The course will discuss ethnic identity among other identities; the relationship between ethnicity/ethnic identity and culture/cultural identity; the relationship between migration, ethnicity and transnationality; the interaction between dominant cultures and minority groups, and its impact on ethnic identity in the context of the history and geography of forced migration in the USSR.

Specific deported groups in Soviet and post-Soviet borderlands such as the Meskhetian Turks, Crimean Tatars, Chechens, Ingush, Karachais and Balkars will be studied. The course will not only cover the “punished peoples” forcibly moved under the Stalinist regime but also the Russians. Soviet Ethnos Theory and Soviet nationality policy will be critically examined to better understand the Soviet regime and the case of the groups specified above.