This is a book about what it meant to be German, Soviet, Russian, and Turkish in the twentieth century, and how that definition radically changed at the turn of the twenty-first century. Germany's ethnic citizenship law, the Soviet Union's inscription of ethnic origins in personal identification documents, and Turkey's prohibition on the public use of minority languages, all put in place in the early twentieth century, underpinned the definition of nationhood in these countries. Despite many challenges from political and societal actors, these policies did not change for many decades, until around the turn of the twenty-first century, when Russia removed ethnicity from the internal passport, Germany changed its citizenship law, and Turkish public television began to broadcast in minority languages. How did such tremendous changes occur? Using a new typology of “regimes of ethnicity” and a close study of primary documents and numerous interviews, Sener Akturk argues that the coincidence of three key factors – counterelites, new discourses, and hegemonic majorities – explains successful change in state policies toward ethnicity.

Discusses the removal of ethnicity from Russian identification cards and the role of Jews, Germans, Tatars, Bashkirs and other ethnic groups in this change

Systematically documents Kurdish and Alevi voting behavior in Turkey from the 1950s to the present day

Incorporates interviews with both immigrant-origin and ethnic German members of the German parliaments from all the major political parties and their attitudes toward ethnic diversity and change of the citizenship law in Germany