Paul
Goble
Staunton, January 7 -- Proposals to
restore the nationality line in Russian passports and other official documents
have sparked sharp debates between those who remember the ways in which Soviet
officials used that line to discriminate against Jews and other minorities and
those both ethnic Russian and non-Russian who say such lines can help them
maintain their nations.
Now, as increasingly happens with
controversial ideas from the Soviet past, the Russian government, in an obvious
effort to avoid public debate, is in effect re-introducing the nationality line
via the backdoor by asking people to declare their nationality when they
register key events in their lives such as marriage, divorce and death.
Beginning in April, state registration
offices will ask citizens filing documents on these occasions what their
nationality is. The exact procedures are still being worked out, officials say,
but given the sensitivity of the issue and the ways in which the authorities
may limit or use such declarations, some are beginning to ask questions about what
this will mean.
Yesterday, Svetlana Bolotnikova of the
BigCaucasus.com portal provided a discussion of the reasons for the new measure
and a survey of experts from the North Caucasus on how they see the new “nationality
line” working (bigcaucasus.com/events/actual/06-01-2014/88631-national-0/).
As she noted, officials are
convinced that they need such data. According
to the explanation of this latest action provided by the government, the
measure “will allow an assessment of the influence of social-demographic
characteristics” and “the carrying out of effective measures of an active demographic
policy.”
Moreover, Bolotnikova continued, “after
the mass actions of nationalists in Biryulevo, Pugachev and other Russian
cities, it is not a matter of indifference what the nationalities are of those who
live, marry, give birth and die in the regions of Russia.” But the real issues
are how voluntary the provision of such data will be and how what is collected.
As Bolotnikova pointed out, most ethnic
Russians support the idea of returning a nationality line to passports and
other documents, but according to polls, 60 percent of non-Russians in the North
Caucasus and especially Chechens, Ingushes and Daghestanis are opposed to such
a step.
Those against “a return of ‘the
fifth line’ in the passport” believe that the government should not be allowed
to collect such data lest it be in a position to discriminate against some of
its citizens, she wrote.
Bolotnikova spoke with five people
involved with this issue for their views.
Andrey Dudinov, a Russian nationalist who has sought the prosecution of
Chechens for the murder of an ethnic Russian, said that the restoration of the
nationality line is “absolutely necessary” under current conditions.
Vladimir Karatayev, the head of the
Union of Slavs of Adygeya, agrees. He argues that a nationality line is an
effective defense against efforts by “’the Kremlin elders’ to make people ‘soviet’
or ‘[non-ethnic] Russian” and thus ensure the preservation of the cultures and
languages of the indigenous peoples.
Vladimir Pisarenko, head of the
North Osetin section of the Congress of Russian Communities, says that all
peoples of the Caucasus should welcome this step and additional ones to restore
the nationality line in passports because the will allow for the better
regulation of migration and thus reduce ethnic clashes.
But Naima Neflyasheva, a scholar at
the Center for Civilizational and Regional Research of the Russian Academy of
Sciences, says that requiring declarations of nationality in registration
documents is “absolutely senseless” especially because at least in principle it
will be “voluntary” and because the state already has this information via the
census.
And Zagidi Makhmudov, the director
of Makhachkala’s Institute for Social and Humanitarian Research, says that he
doesn’t understand why the collection of such data should be limited to
registration offices “Rosstat and
sociological centers in the Academy of Sciences and universities” represent “a
whole empire” of institutions should be involved.
Limiting such data collection to
ZAGs alone, he said, opens up the opportunity “for games” with the data and its
use.
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