Nation-Building and Common Values in Russia by Pål s> Kolstø Helge Blakkisrud (review)

Abstract

REVIEWS I89 have a proper appreciation of the significance of bilateraltreaties in Russia's federal practice because they treat Russia as a territorial rather than multinational federation. In his concluding chapter, Stoliarov considers Russia's republics in greater detail, particularly the debates regarding the place and statusof ethno-territorialunits in the federalsystem. Mikhail Stoliarov's book provides a coherent, well-documented view of federative relations in Russia, written from a point of view which is sympatheticto the plight of its ethnic republics.It providesa good overviewof Russian-language scholarshipand commentary and of the debates in Russia on the pros and cons of differentapproachesto federalism.Given the author's position, it would have been interesting to get more of a behind-the-scenes look at how the Tatarstan-Russiarelationship has evolved during the I99os. Considering the preponderance of analyses of the Tatarstan model of federative relations and the importance of the republic in recent scholarship, an insider's perspective is sorely needed. Moreover, the author provides comparisonswith otherfederalsystems,such as Germany,the US or Belgium, which could have been developed more fully. As they stand, they are somewhat superficialand peripheralto his analysis. The Russian original of this book was published in 2001. Although the empiricalmaterialislimitedto thefirstyearsof Putin'spresidency,the analysis has held up well. The analyticalframeworkMikhail Stoliarov establishesis a usefulguide to understandingcurrenttrendsin Russia'sfederaldevelopment. Department ofGovernment DAVID CASHABACK London School ofEconomics andPoliticalScience Kolst0, Pal and Blakkisrud,Helge (eds).Nation-Building andCommon Values in Russia.Rowman & Littlefield, Lanham, MD and Boulder, CO, 2004. viii + 382 pp. Figures. Tables. Notes. Appendix. Bibliography. Index. [57.00. THIs book is the third volume in a series on nation building and ethnic integration in post-Soviet societies. The two preceding volumes were, NationBuilding andEthnicIntegration in Post-Soviet Societies: An Investigation ofLatviaand Kazakstan (Oxford, I999) and NationalIntegration andViolent Conflict inPost-Soviet Societies:TheCasesof EstoniaandMoldova(Lanham, MD, 2002). The present volume reflects research financed by the Norwegian Research Council and the Norwegian University Council and has a healthy mixture of Russian and non-Russian writers.This is one of its many strengths,thus providing an indepth analysisof post-Soviet societywithin a general theoreticalframework. The book is divided into eleven chapters and an epilogue, with the first chapterproviding an overallintroductionto the volume. The projecttakesits cue from Vladimir Putin'smillennium articlepublished on the internet prior to becoming President.Within the document Putinclaimed that there existed a set of traditional Russian values its status as a great power, its statecentredness and social solidarity which bind the people together. The authors set out to establish whether this is indeed the case, or whether a plethora of values now exist within Russia to such a degree that we can no longer assumethat such common values exist. I90 SEER, 84, I, 2006 To this end, a survey was carried out in six regions/cities of Russia (Moscow, St Petersburg, Novosibirsk, Komi, Bahkortostan and Dagestan) using much of the same vocabulary that was employed by Putin in the aforementioned article. The results were then compared with the I995-98 World Values survey conducted by Ronald Inglehart in an attempt to distinguishbetween universaland traditionalRussianvalues. The succeeding seven chapters reflect the research conducted on this basis focusing on each individualsix regions/cities and, in addition, on Russia as a whole. However, it should be pointed out that the chapters do not focus solely on such quantitative data, but also provide invaluable backgroundmaterial on these regions/cities and combine the quantitativedata with qualitativeanalysis.In doing so, the book provides an invaluableinsight into contemporaryRussian society. In addition to the individual case-studies, there is a chapter on the changing nature of federalism within post-Soviet Russia since I99I. In the vast majorityof countries such a shortperiod would be of little interestto the reader, but this is certainlynot so in the Russian case which has experienced dramatic changes in the nature of its federal structurereflecting more often than not the changing power relations between the centre and the regions. The chapterprovides an interestinginsight into these changing relationsand how they affectedthe federal compromise at various stages. The penultimate chapter examines the role of educational textbooks in the process of nation building, highlighting the difficulties of developing a nation-building programme in...