* The research for this paper was supported by a fellowship for East European Studies from the American Council of Learned Societies, a fellowship from the Institute for the Study of World Politics, and the Division of Research at Harvard Business School. For comments on successive versions of these arguments, I am grateful to Valerie Bunce, Matthew Evangelista, Peter Katzenstein, Jonathan Kirshner, Adam Segal, and Kathryn Stoner-Weiss.Google Scholar

1. For several thoughtful, historically informed typologies of post-Soviet national identities, see Armstrong, John A., “The Ethnic Scene in the Soviet Union,” in Erich Goldhagen, ed., Ethnic Minorities in the Soviet Union (New York: Praeger, 1968), pp. 3–49; David D. Laitin, Identity in Formation: The Russian-Speaking Populations in the Near Abroad (Ithaca, NY: Cornell University Press, 1998); and Ronald Grigor Suny, “Provisional Stabilities: The Politics of Identities in Post-Soviet Eurasia,” International Security, Vol. 24, No. 3, 1999–2000, pp. 139–178.Google Scholar

2. Armenia could be included in this group as well, the main difference being the relative lack of anti-Russian content in Armenian national identity.Google Scholar

3. For an explanation of patterns of economic relations among post-Soviet states based on national identity, see Abdelal, Rawi, National Purpose in the World Economy: Post-Soviet States in Comparative Perspective (Ithaca, NY: Cornell University Press, 2001).Google Scholar

4. See, for example, Donskis, Leonidas, “Between Identity and Freedom: Mapping Nationalism in Twentieth-Century Lithuania,” East European Politics and Societies, Vol. 13, No. 3, 1999, pp. 474–500.CrossRefGoogle Scholar

5. Suny, Ronald Grigor, The Revenge of the Past: Nationalism, Revolution, and the Collapse of the Soviet Union (Stanford: Stanford University Press, 1993), pp. 30, 35–38. See also Miroslav Hroch, Social Preconditions of a National Revival in Europe, trans. Ben Fowkes (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1985), Chapter 12; and Alfred Erich Senn, The Emergence of Modern Lithuania (New York: Columbia University Press, 1959), Chapter 1.Google Scholar

6. Suny, Revenge of the Past, p. 37.Google Scholar

7. See especially Page, Stanley W., The Formation of the Baltic States: A Study of the Effects of Great Power Politics upon the Emergence of Lithuania, Latvia, and Estonia (Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press, 1959); Hiden, John, The Baltic States and Weimar Ostpolitik (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1987); and Hiden, “From War to Peace: Britain, Germany, and the Baltic States, 1918–1921,” Journal of Baltic Studies, Vol. 19, No. 4, 1988, pp. 371–382.CrossRefGoogle Scholar

8. Senn, The Emergence of Modern Lithuania, p. 231, and Chapter 10 more generally.Google Scholar

9. See Lieven, Anatol, The Baltic Revolution: Estonia, Latvia, Lithuania, and the Path to Independence (New Haven: Yale University Press, 1993), Chapter 3; Edvardas Tuskenis, ed., Lithuania in European Politics: The Years of the First Republic, 1918–1940 (New York: St Martin's Press, 1997); Georg von Rauch, The Baltic States: Years of Dependence, trans. Gerald Onn (Berkeley: University of California Press, 1974); V. Stanley Vardys and Romuald J. Misiunas, eds, The Baltic States in Peace and War, 1917–1945 (University Park: Pennsylvania State University Press, 1978); and Nicholas Hope, “Interwar Statehood: Symbol and Reality,” in Graham Smith, ed., The Baltic States: The National Self-Determination of Estonia, Latvia, and Lithuania (New York: St Martin's Press, 1994), pp. 41–68.Google Scholar

10. Senn, “Introduction,” in Tuskenis, Lithuania in European Politics, p. 1.Google Scholar

11. Sabaliunas, Leonas, Lithuania in Crisis: Nationalism to Communism, 1939–1940 (Princeton: Princeton University Press, 1981); and Crowe, David M., The Baltic States and the Great Powers: Foreign Relations, 1938–1940 (Boulder: Westview, 1993).Google Scholar

12. See Vardys, V. Stanley, “Sajudis: National Revolution in Lithuania,” in Jan Arveds Trapans, ed., Toward Independence: The Baltic Popular Movements (Boulder: Westview, 1995), pp. 11–23; and Nils R. Muiznieks, “The Influence of the Baltic Popular Movements on the Process of Soviet Disintegration,” Europe–Asia Studies, Vol. 47, No. 1, 1995, pp. 3–25.Google Scholar

13. Quoted in Vardys, V. Stanley, “Lithuanian National Politics,” Problems of Communism, Vol. 39, No. 4, 1989, p. 65.Google Scholar

14. Quoted in Senn, Lithuania Awakening, p. 222.Google Scholar

15. Senn, , Lithuania Awakening, pp. 14, 70, 254. Also see V. Stanley Vardys and Judith B. Sedaitis, Lithuania: The Rebel Nation (Boulder: Westview, 1997), pp. 149–152.Google Scholar

16. A few Soviet loyalists retained the CPL name for their organization until the party was banned in August 1991.Google Scholar

17. Matulionis, Arvydas, “Nationalism and the Process of State-Building in Lithuania,” Sisyphus, Vol. 8, No. 2, 1994, pp. 121–124. See also Terry Clark, “Nationalism in Independent Lithuania,” unpublished ms., Creighton University, 2000.Google Scholar

18. Author's interviews, Homeland Union, Vilnius, July 1998.Google Scholar

19. Author's interview, Homeland Union, July 1998. Also see Clark, “Nationalism in Independent Lithuania.” On Baltic nationalists’ pro-EU orientation in general, see Lofgren, Joan, “A Different Kind of Union,” Transitions, Vol. 4, No. 6, 1997, pp. 47–52.Google Scholar

20. The 1992 constitution created the presidency.Google Scholar

21. See Senn, Alfred Erich, “Post-Soviet Political Leadership in Lithuania,” in Colton, Timothy J. and Tucker, Robert C., eds, Patterns of Post-Soviet Leadership (Boulder: Westview, 1995), pp. 123–140; Terry Clark, “The Lithuanian Political Party System: A Case Study of Democratic Consolidation,” East European Politics and Societies, Vol. 9, No. 1, 1995, pp. 41–62; and Clark, Stacy J. Holscher, and Lisa Hyland, “The LDLP Faction in the Lithuanian Seimas, 1992–1996,” Nationalities Papers, Vol. 27, No. 2, 1999, pp. 227–246.Google Scholar

22. Quoted in Tarmu Tammerk, “Brazauskas Storms into Office,” Baltic Independent, 19–25 February 1993.Google Scholar

23. See, for example, Senn, Alfred Erich, “The Political Culture of Independent Lithuania: A Review Essay,” Journal of Baltic Studies, Vol. 23, No. 2, 1992, pp. 307–316. On the ideology of Lithuania's Communist Party during the Soviet period and the tradition of “national communism,” see Christophe, Barbara, Staat versus Identität: Zur Konstruktion von “Nation” und “nationalen Interesse” in den litauischen Transformationdiskursen 1987 bis 1995 (Cologne: Verlag Wissenschaft und Politik, 1997).Google Scholar

24. See LDDP, “Platform of the Lithuanian Democratic Labor Party for the Parliamentary Elections,” Tiesa, 7 October 1992, in FBIS-USR-92-149, 20 November 1992, pp. 96–103, especially pp. 102–103; and Ashbourne, Alexandra, Lithuania: The Rebirth of a Nation, 1991–1994 (Lanham, MD: Lexington, 1999), pp. 40–41. Also see Edward Tuskenis, “Brazauskas Returns,” Baltic Independent, 30 October 1992; Tuskenis, “Sajudis Faces Clouded Future,” Baltic Independent, 6 November 1992; Edward Lucas, “Sajudis Last Stand Ends in Defeat,” Baltic Independent, 20 November 1992; Lucas, “LDDP Coasts to Easy Victory,” Baltic Independent, 20 November 1992; and Lucas, “Brazauskas Takes Power,” Baltic Independent, 27 November 1992.Google Scholar

25. Author's interview, LDDP, Vilnius, August 1998.Google Scholar

26. For a recent review of Ukrainian history and historiography, see Hagen, Mark von, “Does Ukraine Have a History?” Slavic Review, Vol. 54, No. 3, 1995, pp. 658–673.CrossRefGoogle Scholar

27. See Szporluk, Roman, “Ukraine: From an Imperial Periphery to a Sovereign State,” Daedalus, Vol. 126, No. 3, 1997, pp. 85–119. Also see Orest Subtelny, Ukraine: A History, 2nd edn (Toronto: University of Toronto Press, Canadian Institute of Ukrainian Studies, 1994), Chapters 12, 13, and 17; and Magocsi, Paul Robert, A History of Ukraine (Seattle: University of Washington Press, 1996), Chapters 28 and 29.Google Scholar

28. See Subtelny, Ukraine: A History, Chapters 13 and 14, especially pp. 241–242. Also see Ivan L. Rudnytsky, “The Ukrainians in Galicia under Austrian Rule,” in Markovits, Andrei S. and Sysyn, Frank E., eds, Nation-Building and the Politics of Nationalism: Essays on Austrian Galicia (Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press, for Harvard Ukrainian Research Institute, 1982), pp. 23–67; and Paul Robert Magocsi, “The Ukrainians of Galicia under Habsburg and Soviet Rule,” in Richard L. Rudolph and David F. Good, eds, Nationalism and Empire: The Habsburg Monarchy and the Soviet Union (New York: St Martin's Press, 1992), pp. 95–107.Google Scholar

29. Suny, Revenge of the Past, p. 43.Google Scholar

30. See Seton-Watson, Hugh, Nations and States: An Enquiry into the Origins of Nations and the Politics of Nationalism (Boulder: Westview, 1977), pp. 187–188.Google Scholar

31. Szporluk, Roman, “The Soviet West—or Far Eastern Europe?” East European Politics and Societies, Vol. 5, No. 3, 1991, pp. 466–482.Google Scholar

32. See Bilinsky, Yaroslav, “The Incorporation of Western Ukraine and Its Impact on the Politics and Society of Soviet Ukraine,” in Roman Szporluk, ed., The Influence of East Europe and the Soviet West on the USSR (New York: Praeger, 1975), pp. 180–228; Ivan L. Rudnytsky, “Soviet Ukraine in Historical Perspective,” in Peter L. Rudnytsky, ed., Essays in Modern Ukrainian History (Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press, 1987), pp. 463–475; and Subtelny, Ukraine: A History, pp. 486–492.Google Scholar

33. Szporluk, Roman, “West Ukraine and West Belorussia: Historical Tradition, Social Communication, and Linguistic Assimilation,” Soviet Studies, Vol. 31, No. 1, 1979, pp. 76–98. See also Taras Kuzio and Marc Nordberg, “Nation and State Building, Historical Legacies, and National Identities in Belarus and Ukraine: A Comparative Analysis,” Canadian Review of Studies in Nationalism, Vol. 26, Nos 1–2, 1999, pp. 69–90.CrossRefGoogle Scholar

34. Subtelny, Ukraine: A History, p. 576.Google Scholar

35. Alexander Motyl and Bohdan Krawchenko, “Ukraine: From Empire to Statehood,” in New States, New Politics: Building the Post-Soviet Nations, Ian Bremmer and Ray Taras, eds, (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1997), pp. 251–252.Google Scholar

36. See The Popular Movement of Ukraine for Restructuring “Rukh”: Program and Charter (Baltimore: Smoloskyp, for the Ukrainian National Association, [1989] 1990), especially p. 11; and Lozowy, Ivan, The Popular Movement of Ukraine “Rukh” 1994: Statehood, Democracy, Reforms (Kyiv: International Relations Secretariat, Popular Movement of Ukraine Rukh, 1994), especially pp. 21–22.Google Scholar

37. Armstrong, John A., Ukrainian Nationalism, 1939–1945 (New York: Columbia University Press, 1955), Chapter 1.Google Scholar

38. D'Anieri, Paul, “Nationalism and International Politics,” Nationalism and Ethnic Politics, Vol. 3, No. 2, 1997, pp. 1–28. See also Zenon Kohut, “History as Battleground: Russian–Ukrainian Relations and Historical Consciousness in Contemporary Ukraine,” in Starr, S. Frederick, ed., The Legacy of History in Russia and the New States of Eurasia (Armonk, NY and London: M. E. Sharpe, 1994), pp. 123–146; and Andrew Wilson, “Myths of National History in Belarus and Ukraine,” in Geoffrey Hosking and George Schöpflin, eds, Myths and Nationhood (London: Hurst, 1997), p. 187.Google Scholar

39. Author's interview, Rukh, Kyiv, July 1998. See also the election platforms of several nationalist parties and coalitions that conflict on many dimensions but share several fundamental interpretations of Russia and international economic relations: Rukh, New Way for Ukraine (Kyiv, 1998); Ukrainian National Assembly, Economic Program of UNA (Kyiv, 1998); and the coalition of the Congress of Ukrainian Nationalists, Ukrainian Conservative Republican Party, and Ukrainian Republican Party, the National Front, Ukraine Needs Ukrainian Power! (Kyiv, 1998).Google Scholar

40. Wilson, Andrew, Ukrainian Nationalism in the 1990s (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1997), p. 173. Some radical nationalists, including the Ukrainian National Assembly, argued that Kyiv should be the center of a new East Slavic empire, rather than integrating into Europe.Google Scholar

41. See especially Kuzio, , Ukraine: State and Nation Building (London and New York: Routledge, 1998), pp. 152–160. See also Paul Kubicek, “Dynamics of Contemporary Ukrainian Nationalism: Empire Breaking to State-Building,” Canadian Review of Studies in Nationalism, Vol. 23, Nos 1–2, 1996, pp. 39–50.Google Scholar

42. See the discussion of the platforms of the Communist, Socialist, and Peasant Parties in Kuzio, Ukraine under Kuchma (New York: St Martin's Press, 1997), pp. 19–20; and Ilya Prizel, National Identity and Foreign Policy: Nationalism and Leadership in Poland, Russia, and Ukraine (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1998), pp. 367–368.Google Scholar

43. See Pirie, Paul S., “National Identity and Politics in Southern and Eastern Ukraine,” Europe–Asia Studies, Vol. 48, No. 7, 1996, pp. 1079–1104; and Kuzio, Ukraine: State and Nation Building, Chapter 7.CrossRefGoogle Scholar

44. For a closely related discussion, see Shulman, Stephen, “Competing versus Complementary Identities: Ukrainian–Russian Relations and the Loyalties of Russians in Ukraine,” Nationalities Papers, Vol. 26, No. 4, 1998, pp. 615–632.CrossRefGoogle Scholar

45. See Taras Kuzio, “National Identity in Independent Ukraine: An Identity in Transition,” Nationalism and Ethnic Politics, Vol. 2, No. 4, 1996, p. 599. Also see Roman Solchanyk, “The Post-Soviet Transition in Ukraine: Prospects for Stability,” in Kuzio, , ed., Contemporary Ukraine (Armonk, NY: M. E. Sharpe, 1998), pp. 30–31. This is true except for Crimea, which remains a significant exception to most generalizations about Ukraine. Crimea was settled primarily by Russians and was part of the Russian SSR from 1922 to 1953; it was transferred to the Ukrainian SSR in 1954. Explicit pro-Russianism and separatism do exist in Crimea.Google Scholar

46. Arel, Dominique, “Ukraine: The Temptation of the Nationalizing State,” in Vladimir Tismaneanu, ed., Political Culture and Civil Society in Russia and the New States of Eurasia (Armonk, NY: M. E. Sharpe, 1995), p. 179.Google Scholar

47. Subtelny, “Russocentrism, Regionalism, and the Political Culture of Ukraine,” in Tismaneanu, ed., Political Culture and Civil Society in Russia and the New States of Eurasia, p. 194. See also Burant, Stephen R., “Foreign Policy and National Identity: A Comparison of Ukraine and Belarus,” Europe–Asia Studies, Vol. 47, No. 7, 1995, pp. 1125–1144.CrossRefGoogle Scholar

48. Prizel, National Identity and Foreign Policy, p. 371.Google Scholar

49. See Steven L. Guthier, “The Belorussians: National Identification and Assimilation, 1897–1970,” Soviet Studies, Vol. 29, Nos 1–2, 1977, pp. 37–61, 270–283; Richard Pipes, The Formation of the Soviet Union: Communism and Nationalism, 1917—1923, rev. edn (Cambridge: Harvard University Press, 1964), pp. 11–12, 74–75, 150–154; and Suny, Revenge of the Past, p. 36.Google Scholar

50. Vakar, Nicholas P., Belorussia: The Making of a Nation (Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press, 1956), p. 105.CrossRefGoogle Scholar

51. See Vakar, Belorussia, Chapters 9–11.Google Scholar

52. See Szporluk, “West Ukraine and West Belorussia.”Google Scholar

53. See Zaprudnik, Jan, “Belorussian Reawakening,” Problems of Communism, Vol. 38, No. 4, 1989, pp. 36–52; and Ralph Clem, “Belarus and the Belarusians,” in Graham Smith, ed., The Nationalities Question in the Post-Soviet States, 2nd edn (London and New York: Longman, 1996), especially pp. 216–217. For a review of the first program of the BPF, see Grazhdanskie dvizheniia v Belorussii: dokumenty i materialy, 1986–1991 (Civic Movements in Belorussia: Documents and Materials, 1986–1991) (Moscow: TsIMO, 1991), especially pp. 119–156.Google Scholar

54. For recent reviews of the issue, see Marples, David R., Belarus: A Denationalized Nation (Amsterdam: Harwood, 1999); and Sherman W. Garnett and Robert Legvold, “Introduction: Assessing the Challenge of Belarus,” in Sherman W. Garnett and Robert Legvold, eds, Belarus at the Crossroads (Washington: Carnegie Endowment for International Peace, 1999), pp. 3–4.Google Scholar

55. Furman, Dmitri and Bukhovets, Oleg, “Belorusskoe samosoznanie i belorusskaia politika” (Belorussian Self-Awareness and Belorussian Politics), Svobodnaia mysl', No. 1, 1996, pp. 57–75, in Russian Politics and Law, Vol. 34, No. 6, 1996, pp. 5–29, at p. 14.Google Scholar

56. See Vakar, Belorussia, p. 105, and Chapters 7 and 8 more generally. For a contemporary discussion, see Petr Petrikov, “Byla li BNR gosudarstvom?” (Was the BNR a State?), Sovetskaia Belorussiia, 25 March 1993.Google Scholar

57. See Wilson, “Myths of National History in Belarus and Ukraine.”Google Scholar

58. See Beissinger, , “How Nationalisms Spread: Eastern Europe Adrift the Tides and Cycles of Nationalist Contention,” Social Research, Vol. 63, No. 1, 1996, pp. 97–146.Google Scholar

59. See the discussion of the BPF's platform in Art Turevich, “Elections in Byelorussia,” Byelorussian Review, Vol. 2, No. 1, 1990, pp. 5–8, especially p. 5. See also the BPF's first official economic program, “The Concept of Economic Reform in Belarus,” published in April 1992 and reprinted in Price, Joe, “Belarus's Program for Transition,” Belarusian Review, Vol. 4, No. 1, 1992, pp. 5–11.Google Scholar

60. See, for example, Mikhail Shimansky, “Oppozitsiia obviniaet pravitel'stvo v rasprodazhe Belarus” (Opposition Accuses Government of Selling off Belarus), Izvestiia, 14 April 1994.Google Scholar

61. See Wilson, “Myths of National History in Belarus and Ukraine.” See also Zenon Pazniak, “Al'ternativa vsegda sushchestvuet …” (Alternatives Always Exist …), Narodnaia gazeta, 23–30 October 1990; Turevich, Art, “Byelorussia: Its Government and the Opposition,” Byelorussian Review, Vol. 3, No. 1, 1991, pp. 10–13; and “Pazniak: The Opposition's Point,” Belarusian Review, Vol. 3, No. 4, 1992/1993, pp. 5–6.Google Scholar

62. Author's interview, Belarusian Popular Front, Minsk, July 1998. “In contrast to Belarusian officials,” Burant shows, “the nationalist opposition would like to secure a European identity for Belarus”; Burant, “Foreign Policy and National Identity,” p. 1134. See also “Belarus—To Europe! A Strategy of Defense of Independence,” in Documents of the Fifth Congress of the Belarusian Popular Front, Minsk, 20–21 June 1997.Google Scholar

63. Beissinger, “How Nationalisms Spread,” p. 124. Also see the discussion on pp. 122–123, where he finds, “But even when nationalisms do bark, it is far from certain that they will bite, and even if they do snap a bit, that the bite will find its intended target. Intellectuals who propagate nationalist ideas may indeed be in place; they may even attempt to mobilize populations in pursuit of nationalist aims. But whether their messages resonate within populations is another matter.” See also Beissinger's excellent survey of the issue, “Nationalisms that Bark and Nationalisms that Bite: Ernest Gellner and the Substantiation of Nations,” in Hall, John A., ed., The State of the Nation (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1998), pp. 169–190.CrossRefGoogle Scholar

64. See Furman and Bukhovets, “Belorusskoe samosoznanie” (Belorussian Self-Awareness), pp. 12–13; and Kathleen Mihalisko, “Political-Economic Assessments: Belarus,” in Kaufman, Richard F. and Hardt, John P., eds, The Former Soviet Union in Transition (Armonk, NY and London: M. E. Sharpe, 1993), p. 1005.Google Scholar

65. See Pazniak, Viacheslau, “Belarus's Foreign Policy Priorities and the Decision-Making Process,” in Dawisha, Adeed and Dawisha, Karen, eds, The Making of Foreign Policy in Russia and the New States of Eurasia (Armonk, NY and London: M. E. Sharpe, 1995), pp. 150–152; and Anatolii Rozanov, “Belarusian Perspectives on National Security and Belarusian Military Policy,” in Bruce Parrott, ed., State-Building and Military Power in Russia and the New States of Eurasia (Armonk, NY and London: M. E. Sharpe, 1995), pp. 196, 197, 203.Google Scholar

66. See Brubaker, Rogers, “Nationhood and the National Question in the Soviet Union and Post-Soviet Eurasia: An Institutionalist Account,” Theory and Society, Vol. 23, No. 1, 1994, pp. 47–78; Yuri Slezkine, “The USSR as a Communal Apartment, or How a Socialist State Promoted Ethnic Particularism,” Slavic Review, Vol. 53, No. 2, 1994, pp. 414–452. Also see Philip G. Roeder, “Soviet Federalism and Ethnic Mobilization,” World Politics, Vol. 43, No. 2, 1991, pp. 196–232.CrossRefGoogle Scholar

67. Keith Darden, “Literacy, Nationalization, and Political Choice: The Origins and Consequences of National Identities among the Post-Soviet States,” unpublished ms., Yale University, 2000, p. 1.Google Scholar

68. See Bunce, Valerie, Subversive Institutions: The Design and Destruction of Socialism and the State (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1999).CrossRefGoogle Scholar

69. Szporluk, “The Soviet West—or Far Eastern Europe?”Google Scholar

70. Gellner, Ernest, “Ethnicity and Faith in Eastern Europe,” Daedalus, Vol. 119, No. 1, 1990, pp. 279–294.Google Scholar

71. Quoted in Taras Kuzio, “The Sultan and the Hetman: Democracy-Building in Belarus and Ukraine in a Gray Security Zone,” presented at the conference on Democratic Consolidation in Eastern Europe, European University Institute, Florence, December 1997, p. 14. See also the discussion in Marples, David R., Belarus (New York: St Martin's Press, 1996), pp. 16–18; and Kuzio and Nordberg, “Nation and State Building, Historical Legacies, and National Identities in Belarus and Ukraine.”Google Scholar

72. Laitin, Identity in Formation, Chapter 3.Google Scholar

73. Ibid., p. 59.Google Scholar

74. Ibid., p. 65, footnote 13.Google Scholar

75. Darden, “Literacy, Nationalization, and Political Choice,” p. 2.Google Scholar