De facto states, Eurasia, Russian Civil War, Soviet Union

The chapter provides a historical-geographical insight into two periods of political-territorial restructuring in Eurasia - the collapse of tsarist Russia and the dissolution of the Soviet Union - during which a number of unrecognized and short-lived political entities emerged. The author provides a typology of these entities and discusses why some of them can be regarded as de facto states and why some of them should be seen as rather different kinds of political entities. Above all, the author identifies those entities which emerged during the first discussed period, and which can serve as analogies to the present-day cases.