Soviet Ethnic Problems and American National Interests.

摘要

In Uzbekistan there is a legend that one day Tamerlane will return to free the land around his ancient capital of Samarkand from the heavy hand of its oppressor. It is said he will ride down from the hills with his angry horde sweeping all before him. He will once again make a mountain of his enemies' skulls and will rule his people wisely as in the halcyon past. The legend is significant for several reasons. It is part of an oral tradition that helps to maintain Uzbek identity. It offers the prospect of future revenge to a people who see themselves as severely put upon by the Russians as well as other neighboring ethnic populations. But perhaps most telling, it conveniently ignores the fact that Tamerlane was a greedy and brutal despot who squeezed the land and its people of all they had. He called himself, 'the scourge of God and the Lord of all the earth.' Nevertheless, as the Russians say today of another hard man, Stalin, 'He made the trains run on time.' This story and others like it remind one that the peoples who comprise the many nationalities of the Soviet Union do not view the world with Western eyes. Most have not felt the influence of the Renaissance or the Reformation. Most have only an imperfect concept of democracy and almost none of an individual's rights vis-a-vis those of the society in which he lives. Each of the various ethnic groups in the Soviet Empire is vastly different from the others in language, experience, and outlook. Whatever national identity and sense of loyalty a people may possess is tied to tribe and ethnicity rather than to an overarching state. They see their history and their future through lenses that have profound implications for the present. And they see each other not as confederates in the larger context of the Soviet Union, but as a group of strangers who find themselves locked together in an uncomfortable room.