“The Affirmative Action Empire” by Terry Martin: Personal Reflections
Review of Terry Martin’s The Affirmative Action Empire: Nations and Nationalism in the Soviet Union (1923–1939)
DOI:
https://doi.org/10.31874/2309-1606-2026-32-1-16Keywords:
Terry Martin, ‘The Affirmative Action Empire’, Soviet nationality policy (1920s–1930s), nationalism, Ukrainization, ‘zminovikhivstvo’Abstract
The review presents reflections inspired by Terry Martin’s The Affirmative Action Empire: Nations and Nationalism in the Soviet Union (1923–1939), and by the Director of the Ukrainian Research Institute at Harvard University. Although the Ukrainian translation of the book appeared as early as 2013, it attracted the attention of Ukrainian mass media only in the summer of 2025, following Professor Martin’s appointment to the above-mentioned position. This event itself became an additional impetus for a more thorough and attentive rereading of the work. In engaging with the study, the author of the review focused primary attention on the pages and chapters devoted to Ukraine. The reflections on the book are subjective and grounded in the author's knowledge of Ukrainian history in the 1920s and early 1930s.
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