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ETHNIC WAR AND PEACE IN POST-SOVIET EURASIA By SCOTT GRANT FEINSTEIN A DISSERTATION PRESENTED TO THE GRADUATE SCHOOL OF THE UNIVERSITY OF FLORIDA IN PARTIAL FULFILLMENT OF THE REQUIREMENTS FOR THE DEGREE OF DOCTOR OF PHILOSOPHY UNIVERSITY OF FLORIDA 2016 © 2016 Scott Grant Feinstein To my Mom and Dad ACKNOWLEDGMENTS In the course of completing this monograph I benefited enormously from the generosity of others. To my committee chair, Benjamin B. Smith, I express my sincere appreciation for his encouragement and guidance. Ben not only taught me to systematically research political phenomena, but also the importance of pursuing a complete and parsimonious explanation. Throughout my doctoral studies Ben remained dedicated to me and my research, and with his incredible patience he tolerated and motivated my winding intellectual path. I thank my committee co-chair, Michael Bernhard, for his hours spent reading early manuscript drafts, support in pursuing a multi-country project, and detailed attention to clear writing. Michael’s appreciation of my dissertation vision and capacity gave this research project its legs. Ben and Michael provided me exceptionally valuable advice. I am also indebted to the help provided by my other committee members – Conor O’Dwyer, Ingrid Kleespies and Beth Rosenson – who inspired creativity and scientific rigor, always provided thoughtful and useful comments, and kept me searching for the big picture. Among institutions, I wish to gratefully acknowledge the support of the Center of European Studies at the University of Florida, IIE Fulbright Foundation, the American Council of Learned Societies, the Andrew W. Mellon Foundation, IREX, the American Councils, and the Department of Political Science at the University of Florida. The research and writing of this monograph has been accomplished due to their financial assistance and support. I have learned from more scholars than I can name here, without which this monograph would have taken much longer. In particular, I wish to express my gratitude to Bryon Moraski, Amy Kreppel, Shinasi Rhama, Stephen Holmes, Russell Hardin, John 4 Flaspohler, Galina Wladyka, and Lawrence Dodd. Each of these people positively shaped this project in ways too numerous to enumerate. I wish to also thank my colleagues - Keith Weghorst, Christopher Manick, Ruchan Kaya, Kyle Marquardte, Jenny Boylan, and Bruno Broll-Barone. Among many things, these dear friends provided hours of wonderful and useful conversation. While conducting field research, several scholars, archivists, and librarians facilitated my access to primary source materials. They include Professor Veronica Neagu of the Institute of International Relations in Moldova, Professor Olga Karmazina of Tavrida National University, and Professor Ruslan Tsiunchuk from Kazan State University. I would also like to thank the librarians at the Franco National Library of Ukraine, the Tatar National Library, the National Library of Moldova, the Moldovan Transnistrian Republic Library, the Library of the Autonomous Gagauzia, Kazan State University Library, the Tatarstan national Republic Library, and the Russian State Library in Moscow. I wish to also thank Maia Morari for her tireless devotion to my Romanian language studies and sincere compassion, as well as the Morari family and Saratenii Vechi for giving me friendship and a home for so many years. Finally, I wish to express my deepest gratitude to my friends and family for their unwavering encouragement and support. I dedicate this dissertation to my mother who taught me the value of hard work and to my father who taught me the importance of detailed reasoning. Together they raised me to serve honestly. I thank my sister Jennifer for her passionate politics and quick logic, my sister Rachel for her unending insight and hours on the phone discussing this project and its struggles, and my brother James for his global perspective and penetrating questions. To my daughter Alexandra, 5 you inspire me with your power and curiosity. Și cel mai mult, I thank Cristina Poleacovschi, my life partner, for her courage and generosity, her demand for clarity and poetry. Through her love and empathy I find joy. 6 TABLE OF CONTENTS page ACKNOWLEDGMENTS .................................................................................................. 4 LIST OF TABLES .......................................................................................................... 12 LIST OF FIGURES ........................................................................................................ 14 ABSTRACT ................................................................................................................... 15 CHAPTER 1 INTRODUCTION .................................................................................................... 16 Perspectives on Secessionist Violence in the Former Soviet Union ....................... 21 Psychological Explanations .............................................................................. 22 External Actors ................................................................................................. 26 Institutional Explanations .................................................................................. 30 Elite Mobilization .............................................................................................. 34 Modernization Explanations ............................................................................. 37 Motivations and Capacity ................................................................................. 38 Theory ..................................................................................................................... 42 Research Design .................................................................................................... 47 General Approach, Sources of Data, and Goals .............................................. 52 Structural and Narrative Method ....................................................................... 55 Outline of Chapters ................................................................................................. 57 2 IDENTITY COHERENCE AND HYPOTHESES OF SECESSION .......................... 62 Part I. Conceptualizing Group Politics..................................................................... 66 Part II. Forming Group Coherence .......................................................................... 69 Modernity and Group Formation ....................................................................... 70 Identity Building: Intellectuals and Diffusion ..................................................... 72 Hardening and Transforming Identities ............................................................ 75 Encounters with other groups .................................................................... 75 Political opportunities ................................................................................. 76 Group innovation ........................................................................................ 78 Summary: Intellectuals, Dispersion, and Hardening ......................................... 78 Resources and Building Coherence ................................................................. 79 Part III. The Power of Coherent Groups: State Stability and Group Mobilization .... 82 Theories of Group Mobilization ......................................................................... 83 Group Coherence and Group Mobilization ....................................................... 86 Part IV: Pre-Communist Groups, the Soviet Experience, and the Rise of a Post- Communist National Political Order ..................................................................... 96 Pre-Communist Groups and Soviet Ethno-Federal State Formation ................ 96 Soviet communism and nation building .................................................... 100 7 Pre-communist groups and future group coherence ................................ 101 Pre-communist groups and future group incoherence ............................. 108 Section summary ..................................................................................... 115 Rise of National Politics .................................................................................. 115 National State Stability ................................................................................... 122 Part V: Hypotheses ............................................................................................... 125 3 STRUCTURAL ORIGINS OF PRE-COMMUNIST GROUP COHERENCE .......... 131 Pre-Communist Coherence .................................................................................. 134 Russians ............................................................................................................... 135 The Stirrings of a Nation: Early Russian History ............................................. 135 State Penetration: Industrialization and Modernization .................................. 139 State centralized education: military conscription, primary schooling, and printed texts ................................................................................... 140 Infrastructure: railways, factories, and urbanization ................................. 147 Encounters and hardening a Russian identity through Russification ....... 149 Summary ........................................................................................................ 159 Moldovans ...........................................................................................................
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