Ethnic Factor in the New Soviet Union: The Future of the USSR's MultinationalArmed Forces

摘要

This paper analyzes the effects of increasing inter-ethnic tensions on the Sovietarmed forces. While nationalist sentiments have long been a factor in the Soviet Union, Gorbachev's policies of glasnost' and democratization have allowed these tensions to come to the surface. Three factors related to the nationalities issue are addressed in this paper. First, problems with increased incidents of ethnically based hazing (zemlyachestvo) are discussed. The second factor examined is the problem of enforcing the draft in many of the Soviet republics. Third, this paper assesses the major cases of ethnic unrest within the Soviet Union since December 1986 and the military's role in quelling this unrest. Nationalism has been an important factor in spurring the debates in the USSR about an all-volunteer force and the creation of national or territorial formations. In the broader sense, the question for the future will be whether the military (or segments of it) will be willing to act as the glue holding together a disintegrating Soviet Union.