Xenophobia as a Basis of Solidarity

Abstract

The growth in Russia of antagonism toward non-Russians, immigrants, and certain forms of religious and sexual identity is a result of both a resurgence of traditional Russian culture and a deliberate policy to stir up hostility in the media and through new legislation aimed at suppressing difference.

This article is the republished version of:

Xenophobia as a Basis of Solidarity

Notes

English translation © 2014, 2015 from the Russian text © 2013 the Iurii Levada Analytical Center (Levada Center) and the Interdisciplinary Academic Center of the Social Sciences (Intercenter). “Ksenofobiia kak osnova solidarnosti,” Vestnik obshchestvennogo mneniia. Dannye. Analiz. Diskussii, 2013, nos. 3–4, pp. 63–69. A publication of the Levada Center and Intercenter. An expanded version of this article was published in the journal Mir Rossii.Translated by Kim Braithwaite. Translation reprinted from Sociological Research, vol. 53, no. 6. doi: 10.2753/SOR1061-0154530602

^1. P. Shtompka [Sztompa], Doverie—osnova obshchestva. Petr Shtompka, trans. from Polish, V. Morozova (Moscow: Logos, 2012), p. 421.

^2. Rossiiane o migratsii i mezhnatsional'noi napriazhennosti. Levada-Tsentr, press release November 5, 2013.

^3. Migrants from Central Asia and Azerbaijan are ideally suited to serve as “scapegoats.” Although Islamaphobia has limited resonance in the public space, studies have shown evidence of increased anti-Islamic moods in society.

^4. A survey by the Public Opinion Foundation in October 2011, requested by the Higher School of Economics National Research University. A total of 24,500 respondents were surveyed. The author is grateful to the Higher School of Economics National Research University for the opportunity to use the data from the above-mentioned survey (henceforth, MegaFOM, 2011).

^5. L. Gudkov, “Chechenskaia voina i ‘my,’” Neprikosnovennyi zapas, no. 5 (13), 2000.

^6. V.V. Putin, “Bol'shaia press-konferentsiia prezidenta Rossii v Kremle,” Izvestiia, February 1, 2007.

^7. G.U. Soldatova and A.V. Makarchuk, Trening po profilaktike ksenofobii (Moscow: Genezis, 2006); available at http://psyfactor.org/lib/xenophobia2.htm. See also V.A. Shnirel'man, “Sovetskii paradoks: rasizm v strane ‘druzhby narodov’?” in Antropologiia sotsial'nykh peremen: sbornik st., ed. E. Guchinova and G. Komarova (Moscow: ROSSPEN, 2011), p. 45.

^8. Iu. Levada, Ot mnenii k ponimaniiu. Sotsiologicheskie ocherki. 1993–2000 (Moscow: Moskovskaia shkola politicheskikh issledovanii, 2000).

^9. Shtompka, Doverie, p. 243.

^10. A. Osipov, “Na puti k osmysleniiu problem rasizma,” in Rasizm: sovremennye zapadnye podkhody: sb. st., trans. from English and French, A. Verkhovskii and comp. A. Osipov (Moscow: Tsentr Sova, 2010), p. 15.

^11. MegaFOM, 2011.

^12. L.G. Byzov, “Predstavleniia i mechty rossiian ob ustroistve Rossii cherez prizmu tsennostnykh i ideinykh protivorechii obshchestva,” in Rossiia reformiruiushch-aiasia. Vyp. 11: Ezhegodnik, ed. M.K. Gorshkov (Moscow: Novyi khronograf, 2012), p. 162.

^13. Iu.P. Zinchenko and A.V. Loginova, eds., Tolerantnost' kak faktor protivodeistviia ksenofobii: upravlenie riskami ksenofobii v obshchstve riska (Moscow: Federal'nyi institut razvitiia, 2011).

^14. “Raspredelenie obshchego ob”ema denezhnykh dokhodov naseleniia,” Rosstat, 2013; available at www.gks.ru/free_doc/new_site/population/urov/urov_32g.htm.

^15. Ezhegodnik “Obshchestvennoe mnenie—2012” (Moscow: Analiticheskii Tsentr Iuriia Levady, 2012), pp. 106, 107.

^16. “Better Life Index, OECD, 2013”; available at www.oecdbetterlifeindex.org.

^17. “Meditsina, obrazovanie i ZhKKh v predstavlenii rossiian,” Levada-Tsentr, press release, September 10, 2013; Obshchestvennoe mnenie—2012, pp. 70–72.

^18. CLC the World Factbook, CIA, 2013; available at www.cia.gov/library/publications/the-world-factbook.

^19. Obshchestvennoe mnenie—2012, pp. 74, 75.

^20. The Happy Planet Index: 2012 Report, p. 25; available at www.happyplanetindex.org/assets/happy-planet-index-report.pdf.

^21. N.K. Gorshkov, Sotsial'nye faktory konsolidatsii Rossiiskogo obshchestva: sotsiologicheskoe izmerenie (Moscow: Novyi khronograf, 2010), p. 3.

^22. G.G. Diligenskii, “Stanovlenie grazhdanskogo obshchestva: kul'turnye i psikhologicheskie problemy,” in Grazhdanskoe obshchestvo v Rossii: struktury i soznanie (Moscow: Nauka, 1998).

^23. During those years, the Levada Center asked this question every year: “How has your faith in people changed in the past year?” On average, 2.5 times more respondents answered that it had weakened, than those who said it had strengthened. Calculated on the basis of Obshchestvennoe mnenie—2012.

^24. G.A. Iavlinskii and A.V. Kosmynin, “Dvadtsat' let reform—promezhutochnye itogi? (Rossiiskoe obshchestvo kak protsess).” Mir Rossii, 2011, no. 2, p. 14.

^25. P.M. Kozyreva and A.I. Smirnov, “Doverie i ego rol' v konsolidatsii rossiis-kogo obshchestva,” in Sotsial'nye faktory konsolidatsii rossiiskogo obshchestva: sotsiologicheskoe izmerenie (Moscow: Novyi khronogaf, 2010).

^26. Shtompka, Doverie, pp. 117, 157–58.

^27. Obshchestvennoe mnenie—2012, pp. 76–77.

^28. Z.T. Golenkova and E.D. Igitkhanian, “Rossiiskii rabochii: sotsial'no-politicheskie orientatsii,” in Rossiia reformiruiushchaiasia, vyp. 11: Ezhegodnik, ed. M.K. Gorshkov (Moscow: Novyi khronograf, 2012), pp. 276–277.

^29. Shtompka, Doverie, pp. 300–305, 414.

^30. Ibid., pp. 71, 379.

^31. N.E. Tikhonova, O chem mechtaiut rossiiane: ideal i real'nost', ed. M.K. Gorshkov, R. Krumm, and N.E. Tikhonova (Moscow: Ves' Mir, 2013), p. 289.

^32. See N.M. Lebedeva, Etnicheskaia i kross-kul'turnaia psikhologiia (Moscow: MAKS Press, 2011).

^33. V. Magun and M. Rudnev, “Tsennostnaia geterogennost' naseleniia evropeiskikh stran: tipologiia po pokazateliam R. Inglkharta,” Vestnik obshchestvennogo mneniia, 2013, nos. 3–4 (113).

^34. L. Khakhulina, “Sub”ektivnye otsenki sotsial'nogo neravenstva: rezul'taty sravnitel'nogo mezhdunarodnogo issledovaniia,” Vestnik obshchestvennogo mneniia, 2004, no. 3, p. 45.

^35. Tikhonova, O chem mechtaiut rossiiane, p. 307.

^36. L.D. Gudkov, B.V. Dubin, and N.A. Zorkaia, Molodezh' Rossii (Moscow: Moskovskaia shkola politicheskikh issledovanii, 2011), p. 18.

^37. O. Bychkova, “Chtoby nikakikh somnenii,” Ekho Moskvy, June 13, 2013.

^38. M. Berg, “O Putinskoi norme,” Ekho Moskvy, June 24, 2013; available at www.echo.msk.ru/blog/mberg/1101356-echo/.

^39. L. Gudkov, “Doverie v Rossii: smysl, funktsiia, struktura,” Vestnik obshchest-vennogo mneniia, 2012, no. 2, p. 27.

^40. Among people with incomes higher than 60,000 rubles per month the share of those who completely approved the actions of the skinheads was sevenfold more than among all respondents (MegaFOM, 2011).

^41. Ibid.

^42. L.M. Dorbizheva and S.V. Ryzhova, “Rossiiskaia identichnost' i mezhetnicheskaia tolerantnost',” in Sotsial'nye faktory konsolidatsii Rossiiskogo obshchestva: sotsiologicheskoe izmerenie (Moscow: Novyi khronograf, 2010).

^43. L.M. Dorbizheva, Etnichnost' v sotsial'no-politicheskom prostranstve Rossiiskoi Federatsii. Opyt 20 let, ed. Dorbizheva (Moscow: Novyi khronograf, 2013), p. 244.

^44. See, for example, the list of states that have been enemies of Russia since 2007 (Obshchestvennoe mnenie, 2012, p. 200).

^45. Ibid., p. 177.

^46. Rossiiane o migratsii i mezhnatsional'noi napriazhennosti. Levada-Tsentr, press release, November 5, 2013.

^47. E.A. Pain, Etnopoliticheskii maiatnik. Dinamika i mekhanizmy etnopoliticheskikh protsessov v postsovetskoi Rossii (Moscow: Institut sotsiologii RAN, 2004), p. 234.

^48. A. Rubtsov, “Filosofiia opasnosti,” Otechestvennye zapiski, 2013, no. 2 (53).

^49. Problemy i trevogi rossiian. Levada-Tsentr, press release, September 3, 2013; available at www.levada.ru/03-09-2013/problemy-i-trevogi-rossiyan/.

^50. The discussion of “the problem of migration” comes down to nothing more than proposals for specific measures such as the adoption of visa regulations, making the laws tougher, and so on. There is no articulation of “the problem,” although it is obvious that different challenges call for different and frequently mutually exclusive solutions.

^51. The Telepress Club said that “The systematic revival of xenophobic moods in the political broadcasting of the state's TV channel Rossiia 1” was the nonevent of the TV season (RIA-Novosti, October 31, 2013; available at http://ria.ru/society/20131031/973443619.html).

^52. In the structure of the everyday consciousness of Russian working young people, the term “migrants” is not linked to any particular ethnic groups, particular religious faith or particular styles of behavior (Russian Foundation for the Humanities Project 13–03–00494, “An Analysis of the Characteristics of Mutual Adaptation and the Potential of Integration of Young Russians and Young Migrants From Central Asia and Transcaucasia”; the semantic differentiation method was used).

^53. Politika integratsii migrantov v Rossii: vyzovy, potentsial, riski: rabochaia tetr, ed. V.I. Mukomel' and I.S. Ivanov. Rossiiskii sovet po mezhdunar. delam (RSMD) (Moscow: Spetskniga, 2013), p. 11.

^54. Iu. Levada, “Novyi russkii natsionalizm: ambitsii, fobii, kompleksy,” Monitoring obshchestvennogo mneniia, 1994, no. 1, p. 17.

^55. There are xenophobic theses in the programs of all of the parliamentary parties, with the exception of United Russia. See Vladimir Mukomel', “Migratsionnaia ritorika v programmnykh dokumentakh politicheskikh partii. KARIM-Vostok—Konsortsium prikladnykh issledovanii po mezhdunarodnoi migratsii, 2012; available at www.carim-east.eu/media/exno/Exno/Explanatory%20Notes_2012-51.pdf.

^56. Zinchenko and Loginova, Tolerantnost', p. 571.

^57. Gudkov, “Doverie v Rossii, p. 42.

^58. Shtompka, Doverie, p. 327.