“We Haven’t Come Across any Formalized Nations in the North Caucasus”: Soviet Nation-Building Practices and Their Regional Characteristics *

Abstract

Abstract. This article is dedicated to the analysis of Soviet nation-building practices in the North Caucasus. The author examines specific circumstances and institutional mechanisms behind the formation of North-Caucasian nations. The article accentuates the primary role played by the Soviet state in this process, its active part in resolving current social-economic and political objectives. The author stresses the regional nature of nation-building, which was manifested in the North Caucasus in the administrative-territorial instability of autonomies being created. The author makes a conclusion about the sponsored nature of the nation-building process in the region