Book Review: Morison, Ethnic and National Issues in Russian and East

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Book Review: Morison, Ethnic and National Issues in Russian and East
European History, reviewed by Dragos Petrescu


[balkans] Book Review: Morison, Ethnic and National Issues in Russian
and East European History, reviewed by Dragos Petrescu

Balkan Academic News Book Review 10/2002


John Morison (ed.), Ethnic and National Issues in Russian and East
European History: Selected Papers from the Fifth World Congress of
Central and East European Studies, Warsaw, 1995. London: Macmillan,
2000, 337 pp., ISBN 0-333-69550-X, 50 GBP (hardcover).

Reviewed by Dragos Petrescu (Central European University, Budapest),
Email: [email protected]



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After the demise of communism in East-Central Europe and the Soviet
Union, the countries in the region entered a long and painful process
of political democratization. With regard to the inter-ethnic
relations and mutual perceptions, such a process of cultural-political
reorientation proved to be more difficult than it was thought.
Throughout the region, conflicting nation-building projects
(re)emerged and violent ethnic conflicts mushroomed during the first
post-communist decade, not to speak of prejudices, negative
stereotypes, and mutually exclusive narratives and historical myths
that have survived almost unaltered. As a consequence, nationalism and
ethnicity have received--both in the West and the East--an
unprecedented consideration and have become objects of sustained
academic inquiry.

The volume under review brings together papers presented at the Fifth
World Congress of Central and East European Studies, held in the week
6-11 August 1995, in Warsaw, Poland, with an introductory study by the
editor. The first thing to say about the present volume is that its
title is somehow misleading. Actually, the volume deals more with
ethnic and national issues in Russian history than with similar issues
in Eastern European history. Out of the eighteen papers selected for
this volume, only five focus on Eastern Europe: three on former
Czechoslovakia, one on Slovenia, and one on the Baltic countries. In
terms of the time span covered by the papers, it ranges from the late
19th century to the late 20th century (including the post-1989
period). 

Like many other volumes that originate in a conference, this volume
suffers from a lack of unity, not only with regard to the relevance of
the topics addressed, but also with regard to the periods and regions
covered. Nevertheless, the volume contains some interesting studies on
topics of wider interest. For instance, in his �The Imperial Mentality
and Psychology in the USSR and its Consequences� (pp. 230-59),
Vladimir P. Buldakov argues that contemporary Russia is confronted
with a �routine crisis associated with Empire� and proposes a
psychohistorical analysis of population�s perceptions of Russian
Empire as an �ideal concept.� Similarly, Liudmila Gatagova�s
contribution, �The Russian Empire and the Caucasus: The Genesis of
Ethnic Conflicts,� pp.10-28, focuses on the ethnic conflicts in an
ethnically diverse and deeply troubled region, the Caucasus. Although
it focuses on the period 1864-1917, Gatagova�s study helps one
understand why the Caucasus has remained a region ravaged by ethnic
conflicts. Other contributors, however, have concentrated on very
narrow topics, such as the story of the Dagestani mountaineers� exile
to the Saratov province following the 1877 rebellion in the north
Caucasus (see Austin Lee Jersild, �Imperial Russification: Dagestani
Mountain Dwellers in Russian Exile, 1877-83,� pp. 29-45) or Mirsaid
Khadiargalievich Sultangaliev�s thought and revolutionary activity
(see Azade-Ayse Rorlich, �Sultangaliev and Islam,� pp. 64-73). In a
similar vein, Peter R. Weisensel addresses the issue of Russian-Muslim
inter-ethnic relations and Russians� image of Central Asia in his
�Russian-Muslim Inter-Ethnic Relations in Russian Turkestan in the
Last Years of the Empire,� pp. 46-63.

The reader may also find interesting contributions on the relations
between Russia and Finland (see Kristiina Kalleinen, �The Nature of
Russian Imperialism in Finland during the First Half of the Nineteenth
Century,� pp. 86-102, and Antti Kujala, �Finland and the Russian
Revolution of 1905: Administrative Integration of Finnish Parties,
1899-1905,� pp. 103-120), as well as an article on the Finns in Soviet
Karelia (see Auvo Kostiainen, �The Finns of Soviet Karelia as a Target
of Stalin�s Terror,� pp. 214-29). 

The volume ends with four studies on Central Europe (three on the
Czech lands and one on Slovenia). Minton F. Goldman�s �Roots and
Causes of the Division of Czechoslovakia� (pp. 296-322) concentrates
on the failure of post-communist Czechoslovakia�s political system to
reconcile the conflicting Czech and Slovak nation-building projects.
Claire E. Nolte�s study, �Politics on Parallel Bars: Gymnastic Clubs
in the Czech Lands to 1914� (pp. 260-78), which discusses the
relationship between gymnastic activity and ethnic exclusion policies
in the Czechs lands by 1914, is also interesting. In the Czech lands,
the author argues, mid-century elites� strategy was to create clubs
and organizations to enroll masses in the national cause, and they
found gymnastics �especially appropriate� for such a task. In her
study, �Reconstruction of the Other: Continuity and Change in
Czech-Sudeten German Relations since the �Velvet Revolution�� (pp.
279-95), Nancy M. Wingfield focuses on the complex debate concerning
the expulsion of the Sudeten Germans from postwar Czechoslovakia,
which has affected to this day the relations between the Czech
Republic and Germany. Nevertheless, with regard to the selection of
the papers dealing with Eastern Europe, one cannot avoid some basic
questions. For instance, one can wonder if there were no serious
papers on Poland (after all, the conference was held in Warsaw) or
Hungary--which, with regard to issues of nationalism and ethnicity,
constitute much more interesting case studies than Slovenia--worth
including in the book.
Similarly, one can ask if there were no papers on Southeast European
countries such as Bulgaria, Romania or Serbia, relevant enough to be
published in a volume dealing with Eastern Europe. To conclude,
although it contains some interesting and well-researched studies,
this volume remains just another collection of papers presented to a
large international conference. 



This an earlier book reviews are available at: www.seep.ceu.hu/balkans



� 2002 Balkan Academic News. This review may be distributed and
reproduced electronically, if credit is given to Balkan Academic News
and the author.For permission for re-printing, contact Balkan Academic
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