Galina M. Yemelianova

Kinship, ethnicity and religion in post-Communist societies

Among the consequences of perestroika and the subsequent breakup of the Soviet Union in 1991 has been the rise of ethnic nationalism. In the non-Russian parts of the former USSR this process has been accompanied by the reactivation of clan and other primordial social networks which under Soviet Communism had been in abeyance. This article, based on extensive field research material, examines political and social transformation in post-Communist Kabardino-Balkariya, a Russian Muslim autonomy in the North Caucasus. In particular, it analyses the nature of the nation-building policies of the ruling regime, and its relationship with the clan system. It is also concerned with Islamic revival and Islamic radicalism in the region and their correlation with the Islam-related republican and wider federal policies. The article reveals some grey areas in the current academic debate on ethnicity and nationalism and injects more conceptual syncretism into the study of post-Communist societies.

Islam, nationalism and state in the Muslim Caucasus

Following the break-up of the USSR in 1991 the Muslim peoples of the Caucasus –corresponding to present-day Azerbaijan and the Russian North Caucasus – have been in a continuous process of renegotiating their Islamic identity and the role of Islam in the processes of nation-building. This has involved a complex set of factors, including the correlation between the rise of Islam and socio-economic well-being (or the lack of it), the level and longevity of Islamic heritage, the relationship between Islam and the nature of the ruling post-Soviet Caucasian regimes, and the degree of susceptibility to the region’s exposure to foreign influences, Islamic and Western. This article examines some of these factors from an historical perspective, concentrating on how the political elites and the populace variously dealt with essentially external influences in the course of their centuries-long incorporation within successive political empires. From the seventh century AD these were Islamic, emanating from the Umayyad, Abbasid, Timurid, Ottoman and Safavid empires; and from the nineteenth century, Russian Orthodox and Soviet atheist. An analysis of the dynamics set up by these influences and the distinctively Caucasian Muslim responses to them is crucial in understanding how current elites and their antagonists in the region embrace, reject and otherwise instrumentalise Islam.

Islam, national identity and politics in contemporary Kazakhstan

This article argues that, unlike other Central Asian states, the official response in Kazakhstan to its Islamic revival is distinctively ambivalent and even contradictory. The Nazarbayev government has rhetorically embraced the Kazakh qoja-centred Sufi heritage and the Hanafi school of Sunni Islam as the ‘traditional’ forms of Islam among Kazakh nomads and perceived them as constituent elements of the nation-building process. However, the representatives of the political elite have in reality unknowingly absorbed much of ‘untraditional’ Salafi Islam and ignored, marginalised or even suppressed the revival of Kazakh Sufism. This is in part because of their limited knowledge of the indigenous Kazakh Islamic tradition and in part due to the younger generation’s greater exposure to a range of Salafi-dominated influences emanating from abroad. The article begins with a brief historical perspective on the relationship between qoja-centred Sufism and ‘Kazakh-ness’ which is essential for establishing an analysis of the fissures in the current religious and political ideology pertaining to Kazakh nation-building.

When the West Meets the East: Exploring Ethnic Diversity in Eastern Europe

This articles analyses the factors shapping nationalism in Eastern Europe with a particular attention to the post-Soviet states.This is an introductory article for a special issue of the Nationalities Paper, which consists of six academic papers, which were delivered by the RIME project (2003-06) run by the University of Birmingham and then Warwick, UK.All the contributions aim to establish what role, if any, western concepts of multiculturalism, minority rights, discrimination and, where appropriate, xenophobia and racism play in shaping domestic discourses and policy making in the countries concerned. The effects of the transposition of Western concepts are assessed against the background of inter-ethnic relations and state policies on ethnic relations.

Western academic discourse on the post-Soviet de facto state phenomenon

This article examines how the so-called post-Soviet de facto states are conceptualized and discussed within the wider context of Western English-language social and political sciences, including inter-disciplinary Russian, Slavonic, East European and Eurasian area studies. It outlines the main theoretical models and methodologies utilized in the analysis of this phenomenon, and identifies their respective benefits and shortcomings. The article posits that there is considerable unevenness between various theoretical paradigms in terms of their explanatory clarity and their relationship with empirical reality. I argue that Western academic discourse on the post-Soviet de facto states, and on post-Soviet politics more generally, has been increasingly shaped by mono-theoretical determinist models with heavy reliance on deductive quantitative research methods and secondary sources in English language and non-academic analytical reports. A corollary has been a considerable deterioration in the epistemological quality of the discourse on de facto states, and on occasion its politicization.

Political Islam in Central Asia: The Challenge of Hizb ut-Tahrir

bribery and argues that ‘at the university level, students often have to pay both to get admitted and to graduate’ (257). However, this claim disregards the role of the State Student Admissions Committee which enables thousands of students to be admitted to universities based on their knowledge and merit each year. Likewise, while discussing the historic role of different dynasties and states in the modification of Azerbaijani identity, Cornell argues that many poets and writers of Azerbaijan tend to write in Persian while being of Turkic origin (259–60). However, not all the authors who were of Turkic origin preferred Persian to Turkish and those who did were constrained by the political requirements of the periods in which they lived. Cornell’s present study sheds light even on some marginal issues in Azerbaijani society such as the lack of awareness in the Azerbaijani population of the distinction between being Shias or Sunnis or the on-going effective curfew set on Azeri women by conservative family norms that rarely attract analysis. An even more noteworthy aspect is that while discussing these issues Cornell relies on his own observations. The book’s shortcomings, however, do not undermine its importance for understanding Azerbaijan’s history since 1991. The book provides valuable and useful insights for scholars and students of both international affairs and the Republic’s domestic, political and social change. The smooth and fluid language of the book, plus its logical subdivisions make the study easy to read. Svante Cornell’s present book is thus a significant contribution to the study of Azerbaijani history since its independence.