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Smirnova T. Ethnic Self-Organization in the post-Soviet space: Development, Structure and Dunctions

T. Smirnova
Dostoevsky Omsk State University;
Siberian branch of the Likhachev Russian Research Institute for Cultural and Natural Heritage
Omsk, Russian Federation
ORCID: 0000-0001-7533-5364
E-mail: smirnovatb@omsu.ru

 

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ABSTRACT. The article examines the migration processes after the collapse of the Soviet Union and ethnic self-organization under these conditions. The post-Soviet ethnic selforganization took place in the situation of high migration activity. 25.3 million Russians and hundreds of thousands of other nationalities found themselves outside the Russian Federation in the state of being a diaspora. Today, the number of Russians in 14 former Soviet republics (except Russia) is about six to eight million people; the newly independent states have become more and more mono-national with the predominance of the titular nation. In these conditions, ethnic organizations emerge with the main task of protecting the rights of their people. Ethnic self-organizing of diasporas is greatly influenced by high migration mobility, the importance of protecting the language and culture, and the historical homeland’s support level. The paper studies these processes using the example of three nations: Russians self-organizing in Kazakhstan, Kazakhs self-organizing in Russia, and Germans self-organizing in Russia and Kazakhstan. This approach allowed us to study the influence of the status of a nation (state-forming people or diaspora) on the system of ethnic public organizations in the post-Soviet space. The article examines the institutionalization of ethnicity in the Russian Federation and the Republic of Kazakhstan, as well as factors influencing the development of self-organization. These are state policies and legislation, demographic situation and migration, and support from the homeland. We pay particular attention to the structure and functions of self-organization in the independent states 30 years after their emergence.

 

KEYWORDS: self-organization, ethnicity, Russians, Germans, Kazakhs, post-Soviet space, Russia, Kazakhstan

 

DOI 10.31250/2618-8600-2024-1(23)-210-236
UDC 314.7

 

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