The Finno-Ugric Republics and the Russian State

This is a comprehensive survey of the peoples who speak Finno-Ugric languages and have titular republics or autonomous regions within the post-Soviet Russian federation. Their languages have set them apart from their Turkic and Russian neighbours, and helped preserve their distinct identity, including their animist religious practices. Little has previously been available in English on these peoples, as information on the subject was screened by Soviet censors. The principal threat now facing the Finno-Ugrians is as much environmental as political: communism has gone, but exploitation of natural resources threatens the region's ecology, while the new rulers in the Kremlin seem set to continue their predecessors' oppressive policies towards the Finno-Ugrians.

Rein Taagepera is Emeritus Professor of Social and Political Science at the University of California, Irvine. He is also Professor of Political Science at the University of Tartu, Estonia.