On the Question of Building State Capacity of Nationalism for Proclaiming a Post-Soviet Quasi-States
Abstract
Since the collapse of the Soviet Union, there are five (six) internationally unrecognized quasi-states that have emerged on the post-soviet territory. They appeared as a result of wars, which were mostly interethnic.
These quasi-states are Republic of Abkhazia, Republic of South Ossetia, Republic of Artsakh (Nagorno-Karabakh), Pridnestrovian Moldavian Republic, and Luhansk People's Republic and Donetsk People's Republic. The last two are examined as one subject - "the East Ukrainian quasi-state" in this text.
The paper is focused on the analyses of nationalism as a building state capacity for emerging of the post-Soviet unrecognized states. The main research focus is put on the role of nationalism and the ways it was perceived by the people, who proclaimed independence of these quasi-states.
Was it a necessary constitutive feature for emerging of the quasi-states, or it was an artificial tool evolved by external actors of the conflicts? E.g. nationalism played a significant role in proclaiming of Nagorno Karabakh independence: here Nagorno-Karabakh's nationalism was use as a tool by locals how to achieve their goals in international arena. In comparison the proclamation of the East Ukrainian quasi-state did not question ethnicity at all.
The paper involves a comparative analysis of both the role of nationalism in quasi-state building process and its (nationalism) perception of the people of these five quasi-states.