‘How Can I Say it … in a More Tolerant Way?’ Ambiguity, Ambivalence and Contradiction in Youth Dialogue on Ethnic Tolerance and Intolerance

Abstract

Although survey data identify no significant predictor of intolerance among the Russian population, young people are considered to display heightened levels of ethnic intolerance and radical variants of xenophobia. Drawing on survey and semi-structured interview data from a study of patriotism among young people in two cities in the North-West region of Russia, this article explores the strength of ethnic self-identification and ethnically exclusive notions of Russianness and compares levels and forms of ethnic intolerance. Identifying that routine expression of xenophobic sentiments coexists alongside a commitment to principles of ethnic equality, the article considers what the ambiguities and contradictions in the articulation of intolerance tell us about how young people negotiate complex contemporary multicultural societies.

Notes

¹ The authors cited here draw on data from regular surveys on ethnic relations conducted by VTsIOM between 1988 and 2003.

² The Caucasus region is a loose term encompassing the northern Caucasus republics of Adyghea, Karachai–Cherkessiya, Kabardino–Balkariya, North Ossetiya–Alania, Ingushetiya, Chechnya and Dagestan, which are politically located within the Russian Federation, as well as the independent post-Soviet states of the southern Caucasus (Georgia, Armenia, Azerbaijan). The term is imbued with an important ‘imaginary geography’ (Shields 1991, p. 7), which is discussed later in the article.

³ These data are based on public opinion data gathered by VTsIOM until autumn 2003 and subsequently by the Levada Centre.

⁴ See also Mieria and Koroeva (2015).

⁵ Tolerance and intolerance understood here as are not absolute (and opposed) states of mind but constituting a continuous scale.

⁶ The research was conducted as one part of a larger AHRC-funded project ‘Russian National Identity: Traditions and Deterritorialisation since 1961’ (September 2007–March 2011) Grant no. AH/E509967/1, principal applicant Catriona Kelly, University of Oxford, co-applicant, Hilary Pilkington. The sociological element of the research reported here was designed and conducted collaboratively by the author with Elena Omel'chenko (Department of Sociology, Higher School of Economics, St Petersburg and Director, ‘Region’, Ul'yanovsk). The full research team consisted of: Yuliya Andreeva, Natal'ya Goncharova, Gusel’ Sabirova, Evgeniya Lyukyanova, El'vira Arif, Al'bina Garifzyanova and Ol'ga Brednikova.

⁷ In addition to planned modifications, in St Petersburg, one question had to be excluded from the questionnaire following the education committee's advice that, if not removed, prior approval by each individual school parents' committee would be required before the questionnaire could be used. The omission of this question was not critical; it was one of a number of sub-questions designed to measure tolerance to a range of ‘marginalised’ groups. However, in the light of the subsequent passing of legislation by the St Petersburg city parliament in March 2012 banning all public activities promoting ‘sodomy, lesbianism, bisexuality and transsexuality’ that might be observed by minors, it is interesting to note that this question concerned tolerance toward homosexuality.

⁸ The wording of the item on the questionnaire was ‘K kakoi natsional'nosti ty sam (-a) sebya otnosish’?’ (‘What would you say your nationality is?’). This reflects the use of the term ‘nationality’ in Soviet and post-Soviet Russia to express what is most usually referred to in western sociological literature as ethnic belonging (as opposed to citizenship). Since this was an open question in the survey, however, it allowed respondents to choose the term ‘rossiiskii’ (citizen of the Russian Federation) rather than ‘russkii’ (ethnic Russian) or any minority ethnic belonging. It also allowed for radical denials of the importance of ethnic belonging by choosing terms such as ‘human being’ or ‘citizen of the world’. In this article where responses to this question are discussed, the terms nationality and ethnicity or national and ethnic are used to make clear that it is ethnic belonging (expressed in Russian as ‘nationality’) that is the subject of discussion.

⁹ Census data show the proportion of ethnic Russians in the Russian population as a whole to be 81% and in Komi Republic (the federal region in which Vorkuta lies) to be 65%. See, Vserossiiskaya perepis’ naseleniya 2010, available at: http://www.perepis-2010.ru/results_of_the_census/results-inform.php, accessed 6 June 2012.

¹⁰ESS Round 5, 2010, available at: http://www.europeansocialsurvey.org/data/conditions_of_use.html, accessed 11 July 2014.

¹¹ Interview with Taisiya, 16 years old, St Petersburg.

¹² See also Karpenko (2002).

¹³ A similar question asked of a representative sample of the adult population of Russia in the European Values Survey in 2008 revealed 15% of the adult population of Russia would not like to have people of a different race as neighbours, 20% would not like to have Muslims as neighbours and 31% would not like to have immigrants or foreign workers as neighbours. See EVS (2008).

¹⁴ References to ‘priezhie’ (‘incomers’) were recorded separately as this term denotes migrant status first and foremost and does not always carry an ethnic hue; it was used in 41 separate references in 30 interviews. In addition ‘indigenous peoples’ were referenced eight times in seven interviews.

¹⁵ Included in this category are also ‘Jews’ (as traditionally this has been understood in the Soviet Russian context as a national rather than faith identity) and ‘Cossacks’, which is counted as a sub-group within ‘ethnic Russians’ in the Russian census although the ethnic origins and status of this group is a matter of considerable debate and dispute.

¹⁶ Americans were in second place.

¹⁷ Interview with Boris, 18 years old, Vorkuta.

¹⁸ Interview with Yana, age not known, St Petersburg.

¹⁹ Interview with Vladimir, 17 years old, St Petersburg.

²⁰ Interview with Elizaveta, age not known, St Petersburg.

²¹ Interview with Elizaveta, age not known, St Petersburg.

²² The tendency to understand immigration as detrimental to national culture is confirmed by findings of the European Social Survey (ESS) which found that, on a scale of 1–10, where 1 is ‘Country's cultural life is undermined by immigrants’ and 10 is ‘country's cultural life is enriched by immigrants’, the Russian population average score was 2.1. Only in Cyprus and Greece was the cultural impact of immigrants evaluated more negatively. ESS Round 5, 2010, available at: http://www.europeansocialsurvey.org/data/conditions_of_use.html, accessed 11 July 2014.

²³ Komi are an indigenous but now minority population of Komi Republic in which Vorkuta is located. Komi constituted 23.7% of the republic's population according to the last Russian census. ‘Vserossiiskaya perepis’ naseleniya’, 2010, available at: http://www.perepis-2010.ru/results_of_the_census/results-inform.php, accessed 6 June 2012.

²⁴ Interview with Ul'yana, 14 years old, Vorkuta.

²⁵ Interview with Gosha, 19 years old, St Petersburg.

²⁶ Interview with Nina, 18 years old, St Petersburg.

²⁷ Interview with Diana, 15 years old, St Petersburg.

²⁸ Interview with Vanya, 19 years old, Vorkuta.

²⁹ Interview with Misha, 18 years old, Vorkuta.

³⁰ Interview with Volodya, 16 years old, Vorkuta.

³¹ Interview with Sergei, 16 years old, St Petersburg.

³² Interview with Dima, 18 years old, Vorkuta.

³³ Interview with Lena, 20 years old, Vorkuta.

³⁴ Interview with Lyuda, 17 years old, Vorkuta.

³⁵ Interview with Zhenya, age not known, Vorkuta.

³⁶ This homophobia is confirmed by the European Social Survey (2010) which showed that more than 48% of the Russian population disagreed or strongly disagreed with the statement that ‘Gays and lesbians should be free to live life as they wish’ compared to just under 18% across Europe in general. This makes Russia the most homophobic nation in Europe. See, http://www.europeansocialsurvey.org/data/conditions_of_use.html, accessed 11 July 2014.

³⁷ See, ‘Poll: Half Could Vote for a Far-Right Party’, Sky News, 27 February 2011, available at: http://news.sky.com/home/politics/article/15941796, accessed 11 July 2014. This is based on a Populus poll commissioned by Searchlight in 2011 and confirmed by the study of extremism among young people in Hounslow by the Institute of Community Cohesion (iCoCo 2007, p. 20).

³⁸ Headline news from the 2010 census was ‘Russia has lost 2.3 million people in nearly a decade’ (See, ‘Russian 2010 Census Final Results’, RIA Novosti, 22 December 2011, available at: http://en.rian.ru/infographics/20111222/170405728.html, accessed 6 June 2012).