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Ibrahim RASHIDOV
Leading Fellow at Daghestan State University, Member of the Supreme Council of the Congress of Peoples of Daghestan (Makhachkala, the Russian Federation).
EROSION OF ETHNIC IDENTITY AND
ITS CONSEQUENCES IN THE NORTH CAUCASIAN REGION
Abstract
T
his article examines de-ethnicization, the erosion of ethnic identity, and the destruction of the basic elements of
the indigenous peoples' spiritual culture caused by Russia, assuming the role of the dominating nation, practicing historically de-
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veloped strategies (assimilation, population migration, formation of prejudices, and so on) in the Caucasus. It looks at the inter-
dependence of Russia's nationalities policy and the drop in the conflict-prone threshold in the region.
Introduction
Russia's policy in the Caucasus has been based throughout history on several strategies espoused by the dominating nation identified in sociology (assimilation, population migration, formation of prejudices, and so on), which has led to continued de-ethnicization, erosion of the ethnic identity of the indigenous peoples, and destruction of the basic elements of their spiritual culture. The annihilation of the ethnic identify of the indigenous peoples is reflected in the sociopolitical, criminological, and conflict-prone situation in the Northern Caucasus.
Reasons Why the Concepts "Identity" and "Ethnic Identity" Have Become Pertinent
In the past few years, the concept "identity" in its different connotations and diverse aspects has come to be used all the more frequently both in the special scientific literature and in public life. What is identity and why are problems of identity such a burning concern for scientists, politicians, journalists, and ordinary citizens alike?
The term "identity" has been widely used in the humanitarian sciences and interdisciplinary research since the end of the 1970s thanks to the studies of Erik Erikson.1 In the Sociological Encyclopedic Dictionary, identity is defined as a person's conception of his or her personal idiosyncrasies as distinct from other people's.2 According to Touraine's definition, "identity is the conscious self-identification of a social entity."3 While Dragunskiy puts it as follows: "Identity selects, formulates, packages, and transmits social values, social action skills, situation assessment, and stereotypes for perceiving the outside world."4 "Identity, that is, self-determination of the individual in relation to others/another, him/herself/others, is a social construct. A person always has to feel him/herself a part of "we,"5 writes Magomedova.
Identity is a quality that is immanently inherent in humans and human communities. Of all living creatures, only humans have special idiosyncrasies engendered not only by natural and biological, but also by moral, ethnic, and esthetic factors. For example, the literature likes to affirm the existence of national, ethnic, ethnocultural, racial, cultural, social, age-related, professional, regional, property, political, and several other types of identity. "It is precisely these predicates to the concept of 'identity' that are generally recognized and the most frequent."6
1 See: E.H. Erikson, Identity: Youth and Crisis, W.W. Norton, New York, 1968.
2 See: Sotsiologicheskiy entsiklopedicheskiy slivar, Editor-Coordinator G. Osipov, NORMA-INFRA Publishers, Moscow, 2000, p. 94.
3 A. Touraine, Production de la société, Paris, 1973, p. 360.
4 D. Dragunskiy, "Natsionalnaia identichnost: infrastrukturno-institutsionalny podkhod," in: Problemy identichnos-ti: chelovek i obshchestvo na poroge tretego tysiacheletiia, Moscow, 2003, p. 46.
5 M. Magomedova, Identichnost i tolerantnost kak uslovie stabilnosti severokavkazskogo sotsiuma, Makhchkala, 2009, p. 150.
6 S.Iu. Ivanova, E.A. Arakelian, "Stanovlenie grazhdanskoi identichnosti v polietnicheskom sotsiume," in: Vektor identichnosti na postsovetskom prostranstve: Materialy Mezhdunarodnogo "kruglogo stola, " Southern Scientific Center of RAS Publishers, Rostov-on-Don, 2007, p. 80.
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Social identity is becoming more pertinent in Russia due to the various transformations that are changing not only social relations, but also people's internal world, and also to the fact that "basic values are being realized through identification of the individual with a real or imaginary human community, as well as through assimilating social roles and standards of behavior based on their reproduction or copying."7
In the context of this vector, the problem of ethnic identity becomes particularly pertinent, that is, the individual's affiliation with a particular ethnicity. Modern science regards ethnicity as the affiliation of people with a group that differs from others in the sum-total of its material and spiritual values. "Ethnic identity is viewed from different standpoints and the objectives of research differ to a certain extent. For example, psychologists are interested in the role of ethnicity in the self-consciousness and behavior of the individual, while social psychologists understand ethnic identity as a special conceptual type through which the members of an ethnic group comprehend ethnic significance."8
It is well known that there is no such thing as an extra-historical or extra-national individual, since each person belongs to a particular ethnic group. "Ethnic identity is recognizing oneself as the representative of a particular ethnicity, the human experience of identity with one ethnic community and separation from others."9
As T. Stefanenko believes, "ethnic identity is a component of an individual's social identity, the psychological category that relates to recognizing one's affiliation with a specific ethnic com-munity."10
According to N. Skvortsov, ethnic identity is a multilevel concept: at the first level, identification emerges that serves as the basis for forming the "we-they" juxtaposition, at the second level, images of other ethnic groups form, that is, they are endowed with certain characteristics (cultural, status, and so on), and at the third level, ethnic ideology arises as a sum-total of ideas about the past, present, and future of one's own ethnic group in relation to other ethnic groups.11
"Identity is one of the most important mechanisms of personal development of social reality on which the system of personal meanings is based. A person organizes and directs his or her behavior in keeping with subjectively designated identifications."12
Without repeating the definitions already known to science, I'll try to give my own understanding of this concept. Ethnic identity is the sum-total of external and internal features inherent in a particular ethnicity and distinguishing it from other ethnicities, both in the eyes (ideas) of the bearers of the particular identity and in the eyes (ideas) ofpeople of another ethnicity. Or to be more precise: identity is the sum-total of characteristics, real and archetypical, that distinguish one ethnicity from another, have deep historical and psychological roots, and are the most important (perhaps even sacral) values for its bearers.
With respect to the problem being researched, sociologists are interested in the collective meaning of ethnicity and its manifestation in society13 or the constructivism of ethnic identity,14 while
7 Ibid., p. 78.
8 Ibidem.
9 M. Magomedova, op. cit.
10 T.G. Stefanenko, "Sotsialno-psikhologicheskie aspekty izucheniia etnicheskoi identichnosti," Flogiston, Moscow, 1999, available at [http://flogiston.ru/articles/social/etnic].
11 See: N.G. Skvortsov, "Etnichnost i transformatsionnye protsessy," in: Etnichnost. Natsionalnye dvizheniia. Sot-sialnaia praktika, Collection of articles, St. Petersburg, 1995, pp. 10-11.
12 M. Magomedova, "Etnicheskaia identichnost kak uslovie mezhkulturnogo vzaimodeistviia v polietnicheskom sotsiume," in: 20 let reform: itogi i perspektivy, Collection of articles, ed. by M.K. Gorshkov, A.-N.Z. Dibirov, Moscow, Makhachkala, 2011, p. 508.
13 See: G. Williams, "Sociology," in: Handbook of Language & Ethnic Identity, ed. by J. Fishman, New York & Oxford, 1999, pp. 164-180.
14 See: V. Voronkov, I. Oswald, "Vvedenie. Postsovetskie etnichnosti," in: Konstruirovanie etnichnosti. Etnichesk-ie obshchiny Sankt-Peterburga, St. Petersburg, 1998, pp. 6-36.
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sociolinguists, in turn, are interested in the linguistic behavior of the group and the changes occurring between ethnicity and language.15
The cultural value of ethnic identity is very high since it provides more opportunity than any other group identity for the self-realization of an individual. For an individual, it is precisely the ethnic group he or she belongs to that appears more important and greater than the person him/herself and that largely defines the boundaries and direction of his/her life strivings, continuing to exist after he/she is gone. This at once sacral and natural perception of one's ethnicity stems from the fact that the person does not choose it.
The reason this concept is becoming pertinent at present is explained by the tectonic processes in social life caused by the global and extensive restructuring of all former relations in the human community, as well as the restructuring of all public institutions responsible for the stability and sus-tainability of both personal relationships and relationships between groups, ethnicities, and nations. In the second half of the 20th century, processes intensified that were characterized by a sudden waking up to one's ethnic identity—affiliation with a specific ethnicity or ethnic community.
The heightened awareness of ethnic identity that has affected the population of many countries has been called the ethnic paradox of the present day, since this process is occurring during greater economic, political, and cultural unification among peoples. At present, an ethnic renaissance is seen as one of the main factors of human development.
Problems of Ethnic Identity in Present-Day Daghestani Society
Most contemporary societies are keenly interested in preserving ethnic identity as an integral part of an individual's social identity. "In a polycultural environment, ethnic identity is becoming a particularly sensitive issue and is an unwavering value that provides certain psychological sup-port."16
Today processes are going on in the world that are causing serious deformations of the identity of ethnicities and threatening their existence. This deformation process is taking place in different ways in different places and in different ethnicities. But nowhere is it going on entirely unnoticed. The sensitive attitude toward deformation of identity or its loss is a natural and entirely understandable phenomenon. In the context of this article, I am interested in the influence of deformations that change ethnic identity or threaten its existence on the conflict-prone situation in general and in the Northern Caucasus in particular.
Ethnic identity is not a trend or passing fad, or even a religion, it is the reflection of many centuries of communicative and sacral experience of a specific ethnicity related to relations both within the ethnicity and outside it, and imprinted at a conscious and subconscious level in every member of a particular ethnicity. Ethnic identity is not only an understanding of one's affiliation with an ethnic community, but also its evaluation, the significance of membership in it, and shared ethic feelings (feelings of worth, pride, insult, fear) that are the most important criteria of ethnic comparisons. These feelings are based on deep emotional ties between the individual and ethnic community and moral obligations toward it, and are formed during socialization of the individual.
15 See: J. Fishman, "Sociolinguists," in: Handbook of Language & Ethnic Identity, pp. 152-163.
16 A. Leontiev, "Rossiia: mnogokulturnost i tolerantnost," in: Mezhkulturny dialog: isseldovaniia i praktika, ed. by G.U. Soldatova, T.Iu. Prokopieva, T.A. Liutaia, Media Center of Lomonosov Moscow State University, Moscow, 2004, p. 188.
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Ethnic self-awareness functions in "the context of inter-group relations, that is, there has to be another group position."17 Stability of identification ensures a person's ability to achieve a harmonious correlation between his/her own idea of him/herself and the ideas of others, between the social and individual "I." However, adaptation is a dynamic process since during human development identity is tested by the reality of the changing external world, the active understanding of one's place in the world, one's goals, strivings, and relationships with others. This makes it possible for a regulated and psychosocial crisis, also first noted by Erik Erikson, to occur.
A crisis arouses similar reactions in both the individual and the group—frustration, depression, aggression, and internal conflict. Nevertheless, according to Erik Erikson, a psychosocial crisis is an inevitable stage in self-development of the individual on the way to acquiring a new, more mature identity. He also emphasized the close ties between a crisis of identity and crises of social development. This is because an identity crisis usually occurs when a collapse (which begins under the influence of an acute social crisis) in the ideals and values inherent in a previously dominating political culture forces people to look for new spiritual guidelines for understanding their place in the changing society and their relationship with the state and the social environment.
Positive and negative elements are singled out in the structure of identity. The formation of identity is always accompanied by a standoff between these elements. Depending on how intensive the social crisis is, a situation could arise when negative elements in large groups of people come to the fore and overshadow positive identity. "Negative identity is built on 'I/we are not like that' and harbors non-acceptance or negation of a particular social object or total opposition between 'us' and 'them'... Positive identity is conscious communality with positively significant others (with 'we'), without severe opposition between 'us' and 'them.' Negative identity, on the other hand, is consolidation of the 'we' community based on total opposition to negatively significant others ('they')."18
Multitudinous studies have also shown that there is a close internal tie between positive group (ethnic) identity and outgroup tolerance (between ethnic groups). Professor N. Lebedeva notes that ethnic tolerance is understood as the absence of a negative attitude to another ethnic culture, as well as a positive image of another culture while preserving a positive perception of one's own, that is, "ethnic tolerance is not a consequence of assimilation as rejection of one's own culture, but a characteristic of integration between ethnic groups."19
Threat of the loss of ethnic identity, not to mention its actual loss, is perceived by the bearers of this identity as a threat to the existence of the ethnicity, its annihilation. The energy released from this annihilation (even if it is not real but only felt by the bearers of identity) finds different expressions and frequently not the most pleasant, including armed conflicts and wars. So the state, particularly a polyethnic one, must safeguard the ethnic identity of the people residing in it, it should not be a casual observer in this issue nor a protector of the ethnic identity of an especially chosen, even the numerically largest ethnicity or separate group of ethnicities.
While eroding ethnic identity, globalization cannot destroy it completely and create a new person who exists outside ethnicity and culture. At historically critical moments, it is ethnic ties and relations that people turn to, since they provide a sense of stability, which can often be seen in the modern world. F. Cassidy notes: "In our opinion, globalization, the Internet, and other latest information means can promote the manifestation of the best or worst, highest or lowest aspects of human nature. But they cannot give birth to a new person, that is, a person outside a particular ethnicity or
17 G.U Soldatova, "Ustanovochnye obrazovaniia v etnokontaktnoi situatsii," in: Dukhovnaia kultura i etnicheskoe samosoznanie natsii, Issue 1, Moscow, 1990, p. 224.
18 T.N. Eriksen, Ethnicity and Nationalism: Anthropological Perspectives, Boulder, London, 1993, pp. 677-679.
19 N.M. Lebedeva, "Teoretiko-metodologicheskie osnovy isseldovaniia etnicheskoi identichnosti i tolerantnost polikulturnykh regionakh Rossii i SNG," in: Identichnost i tolerantnost, Moscow, 2002.
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leading civilization, or outside the large ethnicities, the history and culture of which go back for mil-lennia."20
Ethnic mentality is the primary form of mentality of any sociocultural entity, since all other forms of mentality are specific modifications of ethnic mentality. From the viewpoint of the sociocul-tural approach, ethnic mentality is a kind of memory people have of the past, a psychological determinant of behavior of millions of people true to their historically developed code in any circumstances, including catastrophic.
Let us take a look at the policy of the Russian Federation in the light of the problems that interest us, that is: the ethnic identities of the indigenous (non-Russian) ethnicities living in the Russian Federation and deformation of the ethnic identities of these peoples caused by the nationalities policy of the Russian Federation. In keeping with its name, the Russian Federation is a federative state or at least positions itself as one. However, is it really a form of state structure in which several state entities that legally have a certain amount of political independence form one union state?
The Russian state developed in territories historically populated by numerous indigenous (non-Russian) peoples with their own languages, cultures, traditions, models, and ways of behavior, and so on, as well as territories (areas) of their own habitation (emergence, residence, livelihood, and development). Despite its declared federative nature, the Russian Federation is essentially a unitary state (in many respects even stricter than the Soviet Union). Neither the state structure (let us not be confused by the existence of so-called national republics in the Russian Federation: they are no different from other regions of the Russian Federation that do not have this status), nor the legislation takes into account the polyethnic and polycultural nature of the population of the Russian Federation, although the absolute majority of all the non-Russian ethnicities live within the boundaries of their historically developed place of traditional settlement (within one or several adjacent constituent regions of the Russian Federation). It should be noted that there are no laws in the Russian Federation that are openly directed against the identities of the indigenous peoples residing in the Russian Federation or that openly declare their de-ethnicization and Russification. But this does not stop the destructive impact of the state on ethnic identities.
Daghestan, which is 50,270,000 sq. km in area and has a population of 2 million 910,249 people, is home to the representatives of more than 30 nationalities with their own languages and dialects. Language is the custodian of the entire diversity of accumulated knowledge, life experience, and customs of the ethnicity preserved in time and transferred on to the next generations. This generates the idea about the natural affiliation of the bearer of a particular language to the linguistic and national community "we." Not only the destiny of the languages of the peoples of Daghestan with their unique cultures, but also the destiny of the peoples themselves who are the bearers of these languages and cultures depend on the extent to which a correct linguistic policy is carried out in the Republic of Daghestan.
According to the Constitution of the Republic of Daghestan (Art 11) "the Russian language and the languages of the peoples of Daghestan are the state languages of the Republic of Daghestan. In the Republic of Daghestan, all the peoples living in its territory are guaranteed the right to preservation of their native language and the creation of conditions for its study and development."21 However, it is not entirely clear which languages in particular are considered the languages of the peoples of Daghestan as envisaged by the Constitution of the Republic of Daghestan, since according to different estimates, there are between 28 and 32 languages in the republic.
At present, only the Russian language successfully performs the state function to the fullest extent. Not one other language in Daghestan, regardless of how it is declared, performs the high mis-
20 Quoted from: S.V. Popova, "Etnicheskaia identichnost v globaliziruiushchemsia mire," in: Vektor identichnosti na postsovetskom prostranstve: Materialy Mezhdunarodnogo "kruglogo stola," p. 209.
21 Constitution of the Republic of Daghestan, available in Russian at [http:// constitution.garant.ru/ region/ cons_dagest/ chapter /1/#100].
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sion of being the state language. Not even at least one third of the population speaks in any one of the languages of Daghestan in the republic. Not one language of Daghestan, apart from Russian, of which more than 80% of the population has a command, is a language that unites the whole of Daghestani society. None of the current Russian laws—On the Languages of the Peoples of the Russian Federation, On Education, the Russian Federation Constitution, or the Constitution of the Republic of Daghestan—resolves the question of the status of languages. They state that study of the Russian language is mandatory, while study of native languages is voluntary, that is, a citizen has the right to study his or her native language. As the real practice that has been going on in our country for dozens of years shows, the principle of voluntary study of native languages has led to a drop in their social functions and to their perceptibly passive use.
The sphere in which native languages are used (even if they are still spoken) has been narrowed down to the family and the non-mandatory school subject "native language," as well as to newspapers and magazines (in far from all the national languages) that few people read due to poor knowledge of the particular language and the biased content, as well as the small number of national theaters that usually located in the capital and so not very accessible to most of the people. After all, the principal goal of linguistic policy is to ensure conditions for the functioning of language as a cultural factor promoting national integration.
The problem of the disappearance of languages has frequently been raised in the scientific literature and media. "An entire generation of people has appeared that belong to a particular ethnicity of Daghestan but at the same time do not know their native language, speak in Russian, wear European clothing, and essentially have nothing to do with the community and bearers of the language, customs, traditions, and culture of the ethnicity to which they say they belong. Who are they?"22 asks sociologist A.-N.Z. Dibirov.
"The existence of a large number of ethnicities and languages, the absence of a deeply conceived theory and methodology of nationalities policy and legal norms in a multiethnic state, as well as the different level of development and functioning of languages do not make it possible to carry out a linguistic policy in practice aimed primarily at real provision of equality of all languages."23
"Since peoples who do not have their own information channels receive information from other states, they form not a national, but a colonial mentality that ignores their own spiritual values. This is now so obvious that there is no need to give any examples."24
The languages of the peoples of the Northern Caucasus should be preserved and perform their important ethnocultural functions not only in the family and cultural sphere. Their development is in need of state support in the form of textbooks and other literature in the national languages, support of national media and programs on television, and so on.
Nationalities Policy of the Russian Federation and Drop in the Conflict-Prone Threshold in the Region
Let me say a few words about the policy being carried out by the Russian Federation in the Northern Caucasus, and to be more precise in one of the Russian constituencies in the Northern
22 A.-N.Z. Dibirov, "O 'piatnadtsatoi narodnosti' Daghestana," in: 20 let reform: itogi i perspektivy, p. 472.
23 G.I. Magomedov, "Rodnoi iazyk-sredstvo razvitiia i sokhraneniia obshchestva," Mykhabishdy, Issue 9, available at [http://www.etnosmi.ru/rutul/one_stat.php?id=332#].
24 J.B. Biazrova, "Globalizatsiia i problemy natsionalnykh tsennostei," Filosophiia i obshchestvo, No. 4, 2004, p. 67.
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Caucasus—the Republic of Daghestan. From the very beginning of the establishment of Soviet power in the Daghestan Republic a policy was carried out aimed at "colonizing" the valley (lowland) territories. This policy was pursued by moving the mountain people down into the valleys, creating new settlements, collective farms, and state-run farms, assigning land to them, and also setting aside land for mountain farmers to engage in distant-pasture cattle rearing and preparing fodder. Distant-pasture cattle rearing has long become a thing of the past, but the land set aside for temporary use is still used by and remains the essential property of the people moved down to the valleys.
This policy pursued not only economic, but also ethno-demographic goals. Proof of this is the documents of the 1920s that apply to the territories taken from the Mountain Republic (Tersk Region) and joined to the Republic of Daghestan and state the need for carrying out a so-called localization policy of the local population of the acceded territories. However, no localization was carried out. On the contrary, there was de-ethnicization and Russification of the Daghestanis resettled in the cities and valleys. It can be said that they have essentially lost their traditional national cultures and customs.
The initially controversial nature of the national-territorial demarcation of peoples carried out with violations of historical and ethnic reality led to the current ethnic conflicts that have destabilized the ethnopolitical situation in the region. The functioning of the Republic of Daghestan as an integral and effective administrative entity is characterized by the diversity of its ethnonational communities, the interests of which frequently come into direct conflict with respect to a whole series of vitally important issues.
One such issue in the Republic of Daghestan is the clash of interests of different peoples, communities of certain villages, and population of the suburban settlements of cities with the interests of the city administrations in claims to the possession of certain territories.
These land-territorial conflicts have already brought certain indigenous peoples to the brink of defending their interests with arms. Land-territorial conflicts continue to disturb the republic in different areas today and are often accompanied by mass demonstrations in Makhachkala, which sometimes leads to severe clashes with the law-enforcement bodies.
A deep and comprehensive study of this phenomenon is needed in order to understand the nature of the land-territorial conflict phenomenon and the mechanisms that cause an increase both in the number of people drawn into the process and the geography of its dissemination in Daghestan. Moreover, this study should embrace all the forms of its manifestations, the reasons for them, and the negative trends that might cause a conflict to spiral out of control. However, it seems to me that the reaction is unjustifiably indifferent: from several publications it can be concluded that both for the authorities and for science, the deformation being experienced by the Daghestani ethnicities is an obvious and indisputable fact.
"Indeed, whether we like it or not, the Daghestani languages will at some point leave the arena of communication. The same fate awaits the languages of other national minorities. This is an objective process that cannot be stopped by any decrees or orders..,"25 we read in the republican newspaper Daghestanskaia pravda. The same thought was voiced at a conference on the Problems of Genre in the Study of Language and Literature of Daghestan in a report by Shaban Mazanaev, who, "addressing the topic of how the languages of numerically small peoples—the Rutul, Aghul, and Tsakhur peoples—are dying out, talked about the inevitable processes of assimilation and the magnitude of the Russian language as the main one that Daghestanis speak."26
Loss of language and loss of name mean loss of identity. Erosion of ethnic identity inevitably leads to a breakdown in ethnic and moral barriers and restrictions in the society, both at the level of the
25 G. Nurmagomedov, "Iazyk do rodiny dovedet," Daghestanskaia pravda, 15 November, 2011, available at [http:// dagpravda.ru/?com=materials&task=view&page=material&id=20197].
26 Kh. Nisredova, "V krugu filologov," Daghestanskiy universitet, No. 1, 2012.
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individual and of society. In this respect, the viewpoint of Daghestani political scientist A.-N.Z. Dibirov on the negative consequences of the appearance of a new "fifteenth nationality" of Daghestan is rather interesting. It is easy to manipulate for one's own ends the group behavior of the "fifteenth nationality," which has a more emotional than rational foundation. It is obvious that it is precisely representatives of this nationality that are currently the main targets of the religious expansion of Islam, since when deprived of objective grounds subjective ethnic self-identification searches for a stronger foundation on which to build its identity. "Torn from their intrinsic national soil, with a weakened genetic memory, they are inclined to blow even small problems out of all proportion and interpret many social problems through the prism of nationalism. Without their own identity, without knowledge of their native language, unable to be bearers of the culture of their people, they are largely inclined to be disparaging of the cultural uniqueness of others."27
Whereas some elements of identity, particularly language and formal knowledge of religious and ethic norms, can still be retained when creating certain conditions, restoring a moral and sacral attitude toward them requires exerted efforts both from the ethnic elites and from the state.
Tradition plays the most important role in ethnic culture. Cultural tradition is one of the vital mechanisms for maintaining and preserving the sustainability of norms, values, and images of ethnic culture. The incident when guns were fired during a Daghestani wedding celebration in Moscow (September 2012) showed not devotion to traditions, but their loss, which the state takes very calmly.
Such incidences have long become par for the course in Makhachkala. One year ago, on 18 October, 2011, a press conference was held at the editorial office of Daghestanskaiapravda, at which, as a correspondent of RIA Daghestan reports, the question was raised of wedding processions that drive around Makhachkala violating traffic regulations and public order (firing into the air using guns and traumatic pistols, speeding, and so on). "According to the Highway Traffic Safety Administration of the Ministry of Internal Affairs of Daghestan Valery Gromov, road traffic wardens have the authority to halt the procession, disarm its participants, and fine them for violations. But no one does this because the police do not want to spoil the party."28 No comment, as they say. And those who refer to traditions to justify their actions and claim innocence should know that sociocul-tural identification is structured and interaction with the representatives of other ethnicities is regulated on the basis of tradition. Tradition also performs the function of a selective mechanism with respect to innovations. It ensures that only those are selected who do not have a destructive effect on ethno-specific characteristics and those are rejected who threaten them with serious structural changes. The problem cannot be resolved without an interested and informal attitude to the question of preserving traditions.
The state should realize that ensuring public peace is impossible without guaranteeing the inviolability, preservation, and development of the ethnic identities of the peoples that historically populate it. In order to achieve these goals, several, what we consider, priority tasks must be solved:
(a) stopping the exodus of the population from the places of their historical settlement;
(b) creating an infrastructure that corresponds to contemporary needs, including a transport network, means of communication, and fuel supply in the regions, particularly mountainous (where the Daghestani ethnicities traditionally reside);
(c) restoring and developing traditional public institutions of the indigenous peoples in correspondence with the ethnic and legal norms of specific ethnicities and communities; and
(d) creating conditions for live and literary use of the languages of the peoples of Daghestan.
27 A.-N.Z. Dibirov, op. cit., pp. 474-475.
28 K. Ragimkhanova, "Valery Gromov: 'My mozhem zaderzhat svadebny kortezh za narushenie PDD, no ne khotim portit liudiam prazdnik,'" 18 October, 2011, available at [www.riaDaghestan.ru/news/2011/10/18/120143/].
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And most important—any transformations that affect particular aspects of the life of the ethnicities should be carried out only after in-depth study of the ethnic identity problems. These studies should encompass all aspects of the life and sphere of activity of the ethnicities. Such studies will be much more effective if independent experts participate in them. They can subsequently be used to bring about changes in the life of the ethnicities and motivate the state and society to take steps to reduce the conflict-prone situation in the Northern Caucasus right down to complete elimination of the existing threats and their potential instigators.
Every nationality is the custodian of priceless and unique historical experience. If globalization causes national cultures to disappear and only standardized forms of life to remain, the human race might ultimately lose its true essence.
As I. Zarinov notes, the existing models of ethnicity, "despite all their apparent opposition, should have points of contact, since they have to do with the same social phenomenon, even though they may be manifested through different historical and social realities."29 This equally applies to those concepts that formally do not belong to the indicated theoretical vectors. Only an integrated approach to studying the phenomena of ethnicity will ultimately bring us closer to a more or less precise definition of the object of study.
Conclusion
The nationalities and demographic policy being carried out by the Russian Federation with respect to the indigenous peoples of the Northern Caucasus has led to catastrophic deformations of their ethnic identities entailing significant erosion of ethnic norms, degradation of the traditional value system, and a drop in the conflict-prone threshold. The sociopolitical situation in the North Caucasian region is comparable to a smoldering fire that is ready to burst into flames at any point, making it possible to define the situation in the Caucasus as a global problem that different forces are striving to resolve from their own particular viewpoint.
The nationalities policy of the Russian Federation in the Northern Caucasus is in need of rational revision. This policy should be based on the fact that protection of the ethnic identities of the indigenous peoples who historically reside in the Northern Caucasus should be the state's priority function with respect to these peoples and in this territory. Only guaranteed protection of ethnic identities able to develop uninhibited, as well as a developed economy and social infrastructure, and not only reinforcement of the defense and security structures and vertical of power, will ensure the sustainability and stability of the Russian state in the Republic of Daghestan and in the Northern Caucasus.
Preserving the individuality, singularity, distinctness, and uniqueness of each ethnic group in a multinational state and creating in it an atmosphere of mutual respect and spirituality are problems that must be resolved by joint efforts in the interests of the future generations. Lack of attention to the problems of protecting the ethnic identities of the indigenous peoples of the Northern Caucasus will inevitably lead to a more widespread humanitarian disaster in the Caucasus and destroy the Russian statehood in the Northern Caucasus making its long-term existence in the region all the more doubtful and threatening the peace and calm of the peoples of the Caucasus and Russia.
29 I.Iu. Zarinov, "Vremia iskat obshchy iazyk (problemy integratsii razlichnykh etnicheskikh teoriy i kontseptsiy),"
Etnograficheskoe obozrenie, No. 2, 2000, p. 16.
