Post-Soviet Space
Nation-building as a process is never complete and issues related to identity,
nation, state and regime-building are recurrent in the post-Soviet region. This
comparative, inter-disciplinary volume explores how nation-building tools
emerged and evolved over the last twenty years. Featuring in-depth case stud-
ies from countries throughout the post-Soviet space it compares various aspects
of nation-building and identity formation projects. Approaching the issue from a
variety of disciplines, and geographical areas, contributors illustrate chapter by
chapter how different state and non-state actors utilise traditional instruments of
nation-construction in new ways while also developing non-traditional tools and
strategies to provide a contemporary account of how nation-formation efforts
evolve and diverge.
Rico Isaacs is a Reader in Politics at Oxford Brookes University. His research
focuses on the comparative political sociology of authoritarianism, regime-b uilding
and nation-building in Central Asia.
Abel Polese is a research fellow at the Institute for International Conflict Resolu-
tion and Reconstruction at Dublin City University and the Institute of Governance
of Tallinn University. His main interest is the gap between theory and practices of
governance which he explores both theoretically and in practice through a series of
social innovation projects in Europe, the former USSR and South East Asia. He is
a fellow of the Global Young Academy, gathering academics from all around the
world to propose new directions in research policies, and his project ʻSustainable
Development in Cultural Diversity ̕was awarded the Global Education Award by
the Council of Europe in 2011.
Post-Soviet Politics
Series Editor:
Neil Robinson, University of Limerick, Ireland
The last decade has seen rapid and fundamental change in the countries of the
former Soviet Union. Although there has been considerable academic comment
on these changes over the years, detailed empirical and theoretical research on the
transformation of the post-Soviet space is only just beginning to appear as new
paradigms are developed to explain change.
Post-Soviet Politics is a series focusing on the politics of change in the states
of the former USSR. The series publishes original work that blends theoretical
development with empirical research on post-Soviet politics. The series includes
work that progresses comparative analysis of post-Soviet politics, as well as case
study research on political change in individual post- Soviet states. The series
features original research monographs, thematically strong edited collections, and
specialised texts.
Uniquely, this series brings together the complete spectrum of work on post-
Soviet politics, providing a voice for academics world wide.
Also in the series
Euro-Atlantic Discourse in Georgia Religion, Politics and Nation-
The Making of Georgian Foreign Building in Post-Communist
and Domestic Policy After the Rose Countries
Revolution Edited by Greg Simons and David
Frederik Coene Westerlund
ISBN 978 1 4724 5460 7 ISBN 978 1 4724 4969 6
Systemic and Non-Systemic The Politics of Energy and Memory
Opposition in the Russian Federation between the Baltic States and
Civil Society Awakens? Russia
Edited by Cameron Ross Agnia Grigas
ISBN 978 1 4724 3504 0 ISBN 978 1 4724 5136 1
Autocratic and Democratic External Negotiating Armenian-Azerbaijani
Influences in Post-Soviet Eurasia Peace
Edited by Anastassia Obydenkova and Opportunities, Obstacles, Prospects
Alexander Libman Ohannes Geukjian
ISBN 978 1 4724 4124 9 ISBN 978 1 4724 3514 9
Nation-Building and Identity
in the Post-Soviet Space
New tools and approaches
Edited by
Rico Isaacs and Abel Polese
First published 2016
by Routledge
2 Park Square, Milton Park, Abingdon, Oxon OX14 4RN
and by Routledge
711 Third Avenue, New York, NY 10017
Routledge is an imprint of the Taylor & Francis Group, an informa business
© 2016 Rico Isaacs and Abel Polese
The right of Rico Isaacs and Abel Polese to be identified as the authors
of the editorial material, and of the authors for their individual chapters,
has been asserted in accordance with sections 77 and 78 of the Copyright,
Designs and Patents Act 1988.
All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reprinted or reproduced or
utilised in any form or by any electronic, mechanical, or other means, now
known or hereafter invented, including photocopying and recording, or in
any information storage or retrieval system, without permission in writing
from the publishers.
Trademark notice: Product or corporate names may be trademarks or
registered trademarks, and are used only for identification and explanation
without intent to infringe.
British Library Cataloguing in Publication Data
A catalogue record for this book is available from the British Library
Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data
A catalog record for this book has been requested
ISBN: 9781472454768 (hbk)
ISBN: 9781315597386 (ebk)
Typeset in Times New Roman
by Apex CoVantage, LLC
Contents
List of Figures vii
List of Tables viii
List of Contributors ix
Acknowledgements xiii
Introduction: Nation-Building in the Post-Soviet Space:
Old, New and Changing Tools 1
RICO ISAACS AND ABEL POLESE
1 Memory and Nation-Building in Georgia 24
FABIO DE LEONARDIS
2 Minority Assimilation and Nation-Building in Kazakhstan 46
YVES-MARIE DAVENEL AND EUNSIL YIM
3 Religion and Nation-Building in Crimea 65
DIDEM BUHARI GULMEZ
4 Language, Schools and Nation-Building in Tatarstan 83
TERESA WIGGLESWORTH-BAKER
5 Language, Economy and Nation-Building in the Republic of Sakha 104
AIMAR VENTSEL
6 Language, Law and Nation-Building in Georgia 118
KARLI STORM
7 Cinema and Nation-Building in Kazakhstan 138
RICO ISAACS
8 Personality Cults and Nation-Building in Turkmenistan 159
SLAVOMIR HORÁK AND ABEL POLESE
vi Contents
9 Public Events and Nation-Building in Azerbaijan 176
ELISABETH MILITZ
10 Public Construction and Nation-Building in Tajikistan 195
FILIPPO MENGA
11 Elections and Nation-Building in Abkhazia 208
DONNACHA Ó BEACHÁIN
12 Health and Nation-Building in Russia 228
SAGLAR BOUGDAEVA
Conclusion: (Re)imagining or Imagined Nation-Building? 250
RICO ISAACS AND ABEL POLESE
Index 255
Figures
4.1 Levels of Russian reading and writing proficiency for
Tatar population 89
4.2 Levels of Russian reading and writing proficiency for
Russian population 90
4.3 Levels of Tatar proficiency for Tatar population 91
4.4 Levels of Tatar proficiency for Russian population 92
4.5 Levels of Tatar proficiency of Russian high scorers 93
4.6 Levels of Tatar proficiency of Tatar high scorers 94
12.1 Mortality in Russia 1805–1999 241
Tables
I.1 The major actors and their potential role in a
nation-building process 12
I.2 Matrix of nation-building tools and case studies 13
11.1 Ethnicity of population in Abkhazia 217
11.2 Ethnicity of candidates in 2007 and 2012 elections to
the People’s Assembly of Abkhazia 221
11.3 Ethnicity of MPs in 2007 and 2012 elections to the
People’s Assembly of Abkhazia 222
12.1 Life expectancy at birth and mortality per 1000 population
by ethno-religion in the European part of Russia,
in the late 1800s 238
12.2 Mortality per 1000 population by age, gender, and
religion in European Russia, 1897 239
12.3 Mortality per 1000 population in Muslim and Christian
regions in European Russia, 1897 240
12.4 All-age and infant mortality per 1000 population by
ethnicity in Russia in the late 1800s and 1927 242
12.5 Infant mortality per 1000 population by ethnicity in
European Russia in the late 1800s-1988 243
12.6 Mortality rate per 1000 population in four group
categories, 1970–89 243
12.7 Standardized mortality by ethnicity and gender in 1988 245
12.8 Life expectancy at birth (LE) in 1978 and probability of
dying (PD) per 1000 people at age 0–14 and 15–59
by ethnicity and gender in 1988 245
12.9 Men’s and women’s age-adjusted mortality per
1000 population in four group categories, 1994–2004 245
Contributors
Saglar Bougdaeva is an Associate of the UCLA Center for European and Eura-
sian Studies who has presented and written her research on public health issues
having to do with postcolonial studies in the Soviet and post-Soviet regions;
race and ethnicity; and the demography of the Muslim populations in Eurasia
and the Arabian peninsula. Saglar developed her multidisciplinary training first
at Saint Petersburg State University Faculty of Asian and African Studies, and
subsequently at Yale University (MPH 2005 in Global Health Policy and PhD
2010 in Sociology), and New York University – Abu Dhabi (Visiting Assistant
Professor of Social Research and Public Policy 2010–2013). Saglar’s global
health initiatives were supported by a Weinerman Fellowship for Social Justice
(Yale Public Health School) and a Kirby Simon Fellowship for International
Human Rights (Yale Law School).
Didem Buhari-Gulmez is a Lecturer in International Relations at Istanbul Kemer-
burgaz University. Previously she was a post-doctoral research fellow at the
European Institute of the London School of Economics and Political Science
and an Early Career research fellow at Oxford Brookes University. Her pub-
lications include amongst others: European Multiplicity (co-editor with Chris
Rumford, Cambridge Scholars Press, 2014); ‘Europeanization of Foreign
Policy and World Culture: Turkey’s Cyprus Policy’, Southeast European and
Black Sea Studies 12(1), 81–95, 2012; and ‘Stanford School on Sociological
Institutionalism: a Global Cultural Approach’, International Political Sociol-
ogy 4(3), 253–70, 2010. Her current projects include Global Culture: Con-
sciousness and Connectivity, (co-editor with Roland Robertson, Ashgate) and
the special issue ‘Europe and World Society’ (co-editor with Chris Rumford,
Journal of Contemporary European Studies).
Yves-Marie Davenel holds a PhD in Social Anthropology from the EHESS,
Paris. After conducting studies on interethnic issues, citizenship, and cultural
revival in contemporary Kazakhstan, he is currently working on digital issues
and e-inclusion for the NGO Emmaus Connect. In 2013, he published Renou-
veau culturel et gestion de la diversité nationale au Kazakhstan. Les associa-
tions culturelles tatares (Petra Editions).
