Interethnic Conflicts and the Collapse of the USSR

Abstract

Mikhail Gorbachev’s policies of glasnost and perestroika opened up discussions on many issues previously banned by the Soviet authorities. At the same time, however, the democratization process led to political confrontations between supporters and opponents of the reforms, and to the rise of nationalism. It also led to a rapid decline in the legitimacy of existing Soviet institutions without opening opportunities for the creation of new ones. This was especially true in dealings with interethnic and social tensions: The Soviet authorities abandoned the Soviet-era approach of responding to all kinds of tensions exclusively with repression and force, but they did not create new mechanisms for mediating those conflicts and tensions. Thus, the Central Asian republics, like many other parts of the Soviet Union, experienced rising interethnic tensions that sometimes exploded in violent clashes and uprisings. Between 1986 and 1991, interethnic conflicts claimed hundreds, if not thousands, of lives.