A publication of the Association of College and Research Libraries
A division of the American Library Association
Editorial Offices: 575 Main Street, Suite 300, Middletown, CT 06457-3445
Phone: (860) 347-6933
Fax: (860) 704-0465

FOR INTERNAL USE ONLY

Please do not link to this page.

October 2021 Vol. 59 No. 2

This is a meticulous study of Soviet nationality policy, focusing on Azerbaijan, based on extensive archival research and oral history from 120 interviews. Goff (Univ. of Miami) takes the story from the 1920s through the 1960s, paying particular attention to the “nontitular” nationalities: ethnic groups too small to have their own autonomous administrative unit in the Soviet Union’s complex ethno-territorial federation. In Azerbaijan, these included the Kurds, Talysh, and Lezgins, among others. There was such diversity that schooling was offered in 14 different languages by the 1930s. However, the nontitular ethnic groups lacked an institutional base to protect their identity and were often seen as politically unreliable, with potentially lethal consequences. Chapter 2 discusses Soviet interactions with ethnic groups over the border in Turkey and Iran. Within the Soviet space, Georgia and Armenia had claims on regions of Azerbaijan inhabited by their own co-ethnics, though Goff does not spend much time on the region of Nagorno-Karabakh, which Armenia claims. Chapters 4 and 5 detail renewed efforts to assimilate the nontitular minorities under Khrushchev, which met resistance from the communities involved.

--P. Rutland, Wesleyan University

Summing Up: Recommended. Advanced undergraduates through faculty.