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The Return of the Repressed? Post-1989 Nationalism in the “New” Eastern Europe

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  20 November 2018

Stephen Blank
Stephen Blank*
Affiliation:
US Army War College
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Extract

The intractable war in Yugoslavia, the breakup of Czechslovakia, the nationalist rumblings in Hungary and Romania, and manifestations of imperial and nationalist longings in Russian politics signify nationalism's enduring potency in Central and Eastern Europe. While some foreign observers worried about this potency, the new elites largely believed that liberalism in power could overcome those forces. Liberal democracy's triumph supposedly meant the end of History, inter alia, aggressive nationalism in Eastern Europe. They believed that these national liberation movements had cooperative, mutually supportive relationships that would flower after Communism ended. Nationalist discords were due to Eastern Europe's previous historical post-1914 nightmares, but the new post-1989 states would have amicable relations with their neighbors. Ostensibly, nationalism, once freed from Soviet repression, would bring an end to Soviet rule and usher in a new ‘springtime of nations.'

Type
Articles
Information
Nationalities Papers , Volume 22 , Issue 2 , Fall 1994 , pp. 405 - 425
Copyright
Copyright © 1994 Association for the Study of Nationalities of Eastern Europe and ex-USSR 

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References

Notes

* The views expressed here do not represent those of the US Army, Department of Defense, or the US Government.Google Scholar

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