This study examines the process by which the seemingly impossible in 1987--the disintegration of the Soviet state--became the seemingly inevitable by 1991 It provides an original interpretation of not only the Soviet collapse, but also of the phenomenonof nationalism more generally Probing the role of nationalist action as both cause and effect, ожмие Beissinger utilizes extensive event data and detailed case studies from across the U S S R during its final years to elicit the shifting relationship betweenpre-existing structural conditions, institutional constraints, and event-generated influences in the massive nationalist explosions that brought about the collapse of the Soviet Union.  Том `избранного`ISBN 052100148X.