This volume delves into a key part of the comprehensive Russian administrative and territorial
reform of the 2000s-the merger of six previously separate ethno-national regions into larger
constituent entities of the Russian Federation. It deals with the accession of the Komi-Permyak
Taymyr Dolgano-Nenets Evenk Agin-Buryat and Koryak Autonomous Okrugs to the Perm
Krasnoyarsk Zabaykalsky and Kamchatka Krais and of the Ust-Orda Buryat Autonomous Okrug to
the Irkutsk Oblast. In both management practice and mass media the largely similar
unifications were treated as unrelated initiatives emerging from inside the regions. The center
did initially not offer a common institutional model of integration. The regions had to come up
with individual formulas dealing with the merged districts. After the reform had slowed down
it turned out that the annexed territories had only in name obtained special statuses which are
not backed by administrative or financial resources. The book addresses specialists in the
fields of Russian studies comparative federalism and ethnic politics. It makes an especially
important reading because it describes and thoroughly analyzes the unique deautonomization case
in an ethnic federation. Additional contributors to this volume are Maria Tislenko Emma Bibina
and Rostislav Shilovsky (all MGIMO University).
