ETHNOPOLITICAL PROCESSES IN THE NORTHERN CAUCASUS AND THEIR ASSESSMENT BY THE POPULATION

Abstract

The events of recent years in the Northern Caucasus have captured the attention not only of Russians, but also of many foreign politicians, which shows the extreme importance of the processes going on here. Today, “Russian statehood, new Russian federalism, is undergoing a test of strength” in the Northern Caucasus.1 It is always difficult to find a peaceful way in an urgent ethnic, socioeconomic and political crisis.  At the end of the 20th century, Russian society became the “boxing ring” for two opposing trends:
National-religious delimitation (even opposition), on the one hand, and national rapprochement and unification, on the other. The national movements which started their activity in several regions and under the present conditions acquired ambiguous ethnopolitical and ethnocultural hues are, in one case, the expression of awakened national self-awareness, and, in the other, a catalyst of national discontent.
 The tempestuous growth in political activity, on which the national factor is based, prompted many researchers to begin talking about an “ethnic explosion.” But this particular “ethnic phenomenon” is not peculiar to the 20th and beginning of the 21st centuries. “Ethnic activity throughout the history of mankind was one of the main driving forces behind the historical process. It was thanks to the activity of particular ethnic groups that the political map of the world was redrawn, and vast empires were created and destroyed.” We should only welcome the fact that the scientific community has at last begun studying ethnopolitical processes as a vital factor of political life.2
 Public opinion polls in the multiethnic regions of the Russian Federation show that ethnic tension on the whole is caused by the following reasons: the deterioration in the country’s economic situation (60-65%), shortcomings in national policy (40-45%), and the unstable situation in society (40%). In so doing, the respondents named purely ethnic differences as the least pertinent cause of tension.3
 This is no coincidence, since purely ethnic conflicts do not occur in real life. Ethnic self-identification and solidarity are only a way of protecting our goals, interests, values, and so on. The specific traits of axiological ethnic conflicts are manifested in contradictions related to differences in language, culture, religion, and to other sociocultural characteristics of ethnic groups.
 The Northern Caucasus is a unique cultural mosaic of different races (according to some researchers, a unique kind of “Caucasian civilization”), regarding which the Russian government does not have an adequate (scientific, well-thought-out, and so on) policy. By the same token, the importance of the ethnocultural factor has been extremely exaggerated, making it essentially the main reason for the local problems and conflicts.
 An analysis of the crisis situation in the region shows that it began as early as the Soviet era and is a result of projects aimed at defining territorial-administrative borders, anti-Russian manifestos and declarations, and actions aimed at forming a “Caucasian confederation.” In some territories, the local power structures initiated radical ethnic nationalism and drew citizens out of the legal codes of conduct, going as far as arming them illegally. In particular, they organized an armed coup in Grozny and declared a move toward independence. In this way, both the central administration, and the regional politicians, social activists, and intelligentsia are responsible for the current situation, since it was, they who formulated the ideas, programs, and slogans that mobilized the political forces.