The Muslim states that have come into being from the ruins of the Soviet Union, and the Muslim areas of Russia, are striving to carve out a future for themselves in the face of new realities. In addition to international constraints, they find themselves caught between two complex legacies: on the one hand, that of Russian and Soviet periods--colonialism, russification, de-islamicization, centralization and communism; on the other, that of the period prior to the Russian conquest--localism, tribalism and Islam.
The interaction and contradictions within each category, and between them, form the essence of the struggle to formulate new identities. The problems this book describes reflect these legacies in a wide range of fields. They indicate the anomalies that were created by the inconsistencies in Soviet imperialism vis-a-vis its Muslim subject nations, and the injustice and distortions resulting from policies which emanated from a remote and insensitive center.

Yaacov Ro'i is Professor of History at Tel Aviv University. He has served as Director of the Cummings Center for Russian and East European Studies and has been a visiting fellow at St. Antony's College, Oxford, the Kennan Institute, and Visiting Professor at Georgetown University. He is the editor of Muslim Eurasia: Conflicting Legacies (1995) and the author of Islam in the Soviet Union from World War II to Gorbachev (2000) and Islam in the CIS: A Threat to Stability? (2001).

Part 1: Historical Background 1. The Democratic Tradition of Kazakhstan in Historical Context 2. Elements of Democracy in Dagestan on the Eve of the Russian Conquest 3. The Challenge of Belonging: The Muslims of Late Imperial Russia and the Contested Terrain of Identity and Gender 4. The Hidden Dialogue on Constitutionalism between the Russian Provisional Government and the Khivan Democracy in 1917 Part 2: Potential Pressure Points 5. Aid and Ideas: The Impact of Western Economic Support on the Muslim Successor States 6. Islam in the FSU: An Inevitable Impediment to Democracy? Part 3: Muslim Successor States 7. Authoritarian Pathways in Central Asia: A Comparison of Kazakhstan, the Kyrgyz Republic and Uzbekistan 8. The Formation of Political Parties and Movements in Central Asia 9. The Price of Stability: Kazakhstani Control Mechanisms under Conditions of Cultural and Demographic Bipolarity 10. Liberalization in Kyrgyzstan: 'An Island of Democracy' 11. Political Clans and Political Conflicts in Contemporary Kyrgyzstan 12. Linguistic Policy and the Process of Democratization in Uzbekistan 13. Opposition in Tajikistan: Pro et contra 14. Democracy and Civil Society Building in Independent Azerbaijan: Irrevocable Changes or Temporary Diversion? Part 4: Muslim Regions of the Russian Federation 15. Post-Soviet Tatarstan: Democratic Strains in the Ideological Evolution of the Tatar National Movement 16. Nation-Building and Minority Rights in Post-Soviet Russia: The Case of Bashkortostan 17. The Political Process in Dagestan: Prospects for Democracy Part 5: Democracy and Pluralism in Muslim Eurasia 18. Ethnic Relations and Democratic Transition in the North-Western Caucasus 19. Democratic Values and Political Reality in Chechnya, 1991-1999