United Forever in Great Russia’s Embrace
I recently compiled a partial list of books about ethnonational minority histories within the Russian Federation.
For reasons I will be elaborating on soon, I’m shifting some of the focus of Secessio Populi in terms of how it defines wealthy countries. While this may or may not remain the case next year, Russia made the list based on the index I put together using data from January 2022. Subsequently, Separatist movements within the Russian Federation (as well as some other countries) will be within SP’s scope starting in July.
With the War in Ukraine — and subsequent sanctions — bringing several stateless nations to voice some dissent, I thought it might be time to post-up this list of books about stateless nations within Russia’s borders.
So, here it is.
General History
After the Soviet Union by Timothy Colton and Robert Levgold
An Ethnic History of Russia by Tatiana Mastyugina and Lev Perelkin
Autonomy, Sovereignty, and Self-Determination by Hurst Hannum
Ethnic Conflict in the Post-Soviet World: Case Studies and Analysis by Leokadia Drobizheva
Federalism and Nationalism: The Struggle for Republican Rights in the USSR by Gregory Gleason
From Privileged to Dispossessed: The Volga Germans by James W. Long
National Identity and Ethnicity in Russia and the New States of Eurasia by Roman Szporluk
The Great Challenge: Nationalities and the Bolshevik State 1917–1930 by Helene C. D’Encausse
Russian Colonial Expansion to 1917 by Michael Rywkin
Russian Empire, 1801–1917 by Hugh Seton-Watson
Self-Government and Freedom in Russia by Sergei Pushkarev
Soviet Karelia: Politics, Planning, and Terror in Stalin’s Russia, 1920–1939 by Nick Baron
The Cossacks by Shane O’Rourke
The Cossacks: their History and Country by William P. Cresson
The Finno-Ugric Republics and the Russian State by Rein Taagepera
The Peoples of the Soviet Union by Viktor Kozlov
The Peoples of the USSR. An Ethnographic Handbook by Ronald Waxman
The Punished Peoples by Alexander Nekrich
The Volga Germans: In Russia and the Americas 1763 to the PResent by Frederick C. Koch
The Volga Tatars: A Profile in National resilience by Azade-Ayse Rorlich
Tsar and Cossack: Eighteen Fifty-Five to Nineteen Fourteen by Robert H. McNeal
Caucuses
A Dirty War by Anna Politkovskaya
Allah’s Mountains by Sebastian Smith
Blowing up Russia by Alexander Litvinenko & Yuri Felshtinksy
Chechnya: Tombstone of Russian Power by Anatol Lieven
Chechnya: Calamity in the Caucusus by Carlotta Gall and Thomas de Waal
The Caucasus: An Introduction by Thomas de Waal
The Ghost of Freedom: A History of the Caucasus by Charles King
Dagestan: Tradition and Survival by Robert Chenciner
Engaging Eurasia’s Separatist States: Unresolved Conflicts and de Facto States by Doc Lynch
Highlanders: A Journey to the Caucasus in Quest of Memory by Yo’av Karny
Making of the Georgian Nation by Ronald Grigor Suny
Pride of Small Nations: The Caucasus and Post-Soviet Disorder by Suzanne Goldenberg
Russia Confronts Chechnya: Roots of a Separatist Conflict by John B. Dunlop
The Chechen Struggle: Independence Won and Lost by Ilyas Akhmado
The Transcaucasus in Transition: Nation-Building and Conflict by Shireen T. Hunter
Trouble in the Caucasus by Avtandil Menteshashvili
Volatile Borderland: Russia and the North Caucasus by Glen E. Howard
Siberia
Divided Twins: Alaska and Siberia by Yevgeny Yevtushenko
East of the Sun: The Epic Conquest and Tragic History of Siberia by Benson Broderick
What is Asia to Us? Russia’s Asian Heartland Yesterday and Today by Milan Hauner
Politics and Economics in the Russian Far East: Changing Ties with Asia-Pacific by Tsuneo Akaha
The Conquest of a Continent: Siberia and the Russians by W. Bruce Lincoln
The Great Siberian Migration by D. W. Threadgold
The Politics of Nationalism in the Republic of Sakha (Northeastern Siberia) by Tatiana Argounova-Low
The Russian Far East by John J. Stephen
The Soviet Far East and Central Asia by William Mandel
The Soviet Union and the Pacific by Gerald Segal
Yakutia: Before its Incorporation into the Russian State by Aleksei Okladinov and Henry Michael
History in Russian Periphery/Former Soviet Republics
Soviet Asian Ethnic Frontiers by Willian O. McCagg & Brian D. Silver
Soviet Federalism, Nationalism and Economic Decentralization by Alistair McAuley
The Hidden Nations: The People Challenge the Soviet Union by Nadia Diuk and Adrian Kararnycky
Baltics, Finland, and Kaliningrad
Estonia: Return to Independence by Rein Taagepara
Finland’s Relation with the Soviet Union 1944–84 by Roy Allison
Green Gold and Granite by Wendy Hall
The Baltic States: The National Self-Determination of Estonia, Latvia, and Lithuania by Graham Smith
The Origins of Prussia by Francis L. Carsten
This list is not exhaustive. It’s largely academic. Much of it is out of print.
There are probably better and more recent books on some of these topics, but it’s a decent place to start if you’re interested in digging into them. I’ll probably make an updated one in time.
I hope you enjoy it.
Originally published at https://davidnwaeze.substack.com on June 21, 2022.
