'Nation-Building in the post-Soviet Space

At a time when national identities may be seen as under threat from globalisation, transnationalism and the rise of radical religious ideologies, the statement above could sound somehow anachronistic. In many respects it reflects Ernst Gellner’s (1984) question on why people would be willing to die for people they never met, for ideals they do not necessarily share and, in general, for an idea that they would not necessarily understand. This question has yet to be answered and is unlikely to be ever addressed fully. It has prompted, nevertheless, scholars to produce an abundant amount of literature on national awakening and spreading of nationalist sentiments. Literature on nation-building in former Soviet spaces has been growing exponentially since the very early 1990s. There is possibly no better place in the world to test social constructivist paradigms, inter alia, in their various and diverse forms, looking at the way a nation, or the idea of a nation is imagined, created, developed and supported, or where theories are deconstructed and challenged regularly. It is difficult to deny the existence of a vast literature on nation-building in and on the region but this volume arises from a need that we have identified in the course of our work. Namely, whilst literature on nation building in post-Soviet spaces has remained constant in time, with works examining different aspects of identity construction in a number of countries, the lenses through which the phenomenon has been investigated have not accordingly evolved to take into account new and emerging phenomena in the region.