Citation

Henze PB. Stud. Conflict Terrorism 1994; 17(1): 61-86.

Copyright

(Copyright © 1994, Informa - Taylor and Francis Group)

DOI

10.1080/10576109408435944

PMID

unavailable

Abstract

The Russian Soviet Federated Socialist Republic (RSFSR), which contains 51.5% of the USSR's population, has emerged as a key factor in the political and economic ferment that is undermining the very existence of the Soviet Union. The election of Boris Yeltsin as RSFSR president in June 1991 marked a decisive step in the decline of Mikhail Gorbachev's primacy and a new stage in the process of reform and democratization, the consequences of which we are only beginning to see. Though the RSFSR's population is over 80% Russian and over 85% Slavic, the republic confronts almost as many problems of ethnic and regional self‐assertion as the USSR as a whole. The 21 million non‐Slavs who live in the RSFSR occupy strategic border regions and economically critical areas. Most of them are jealous of their territorial autonomy, even though the system of union and autonomous republics and two kinds of autonomous districts has in many respects become anachronistic and illogical. As in the Transcaucasian republics to the south, Muslim nationalities in Dagestan are moving toward independence. Tatars, the largest Muslim nationality in the RSFSR, are increasingly self‐assertive, even though three‐quarters of them live outside their own republic's borders. The distant Tuvans, who are Mongols and live in territory once Chinese, have spawned a strong independence movement. Several national groups have declared themselves sovereign. Nationalities without territory of their own--Jews, Germans, Crimean Tatars, Meskhetian Turks, and Kurds--create complex problems for the RSFSR and its relations with other union republics. Among Slavic populations, Russians, especially those living in non‐Russian areas, are manifesting a distinct tendency to adopt Ukrainian and Belorussian nationality. Russian nationalism exhibits many facets and crosscurrents. Regionalism in the RSFSR may be an even more difficult problem for new democratic leaders to accommodate than ethnic discontent. Several Russian regions, with Leningrad in the lead, are moving to take control of their own administration and operate their economies independently of Moscow. They enjoy strong and growing popular support. In some areas, for example, the north Siberian autonomous republic of Yakutia, Russians are joining with other ethnic groups to press for greater political and economic self‐determination. The new constitution of the RSFSR, which is currently being written, must grapple with the problem of reorganizing this huge territory along lines that enable it to become a genuine, instead of a symbolic, federation. Events may be moving faster than the ability of even well‐intentioned and popular democratic leaders to control them. For the foreseeable future, all of these centrifugal tendencies are likely to intensify. The USSR--and specifically the Russian republic--will be in a state of flux for a long time to come.

Language: en