Rethinking interethnic marriage in the Soviet Union

An expert on minorities and nationalism in the Soviet Union and Russia examines the impact of interethnic marriage on ethnic identity. The extensive literature on intermarriage produced by Soviet scholars as well as the work of Western scholars on this subject is analyzed in terms of the findings, methodologies, and conceptions of ethnic identity that formed the framework for such studies. These are compared with other possible approaches to underlying questions about the sources and nature of ethnic identity and the problem of how ethnic identity should be conceptualized.