This volume is the most comprehensive survey of the Crimean Tatars to appear since V. D. Sirnov's late nineteenth-century account. Professor Fisher presents a detailed analysis of the culture and history of these people from the mid-fourteenth century to the present.

The author clarifies and assesses the myriad problems inherent to a multinational sociey that comprises more than 100 non-Russian ethnic groups living within the borders of the Soviet Union. He discusses the resurgence of nationalist sentiment, the efforts of the Crimean Tatars and others to regain territorial rights lost during the Stalinist era, and the political impact these movements have on contemporary Soviet affairs.