Secessionist rebellion in the former Soviet Union

The level of ethnic violence increased in Eurasia after the Soviet collapse . Two theories are tested to account for this increase. Horowitz's theory e mphasizes psychological mechanisms affecting self-esteem. An alternative th eory by Fearon and Van Houten, based on Brubaker's "triadic configuration," and relying on a commitment logic, emphasizes the level of an external hom eland's support for a Tninority population in a nationalizing state. Tests of these theories are performed on new data collected by the author from si x post-Soviet republics (Estonia, Latvia, Ukraine, Kazakhstan, Moldova, and Azerbaijan), only two of which experienced secessionist rebellion. The dat a do not support the predictions that would follow from Horowitz's theory. The commitment theory, however, is consistent with the data and the histori cal record.