Dissolution

In December 1991, the Soviet Union passed into history as a legal entity, breaking apart into 15 successor states. This clear and convincing book explains why. It emphasizes the critical role of Soviet ethno-federalism, as well as the normative claims and legitimizing myths of Soviet nationality policy. Institutional constraints and legitimizing myths, Walker argues, empowered the anti-union opposition even in republics where it had limited popular support. He also shows how they helped bring about an outcome the full dissolution of the USSR that surprisingly few desired.

Foreign Affairs

Stop for a moment and ask not simply why the Soviet Union broke up, but why it fractured into 15 pieces, rather than many more, corresponding, say, to the country's vast number of ethnic, or religious, or linguistic groups. Walker's answer relies on the concept of sovereignty, and specifically on the peculiar institutional and normative force flowing from "ethnic federalism." He reminds the reader with skillfully reconstructed detail of the intricate and delicate emendations of "sovereignty" already under way in Moscow and the republics before the collapse. He also notes that the only postsocialist regimes to come apart at the seams were "ethnic federations" — the Soviet Union, Czechoslovakia, and Yugoslavia. Walker is not suggesting that federalism caused the collapse of the Soviet Union; only that it provided leverage for those who wanted independence, a "supply-source" of independence for those who did not, and a framework within which the outside world could manage the unexpected.