‘If Sense of Civic Unity Disappears, Nothing can Save Russia,’ Russian Government Advisor on Ethnic Issues Says

Paul Goble

            Staunton, July 1 – The existence in the population of a strong sense of identity with the state is “more important than the existence of an army, police borders, or border guards,” Aleksandr Polunov says. And if such an identity disappears, “then nothing will help” keep the state in one piece.”

            Speaking at a Kazan conference on patriotism, the Moscow State University scholar who chairs the experts advisory council at the Federal Agency for Nationality Affairs, said that the collapse of the USSR proved that: “When people lost the sense that a single state should exist, no other factors helped preserve the state” (business-gazeta.ru/article/639040).

            While most discussions about the collapse of the USSR and the possible disintegration of the Russian Federation implicitly recognize that reality, few are prepared to be as blunt as Polunov is -- especially at a time when Putin and many others think that coercive power alone will be sufficient to hold things together.