Original scientific paper
The Process of National Self-Determination of Peoples in Central and East Europe: the Balance at the End of the 20th Century
Sergej Romanenko
; Institute of Slavic and Balkan Studies of the RAS, Moscow, Russia
Abstract
The paper analyses, from the viewpoint of theory, one of the key processes in European history during the l9th and 20th centuries − i.e. the self-determination of peoples. The author compares the historical experiences and the present political practice in countries of East and Central Europe, including (the former) Soviet Union and Yugoslavia, as well as Russia, Croatia and Serbia. He distinguishes three models of self-determination among European peoples: self-determination in multinational states (e. g. in Austria-Hungary, Russia, the former Yugoslavia etc.), in polyethnic communities (Slavs, Germans, Finno-Ugric peoples), and in historic-geographical regions (East, Central and West Europe). He distinguishes the concept of "people" ("nation") from the concept of "nationality" ("ethnicity"). In his opinion, a democratic state can only be polyethnic, and based in civic society. However, the disintegration of the Soviet Union, as well as Yugoslavia, was historically inevitable. The national state is not necessarily the same as the democratic state.
Keywords
self-determination of peoples; Central Europe; East Europe
Hrčak ID:
127114
URI
Publication date:
30.12.1994.
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