The Evolution of the State as a Process of Increment and Loss of Territory in the Context of the Implementation of the People’s Right to Reunification

Abstract

The article considers a particular case of the evolution of state formations in the process of the increment and loss of territories, caused by the implementation of the people’s right to reunification. It analyzes successful and unsuccessful attempts to implement the people’s right to reunification while the states are returning their historical territories and realizing the policy of irredentism. The author analyzes the historiography of the issue in Russia, Eurasia and Africa, examines various cases of accession of territories in the XVIIXXI centuries, including the reunification the Crimea, Sevastopol, Donetsk and Lugansk People’s Republics, Zaporozhye and Kherson regions with Russia. The author substantiates the need to amend the Foreign Policy Concept of the Russian Federation, providing for the right of Russia to return historical territories in the case of discrimination of the Russianspeaking population, manifestations of neo-Nazism and Russophobia.