Collapse of the Soviet Union and Its Aftermath

Following the fall of communist regimes in eastern Europe, rejection of communism spread in the 1990s, turning events in unpredictable, even violent directions. Yugoslavia and then the Soviet Union itself fell apart as ethnic groups began to demand independence. The USSR had held together more than one hundred ethnicities, and the five republics of Soviet Central Asia were home to fifty million Muslims. For more than a century, successive governments had attempted to instill Russian and Soviet culture, but the policy of Russification failed to build any heartfelt allegiance, leading to a swift collapse of the USSR. In Yugoslavia, communist rulers had also enforced unity among religious and ethnic groups, and intermarriage among them occurred regularly. Beginning in the unstable years of the early 1990s, however, ambitious politicians seeking to build a following whipped up ethnic hatreds, making it unclear whether peaceful, democratic nations would emerge.