SULEYMANOV A.R. On the Formula of the Russian Nation in Political Agenda
A.R. SULEYMANOV Сandidate of political sciences, Associate Professor, Chair of philosophy and political science, Bashkir State University, Ufa, Russia
ON THE FORMULA OF THE RUSSIAN NATION IN POLITICAL AGENDA
In today's world, issues related to the study of multinationality, multi-ethnicity and civil unity remain open in scientific, theoretical and practical significance. Russia, given its centuries-old historical path of development as a multi-ethnic and multicultural civilization, can be confidently attributed to the states with a unique multi-ethnic formula. That is why the formula of the Russian nation should be the subject of scientific debate and political analysis.
Key words: political science, Russian nation, political agenda, formula, “Soviet man,” unity, diversity, patriotism.
The statement of the issue regarding the formula of the Russian nation and its multivariate sounding in political reality, despite its topicality and logical expressiveness, is extremely rare in research activity.
The Russian nation is a collective category, which can be represented in the form of stable relations between citizens of the Russian Federation, representing various ethnic, cultural, religious and other social groups based on common territory, state and way of life.
It should be borne in mind that these relations, called the Russian nation, are not a fictitious phenomenon or a political myth for Russia. And even despite its "political youth" (since the formation of the Russian Federation), the Russian nation has a direct link to our common centuries-old history, known throughout the world by the daily precedents of the cohabitation of multicultural and multiethnic communities.
At the same time, each milestone in the history imposed its own imprints on the political and/or civil identification of the inhabitants of Russia: "imperial nation," "Soviet inter-nation," Russian nation.
If, for example, we compare the categories of "Soviet man" and "Russian nation", it is possible to distinguish the features of both forms of political identification :
1. The formula "Soviet man" in process of its social consolidation and communist propaganda aspired to its monolithic character and universalization of all available ethno-cultural groups and communities. It can be assumed that it was an element and an instrument of national ideology. The Russian nation is based on the integrity of the country, but with the account of certain ethnic subjects of history and traditional values. The focus is on civicism, political ties with the state, patriotism, but devoid of dogmas of ideological monolithic character and uniformity.
2. The Russian nation is being formed and developed in an "open space" through global recognition, mass culture and communications. Soviet inter-nation, for understandable objective and historical reasons, was largely a "closed system».
3. The Russian nation is developing in the direction of rethinking the multi-ethnic nature of our country. There is an analysis of the previous positive achievements of the imperial and Soviet periods. The past is not rejected, while complementing Russia's multi-ethnic integrity.
As Chairman of the Department of the Moscow Patriarchate for Relations between Church and Society Vsevolod Chaplin, notes: "it is very important that nothing hinders the natural development of national cultures on the basis of the best traditions that every nation has, on the basis of the support of those structures formed partly in the Soviet and pre-revolutionary times, now partly forming structures that are connected with the national feelings and national traditions of a particular nation. And it is very important to allow people representing certain ethnic groups to solve existing problems together, to look for ways for overcoming them ".
Taking into account the centuries-old experience of fraternal cohabitation and interaction of the equally great peoples of Russia, the national leader and head of state Vladimir Putin calls our fatherland a country-a civilization. This is the result of the realization of the historical role and essence of Russia, the responsibility of the Russian authorities, society and every Russian for ensuring the free development of all peoples, the preservation of historically established state unity .
Thus, at the highest level of state power, the modern understanding of the Russian nation and the ways of strengthening the friendship of the equal nations of the Russian Federation are outlined. And this is not just a set of political slogans and symbols, in our opinion, but a consistent strategic line of the state at the present historical stage of development.
The sequence is expressed in the strategic decisions of the government that is being implemented now. Thus, in 2012, the presidential Council for interethnic relations was established. In the same year, the Strategy of the State National Policy for the Period up to 2025 was adopted and approved, which stresses, inter alia, the "spiritual community of the multinational people of the Russian Federation (Russian nation)", the need to "preserve and develop the ethno-cultural diversity of the peoples of Russia" and "successful social and cultural adaptation and integration of migrants ".
For the first time, the official document refers to the formation of the Russian nation as a community of citizens of the Russian Federation of different ethnic, religious, social and other affiliations, aware of their civil duty, historical, political and legal relationship with the Russian state (co-citizenship). The Russian nation is a certain harmonious manifestation of ethnonational and civil identity of Russians .
In 2015, the Federal Agency for the affairs of nationalities was created. Its tasks include implementing state policy in the sphere of interethnic and interreligious relations, "strengthening the unity of the multinational people of the Russian Federation", protecting the rights of national minorities and indigenous peoples of the country, preventing any forms of discrimination on the grounds of racial, national, religious or linguistic affiliation and preventing attempts to incite racial, national and religious discord, hatred and hostility ".
In 2016, the Strategy of the State Cultural Policy for the Period up to 2030 was approved, which emphasizes that the state cultural policy of Russia covers, among other things, "interethnic relations." One of the tasks is "the preservation of the spiritual values of the citizens, the revival and preservation of cultural and moral values, the strengthening of the spiritual unity of the multinational people of the Russian Federation ".
In the same year 2016, Vladimir Putin instructed to draft a separate federal law on the Russian nation. "But what is absolutely possible and necessary to implement – it's right on this you need to think about and start working in practical terms – this is the law on the Russian nation," Vladimir Putin said. "Our strategy, which we have developed together is to be transformed, but only it is necessary to work on it properly ".
"Russian Federation is a home to representatives of 193 nationalities (according to the 2010 census) and therefore they are all involved in complex transformation processes, which sometimes acquire ethno-political color and complicate the development of interethnic relations. "The country faces intensification of political forces of ethnonationalism, which, under the guise of national-patriotic rhetoric and slogans about their nationality, threaten the unity and friendship of the peoples of Russia," write well known Russian scientists R.G. Abdulatipov and V.A. Mikhailov .
In this regard, I would like to draw attention to several points.
First, the Russian nation reflects the historical nature and content of ties within a unique social community known throughout the world as the "multi-ethnic people of Russia".
Secondly, Russian experience and history demonstrate that the category of "Russian nation" is dynamic, it objectively develops together with the society and the state, changing its form, but at the same time preserving its essential content (multinational and ethnic diversity). It allows us to speak about the Russian nation as a viable social formula that can develop even in conditions of critical situations (the collapse of the Soviet Union).
Thirdly, the Russian Federation cannot have other alternatives, and it can develop as a single and sovereign state only on the basis of fraternal and friendly relations between the equally great peoples of Russia.
It follows that the formula of the Russian nation, even in difficult critical situations, is, first of all, a viable category that can overcome any political cataclysms and changes.
"Due to the rapid, dramatic social changes the value of the dual culture is a kind of traumatic events, by themselves bearing a definite meaning, endowed with a certain sense by members of the team, breaking the world, bringing cultural trauma. If an order is violated, the symbols acquire values different from those that are normally significant" , P. Shtompka writes in his works.
What leads to the loss of the value of traditional political values, violation of self-determination of integration of the common civil identity?
S.D. Savin highlights the following crisis situations that can lead to "political traumas" :
1. The conflict between the facts of the present or the past, interpreted as inconsistent with the basic foundations of culture. These may be events that do not correspond to the collective pride, values of a given people, such as defeat in war, collapse of the former political regime, non-payment by the state of external or internal debt, etc.
2. Clash of local and foreign cultures. Openness to external cultural influences.
3. Intra-cultural origins of social trauma, first of all, "cultural lag" of certain peoples, their different rates of social change.
Returning to our formula, we note that the optimization of the system (the Russian nation and the general civil identity) is secured at a total rate of greater than or equal to one. When the sum is less than one, the integration formula is weakened.
For the Russian Federation, the formula of the civil nation is a unit with a positive sum, when the public importance of unity and diversity does not cause the slightest doubt, allows overcoming of all sorts of political and socio-economic cataclysms and serves as a guarantee of strengthening the interethnic peace and harmony.
Politically, they include issues of self-determination of peoples and their rights, representation in legislative, executive and judicial bodies. Economically, they mean taking into account traditional forms of management and labor experience, rational use of natural resources, of the accumulated scientific and technical potential and personnel, the advantages of the territorial division of labor and industrial cooperation. Socially, they shall take into consideration features of the language development, satisfaction of ethno-cultural interests of the people, strengthening and improvement of the general educational program, preservation of historic monuments, traditions and customs.
All these aspects are known to the Russian society and should be resolved through the prism of cultural diversity and unity of the Russian nation. This is our multinational uniqueness and strength of the Russian Federation.
BIBLIOGRAPHY:
1. Abdulatipov R. Russian nation. Ethno-national and civic identity of the Russians. – М., 2003.
2. Abdulatipov R.G., Mikhailov V.A. Fate of the peoples of Russia in the XX century: Strategy of the state national policy: scientific and methodological grounds for the development and implementation of the Strategy of the State National Policy of the Russian Federation. – Makhachkala: Epoch publishing house, 2013.
3. Zorin V.Yu. Strategy of the state national policy of the Russian Federation: tradition and new approaches to strengthening the unity of the multinational people of Russia (Russian nation) // Questions of national and federal relations. – 2013. – No. 2.
4. Kalinina K.V. National policy in the Russian state: problems of continuity // Questions of national and federal relations. – 2015. – No. 4.
5. Medvedev N.P. Interethnic relations and national policy // Eurasian Union: issues of international relations. – 2016. – No. 3.
6. Medvedev N.P. Ethnopolitics: current problems: Manual. – М., 2016.
7. Mikhailov V.A. Strategy of the state national policy of the Russian Federation: theory and practical actions // Questions of national and federal relations. – 2013. –No. 2.
8. Putin V.V. Russia: the national question // Nezavisimaya Gazeta. 23 January 2012.
9. Savel'ev V.V. Model of self-determination of peoples in Russia: educational and methodical manual. - Moscow: RAGS publishing house, 2010.
10. Savin S.D. Culture as a factor of dynamic stability of Russian society // Vestnik Sankt-Peterburgskogo universiteta. – 2010. – No. 2.
11. Strategy of the state national policy of the Russian Federation for the period up to 2025: challenges and prospects. Materials of parliamentary hearings. December 5, 2013. – M.: Publishing of the State Duma, 2014.
12. Shtompka P. Social change as a trauma // Sociological surveys. – 2001. – No. 1.
13. See – URL: http://www.consultant.ru/document/cons_doc_LAW_139350/ff30f91360f2917b325d507685fd90353895d2bd/
14. See – URL: http://kremlin.ru/events/president/news/49043
15. See – URL: http://government.ru/media/files/AsA9RAyYVAJnoBuKgH0qEJA9IxP7f2xm.pdf
16. See – URL: http://www.interfax.ru/russia/535018