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Preservation of ethnic and confessional balance in major cities of Central Chernozem region
Section 10. Political science
Volkova Alina Evgenievna, Post-graduate student of the Russian Academy of National Economy and Public Administration under the President of the Russian Federation (Orel branch),
assistant of the department «Public Relations» Voronezh State Architecture and Construction University E-mail: [email protected]
Preservation of ethnic and confessional balance in major cities of Central Chernozem region
Abstract: Today issues of regulating the existence of ethnos and communities in the districts of Central Chernozem region remain a serious problem, both from theoretical and applicative points of view. How should we deal with arguments emerging between representatives of different ethnos? Should diasporas influence the processes of adaptation of young population to circumstances of their new residence area? The author of this article is trying to answer these questions through a possibility of creating the so-called “ethno-confessional etiquette”.
Keywords: ethno-confessional balance, ethno-confessional etiquette, interethnic relations.
The processes of globalization and integration which became an integral part of modern life have led to blurring of the boundaries of one or another ethno-confessional community: cultural traditions become erased, so, as a result, whole nations may vanish. In addition, representatives of ethnos living on the territory of the Russian Federation spare no effort in order to preserve their unique traditions, principles, rules. We are trying to consider how successful such aspirations are in corresponding with official state policy.
In late 1980s western scientists were already considering the role of unsolvable ethnic problem in the collapse of the USSR. For instance, T. Rakowska-Harmstone believed that “... the key issue would probably be not the increasing nationalism of the minorities but also and, maybe, more importantly the prevalence of the opinion among the Russians that there is a conflict of interests and well-being of the Russian nation and internationalist requirements of the regime”. [1, 57] As the reality had shown, such statements were not without reason: the main goal of The Parade of Sovereignties held before the collapse of the USSR was to embody the saying about each nation “taking as much sovereignty as possible” As a result, the map of the world became filled with a variety of countries which can be called just national states. The problem of existence of exactly that type of state was in fact called in question as the world was actively turning into an informative society where there were practically no outer boundaries left since mass media is able to overcome any distance.
Apart from obvious advantages of transition in the formational society model and transfer to informative society, there also appeared serious threats to search and preservation of identity not only for smaller nations, but for ethnic and cultural diversity in such relatively homogeneous
from the ethnic point view territories like areas of Central Chernozem region (Belgorod, Voronezh, Kursk, Lipetsk, Orel, Tambov oblasts). According to Rosstat, these areas have the following population size: Belgorod oblast — 1 544 108 people; Voronezh oblast — 2 328 959 people; Kursk oblast — 1 118 915 people; Lipetsk oblast — 1 159 866 people; Orel oblast — 769 980 people; Tambov oblast — 1 068 934 people. [2] In addition, although the Russians mainly prevail in the national composition of the above-mentioned areas, the percentage of them is decreasing. Moreover, the project of creating a general civil nation (based on principles of an academician V Tishkov) [3, 1] seems to be more and more complicated. So, we can’t but agree with a researcher G. Kesyan who in an article titled Ethnosocial groups and their role in ethnopolitical conflicts analyses the activities of contemporary ethnic diasporas, their aims and ways of preserving their national culture and traditions, “The phenomenon of a diaspora is primarily based on cultural originality which makes an ethnic organism viable. Isolation from historical homeland is compensated for by particular “ethnic jealousy”, emphasized aspiration for preservation of national culture, contribution to its development, assimilation resistance, all ofwhich increase the inner unity of a group. [4, 77] It should also be noted that in the Russian Federation it is the native population that frequently gave consent to creation of a general civil nation, “... Russian citizens of other descent more often tend to associate themselves with ethnic or religious identity” [5, 21].
Besides, it is hard to deny that nowadays ethnic diasporas become more and more influential in regional political space. For instance, in Voronezh oblast in 2010 it was announced that the National Chamber of the Region began its work.
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Section 10. Political science
[6] According to the Governor of Voronezh oblast Alexey Gordeyev, the National Chamber has another important task — to represent cultural and social interests of ethnic communities in state and local government authorities. What is interesting in this situation is that at first the National Chamber included representatives of all diasporas of the region but not even one representative of native population. Only after actions were initiated by “Russian Chamber — Coordination Centre for Russian Patriotic and Orthodox Organizations”, created as a counterbalance, doctor of historical sciences Arkady Minakov became a member of the National Chamber [7]. At the same time, activities of the National Chamber in the region do not become more open, and only a certain range of mass media and coordinators themselves know about the events held by the organization.
We consider it interesting to analyse how programs and subprograms relating to the consolidation of the society are financed in Central Chernozem region.
On 20 August 2013 the Government of the Russian Federation issued a decree № 718 “On federal target program ‘Consolidation of the Russian nation unity and ethnocultural development of Russia’s nationalities (2014-2020)” [8]. The aims of the program are: consolidation ofmultinational society of the Russian Federation, harmonization of interethnic relations, encouragement of ethnocultural variety of nationalities in Russia. The overall budget is 6766,35 million rubles.
Regions create their own programs for development and improvement of ethnocultural interaction. The goals of such programs are clear: increasing the number of citizens tolerant to representatives of other nationalities, reducing the number of ethnic or religious conflicts, increasing the number of events stimulating the harmonization of relationship between “natives” and “newcomers” For example, in Belgorod oblast “Consolidation of the Russian nation unity and ethnocultural development of Russia’s nationalities” subprogram 3 has the overall budget for 2014-2020 which at the expense of all sources accounts for 27333 thousand rubles [9]. In Voronezh oblast subprogram 8 aimed at solving the problems connected with consolidation of ethnic and confessional relations accounts for 56167,5 thousand rubles [10]. Tambov oblast is going to spend 88 600,0 thousand rubles during 2015-2020 to implement the “Consolidation of the civil unity and ethnocultural development of Tambov’s nationalities” program, including 55 890,0 thousand rubles from federal budget, 26 880,0 thousand rubles from oblast budget, 5,0 thousand rubles from local budget, 5 825,0 from extra-budgetary funds [11].
As for other three oblasts of Central Chernozem region (Kursk, Lipetsk, Orel), there was no information on implementing the program of consolidation of interethnic and international relations on the websites of the local authorities. In general, it can be stated that relationships between representatives of different ethnos are being worked on; however, it is necessary to mention the quality of this work.
In the beginning of August 2014Voronezh Oblast Department of culture archive-keeping announced a contest granting subsidies to socially-oriented nonprofit institutions within “Ethnocultural development of Voronezh oblast” subprogram of a state program “Development of culture and tourism” in the following priority areas: development and consolidation of interethnic and interconfessional relations; preservation and protection of originality, language culture and traditions of nationalities in the Russian Federation [12]. Six nonprofit regional institutions took part in the contest. Here is the list of the winners: “Tolerant Theatre” (program for creation of family theatres in which performances are devoted to the topics of tolerance towards all people), “Development of Jewish Sunday school”, “Voronezh oblast — our dream land” and “International photography festival “Images of History” (you can find details on all the projects on the website of 2014Voronezh Oblast Department of culture archive-keeping). Having examined all the above-mentioned programs, let us note the following fact: only one of them (International photography festival) answers to purposes stated in contest terms, that is ethnocultural development and mutual civilized enrichment. Development of tolerance in the region proceeds so actively that almost every program now has this marker word which usually means only one thing: we offer to develop tolerance to everything, in the literal sense of the word. None of the winning projects mentioned which part in creation of cultural paradigms would be assigned to native population. Meanwhile, it is planned to involve Russian population rather than representatives of national diasporas to take part in the projects. Such regional policy corresponds quite successfully with the words of G. Kesyan, “... in response to the challenges of ethnic problem diasporas provided a national answer — actualized their own ethnicity” [4, 82].
Issues of creating successful ethnocultural relations between representatives of different nations lead us to discussion of the problem of multiculturalism and possibilities of forming such a society in contemporary circumstances. S. Fedyunina points that, “... in practice multiculturalism is directed either at relativism or conformity which show themselves in naive slogans or deep in hidden agenda” [13, 37]. The situation turns out to be paradoxical: on the one hand, today we have all the prerequisites for peaceful development of each ethnos not just in a particular region, but in the world as a whole. On the other hand, representatives of ethnoconfessional societies need more and more possibilities for increasing their influence through cultural communities. Thus, a serious question arises: how representatives of native population should act and where the boundaries of self-determination, which cannot be crossed for the sake of the state’s unity, are.
Such conflicts could have been resolved by implementation of ethnoconfessional etiquette program based on the principle of mutual respect of ethnos representatives towards each other and understanding that, having come to a certain region of Russia, they should
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France, Germany and European Defence (Common Security and Defence Policy)
respect the laws, traditions and customs of the “host region”. Migration processes in the abovementioned districts of Central Chernozem region prove the following: the number of migrants is growing and, accordingly, it becomes possible for representatives of one ethnos to unite and create a strong society unit — a diaspora. And, as it was said before, after some time diasporas face the problem of monopolization of cultural (value) paradigm in the region. This being the
situation in the regions where most part of the population belongs to one ethnic group, the Russians, it may lead only to further destabilization in the field of interethnic relations. In this case creating a document which would include a set of rules, traditions and customs of native population would not only have catalyzing but also educational influence on representatives of both young and middle-aged generation of people migrating to Central Chernozem regions of Russia.
References:
1. Rakowska-Harmstone T. Minority Nationalism Today: An Overview. In: The Last Empire. Nationality and Soviet Future, Stanford, 1986.
2. Estimation of resident population size as of 1 January and on average over 2013. - URL: http://www.webcitation. org/6Oo40u47f (Accessed 25 August 2014).
3. Tishkov V A Journey to Yourself/V Tishkov//Rossiiskaya gazeta, 2012, 24 August. - P. 1-2.
4. Kesyan G. Ethnosocial groups and their role in ethnopolitical conflicts//Moscow University Bulletin. Series18: Sociology and politology, 2009. - № 1. - P. 74-83.
5. Ryazanov А. Identity management: articulation of ethnocultural boundaries in polyethnic regions of Russia//Vlast, 2012. -№ 4. - P. 20-23.
6. The National Chamber ofthe Region began operating. - URL: http://culturavrn.ru/society/2988 (Accessed 25 August 2014).
7. Alexey Gordeyev: «Society is becoming more tolerant». - URL: http://36on.ru/magazine/province/41223-aleksey-gordeev-obschestvo-stanovitsya-tolerantnee (Accessed 25 August 2014).
8. Decree by the Government of the Russian Federation № 718. - URL: http://government.ru/media/files/ 41d4862001a-d2a4e5359.pdf (Accessed 25 August 2014).
9. Decree by the Government of Belgorod oblast № 511-pp issued on 16 December 2013. «On confirmation of Belgorod oblast state program “Providing Belgorod oblast with information about the activities of regional authorities and priorities of regional policy in 2014-2020” - URL: http://base.consultant.ru/regbase/cgi/online.cgi?req=doc; base=RLAW404; n=36551 (Accessed 25 August 2014).
10. Voronezh oblast state program “Development of culture and tourism”. - URL: http://www.govvrn.ru/wps/por-tal/AVO/Main/OGV/IOGV/executive24/(Accessed 25 August 2014).
11. Registration certificate of the “Consolidation of the civil unity and ethnocultural development of Tambov’s nationalities” subprogram for 2015-2020. - URL: http://publ.tmbadm.ru/wp-content/uploads/2014/02/%D0%9F%D0%B0%D1% 81%D0%BF%D0%BE%D1%80%D1%82.pdf (Accessed 25 August 2014).
12. Winners of the competition announced. - URL: http://www.govvrn.ru/wps/portal/AVO/wcmContentlWCM_QUE-RY=/voronezh/avo/main/authorities/other+executive+power/other+executive+power21/new13082014&presentatio ntemplate=vrnOnePeaceOfNewsPt&CONTENTCACHE=NONE (Accessed 25 August 2014).
13. Fedyunina S. Interethnic social and cultural relations and processes in contemporary multicultural society//Vlast, 2012 -№ 3. - P. 34-38.
Mudrytska Karyna Olexandrivna, Kyiv National Taras Shevchenko University, Institute of International Relations, Ph. D. student at the Department of International Relations and Foreign Policy
E-mail: [email protected]
France, Germany and European Defence (Common Security and Defence Policy)
Abstract: This article covers French-German cooperation within the CSDP as well as problems which arise between France and Germany in this field.
Keywords: France, Germany, EU, CSDP, defence, security, crisis management.
Relevance of the research topic. It is widely thought that engine of European integration, which is the foreign policy
the France and Germany pair of countries is the acknowledged priority for both countries. French-German partnership is
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