Activists Protest Decision to Combine Ethnic Studies Section with Russian History Chair at Kabardino-Balkar University

Paul Goble     

            Staunton, May 17 – Officials in Kabardino-Balkaria have decided to fold the chairs devoted to ethnology and history of the peoples of the KBR into the chair for Russian history, thus downgrading one of the centers that since its creation in 1995 helped provide the intellectual basis for the revival of Circassian and Balkar identity in that North Caucasus republic.

            Not surprisingly, this move has provoked an open letter of protest by activists who say that this “most crude mistake” will “inevitably mean a weakening of the stable reproduction of the ethno-cultural identity of Kabardins and Balkars and their gradual assimilation” (zapravakbr.ru/index.php/30-uncategorised/1974-kabardino-balkarskij-universitet-likvidiroval-kafedru-etnologii-istorii-narodov-kbr).

            This move by officials is noteworthy because it is yet another confirmation of Putin’s decision to undermine ethnic identities other than Russian in the Russian Federation and to do so in what may appear small ways but that together will threaten the survival of many nations within the current borders of that country.