Russian regionalism in the XXI century: Siberian and Pomor cases

Research аrticle

Abstract

This article examines the role and significance of regional identities in modern Russia, as well as their relationship to ethnic identities. In contrast to the activities and political programs of ethnic and ethnopolitical organizations and their political programs, regionalist movements in Russia, as well as the evolution of their ideological frameworks, have been poorly studied; this also concerns the the history of regionalist movements. At the same time, regionalism in Russia has deep historical roots and can be an important political resource. Therefore, studying it and analyzing its evolutionary paths allows for a more complete picture of the country's modern political history. The analysis presented here is based on a variety of materials: documents from regional and ethnic organizations and their forums, interviews with their leaders, press publications, and online resources.  We demonstrate that regional identities came to the forefront in Russia during the 1990s. This coincided with the "parade of sovereignties" and the formation of regionalist movements, particularly in the former “autonomous” republics, that actively advocated for the expansion of the political power of federal units inside Russia. Regional identity in Russia took on an ethnic form, as ethnicity became a political resource during the "ethnic renaissance" of the 1990s. However, regionalist movements and regional ideology failed to gain a significant place in the spectrum of political forces in Russia, as they failed to gain either mass popular support or the backing of regional elites. Only the Cossack movement of southern Russia achieved this, and therefore it remains the only successful example of ethnic regionalism. The Siberian and Pomor movements, which initially had great political potential, failed to realize it and are now in decline. The paper summarizes the results of many years of research related to the study of ethnopolitical processes in various regions of Russia, but primarily in the European north of the Russian Federation and Western Siberia. A significant part of these studies was of an interregional nature and included mass surveys of the population and mainly young people, as well as expert surveys, analysis of statistical information, publications in the media and analysis of Internet resources. In the course of these studies, information was collected about the ethnopolitical and ethnocultural orientations of Russians, including their perception of ethnic and civic identities, trends and dynamics of ethnic and ethnopolitical processes, and the depth of cultural transformations were assessed. The main method used by the author is the comparative method.