Inheriting the Soviet policy toolbox: Russia's dilemma over ascriptive nationality

Europe - Asia Studies

Volumn 51, Issue 6, 1999, Pages 1069-1087

  Simonsen, Sven Gunnar ^b  

^a PEACE RESEARCH INSTITUTE OSLO PRIO   (Norway)

^b NONE

Author keywords

[No Author keywords available]

Indexed keywords

CITIZENSHIP; NATIONAL IDENTITY; POLICY MAKING;

ARTICLE; CIVIL DISORDER; CULTURAL ANTHROPOLOGY; CULTURAL FACTOR; ECONOMICS; EDUCATION; ETHNOLOGY; HISTORY; INFORMATION PROCESSING; LEGAL ASPECT; MINORITY GROUP; MINORITY HEALTH; POLICY; POLITICAL SYSTEM; PSYCHOLOGICAL ASPECT; RUSSIAN FEDERATION; SOCIAL BEHAVIOR; SOCIOECONOMICS;

CIVIL DISORDERS; CULTURAL CHARACTERISTICS; CULTURAL DIVERSITY; HISTORY, 20TH CENTURY; MINORITY GROUPS; MINORITY HEALTH; POLITICAL SYSTEMS; PUBLIC POLICY; RECORDS AS TOPIC; RUSSIA; SOCIAL IDENTIFICATION; SOCIOECONOMIC FACTORS;

RUSSIAN FEDERATION;

EID: 0032732722     PISSN: 09668136     EISSN: None     Source Type: Journal    
DOI: 10.1080/09668139998633     Document Type: Article

References (75)

1. The author would like to thank Tor Bukkvoll, Pål Kolstø, Anatolii Yamskov and the anonymous referees for useful comments on earlier versions of this article.
2. Rogers Brubaker, Nationalism Reframed. Nationhood and the National Question in the New Europe (Cambridge University Press, 1996), p. 23.
3. Victor Zaslavsky, The Neo-Stalinist State. Class, Ethnicity, and Consensus in Soviet Society (M. E. Sharpe, 1982), p. 100.
4. In the Soviet Union, 14 of the 15 union republics were ethnically defined - as the homelands of Ukrainians, Latvians, Kazakhs etc. Only the largest one was not: the Russian Soviet Federal Socialist Republic (RSFSR). Here the word used for 'Russian' was rossiiskii ('all-Russian'), as opposed to russkii (Russian in an ethnic sense). At the same time, however, this union republic was itself made up of a large number of smaller entities, of which many were ethnically defined. Only the ethnic Russians, who in 1989 made up 81.5% of the RSFSR population and 50.8% of the USSR population, did not have an entity allocated for them specifically.
5. Francine Hirsch, 'The Soviet Union as a Work-in-Progress: Ethnographers and the Category Nationality in the 1926, 1937, and 1939 Censuses', Slavic Review, 56, 2, 1997, p. 255.
6. Incidentally, one Jewish activist who in late 1997 spoke in favour of maintaining the fifth point argued that while the fifth point undeniably created conditions for ethnic discrimination, it also served as a deterrent to discrimination in that it forced the totalitarian system to adhere to certain 'percentage quotas' in e.g. employment and education. 'The absence of the "nationality" parameter would have allowed the system to reduce those quotas to zero', he argued. See Aleksandr Frenkel, vice chairman of the Jewish Association of St Petersburg, 'In defense of "line five", Nezavisimaya gazeta, 10 November 1997, quoted in Current Digest of the Post-Soviet Press, XLIX, 45, 1997, p. 14. Another aspect of the fifth point, which by itself benefited the Jews, and also Germans, Greeks and Armenians, in the last decades of the Soviet Union, was that it in effect served as a criterion to decide who might have an opportunity to emigrate. This particular aspect, however, falls outside the present discussion.
7. Incidentally, one Jewish activist who in late 1997 spoke in favour of maintaining the fifth point argued that while the fifth point undeniably created conditions for ethnic discrimination, it also served as a deterrent to discrimination in that it forced the totalitarian system to adhere to certain 'percentage quotas' in e.g. employment and education. 'The absence of the "nationality" parameter would have allowed the system to reduce those quotas to zero', he argued. See Aleksandr Frenkel, vice chairman of the Jewish Association of St Petersburg, 'In defense of "line five", Nezavisimaya gazeta, 10 November 1997, quoted in Current Digest of the Post-Soviet Press, XLIX, 45, 1997, p. 14. Another aspect of the fifth point, which by itself benefited the Jews, and also Germans, Greeks and Armenians, in the last decades of the Soviet Union, was that it in effect served as a criterion to decide who might have an opportunity to emigrate. This particular aspect, however, falls outside the present discussion.
8. Viktor Kozlov, The Peoples of the Soviet Union (Indiana University Press, 1988), p. 191.
9. Brubaker, Nationalism Reframed, p. 32.
10. Zaslavsky, The Neo-Stalinist State, p. 103.
11. Ibid.
12. Pavel Baev & Pål Kolstø, 'Russian Minorities in the Former Soviet Union', in Sven Gunnar Simonsen (ed.), Conflicts in the OSCE Area (PRIO, 1997), p. 107. For an in-depth analysis of demographic developments in the Russian Empire and the USSR, see Pål Kolstø, Russians in the former Soviet republics (London, Hurst, 1995).
13. Pavel Baev & Pål Kolstø, 'Russian Minorities in the Former Soviet Union', in Sven Gunnar Simonsen (ed.), Conflicts in the OSCE Area (PRIO, 1997), p. 107. For an in-depth analysis of demographic developments in the Russian Empire and the USSR, see Pål Kolstø, Russians in the former Soviet republics (London, Hurst, 1995).
14. Veljko Vujacic & Victor Zaslavsky, 'The Causes of Disintegration in the USSR and Yugoslavia', Telos, No. 88, Summer 1991, p. 123.
15. Barbara A. Anderson & Brian D. Silver, 'Estimating Russification of Ethnic Identity Among Non-Russians in the USSR', Demography, 20, 4, November 1983, pp. 461-489.
16. Figures reprinted in Rasma Karklins, Ethnic Relations in the USSR. The Perspective From Below (Allen & Unwin, 1986) p. 38. It could be speculated that the outcome of these choices might have been different in rural areas. Ethnic Russians were particularly numerous in the cities in both the RSFSR and in the other union republics, and Russian nationality may therefore have been considered as a relatively greater asset there.
17. Stated by Mikhail Kulichenko, 1972. Quoted in Zaslavsky, The Neo-Stalinist State, p. 96.
18. The term encompassed both natsii (nations) and (some but not all) narody (peoples). The distinction between these two was one of assumed development. 17 Hirsch, 'The Soviet Union as a Work-in-Progress', pp. 251-278.
19. Kozlov, The Peoples of the Soviet Union, p. 15.
20. Goskomstat SSSR, Natsional'nyi sostav naseleniya SSSR (Moscow, Finansy i statistika, 1991), p. 3.
21. Yuri Slezkine, 'The USSR as a Communal Apartment, or How a Socialist State Promoted Ethnic Particularism', Slavic Review, 53. 2, 1994, p. 415.
22. Ibid., p. 414.
23. I am indebted to Anatolii Yamskov for this point.
24. For an analysis of Tishkov's programme as a minister, see Victor A. Kremenyuk, Conflicts in and Around Russia. Nation-Building in Difficult Times (Greenwood Press, 1994), pp. 55-66. See also Valery Tishkov, Ethnicity, Nationalism and Conflict in and After the Soviet Union. The Mind Aflame (PRIO/Sage, 1997).
25. For an analysis of Tishkov's programme as a minister, see Victor A. Kremenyuk, Conflicts in and Around Russia. Nation-Building in Difficult Times (Greenwood Press, 1994), pp. 55-66. See also Valery Tishkov, Ethnicity, Nationalism and Conflict in and After the Soviet Union. The Mind Aflame (PRIO/Sage, 1997).
26. I am grateful to Anatolii Yamskov for making this point to me.
27. 'Tataria Rejects Russian Passports - Because They Don't Have a Line for "Nationality" ', Kommersant-Daily, 18 October 1997, quoted in Current Digest of the Post-Soviet Press, XLIX, 42, 1997, p. 7.
28. 'Tataria Rejects Russian Passports - Because They Don't Have a Line for "Nationality" ', Kommersant-Daily, 18 October 1997, quoted in Current Digest of the Post-Soviet Press, XLIX, 42, 1997, p. 7.
29. A bill on Tatarstani citizenship was indeed introduced to the State Council in February 1998, and was met with fierce opposition from Russian-speaking members of the assembly. See Russian Regional Report, 19 March 1998.
30. 'For "Line Five", for the Cause of Peace - Heads of Republics Protest the New Russian Passports', Kommersant-Daily, 22 October 1997, quoted in Current Digest of the Post-Soviet Press, XLIX, 42, 1997, p. 7.
31. 'For "Line Five", for the Cause of Peace - Heads of Republics Protest the New Russian Passports', Kommersant-Daily, 22 October 1997, quoted in Current Digest of the Post-Soviet Press, XLIX, 42, 1997, p. 7.
32. Itar-Tass, quoted in BBC Summary of World Broadcasts, 15 November 1997, SU/D3077/B.
33. Russia TV channel, 4 November 1997, quoted in BBC Summary of World Broadcasts, 7 November 1997, SU/D3070/B.
34. Itar-Tass, 29 November 1997.
35. 'For "Line Five", for the Cause of Peace'.
36. Segodnya, 5 November 1997, as quoted by Russia Today, same date.
37. Segodnya, 5 November 1997, as quoted by Russia Today, same date.
38. Interfax, 5 November 1997.
39. Gail Lapidus & Renée de Nevers (eds), Nationalism, Ethnic Identity and Conflict Management in Russia Today, (Center for International Security and Arms Control, Stanford University, 1995), p. vii.
40. Leokadiya M. Drobizheva, 'Russkie v respublikakh Rossiiskoi Federatsii', in Moskovskii tsentr Karnegi, Mezhnatsional'nye otnosheniya v Rossii i SNG (Moscow, 'AIRO-XX', 1995), p. 122. These findings are based on the same project as the book edited by Lapidus & de Nevers. The Russian researchers deal with the findings in more detail in L. M. Drobizheva, A. R. Aklaev, V. V. Koroteeva & G. U. Soldatova, Demokratizatsiya i obrazy natsionalizma v Rossiiskoi Federatsii 90-kh godov (Moscow, Mysl, 1996).
41. Leokadiya M. Drobizheva, 'Russkie v respublikakh Rossiiskoi Federatsii', in Moskovskii tsentr Karnegi, Mezhnatsional'nye otnosheniya v Rossii i SNG (Moscow, 'AIRO-XX', 1995), p. 122. These findings are based on the same project as the book edited by Lapidus & de Nevers. The Russian researchers deal with the findings in more detail in L. M. Drobizheva, A. R. Aklaev, V. V. Koroteeva & G. U. Soldatova, Demokratizatsiya i obrazy natsionalizma v Rossiiskoi Federatsii 90-kh godov (Moscow, Mysl, 1996).
42. Svetlana Ryzhova, 'Inter-Group Ethnic Solidarity in Conditions of Constitutional Conflict: Russians in Sakha (Yakutia), Tatarstan, and Tuva', in Lapidus & de Nevers, p. 68.
43. Drobizheva, 'Russkie v respublikakh', pp. 123-124, 127.
44. Fond Obshchestvennoi Mnenii (FOM), weekly survey no. 374. URL: http://www.fom.ru/week/ t374_3.htm. Poll conducted in June 1998.
45. FOM weekly survey no. 396. URL:http://www.fom.ru/week/t396_1.htm.Poll conducted in August 1998.
46. Rossiiskie vesti, 31 December 1997, FBIS-SOV-98-007.
47. Graham Smith (ed.), The nationalities question in the post-Soviet states (Longman, 1996), p. 505. Readers with knowledge of Scandinavian languages will find a good discussion of this and related issues in Helge Blakkisrud, Den russiske føderasjon i støpeskjeen. Etniske og territorielle utfordringer (Oslo, Spartacus forlag, 1997).
48. Graham Smith (ed.), The nationalities question in the post-Soviet states (Longman, 1996), p. 505. Readers with knowledge of Scandinavian languages will find a good discussion of this and related issues in Helge Blakkisrud, Den russiske føderasjon i støpeskjeen. Etniske og territorielle utfordringer (Oslo, Spartacus forlag, 1997).
49. From Solzhenitsyn's address to the State Duma, October 1994. Reprinted in Grazhdanin Rossii, No. 21, 1994.
50. Interfax, 24 October 1997.
51. See 'Kontrrevolyutsiya voshla pod maskoi', Pravda, 4 February 1995; and 'Rutskoi', Vechernii Novosibirsk, 21 February 1995, FBIS-SOV-95-040.
52. See 'Kontrrevolyutsiya voshla pod maskoi', Pravda, 4 February 1995; and 'Rutskoi', Vechernii Novosibirsk, 21 February 1995, FBIS-SOV-95-040.
53. 'Aleksandr Rutskoi: "Ustayus's narodom ..." ', Tambovskaya zhizn', 20 December 1994.
54. For a discussion of different expressions of Russian nationalism, see Sven Gunnar Simonsen, 'Raising "the Russian Question". Ethnicity and Statehood - Russkie and Rossiya', Nationalism & Ethnic Politics, 2, 1, Spring 1996, pp. 91-110.
55. AFP, 24 October 1997.
56. Interfax, 24 October 1997, FBIS-SOV-97-297.
57. 'Programma Kommunisticheskoi partii Rossiiskoi Federatsii', in Informatsionnyi byulleten', No. 9 (50), 15 may 1997, p. 17.
58. Gennadii Zyuganov, 'Sovremennaya russkaya ideya - ob"edinyayushchaya ideologiya dlya nashei strany', Duma, No. 12, 1995, reprinted in Gennadii Zyuganov, Veryu v Rossiyu (Izdatel'sko-poligraficheskaya firma 'Voronezh', 1995), pp. 220-223.
59. Gennadii Zyuganov, 'Sovremennaya russkaya ideya - ob"edinyayushchaya ideologiya dlya nashei strany', Duma, No. 12, 1995, reprinted in Gennadii Zyuganov, Veryu v Rossiyu (Izdatel'sko-poligraficheskaya firma 'Voronezh', 1995), pp. 220-223.
60. 'K otechestvu', Pravda, 11 November 1993.
61. 'Osnovnye printsipy postroeniya Russkogo gosudarstvo', Russkii poryadok, 1994, 2-3 (15-16).
62. 'Osnovnye polozheniya programmy dvizheniya Russkoe Natsional'noe Edinstvo po postroeniyu natsional'nogo gosudarstva', Russkii poryadok, No. 9-10, December 1993-January 1994. For a detailed analysis of the ideology of the RNE, see Sven Gunnar Simonsen, 'Aleksandr Barkashov and the RNE: Blackshirt Friends of the Nation', Nationalities Papers, 24, 4, 1996.
63. 'Osnovnye polozheniya programmy dvizheniya Russkoe Natsional'noe Edinstvo po postroeniyu natsional'nogo gosudarstva', Russkii poryadok, No. 9-10, December 1993-January 1994. For a detailed analysis of the ideology of the RNE, see Sven Gunnar Simonsen, 'Aleksandr Barkashov and the RNE: Blackshirt Friends of the Nation', Nationalities Papers, 24, 4, 1996.
64. Aleksandr Sterligov, Nam nuzhno chisto russkoe reshenie, 1993 appeal from the executive committee of the nationalist organisation Russian National Assembly (Russkoe natsional'noe sobranie), which he headed.
65. Konstitutsiya rossiiskoi federatsii (Izdatelstvo 'OS-89', 1997).
66. 'Battles over the passport', Rossiiskie vesti, 1 April 1997, in Current Digest of the Post-Soviet Press, XLIX, 13, 1997, p. 21.
67. 'Battles over the passport', Rossiiskie vesti, 1 April 1997, in Current Digest of the Post-Soviet Press, XLIX, 13, 1997, p. 21.
68. George Breslauer & Catherine Dale, 'Boris Yelt'tsin and the Invention of a Russian Nation-State', Post-Soviet Affairs, 13, 4, 1997, p. 329.
69. ITAR-TASS, 2 December 1997.
70. 'Statute on the RF Citizen's Passport', Rossiiskaya gazeta, 16 July 1997, FBIS-SOV-97-157-S.
71. As a matter of fact, neither the flag, national anthemn or emblem which are in use today are formally acknowledged as Russia's state symbols. In late January 1998 the Duma refused to approve any of these. Communist, Agrarian and Nationalist deputies favoured a return to the old red flag, without the hammer and sickle. RIA Novosti, 23 January 1998, as quoted by The Jamestown Foundation Monitor, same day.
72. Itar-Tass, 12 July 1996, quoted in Breslauer & Dale; 'Boris Yel'tsin and the Invention ...', p. 303.
73. Gruppa konsul'tantov pri Administratsii Prezidenta Rossiiskoi Federatsii, Rossiya v poiskakh idei. Analiz pressy, Rabochie materialy, Vypusk 1 (Moscow, 1997).
74. At this point we are talking only about the members of the public belonging to the titular population, and not the ethnic Russians or the non-Russian, non-titular natsmeny residing in a given republic.
75. Karklins, Ethnic Relations in the USSR, p. 32.