MUSLIM EURASIA
Conflicting Legacies

Edited by Yaacov Ro'i

The Muslim states that have emerged 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 the 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 of these elements and the contradictions between them form the essence of the struggle to formulate new identities. The book focuses on these conflicting legacies in a wide range of fields. It discerns anomalies that were created by the inconsistencies of Soviet imperialism vis-a-vis its Muslim subject nations, and the injustice and distortions resulting from policies which emanated from a remote and insensitive centre. A number of chapters also manifest the concerns of the outside world over the future of these new states: the impact of Islam and its politicization; the prospects for new states emerging onto the road of modernism and democracy; the forms of their political and cultural identity; and the basic trends of their demography and economies.

CONTRIBUTORS : Yaacov Ro'i * Martha Brill Olcott * Alexei Malashenko * Nancy Lubin * Donald S. Carlisle * Demian Vaisman * Grigorii G. Kosach * Aryeh Wasserman * Moshe Gammer * Isabelle T. Kreindler * William Fierman * Mark Tolts * Alastair McAuley * Micha el Paul Sacks * Valery A. Tishkov