The Hidden Nations: The People Challenge the Soviet Union

Although the authors endlessly preach their endorsement of the popular front movements in perestroika U.S.S.R. and make certain disputable assertions, this study is nevertheless indispensable reading for those frustrated by the paucity of analytical coverage of nationalism there. The book notes that leaders of the Baltic popular front groups are tacticians, that the massed protests in Georgia have been unfocused, that (arguably) the territorial warfare between Armenia and Azerbaijan is irreconcilable under Soviet hegemony. More importantly, Diuk, researcher for the AFL-CIO, and Karatnycky, of the National Endowment for Democracy, a private foundation, review the stunning inequities in the allocation of resources and investment between favored Russia and the 14 other republics. Discounting apprehension among Sovietologists that the emergence of microstates in a destablized Soviet Union would cause ethnic violence, the authors questionably maintain that tensions among the republics result from a denial of sovereignty. Photos. (Nov.)