When the Soviet Union collapsed in 1991, many people suddenly found themselves living as minorities in 15 new nation-states. Jas?ina-Scha¨fer has carried out an illuminating ethnographic study of Russophone populations in Estonia and Kazakhstan to better understand their identities and everyday sense of belonging. She interviewed around 50 Russian speakers, aged 18 to 66, from the Estonian city of Narva on the Estonian-Russian border and from the city of Petropavlovsk in northern Kazakhstan. The interviews reveal how these post-Soviet Russophone minorities regularly experience feelings of inclusion and exclusion in ways that are complex, ambiguous, and changing. Arguing that their identities may not simply be described as hybrid, the author usefully engages with a great deal of academic literature about post-Soviet Russophone communities. Her interviews, some of which she conducted while walking with her subjects through their cities, are most compelling. They offer fascinating snapshots of everyday life among people wrestling with their Soviet past; negotiating a relationship with the contemporary and complicated Russian Federation, where they do not live; and developing and maintaining identification with their places of residence. Recommended. Advanced undergraduates through faculty.
