Abstract

The Ghosts of Nationalism

In this article, the author discusses the status of nationalism and possibilities and need of its resurrection in Europe. In Eastern Europe, the collapse of the Stalinist empire, followed by the fragmentation of the Soviet Union itself, has provided scope for the resurrection of local nationalisms. In western Europe, where history has developed more in line with what was expected and the boundaries of the nation-state are being blurred, rejection of the alien, of the other, is spreading from Brussels to Vienna; the racist Jean-Marie Le Pen is no longer the odd man out. Recent developments in central and eastern Europe are probably easiest to understand. The Stalinist regime had been thrust upon these countries, even if it was imposed by the Red Army liberating them from the Nazis. In Russia itself nationalism was at times extolled and at other times suppressed. In the other republics it was always driven underground.