All-Russian National Identity: Searching for Definition and Distribution Dynamics

All-Russian National Identity:
Searching for Definition and Distribution Dynamics


Drobizheva L.M.

Dr. Sci. (Hist.), Chief Researcher, Head of the Center for the Study of Interethnic Relations, Institute of Sociology FCTAS RAS; Professor-Researcher, National Research University Higher School of Economics, Moscow, Russia drobizheva@yandex.ru

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The paper was funded by the Russian Foundation for Basic Research via grant No. 20-011-00241.


For citation:

Drobizheva L.M. All-Russian National Identity: Searching for Definition and Distribution Dynamics. Sotsiologicheskie issledovaniya [Sociological Studies]. 2020. No 8. P. 37-50




Abstract

The article is devoted to the formation of all-Russian identity in an ethno-cultural complex society. The article analyzes the main debates in the scientific and socio-political community about the understanding of integrating identity. Changes in its interpretation in the “Strategy of state national policy for the period up to 2025“ and competing interpretations of all-Russian identity during the discussion of the amendments to the 1993 Constitution are shown. On the basis of the most representative Russian studies – Russian monitoring of the economic situation and public health (RLMS-HSE), Institute of Sociology FCTAS RAS and FADN–WCIOM, author shows development of all-Russian national identity in the 2000s, main socio-demographic profiles of people who have actualized national identity, their focus on interethnic consent and trust. The author argues for the compatibility of all-Russian and ethnic identity under the condition of their nonhyperbolization. It is proved that the interpretation of integrating identity as all-Russian civic identity has a basis in the everyday experience of people. At the same time, this identity is dynamic, it depends on the political and social conditions of the country. Ideas about citizenship, language, territory, history, and cultural community are changeable, not differentiated, and nominal for some in the population. Efforts are required from the state and society to form and get their approval through education, media space and public activity.


Keywords
Russian identity, state identity; national identity; ethnic identity; interethnic consent; ethnocultural complex society; Russian state nation

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Content No 8, 2020