Electronic media and popular discourse on Russian nationalism

Abstract

This article analyzes electronic letters to the editor on the coverage of the riot in Kondopoga (2006) and the bombings in the Moscow subway (2010). Letters to electronic media are used for the first time as a source for popular opinion on nationalism and ethnic conflicts in Russia. The first argument of this study is methodological: a comparison between the polls and the letters suggests that letters to electronic media represent public opinion on nationalism even though Internet users still constitute a minority of Russian citizens. This study also claims that the letters under examination indicate a move from extreme nationalism to so called “banal nationalism,” the term coined by Michael Billig, during the period between 2006 and 2010. Finally, the article argues that the concept of the civic nation is not yet well understood or accepted by Russian citizens. Although this concept, expressed in Russian by the newly coined word rossiane, became somewhat more popular in 2010 than it had been in 2006, the ethnic understanding of Russian still prevails. The basis for the new identity rossiane, as it is presented in the letters, lacks common memories, myths and traditions that would resonate strongly in popular imagination.

Keywords:

• xenophobia and ethnic conflicts in Russia
• construction of identity
• letters to the editor
• electronic media

Acknowledgements

This article would have been impossible without Melissa Bokovoy, History Department, University of New Mexico. I wish to express my warmest thanks to her. The research and writing of this article were supported by a grant from the Russian, East European, and Eurasian Center at the University of Illinois, Urbana-Champaign. I received invaluable help at the 2009 Summer Research Laboratory conducted by the Center. My special thanks to Joe Lenkart, Slavic Reference Service, Library of University of Illinois, Urbana-Champaign. I also thank Meg Frisbee from the New Mexico Historical Review and Adriana Carilli for their generous help.

Notes

See Sova, “Kavkazskie pogromy v Kondopoge.”

In this paper, “Caucasian” is used as a translation for kavkaztsy, kavkazskii, meaning “related to the region of the Caucasus.”

The only type of editing is replacing obscene words with the first letter of the word followed by asterisks.

The 2007 data were found on the same website, but they are no longer available.

The poll about the consumer behavior of its readers published by Gazeta.ru for prospective advertisers in 2006 asked the respondents what kind of merchandise they bought online. The poll results suggest the high level of education of Gazeta.ru's audience: 58.2% bought books, 35.2% computer parts and accessories, 29.7% airplane and train tickets, and 28.6% “tickets for concerts, exhibitions, theaters, movie-theaters, and circus” (“Portret auditorii”). This suggestion is confirmed by the content of Gazeta.ru's department “education.” It publishes news about schools, colleges, and daycare, discusses topics ranging from early childhood intellectual development to the reform of the Russian system of education, and advertises foreign languages courses, the “most efficient ways to process information,” and “time management skills” “based on the methods used by leading Western business schools” (Badia).

There is no data on the estimated audience after 2006.

According to the profile of the KP audience published for prospective advertisers in 2005, 63% of the readers had a high-school diploma, but no college degree, and 5% did not have even a high-school diploma. In 2010, 43% of KP readers had a high-school diploma and 53% had a college degree, and 38% were professionals (spetsialisty i rukovoditeli) (“Ob izdanii”). Data for 2005 are no longer accessible; they were obtained from “Ob izdanii.” <http://advert.kp.ru/kp/2/81>. 3 Feb. 2007.

Hull notes that in the United States, the numbers of letters to the editor on controversial issues can be affected by “letter-writing campaigns intended to bombard the newspapers with a particular view-point” (211).

The high proportion of those who expressed ethnic hatred may, in addition to the character of the KP audience, reflect the fact that, according to the polls, ethnic tension is higher in the big cities where the majority of Internet users live. The worst ethnic situation exists in Moscow, while the highest percentage of Internet users is also found in Moscow and St Petersburg (Centre for the Study of Public Policy, Russia Votes: National Issues; VTSIOM, Press-vypusk 533; Levada-Center, Rossia dlia russkikh?). Of the comments discussed here, 93 out of 471 were received in response to the article “Can Kondopoga-style riot happen in Moscow?” (Vorsobin and Kaftan), which, naturally, aroused more responses from the Moscow residents than from the readers in other regions.

In fact, the number of the letters is 151. However, one of them is my own, so I, of course, excluded it from the analysis.

The total number of KP letters recognizing the fact that Chechens are Russian citizens was eight, but two of them expressed ethnic hostility.

The word vylazki for “actions” was typical for the Soviet propaganda that habitually referred to the vylazki of anti-Soviet elements, American imperialists and the like.

It also should be noted that instead of using stylistically neutral rabotaet for “works” and polza for “good,” the pollsters used high-register synonyms truditsia (works) and blago (good), which strongly accentuate the positive meaning.

Interestingly, this letter unknowingly repeats the title of Slezkin's article “The USSR as a Communal Apartment.” However, while Slezkin uses this term ironically, the KP reader sees the situation of a “communal apartment” with a “room” for every ethnic group as normal and desirable.

At the same time, the percentage of those prejudiced against Caucasians remained the same (29%) (Table 7). The smaller number of anti-Caucasian letters to KP in 2010 may be explained by the change in the level of education of its audience (see note 6).