Diasporas are usually defined as ethnic groups which lack a territorial base within a given polity. Territoriality, however, is not a given. It is determined not only by such objective factors as geography, demography, and ...

In the communist period, the Soviet republics could be regarded as a kind of pseudo-states or proto-states, which had some of the trappings of true states, but lacked essential elements such as control of their own territory ...

With the sole exception of Russia, all successor states of the Soviet Union have been proclaimed as 'national states' or 'nation-states'. A period of intense nation-building has commenced. In order to keep a state together ...

The collapse of the unitary Soviet state has plunged its former citizens into a profound identity crisis. Particularly hard hit are the 25 million Russians living in the non-Russian successor states. Formerly members of ...