TATIANA MASTYUGINA is a researcher with the Institute for the Economy in Transition of the Russian Academy of Sciences in Moscow.LEV PEREPELKIN is a senior researcher with the Institute of Oriental Studies of the Russian Academy of Sciences in Moscow.VITALY NAUMKIN has been the President of the Russian Center for Strategic Research and International Studies since 1991. He was a professor at Moscow University until 1984 and then moved to the Institute of Oriental Studies, Russian Academy of Science where he was Deputy Director. He is the author and editor of numerous works on the history, ethnography, and religion of the Middle East, Central Asia, and Russia. His publications include The Island of Phoenix, Central Asia: State, Religion and Society (ed.), and Central Asia and Transcaucasia: Ethnicity and Conflict (ed., coauthor).IRINA ZVIAGELSKAIA is Head of the Sector of Regional Conflicts at the Institute of Oriental Studies, Russian Academy of Science. Since 1991 she has been Vice-president of the Russian Center for Strategic Research and International Studies and a department head at the Institute of Oriental Studies. She is the author of articles and books on conflicts in the Middle East, and post-Soviet territory, including The U.S. Policy towards Conflicts in the Middle East, Central Asia and Transcaucasia: Ethnicity and Conflict (coauthor), and The Russian Policy Debate on Central Asia.

• PrefaceIntroduction (Theoretical Premises of the Work)Ethnoses of Prerevolutionary RussiaEvolution of Russia's Federative StructureMain Classifications of Russia's NationalitiesThe Main Demographic, Ethnocultural, and Ethnosocial Processes in Russia in the Years of Soviet PowerThe Main National-Political and Socioeconomic Problems of Russia at the Present StageConclusionSelected BibliographyIndex