Comment on Prazauskas, Tishkov, and Yamskov

Three important myths about Soviet nationality policy have been exploded since 1988. Most Soviet scholars and Western scholars admit that, contrary to Marxist-Leninist postulates, ethnic consciousness does not necessarily decline as society moves toward modernization or "socialism." In recent years in the U.S.S.R. ethnic consciousness has greatly expanded or surfaced. Second, the assertion that "druzhba narodov" (friendship of the peoples) is characteristic of Soviet society is belied by the death of over a thousand people in inter-ethnic clashes, the wounding of more than 8,000, and the displacement of about a half-million others as a result of clashes in the Caucasus and Central Asia. The third myth is that of an "unshakeable union of free republics," exploded by declarations of sovereignty and independence by almost all republics. Soviet analysts and even politicians have had to admit that the cliches about the Soviet multiethnic society being of a "wholly different kind" and the emergence of a "Soviet nation" were exercises in self-deception and propaganda. As is so often the case in the age of glasnost', past falsifications are overcompensated for by sometimes excessive breast-beating and self-criticism. Thus, the articles by Prazauskas, Tishkov, and Yamskov are to be welcomed for their critical but balanced assessments and for their attention to the facts.