Includes bibliographical references and index.

Front Matter -- Acknowledgements -- Maps and Figures -- Notes -- Introduction -- Administering the Periphery from Horseback -- Persuasion and Paranoia—Romania’s Rule in Bessarabia 1918–44 -- Politically Desirable Theory and Its Way into Folk Theory -- Ethnic Minorities and Soviet Newcomers -- Post-Soviet Instability, Clientelism and the Persistence of Ethnic Boundaries -- The Narratives and Techniques that Maintain Ethnic Boundaries -- Conclusion—Delimiting Ethnic Groups as a Tool of Statecraft -- References -- Back Matter -- Bibliography -- Index of Authors -- Index of Subjects and Names.

In Making Ethnicity, Simon Schlegel offers a history of ethnicity and its political uses in southern Bessarabia, a region that has long been at the crossroads of powerful forces: in the 19th century between the Russian and Ottoman Empires, since World War I between the Soviet Union and Romania, and since the collapse of the Soviet Union between Russia and the European Union’s respective zones of influence. Drawing on biographical interviews and archival documents, Schlegel argues that ethnic categories gained relevance in the 19th century, as state bureaucrats took over local administration from the church. After mutating into a dangerous instrument of social engineering in the mid-20th century, ethnicity today remains a potent force for securing votes and allocating resources.