Paul
Goble
Staunton, April 27 – The exodus of
ethnic Russians and young Daghestanis from the cities of that republic and
their replacement by an influx of rural Daghestanis has created a situation in
which rural values have overwhelmed urban ones and led to a
re-traditionalization of social and political life in the formerly more modern
cities, according to a Moscow scholar.
Consequently, Makhachkala and other
Daghestani urban places are now far more like the rural areas than they had
been at any point in the last century, and the distinctions that many have
drawn between the modern values of these cities and the traditional values of
the countryside are no longer valid.
In an interview with Badma Burchiyev
of “Bolshoy Kavkaz,” Mikhail Chernyshev, a senior scholar at the Moscow Institute
of Problems of the Market at the Russian Academy of Sciences, says this process
will continue with the departure of the remaining ethnic Russians and young urban
Daghestanis (bigcaucasus.com/events/analysis/25-04-2013/83140-Dagestqan_russia_Mahachkala-0/).
“In the first instance,” their
departure reflects “a change of the culture milieu” of what had been modern
cities, Chernyshev says. With the
increasing arrival of people from rural villages, “the norms and values of the
mountain districts have become dominant” in these urban places, “and they do
not always correspond with the way of life of the Russian population.”
The Moscow scholar says that just
one example shows how this process is working.
People from rural areas having entered the cities have secured a ban of
the sale of alcohol to all residents regardless of religion during the Muslim
fast in the month of Ramadan, something that many non-Muslim Russians find
deeply offensive.
The cascading nature of migration
means that “migrants from the mountains,” the most primitive of the
Daghestanis, now dominate the rural districts of the republic, “and rural
culture dominates in the cities.” In the
past, the city swallowed up and transformed the villagers, but now the
villagers are swallowing up and transforming the cities.
“This has led to a situation,”
Chernyshev says, “in which not only the Russian part of the population is
becoming uncomfortable there but also the representatives of local nationalities
who are bearers of secular culture and European values are becoming uncomfortable as well,” not
because of the growth of religiosity as such but because of the shift in
cultural values.
Given this trend, no mass return of
ethnic Russians or secular Daghestanis is likely, he continues. Building more
Orthodox churches for the former may be good populist politics, but it will
only mean that there will be many empty churches and more anger among Muslim
believers who will increasingly view the state as the enemy.
Chernyshev’s comments came in
response to proposals by Ramazan Dzhafarov, the acting deputy head of the Daghestani
government, to increase support for Russian institutions in order to hold more
ethnic Russians in Daghestan and to attract some back, a project that many have
already expressed skepticism about.
Enver Kisriyev, a senior scholar at the Moscow
Center for Civilizational and Regional Research of the Russian Academy of
Sciences who specializes on the Caucaus, told “Bolshoy Kavkaz” that “there is
no need to adopt a special program for ethnic Russians in Daghestan because “there
is no anti-Russian movement” there.
“It’s true that Russians are leaving
Daghestan,” he pointed out, “but indigenous Daghestanis and representatives of
other peoples are leaving as well.” Such internal migration is “a normal and
positive phenomenon in most cases,” but what is taking place in Russia is both
different and unfortunate.
“Siberia which has great potential
for industrial development is losing population at a catastrophic rate,” and
the country’s residents are converging on Moscow which is overpopulated. There
is “another worrisome trend: certain regions are becoming ethnically
homogeneous. In the Caucasus, they include, Ingushetia, Chechnya and Daghestan.”
This increasing ethnic homogeneity,
Kisriyev argued, “is not connectedwith the desire of the Caucasians to live in
their own ethno-cultural milieu.” These are depressed regions and local people “of
all nationalities” are leaving as well. “The Chechens are leaving Chechnya very
actively, including abroad.”
The departure of such people, however,
means that those who remain are not only disproportionately members of the
titular nationality but also bearers of the most traditional kind of national culture.
And the increasing influence of their values on the situation has the effect of
accelerating this process.
According to Kisriyev, Moscow “does
not need to consider contemporary political and economic problems through the
prism of inter-ethnic relations. The very fact of such an approach,” he says, “suggests
that the problem will not be resolved and that inter-ethnic relations can get
worse.”
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