A New Russian Identity or Old Russia's Reintegration?

1 The Preamble to the Byelovezh Accords says: `We, the Republic of Belarus, the Russian Federation (the RSFSR) and the Ukraine the founders of the Union of the Soviet Socialists Republics, signatories to the 1922 Union Agreement, hereinafter referred to as the High Contracting Parties, state that the Union of the Soviet Socialist Republics as a subject of international law and a geopolitical entity has ceased to exist.' Simultaneously the leaders of Belarus, the RSFSR and the Ukraine confirmed the establishment of the CIS. `Being aware of our responsibility to our people and the world community and of a burning need to implement political and economic reforms', the document states, `we declare the establishment of the Commonwealth of Independent States, the agreement whereof signed on December 8, 1991'. (Izvestia, 12 December 1991). On 21 December that year, in accordance with the Alma-Ata Declaration, 8 more republics of the former USSR joined the CIS: Azerbaijan, Armenia, Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Moldova, Tadzhikistan, Turkmenistan and Uzbekistan.

2 See the materials of the situational analysis of the Gorbachev seminar and Forms of Reintegration Processes in the Post-Soviet Space (22 April 1994) p. 45. - in Russian.

3 See `Why Tadzhiks Are Killing Tadzhiks' by Anvar Shakhov, in Obshchaya Gazeta, no.30/60, 1994. - in Russian

4 See Ugor Klyamkin, Head of the Research Dept. of the Public Opinion Foundation, `Integration Begins from the Grass-Root Level,' Dielo, no. 64, 1994. - in Russian.

5 See note 4.

6 Alexander Solzhenitsin, `I Should Try to Understand Everything by Myself', Literaturnaya Gazeta, no. 28, 13 July 1994. - in Russian.

7 Yevgeni Ambartsumov, in Literaturnaya Gazeta, 1 June 1994. - in Russian.

8 Andranik Migranyan, `In What Country Shall We Live?' Znamya, no. 1, 1992, pp.183-186. -in Russian.

9 P.I.Milyukov. `The Intelligentsia and Historical Traditions', in Miscellanea Landmarks. Intelligentsia in Russia, 1909-1910. (Moscow: 1991), pp. 359-360-in Russian.

10 Pyotr Struve, From the Depths A Collection of Articles about the Russian Revolution (Moscow: 1990), p. 295-in Russian.

11 See Zurab Ashba, `An Act of Despair or a Threat to Russia?', Moskovskie Novosti, no. 46, 17 November 1994-in Russian.