As Many as One Russian Resident in Ten Did Not Declare a Nationality in Latest Census, Gilmutdinov Says

Paul Goble

            Staunton, Dec. 2 – In the 2010 census, 5.5 million residents of Russia did not identify themselves as members of any ethno-national community, a sharp decline from Soviet times when official nationalities were promoted and where all but a handful of people identified their nationality to census takers.

            But as big a decline as that was, Ildar Gilmutdinov, a Tatar deputy in the Russian State Duma says, the number who may not have declared their national identity in the latest, much-delayed census may be two to three times that, a prediction that would mean more than one in 10 residents did not identify in ethno-national terms.

            The deputy, who likely has had access to as yet unpublished census data, says that he is certain that this fall off in ethnic identity has affected not only non-Russians like the Tatars but ethnic Russians as well (milliard.tatar/news/cislo-grazdan-ne-opredelivsix-svoyu-nacionalnost-v-xode-poslednei-perepisi-naseleniya-mozet-vyrasti-do-3-raz-2484).

            He suggested that this trend was the product in large measure of the fact that the census was carried out during the pandemic. Because many people fearing infection would not open their doors to census takers, the latter did not include a nationality on the census forms for such people.

            Under the rules, census takers could answer almost all other census questions from other sources; but they could list a nationality for any individual only if that person declared it.

            If Gilmutdinov is right about the course, then this means that the number of census forms filled out without direct contact with residents is far higher than many had expected and that there may be problems with other figures as well, given errors in the other data bases those conducting the enumeration will have used.

            But there is an additional possibility, one he does not refer to, and that is this: given the lack of promotion of specifically ethnic identity relative to a non-ethnicng  Russian one and given Moscow’s attacks on non-Russian groups, at least some residents may have decided not to declare a nationality at all.

            If that proves to be the case, it points to other, broader problems, not just with the census but with changes in society at large, changes that will point in one direction if the share of ethnic Russians not declaring a nationality is larger than the share of non-Russians – and in a very different direction if the reverse is true.