Between minority rights and civil liberties: Russia's discourse over “nationality” registration and the internal passport*

* The author would like to thank Dominique Arel, Pavel Baev, Helge Blakkisrud, Tor Bukkvoll, Pål Kolstø, and two anonymous referees for useful comments on earlier versions of this article. The article has been written as part of the project Recreating National Identities in the Post-Soviet States, located at the Watson Institute, Brown University. The author is grateful for the funding and support provided by the project and its leaders, Dominique Arel and David Kertzer. Rafik Abdrakhmanov, Svetlana Akkieva, Ildar Gabdrafikov, Nail Mukharyamov, Vladimir Mukomel and Valeriy Tishkov provided kind assistance in the collection of source materials.

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Notes

* The author would like to thank Dominique Arel, Pavel Baev, Helge Blakkisrud, Tor Bukkvoll, Pål Kolstø, and two anonymous referees for useful comments on earlier versions of this article. The article has been written as part of the project Recreating National Identities in the Post-Soviet States, located at the Watson Institute, Brown University. The author is grateful for the funding and support provided by the project and its leaders, Dominique Arel and David Kertzer. Rafik Abdrakhmanov, Svetlana Akkieva, Ildar Gabdrafikov, Nail Mukharyamov, Vladimir Mukomel and Valeriy Tishkov provided kind assistance in the collection of source materials.

1. For a study of the passport regime in Tsarist and Soviet Russia, with an emphasis on the restrictions of movement and residence, see Mervyn Matthews, The Passport Society. Controlling Movement in Russia and the USSR (Boulder, Colorado: Westview Press, 1993).

2. For an analysis of the early reactions to the 1997 passport, see Sven Gunnar Simonsen, “Inheriting the Soviet Policy Toolbox. Russia's Dilemma Over Ascriptive Nationality,” Europe–Asia Studies, Vol. 51, No. 6, 1999, pp. 1069–1087.

3. Konstitutsiya rossiyskoy federatsii, Izdatelstvo “OS-89”, 1997, p. 10.

4. Konstitutsiya Rossiyskoy Federatsii. Nauchno-prakticheskiy kommentariy, 1997. Pod redaktsiey i so vstupitelnoy statey akademika B. N. Topornina. Yurist, Moskva, 1997, pp. 221–222. The authors continue by stating that the determination of national affiliation “takes place on the basis of self identification, i.e. considering a subjective factor, decided by the individual himself.” However, the subjective perspective was still not operational in relation to the registration of nationality outside the context of the census.

5. Author's interview with Vyacheslav Igrunov. Moscow, February 2001.

6. Author's interview with Valeriy Tishkov. Moscow, November 2000. See also V. A. Tishkov, Etnologiya i politika (Moskva: Nauka, 2001), pp. 93–97.

7. It is difficult to get a detailed overview of this decision-making process from outside. One could speculate that some of those who crafted the policy expected it to open up for assimilation processes—and saw that as desirable. It is a fact that in Moscow politics at the time, advocates of liberal democracy and illiberal assimilation found themselves in untypical agreement when approving of the abolition of the nationality entry. See Sven Gunnar Simonsen, “Inheriting the Soviet Policy Toolbox,” pp. 1079–1080.

8. RFE/RL Newsline, 11 October 1997.

9. Rossiyskie vesti, 19 November 1997.

10. http://conventions.coe.int/Treaty/EN/Treaties/Html/157.htm.

11. Ramazan Abdulatipov, “Direct Speech. Multilingual Russia Is Already Structured That Way,” Rossiyskaya Gazeta, 26 January 1999. In FBIS-SOV-99-031.

12. “The myth about a moral crisis among young people has no real foundation,” Nezavisimaya gazeta, 11 February 1998; Current Digest of the Post-Soviet Press, Vol. 50, No. 7, p. 10. The nation-wide poll was conducted in 1997 by the Russian Independent Institute for Social and Nationality-Related Problems, and commissioned by the Friedrich Ebert Foundation.

13. A. Dzadziev, “Severnaya Ossetiya,” Byulleten, N5, No. 16, 1996. Set etnologicheskogo monitoringa i rannego preduprezhdeniya konfliktov, p. 16.

14. Poll conducted in January 1999, among 507 respondents in different regions of Kabardino-Balkariya. Unpublished poll transcript provided by Professor Svetlana Akkieva, Nalchik.

15. Galina Grigorenko, “Gde prizemlitsya dvuglavyy orel?” Vremya i dengi, No. 121, 18 October 1997.

16. “Postanovlenie Gosudarstvennogo Soveta Respubliki Tatarstana. O pasporte grazhdanina Rossiyskoy Federatsii,” Kazan 13 November 1997. Respublika Tatarstan, 15 November 1997.

17. M.Sh. Shaymiev, “Situatsiya s vvedeniem novykh rossiyskikh pasportov ochen khochetsya nazvat nedorazumennem”, Respublika Tatarstan, 25 October 1997.

18. Enver Kisriev and Ildar Gabdrafikov, “Natsionalnyy pasport ili natsionalnost v pasporte,” Nezavisimaya gazeta, 16 December 1997.

19. Aleksandra Poryvayeva, “Bashkiria insists on its right to its own language,” Kommersant-Daily, 2 December 1997. Current Digest of the Post-Soviet Press, Vol. XLIX, No. 48, 1997, p. 17, p. 31.

20. “Zakonodatelnoe Sobranie Omskoy Oblasti. Postanovlenie, ot 15 janvarya 1998 g., no. 20. O vklyuchenii grafy “natsionalnost” v novyy pasport grazhdanina Rossiyskoy Federatsii”. It would have been interesting to conduct a more detailed survey of the different regions' reactions, not least to determine how the issue played out in the non-ethnically defined federal subjects (such as Omsk oblast) in comparison to the ethnically defined ones. Unfortunately, the material available does not allow for such an extension of this study.

21. “Pravitelstvo Respubliki Dagestan,” Postanovlenie, 3 iyunya 1998, No. 111. Ob utverzhdenii polozheniya o vkladyshe k pasportu grazhdanina Rossiyskoy Federatsii.

22. Sovet Respubliki Parlamenta Kabardino-Balkarskoy Respubliki. Postanovlenie ot 21 oktabrya 1998 g. N132-P-SR. Ob obrashchenie ministra vnutrennykh del Kabardino-Balkarskoy Respubliki Shogenova Kh. A. k predsedatelyu soveta respubliki parlamenta Kabardino-Balkarskoy respubliki Nakhushevu Z. A.

23. Ukaz Prezidenta Respubliki Adygeya. O vnesenii izmeneniy i dopolneniy v ukaz prezidenta Respubliki Adygeya ot 6 iyulya 1998 goda N 81 “O vkladyshe v pasport grazhdanina Rossiyskoy Federatsii.”

24. Gulchachak Khannanova, “Bashkiram ne kvataet pyatogo punkta,” Kommersant, 9 September 2000. Specifically, the bone of contention was the Russian government's resolution No. 828 signed on 8 July 1997, “On approving the order about the Russian Federation citizen's passport, its form and description, corresponded to the Russian Constitution.”

25. “Zapros O sootvetstvii Konstitutsii Rossiyskoy Federatsii postanovleniya Pravitelstvo Rossiyskoy Federatsii ot 8 yulya 1997 goda No. 828 “Ob utverzhdenii Polozheniya o pasporte grazhdanina Rossiyskoy Federatsii, obraztsa blanka i opisaniya pasporta grazdanina Rossiyskoy Federatsii.”

26. Figures from the 1989 census.

27. Svetlana Akkieva, “Kabardino-Balkariya,” Byulleten, N5, 16, dekabr 1996. Set etnologicheskogo monitoringa i rannego preduprezhdeniya konfliktov, pp. 19–20.

28. Rogers Brubaker pioneered the concept of “nationalizing states,” describing states that are “ethnically heterogenous yet conceived as nation-states,” with dominant elites promoting the language, culture, demographic position, economic flourishing, or political hegemony of the nominally state-bearing nation. Rogers Brubaker, Nationalism Reframed. Nationhood and the national question in the New Europe (Cambridge University Press, 1997), p. 57.

29. Pyotr Akopov, “Ustinov”s ultimatum,” Izvestia, 2 June 2000. Current Digest of the Post-Soviet Press. Vol. 52, No. 22, p. 11.

30. Figure cited in paper presented by Venaliy Amelin at the conference “Federalism on the eve of the XXI century: Russian and international dimensions,” Kazan, 9–10 February 2001, and in Venaliy Amelin, “Problemy ravnogo dostupa k vlasti natsionalnykh grupp v polietnicheskikh regionakh Rossii,” EtnoPanorama, No. 2, 2000, pp. 14–16.

31. Figures according to the 1989 census. For interesting works on inter-ethnic relations in Bashkortostan in the 1990s, see Rushan R. Gallyamov, Mnogonatsionalnyy gorod: Etnosotsiologicheskie ocherki (Ufa: 1996); Azat M. Gafurov, Formirovanie etnicheskoy, konfessionalnoy i grazhdanskoy identichnosti natsionalnostei Bashkortostana v 90-e gody XX veka (Moskva: Institut etnologii i antropologii RAN, 2000).

32. Figures from M. N. Guboglo, R. G. Kuzeev, G. Kh, Zhakhnazarov, eds, Resursy mobilizovannoy etnichnosti (Moskva-Ufa: TSIMO, 1997), p. 152.

33. Author's interview with Niaz A. Mazhitov. Ufa, February 2001.

34. The 1989 census put the proportion of ethnic Russians at 81.5% of the population. In the 2002 census, the proportion had fallen to 79.8%.

35. Author's interview with A. N. Dubovskiy. Ufa, February 2001.

36. Zayavlenie. Generalnomu Prokuroru Ustinovu, Iu. V. Undated document, signed by A. N. Dubovskiy.

37. Author's interview with Airat S. Giniyatullin. Ufa, February 2001.

38. Lev Ovrutskiy: Razgavory c Khakimovym, Panorama-Forum, 2000, No. 23, spetsialnyy vypusk, Kazan, 2001, p. 163.

39. Khakimov is the director of the Institute of History at Tatarstan's Academy of Sciences.

40. “Zapros O sootvetstvii Konstitutsii Rossiyskoy Federatsii postanovleniya Pravitelstvo Rossiyskoy Federatsii,” ot 8 yulya1997 goda No. 828 “Ob utverzhdenii Polozheniya o pasporte grazhdanina Rossiyskoy Federatsii, obraztsa blanka i opisaniya pasporta grazdanina Rossiyskoy Federatsii.”

41. Blake Eskin, “Russian Jews, in Sign of the Times, Call for Return of ‘Fifth Point’,” The Ethnic NewsWatch, 29 May 1998.

42. The respondents did not all have Jewish as their passport nationality. Rather, they were people who by the researchers were deemed Jews on the basis of their last names, passport entries and self-identification.

43. Rozalina Ryvkina, “Experts: The ‘Jewish question’ in post-Soviet Russia,” Segodnya, 8 May 1996. Current Digest of the Post-Soviet Press, Vol. XLVIII, No. 20, 1996, p. 12.

44. Aleksandr Frenkel, “In defense of ‘line five’,” Nezavisimaya gazeta, 10 November 1997. Current Digest of the Post-Soviet Press, Vol. XLIX, No. 45, p. 14.

45. “The myth about a moral crisis,” op. cit., Nezavisimaya gazeta, 11 February 1998.

46. Galina Starovoitova: “One must be proud of one's personality,” Argumenty i Fakty, No. 45, 1997. Translation from “What the Papers Say,” November 10 1997.

47. Conversation with the author. Kazan, February 2001.

48. Figures from L. N. Terentova, reprinted in Rasma Karklins, Ethnic Relations in the USSR. The Perspective From Below (London: Allen & Unwin, 1986), p. 38.

49. Figures for the ethnic composition of each of the federal subjects are due to be published in November 2004. Cumulative findings from the census are available at www.perepis2002.ru.

50. Author's interview with A. N. Dubovskiy. Ufa, February 2001.

51. “Chto dostanem iz ‘shirokikh shtani’?” Vremya i dengi, 25 October 2000.

52. Rustem Falyakhov, “Uzhivutsya li bars s orlom pod odnoy oblozhkoy,” Vechernyaya Kazan, 19 December 2000.

53. Svetlana Ofitova:, “Vladimir Putin reshil natsionalnyy vopros,” Segodnya, 17 February 2000.

54. “Pasportizatsiya respublik,” Izvestiya, 16 December 2000.

55. Author's interview with Vladimir Zorin. Kazan, February 2001.

56. RIA Novosti, as reported by Pravda.ru, 9 June 2001; Jamestown Monitor, 12 June 2001.

57. Advisory Committee on the Framework Convention for the Protection of National Minorities. Opinion on the Russian Federation. ACFC/INF/OP/I(2003)005.

58. See Dominique Arel, “Political Stability in Multinational Democracies: Comparing Language Dynamics in Brussels, Montreal and Barcelona,” in A. G. Gagnon and J. Tully, eds, Multinational Democracies (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2001), pp. 65–89.

59. See Sammy Smooha, “Types of Democracy and Modes of Conflict Management in Ethnically Divided Societies,” Nations and Nationalism, Vol. 8, No. 4, 2002, pp. 423–431.