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2017.01.005. V. ZORIN. THE MOSLEMS OF RUSSIA: FUNDAMENTALS FOR CIVIL IDENTITY FORMING // "Islam v sovremennom mire". Moscow, 2016, volume 12, P. 117-126.
Keywords: Islam, the Moslems in Russia, civil identity, inter-confessional relations, Islam-governmental relations.
V. Zorin,
Dr. Sc. (Political), Professor,
Deputy Director of the Institute of Ethnology
and Anthropology, RAS
For Russia inter-ethnic and inter-confessional relations have always been a priority for the interior and national security. As the practice approved the fundamental statements concerning the necessity of a principle «unity in diversity» correspond not only to daily needs to provide a civil content in the state but it is the only principle realized to establish multi-ethnic and polyconfessional country. V. Zorin underlines that a new ideology of civil nation building doesn't mean a negation or blending of the Russian nationalities by no means (a meaning of this word in ethnic sense) in some multi-cultural community named "the Russian nation".
Russia is the multi-confessional state. A population inhabiting nine federal regions of the Russian Federation differs not only by ethnic make-up but also by religious identity. In Russia there are no official data concerning citizen number based on religious identity. All Russian polls don't take a religious identity into account. The researchers use the different indirect methods to evaluate a religious identity of the population: opinion poll findings, official registration data of religious organizations. There also exists a so-called ethnographic method when some or other nationalities are announced as adepts of concrete confessions: the Russians - the Orthodox Christians, the Tatars - the Moslems, the Kalmyks -the Buddhists and etc. However, one neglects the fact that there
are adepts not only of one but many religions in each nationality and there are also unbelievers. None of the above-mentioned methods can point the number of the unbelievers - they can be used only for approximate value of the population number according to cultural-religious tradition.
One should distinguish concepts "population structure due to a religious tradition" and "the number of unbelievers due to confessions". The first concept includes not only the believers but also those consider a concrete religious-cultural tradition to be close to them (owing to their upbringing, education, a way of life, conditions traditions and etc). Analyzing the National Census data of 2002 and 2011 more than 70 nationalities can be added to the orthodox cultural tradition with a total number 124,3 millions of individuals or 86% of the population. But this number doesn't concern the orthodox believers and all the more the number of the believers. Some part of this stratum refers itself to the other religious trends. For example, many people of the North refer themselves to both the Orthodox and to the people's cults, shamanism what is typical for some people of the Republic of Altay and the Volga region. The concrete part of the Russian population is the followers of the different trends of Protestantism and so-called new (for Russia) religious trends. The "Russian Moslems" also appeared. Some researches define their number about 10 000. Some part isn't bound with the religion at all. According to the data of the sociological polls the population number of the Orthodox cultural tradition in Russia can be estimated as 100-110 millions of people (about 72% of population). More than 65 nationalities can belong to the Islam cultural tradition - it is 16,1 millions of people or 11% of the country population. According to data of the sociological polls the population number of the Islam cultural tradition can be estimated as 7,2 millions of people (about 5% of the population).
According to a general expert's opinion the Moslem problem in Russia (pre-revolutionary Russian empire, in the USSR and in modern post-Soviet Russian Federation) was always
urgent and demanded its concrete-historical approach. The state authority in Russia always understood that ignoring of the Islam factor is fraught with serious consequences when making and conducting the internal and foreign policy. For modern Russia the solution of a problem on the political integration of the own Moslem population is linked with a problem on the territorial integrity and the national security and also with a possibility to form a stable political system. In modern Russia there are specific Islam-governmental relations including some political and ideological problems associated with ethnic tradition, culture and migration. These relations influence on a stability of the public relations. V. Zorin illustrates this situation on the example of the North-West region. At the territory of the North-West federal region the biggest ethnic groups traditionally professing the Islam are the Tatars, the Azerbaijanis, the Uzbeks and the Tajiks. Their total number is 141,3 thousands of people and a little bit more than 1% of the federal region population according to the National Census data. The Tatar-Bashkir community inhabiting the North-West from the Peter's reforms greatly influences on the activity of the official Islam structures. The friendly association of the northern Caucasian ethnos notably emerged during the last decades and it brought to the new Moslem communities formation (the Chechens, the Dagestans).
Migration dynamics makes a strong impact on the population and the ethnic composition of the macro-region ummah. Till 2015 a quarter of the migration in Saint-Petersburg and Leningradskaya oblast was ensured owing to the citizens of Uzbekistan and Tajikistan (these two subjects of the Russian Federation absorb 80% of the whole external migration in the North-West federal region so these data are of a great importance to analyze the migration). In 2011-2013 a migration from the Central Asian countries was especially intensive. According to the polls 1,3% of the population was placed among the Islam followers in the federal region as a whole and it corresponds to
the data on the ethnic population composition. The Moslems sojourning at the territory of Russia aren't in the extracts.
The data on religious organizations also show that this religion is of a great importance at the confessional territory of the federal region: about 40 out of more than 2100 registered organizations or 1,8% belong to the Islam. There are also many non-registered Islam groups praying in the tenure dwellings or in the utilities rooms independently or under a supervision of amateur imams. There are five mosques at the territory of the federal region including two cathedral ones (Saint-Petersburg and Vologda) and also some chapels. As a whole the activity of the Islam official organizations is stable and provides the inter-confessional consent.
The Islam education is included in the process for international and inter-religious relations harmonization. One of the reasons promoting the growth of the radical mood youth is a low level of training of the Moslem clergy and as a result - the radical preachers studied abroad are very popular. At present imam is a basic element for the Moslem community development in Russia. Increasing their level of training the religious boards will form a regular reserve with the help of the authority. To the researcher's opinion the native personnel training will lead to a system of competitive native training and native theological school.
At present one of the functions of religion and religious organizations is that they can be a resource for the political and social consolidation. They provide the national interests and consolidation of the native speakers of the Russian civilized identity with the help of the civil, cultural and religious moments promoting the interests of Russia. "People's democracy" and "gentle force" of the traditional Russian organizations will promote to improve the international image of Russia and to solve strategic geopolitical tasks.
At the present stage as V. Zorin points out the Christian and the Moslem religious and secular cultures cooperation
becomes the important resource of the community in the political life of Russia. It is necessary to achieve harmony in relation to basic values of the community in the political life taking into the account the Russian civilized and cultural context and the Eurasian choice of the country.
The author of the abstract - V. Schensnovich.
