Nationality Specialists Not Behind Constitutional Amendment on Russians as ‘State-Forming Nation,’ Drobizheva Says

Paul Goble

            Staunton, March 4 – Although she says that she doesn’t know who precisely is behind the proposed constitutional amendment that would declare Russian the language of the state-forming nation and thus give the Russians an apparently higher status than other peoples, Leokadiya Drobizheva says that she is certain it has not been pushed by specialists.

            The dean of Russian ethno-sociologists who currently heads the Center for Research on Inter-Ethnic Relations of the Moscow Institute of Sociology tells Elvita Samigullina of Kazan’s Business-Gazeta that experts, like herself and Valery Tishkov, know how many problems such language can generate among non-Russians (business-gazeta.ru/article/460104).

            Moreover, she continues, specialists are very much aware that despite Vladimir Putin’s mention of the term in a historical context as long ago as 2012 (ng.ru/politics/2012-01-23/1_national.html), it was not included in the country’s Nationality Strategy Document because those who prepared it were aware of the problems it can create. 

            For the expert community, Drobizheva says, “the appearance in the Constitution of the idea that Russian is the language of the state formation people was something unexpected since we had taken part in the preparation of the Strategy Document” where the term was not used at all.

            The ethno-sociologist says that she suspects that the term was pushed by “representatives (of which there are many) of ethno-cultural communities,” including those who represent Belarusians, Ukrainians and others. “For them, it doesn’t have any significance what this language is called – for them, the main thing is that it is Russian and that it is the state language.”

            “If they want to show their loyalty to Russians, then they are even ready to make such proposals,” Drobizheva says.