Democracy and Pluralism in Muslim Eurasia

The Muslim states that have come into being from the ruins of the Soviet Union, and the Muslim areas of Russia, are striving to carve out a future for themselves in the face of new realities. In addition to international constraints, they find themselves caught between two complex legacies: on the one hand, that of Russian and Soviet periods--colonialism, russification, de-islamicization, centralization and communism; on the other, that of the period prior to the Russian conquest--localism, tribalism and Islam. The interaction and contradictions within each category, and between them, form the essence of the struggle to formulate new identities. The problems this book describes reflect these legacies in a wide range of fields. They indicate the anomalies that were created by the inconsistencies in Soviet imperialism vis-a-vis its Muslim subject nations, and the injustice and distortions resulting from policies which emanated from a remote and insensitive center.