Social Mood and Ethnic Tension: The Case of the Former USSR

Abstract

The author analyzes the phenomenon of social mood and its impact on the intensification of ethnic tensions. According to him, the mobility and the variability of the social mood can be expressed through the display of its intensity, which is especially pronounced in the deepest shifts occurring in the bosom of ethnic self-consciousness during the times of social turmoil. The article makes it evident that many international and interethnic tragedies could be avoided, if the authorities reacted to the fluctuations of social mood of the people on time. The sociological studies' of ethnic conflicts and tensions on the territory of the former USSR after its disintegration serve as an illustration material for his theory.