Until recently, most people thought of the Soviet Union as a powerful, stable and highly centralized state. Since 1988, however, several thousand people have been killed in inter-ethnic clashes, and many of its large and small nationalities have recently obtained autonomy and independence. This volume analyses recent political and social trends among a broad range of formerly Soviet ethnic groups. It attempts to discover the demographic, cultural, political, and economic sources of contemporary ethnic discontents and to examine their social and political expressions. The authors, all distinguished specialists, analyze some of the larger groups of peoples in the former USSR, such as Ukrainians, as well as the less well-known smaller peoples, such as Koreans and Karelians. The complex nationality struggles in the Caucasus area and in Central Asia are also subjected to penetrating scrutiny by leading scholars. Several authors attempt an assessment of the future prospects of the post-Soviet states and weigh alternatives for the reconstitution or further disintegration of the former USSR. Authors from Europe, North America and Israel are represented in this study of ethnicity and politics in the 1990s.