title: Ethnic Disintegration and the Dissolution of the USSR
metadata.name: dc.contributor.author
metadata.value: Puchenkov, Alexander S.
metadata.lang: -
metadata.name: dc.date.accessioned
metadata.value: 2020-10-19T17:04:29Z
metadata.lang: -
metadata.name: dc.date.available
metadata.value: 2020-10-19T17:04:29Z
metadata.lang: -
metadata.name: dc.date.issued
metadata.value: 2020-09
metadata.lang: -
metadata.name: dc.identifier.citation
metadata.value: Puchenkov A. S. Ethnic Disintegration and the Dissolution of the USSR. Vestnik of Saint Petersburg University. History, 2020, vol. 65, issue 3, рp. 826–841.
metadata.lang: en_GB
metadata.name: dc.identifier.other
metadata.value: https://doi.org/10.21638/11701/spbu02.2020.308
metadata.lang: -
metadata.name: dc.identifier.uri
metadata.value: http://hdl.handle.net/11701/19927
metadata.lang: -
metadata.name: dc.description.abstract
metadata.value: An immense role in the collapse of the USSR was played by a whole array of factors: the public
  being tired of the Communist project; the massive shortages of consumer goods, which made
  people hate the government; the growing opposition within the Communist party to Gorbachev’s reforms; the hesitation of the General Secretary who tried to rely in turn either on
  the right or on the left wing; the drastic fall in the living standards. The crucial role, however,
  was played by “the parade of sovereignties” and the Centre being too late in its attempts to
  address the national question. By the autumn of 1990, the President’s close associates started
  to sense that power was slipping from Gorbachev’s hands; with the fellow countrymen staying
  remarkably indifferent, the Soviet Union was heading towards dissolution as the ambitions of
  local party leaders in the constituent republics generated and cannily magnified nationalist
  and separatist trends. Gorbachev kept up his maneuver strategy, which put him on the verge
  of resignation in the spring of 1991 when his support was minimal. He seemed, though, to
  have managed to pull out of this dive thanks to the Soviet Union referendum held on March
  17, in which the voters were asked if they considered the preservation of the USSR necessary.
  Eventually, however, the issue of preserving or not preserving a unified state depended directly on the position of Russia as the backbone of the Soviet Union. The study draws on the
  author’s personal archive of original testimonies and interviews of the political figures directly
  involved in the events in question.
metadata.lang: en_GB
metadata.name: dc.description.sponsorship
metadata.value: This research was supported by grant No. 15-18-00119  from The Russian Science Foundation
  “Historical Experience of Management of Ethnic Diversity and Ethnic and Confessional Conflicts in
  Imperial, Soviet and Post-Soviet Russia: Interdisciplinary Research”.
metadata.lang: en_GB
metadata.name: dc.language.iso
metadata.value: en
metadata.lang: en_GB
metadata.name: dc.publisher
metadata.value: St Petersburg State University
metadata.lang: en_GB
metadata.name: dc.relation.ispartofseries
metadata.value: Vestnik of St Petersburg University. History;Volume 65; Issue 3
metadata.lang: -
metadata.name: dc.subject
metadata.value: M. S.Gorbachev
metadata.lang: en_GB
metadata.name: dc.subject
metadata.value: USSR
metadata.lang: en_GB
metadata.name: dc.subject
metadata.value: national question
metadata.lang: en_GB
metadata.name: dc.subject
metadata.value: disintegration
metadata.lang: en_GB
metadata.name: dc.title
metadata.value: Ethnic Disintegration and the Dissolution of the USSR
metadata.lang: en_GB
metadata.name: dc.type
metadata.value: Article
metadata.lang: en_GB
resources.filename: 826-841.pdf
resources.url: https://dspace.spbu.ru/bitstream/11701/19927/1/826-841.pdf
resources.format: Adobe PDF
resources.size: 669,92 kB