Was the emergence of Russian national identity merely a historical accident?

In: Nationalities papers: the journal of nationalism and ethnicity, Band 39, Heft 1, S. 135-140

Abstract

David Brandenberger provides, in his recent Nationalities Paper discussion paper "Stalin's populism and the accidental creation of Russian national identity" an interesting and plausible argument. However, his article contains several, to my view, controversial and unconvincing assumptions which is why I would like to add the below critical remarks to those already made by David R. Marples and Andreas Umland.