Inter-ethnic consent: the cure is inside of us

By Vestnik Kavkaza

Attempts are taking place to resolve the problem of inter-ethnic tensions in Russia by different means: schools and universities hold Tolerance Days; officials take part in inter-ethnic harmonization courses. No quick results have been achieved, even though everybody agrees that tolerance should be developed through culture, education, and preservation of traditions in the multinational state.

Meanwhile, Valery Tishkov, a member of the Presidential Council on International Relations, believes that it is mostly internal problems, internal risk, which are the cause of the degradation and disintegration of the state, and not any external aggressions.

“It is necessary to establish an efficient, competent management, a society in which citizens know their responsibilities, their rights and obligations, and finally, a competent and responsible elite, which formulates the basic concepts, passes on to the population some important provisions, values, attitudes. Modern science proves that there is a society in which 5%, which is the elite, are in agreement between themselves. This is something that we are in great need of.”

Tishkov noted “a self-destructive tendency” in Russia: social living conditions, people's personal strategies, such as their behavior in interactions, their marriage behavior (inter-ethnic marriages), everyday relations between believers, a lot of things indicate that there are more common things among Russians than there are differences in terms of religion, language or culture. But at the same time there exists something that is called "discourse" in science or, so to speak, a mental space that is pronounced by the "talking heads", starting with TV, newspaper headlines and ending with the great Internet.

Tishkov says that sometimes there is this desire to play with it, to use it, especially for political purposes, especially during electoral campaigns: “Very often some hidden line or direction is being initiated or pushed forward, or a program or project that later, with the end of an electoral campaign cannot be pushed back. Something which is based on shaping the image of the "other," of "enemies" (I mean not only external enemies). This situation ultimately can cause a serious crisis perhaps, in principle, in one of the most prosperous times in the life of our country.”

Tishkov thinks we have a crisis of understanding: “I myself today partially admitted it. Some 10-15 years ago I published an article, "The crisis of understanding of Russia." Maybe due to the profoundness of the changes that we have experienced in the past two decades, we perceive even positive changes as negative.”

“Maybe it makes sense to cool down, maybe to pause for some time, maybe after all to realize that we are carrying the Olympic torch across the country, and that this requires termination of any conflicts. The Olympic games, from this symbolic point of view, have already begun, and we are on the eve of this major event. If at least during this period of time we in our country, let's not talk about the whole world now, do not pause to become quiet and calm, then perhaps it will be difficult for us to find these answers,” Tishkov said.