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The article, a response to the article "Stalin's populism and the accidental creation of Russian national identity" elsewhere in the issue by David Brandenberger, critiques his thesis that modern Russian nationalism has its origins in the russocentric populism promoted by Soviet leader Joseph Stalin in the 1930s and 40s. Brandenberger's argument is seen as needing more historical context, both by better defining nationalism and national identity in post-Soviet Russia, and by examining debates in the pre-Stalinist Soviet Union about chauvinism versus the goal of a multi-ethnic state.