Multiculturalism and Fraternity of peoples

Experts on current state of inter-ethnic relations in Russia

Sergey Markov, political scientist, member of the Public Chamber of Russia

We see that our colleagues in the EU speak about the crisis of multiculturalism. But we have no alternative to multiculturalism. They could dream about an ethnically pure society. We cannot dream about it. Russia and our neighboring countries form a great world with many ethnic groups and confessions that live together. We have always been strong with it. We are doomed to live in a multicultural society. That is why we should state clearly that we do not reject multiculturalism. In Europe they focused on tolerance, and multiculturalism found itself in crisis. They consider tolerance to be the ignoring of ethnic differences. This is a mistake. We shouldn’t pretend we are absolutely identical. No, people of different ethnic groups are different. We have our own traditions, and I hope some day they will come to this idea – multiculturalism not as tolerance, but as friendship of nations. We should teach our children to appreciate ethnic differences, to see the treasures of different cultures. We all here are internationalists, not only ideological internationalists. Through communication with people of different ethnic groups, we see the huge treasure of them. When we come to our Azerbaijani friends, we eat the delicious pilaf they cook. They have peculiarities in music, in the household and so on. We should teach our children. Focus is put on friendship of nations, it is our specific form of multiculturalism. We should promote a love of friendship between people from schools through to the mass media. Moreover, I’ve already spoken about it, we have to make a holiday in the country to mark inter-ethnic harmony and friendship of nations. On November 4th we have Peoples’ Unity Day, but it hasn’t been explained to people what they are celebrating. As a result, nationalists hold demonstrations, the police control it. So it is a weird holiday of peoples’ unity. The reason is the absence of a clear explanation. The holiday refers to history. But it seems we need a separate holiday. A good date. It should be thought over, which date is better. Our history has many good dates. And the holiday will mark the inter-ethnic and inter-religious harmony of Russia and other countries. We should tell people that on this day you should find a person among your friends of a different ethnic group, talk to him or her, feed him or her with your national cuisine and so on. In other words, we need practical steps. Schools should teach children about how different peoples live. Regional peculiarities might be used. For example, in some regions Buryats prevail. Russian children should be taught about who the Buryats are and what specificities they have. The same thing concerns lessons on religion and secular ethics. It is not bad, but it can be improved. For example, children from Orthodox families prevail in some schools. But they need to be taught what Islam is, what Judaism is, they need to be shown that these religions have similar roots. As far as I remember, the course is being taught for one year only. It is not enough. In every grade children should learn inter-ethnic harmony. It is very important for us. Another significant aspect is that de-ideology became paramount at some point. There are no ideologies. But this is a dead end. People cannot live without ideology. This vacuum is filled by radical ideological movements. I think we should reject the concept of de-ideology, especially for secondary and high school, and promote the ideology of peace, harmony, progress, preservation of traditions, something like that.

Abdul-Vakhed Niyazov, advisor to the chairman of the Mufti Council of Russia

We are dealing with economics, politics, and so on, but we lose sight of an important aspect, without which our state and society cannot develop. I mean spirituality and inter-ethnic education. The Soviet Union, despite all its disadvantages, was a superpower for a long time. The majority of its population lived in comfortable conditions due to the friendship of nations. Today it is called multiculturalism. But without it, the existence of such a big country as Russia is impossible. For many years ethnic policy has been in the background of politics in Russia. It is not considered by the education system and mass media.

Soyun Sadykov, president of the Federal Ethnic-Cultural Autonomy of Azerbaijanis of Russia

I think to preserve the system of inter-ethnic harmony in our country, we should move from words to action. First of all, the law should be the same for everyone, independent of ethnic groups, positions, and so on. If the law doesn’t work in the country, we will continue to kill each other, accuse each other, talk about Islamic radicalism, Russian skinheads, nationalists, etc. Russian statehood and its development as a civilized country depend on civil society.

Aliy Totorkulov, chairman of the Executive Council of the Caucasus Peoples' Russian Congress

Our country is multinational. Inter-ethnic and inter-religious conflicts will lead to the dissolution of the country. This process might be postponed by force for some short period of time, but the result will be the same – collapse. Our country has no national idea, which would consolidate healthy social forces. The presence of an idea would make radical movements and misfits outcasts. But healthy forces have nothing to consolidate around, and misfits are front of the stage. Today we are discussing things that wouldn’t happen in a normal society. The main reason for troubles in our country is socio-legal lawlessness. It causes xenophobia, religious radicalism, extremism, militant atheism and so on. Religion is separated from the state, and they are like two parallel lines that will never cross. As if we are not connected to each other. Religions should be supported by the state – all religions: Christianity, Islam, Judaism, Buddhism. Because the basis of all religions is spirituality. By separation of religions from the state, we doom ourselves to absence of spirituality. When Gagarin flew into space on April 12, 1961, all Soviet people were happy, whatever their ethnic belonging. Everyone was proud of the country, of its deeds. Today we have nothing to be proud of. We have no something that would unite us. We have no national ideology, modern heroes. People don’t feel they take part in progress processes. Everyone lives on his own and plays his own game. I wish society understood that, without consolidation of healthy forces radicalism, will win. It will lead to chaos, and in the end we will undergo new revolutions. We need civil peace, friendship of nations; common ideas should be collected. This is a challenge for all of us – the authorities, the mass media, social organizations, and common people.

Mikhail Bocharov, President, BUTEK corporation

First of all, it would be good if everyone here would put forward at least one concrete proposal about how to improve the situation. For instance, on April, 5,  the representative of the National Anti-terrorist Committee Nikolay Syrtsov announced that "in 2011 85 counter-terrorist and 12000 military operations were conducted in North Caucasus". Just think about these numbers for one year! "During these operations 343 bandits were neutralized and 618 arrested".  It means 1000 people a year. "500 bandits' bases were found". This is "southern front". But we can talk about "central front" too where people are killed daily, both Russian and Caucasian, although I do not like the word "Caucasian", we should rather speak about Armenian, Azeri, meaning foreign citizens, while "Caucasians" are Russian citizens. The information of the State Statistical Committee about the number of people that disappear. According to the most modest estimates,  about one million people get lost in action, children, adults, especially elderly when it concerns housing question. Some of them are found, some of them are found, some unfortunately no. Some are buried in the forests, hidden in concrete and asphalt, lost in swamps, rivers and lakes. Russian has more than 200 ethnicities, this is the Soviet heritage, and I believe that there were more good than bad things in the Soviet times, but nevertheless the separation of Russia into republics with their own presidents, governments, flags and even their own embassies-representative offices in Moscow and other regions...  Even the US did no think about these things when you build an enormous construction and serve it while the material situation of people is very difficult as it is in Russia. I unfortunately lived closed to the representative office of Kalmykia on Kutuzovsky avenue - it is a former kindergarten that was taken away from children and decorated with marble - although Kalmykia lies in poverty. I went there, looked at this luxury and I got sick. Why does is happen that way? Why the power and the people are so separated?  And why people loses the trust in the authorities more and more? I have several proposals. First is that we in fact do not know how many unemployed we have in the country. The last census and the census of 2000 were conducted surprisingly badly. I was not visited at all, but usually they asked: "Do you work?" - "Yes" - "Where?" - "I am a manager". This is how they write it down, although a person has never worked. We need to keep in mind that our criminality, including the ethnic and clan, is first of all connected to the lack of jobs and money.

People go and steal, create bands and different associations. For any price, for money. Why do we have this 1000 people on the Caucasus per year? And this is every year. What if we count 20 years?  We were told that only 300, 400, 500 militants were left. Nothing like this, their number grows with every year. Because people have nowhere to work and no means to live. And this is how they act. If you give 100 dollars to a young man, he will take a machine-gun and to to shoot the so-called enemies. If you look at the economic situation in the republic, you will be scared - all the last places, 82nd, 81st and 80th are occupied by the republics of North Caucasus. They have favorable climate, they used to have good infrastructure and agricultural and industrial production. What happened then? Why are these questions not solved today? Why all the leading positions in the republics - there has recently been a scandal in Ingushetia - are given to the representatives of the particular clans? Russians you say? Maybe there is a couple in the governments of these republics. There are no Russians. In 1991 we proposed a new division of Russia. We had an international Russian club that involved ministers, heads of the republics, a serious organization. We proposed to create 16 lands, like in Germany. I guess if every nationality said that they wanted a land for them then we would end up with 200. I can imagine what it would lead to. I understand that this question cannot be solved now. But there is another question. Let's  suggest to the government that State Statistical Committee, the controls 200 other federal structures clearly, using tehr resources of Tax inspection, Ministry of interior, Federal security service,  will give us a picture of what is going on with our population. Can it be done? Definitely, and even in a week, we will have concrete information. As for the Caucasus, in this case we need to look from the economic point of view. There are many projects. The creation of jobs. There should be a really strict attitude to the economic and social questions. Yesterday we took part ina  round table with the community of Transnistria.  Transnistrian community in Russia has already 1000 members. There are many questions connected to yesterday's meeting. Let's have a look. "Multiethnic Russia", I mean the public organization. Let's include the ehads of all the diasporas living in our countries - Georgians, Armenians, Tadjiks - that also suffer from the problems that we discuss today. Let's write letters. I formulated the economic suggestions in a letter to Putin as to our president, although  his inauguration is only on May,7. Let's put forward concrete suggestions. I will not abuse your attention now, but there are many suggestions. Therefore if we officially on behalf of "Multiethnic Russia" with the help of the journal and other media resources do it, I think the resull will be enormous. Thank you for your attention.