Alexander Iskandaryan

Countries established on the ruins of the Soviet empire ended up as nation-states, with “nation” understood chiefly in ethno-cultural terms. However, the tendency toward ethno-cultural homogeneity preceded the emergence of independent statehood. The homogenization began to manifest back in the Soviet era, around the 1960s (with some variations), when the ratio of “title nations” to other ethnic groups began to grow in all Soviet republics. This homogenization is still ongoing, achieved by various means, from unequal legal statuses of various population groups to identity changes, and from population exchanges to ethnic cleansings, wars, massacres and deportations. Arguably, regardless of the method, the direction of this process has been the same across the Soviet empire, creating a wider pattern. Alexander Iskandaryan’s project studies this pattern from the 1990s until the present day in the wider context of the disintegration of empires into nation-states.

The concept of the post-Soviet space was the easiest way to describe the space remaining after the collapse of the USSR. It did describe some cultural commonalities that used to exist in post-Soviet countries. But even if those commonalities actually existed thirty years ago and had political significance, today it is counterproductive to use the concept. My project reflects on the proper means to describe that space.