The Affirmative Action Empire"Terry Martin looks at the nationalities policy of the early Soviet period and offers an insightful, detailed analysis of a problem that Soviet leaders grappled with throughout the twentieth century. As he points out, it was a problem that eventually helped to usher in the end of the USSR." Amanda Wood Aucoin, New Zealand Slavonic Journal The Soviet Union was the first of Europe's multiethnic states to confront the rising tide of nationalism by