Brubaker [ch. 2/3/5]

In ch. 2 of Brubaker's "Nationalism Reframed", he discusses the structure of Soviet Russia through an institutionalist perspective. He does this namely through analyzing how "nationhood and nationality" were institutionalized via territorial/political means along with ethnocultural/personal maneuvers. From the onset, one can easily see a common trait among most if not all Communist/Dictatorial regimes - namely gathering a large number of people around a common identity - in this case, Soviets, speaking the Russian language. Without this common identity, it is near if not definitely impossible to unite people under a single rule of law.

Brubaker attributes Soviet Russia's downfall to inherent issues such as a displacement of ethnic groups throughout the entire Soviet empire - Russian and non-Russian alike. Also in part, Soviet Russia had a constitution that provided for a representative government from the various ethnic groups represented within its empire. As democratic as this might appear, the Communist regime (more often than not) ended up having the final say. As such, the elected representatives of these ethnic groups became the figureheads for individual ethnic secessions from the Soviet empire.