Possible Return of Nationality Line to Passports Divides Russians and Non-Russians

Paul Goble

            Staunton, July 30 – The mere suggestion Moscow might restore the nationality line in passports, something notorious in Soviet times and dispensed with since, a suggestion denied both by government officials and United Russia leaders, has sparked a sharp online debate and divided by Russians and non-Russians.

            These attitudes reflect both how sensitive any issue involving ethnicity remains in Russia and how people on both sides of the Russian/non-Russian divide view such official registration of their identities with some in each camp viewing that as helpful to their cause and others as a threat (windowoneurasia2.blogspot.com/2021/07/duma-considers-restoring-nationality.html and nazaccent.ru/content/36288-v-mvd-ne-rassmatrivayut-vopros-vneseniya.html).

            Pro-Kremlin Russian nationalist writer Andrey Afanasyev says that he is totally opposed to the idea and has labelled even the possibility of restoring a nationality line in Russian passports “a threat to the territorial integrity of Russia” (idelreal.org/a/31379029.html).          Nationalist commentator Yegor Kholmogorov agrees and says that the very proposal to do so is an attempt to undermine the formation of a single Great Russian nation and “preserve multi-nationality for decades,” something he is very much against because such fixing of national identity would block “the russification of small peoples.”

            In response, Bashkir activist Ruslan Gabbasov says that Kholmogorov has thus shown himself committed to “increasing the number of ethnic Russians in the country to 100 percent” by “liquidating the national republics and assimilating other peoples, in the first instance, those of the Middle Volga.” To counter that, he argues, a nationality line is essential.

            Regionalist writer Vladimir Serebrovsky says that Kholmogorov’s opposition shows that he is more than prepared to deny ethnic Russians the right to declare their nationality in order “God forbid, that any Udmurt, Komi or Tatar could do so.” Those who posted on the Uralistica site shared this view.

            Nogay activist Rami Ishmukhambetov said he backs the restoration of a nationality line in domestic passports because it will help preserve ethnic minorities in the face of assimilation pressures, a position echoed by Tatarstan activist Oleg Gizatullin, who says that each region should have the right to insert a special page to allow its residents to make similar declarations.

            But Circassian activist Shamsudin Neguc is opposed because he says this will only lead to more discrimination against non-Russians. He says he has even encountered discrimination based on his place of birth and doesn’t want others to be able to treat him as a second-class citizen for another reason.

            Unlike many other Russian nationalists, Vladimir Khomyakov who broadcasts on the Tsargrad television network is all in favor of restoring the nationality line. He says Russians should be proud of being Russian and this will keep them from decaying into some kind of faceless non-ethnic community.

            Another writer, Artemy Sych of the Iskra portal says that he does not see the introduction of a nationality line as a threat to the growth in the number of ethnic Russians. According to him, “minority cultures and identities can exist only in rural areas and urbanization is already working in favor of Russians.”