Notes

• The astonishing disintegration of the U.S.S.R. has left a massive intellectual void, as scholars and journalists scramble to make sense of events transpiring at a dizzying pace. Into this vacuum steps The Post-Soviet Nations, which casts new and desperately needed light on a region that is certain to remain volatile. With the breakup of the Soviet Union and the subsequent creation of the Commonwealth of Independent States, the nationality question has assumed central importance, in this collection of essays, twelve leading specialists approach the current situation with contributions that are at once historical, reflective and topical. The reforms of Mikhail Gorbachev, notes the preface, "transformed, if not indeed destroyed, the Soviet totalitarian state. In so doing, they also destroyed traditional Sovietology. The Post- Soviet Nations aims to revitalize and reconsider Sovietology by integrating nationality concerns into its intellectual agenda, thereby transforming a scholarly field that has largely ignored "non-Russians" in its fascination and overriding concern with Russia. The noted scholar Alexander Motyl has assembled some of the most respected Sovietologists to examine a wide range of topics such as ideology, law, the elite, legitimacy, the police state, class, development and modernization, and their relationship to issues of nationality and ethnicity in the former Soviet Union