Politics of the Russian Language Beyond Russia, ed. by Ch. Noack, EUP, 2021
The chapter explores the present role and the future of the Russian language in Kazakhstan. It co... more The chapter explores the present role and the future of the Russian language in Kazakhstan. It contrasts state language policies with the views of ordinary Kazakhstani citizens, recorded mainly in interviews and round-table discussions with students of national universities conducted between 2016 and 2019. Suggesting that the Russian linguistic-cultural space in Central Asia is largely a historically rooted phenomenon and has not been primarily dependent on Russia, the authors suggest that the Russian Federation should readjust its external language and culture promotion, which has so far been geared almost exclusively to the so-called ‘compatriots’, and should take the needs of non-Russian Russian-speakers into serious consideration.
Moscow, Institute of Oriental Studies, Russian Academy of Sciences (Москва, Институт востоковедения РАН) , 2021
Книга посвящена различным аспектам восприятия России жителями трех стран Центральной Азии — Казах... more Книга посвящена различным аспектам восприятия России жителями трех стран Центральной Азии — Казахстана, важнейшего стратегического и экономического партнера России, имеющего с ней огромную по протяженности общую границу, а также Киргизии и Узбекистана. Их связи с Россией исторически обусловлены и разнообразны, но сейчас определяются в первую очередь многолетним притоком в страну сотен тысяч трудовых мигрантов. Исследование основано на эмпирических материалах, собранных авторами в 2014-2019 гг. качественными методами (экспертные и биографические интервью, фокус-группы, контент-анализ сетевых публикаций).
Все представленные в книге сюжеты неразрывно связаны с Россией, в ее различных ипостасях — как бывшей империи, колонизовавшей бескрайние пространства азиатского материка; как преемницы государства, когда-то общего для многих людей разных национальностей, населяющих сейчас страны региона; как движущей силы в рамках существующего в регионе экономического объединения (ЕАЭС); наконец, как части сохраняющегося в этих странах, но во многом живущего здесь своей собственной жизнью русскоязычного культурного пространства.
Издание рассчитано на историков, социологов, политологов; на студентов и аспирантов этих специальностей, на преподавателей вузов, а также на всех читателей, которых могут заинтересовать искренние и непредвзятые мнения о России, высказанные обычными жителями стран — наших бывших соседей по общему дому.
This book focuses on various aspects of how Russia is perceived by the residents of three Central Asian countries – Kazakhstan, Russia's most important strategic and economic partner, which shares a vast border with Russia, as well as Kyrgyzstan and Uzbekistan. The ties of these two countries with Russia are historically conditioned and diverse, but are now determined primarily by the massive inflow of migrant workers. The study is based on empirical materials collected by the authors in 2014-2019 through the use of qualitative methods (expert and biographical interviews, focus-groups, and content analysis of online publications).
All of the narratives presented in the book are inextricably linked to Russia in its various guises – as a former empire that colonized the vast expanses of the Asian continent; as the successor of a state once common to many people of different nationalities who now inhabit the countries of the region; as a driving force within the region's main economic association (EAEU); and finally, as part of the Russian-language cultural space that remains in these countries, but largely lives its own life here.
According to numerous pieces of research conducted in Europe and based on large-scale surveys, va... more According to numerous pieces of research conducted in Europe and based on large-scale surveys, various contacts between migrants and receiving population have served as strong predictors of lesser intolerance towards migrants (though to different extent). Quantitative research in Russia has brought similar results. The paper argues that these findings alone, with all their statistical reliability, do not fill marked gaps in our knowledge on how and why interaction itself creates more tolerant or, possibly, more negativistic perceptions of migrants in a given national/regional setting. The paper is an attempt to highlight these aspects of the theme through qualitative research taking Moscow as a case-study.
Drawing on a series of semi-structured interviews with Muscovites collected in 2014-2015, we will approach the following research questions: who might, more likely, be prone to interact with migrants and, oppositely, what makes Muscovites more reluctant to set up contacts; what might be reasons behind their often unconscious anxiety about having migrants as neighbours in multistoried dwellings and what these contacts as neighbours might add to our understanding of specifics of "cultural racism" in a huge city; how views of Muscovites about various migrants (especially preferences related to social status) manifest itself in post-Soviet setting and, finally, what is the local specifics, in comparison with Europe, of collapse of "defended neighbourhoods" in the city of Moscow.
Как показывают многочисленные количественные исследования в европейских странах, различные формы контактов принимающего населения с мигрантами делают восприятие последних хотя и в разной степени, но более толерантным. Описанная закономерность также фиксируется и российскими опросами. По мнению авторов, эти общие выводы, при всей их статистической надежности, оставляют значительные лакуны в наших знаниях о том, как происходит общение с мигрантами, в чем и почему оно помогает или, возможно, мешает снижению антимигрантских настроений в конкретной страновой/локальной ситуации.
Статья является попыткой прояснить данные аспекты темы на примере крупного российского города — через анализ нарративов, собранных в ходе интервьюирования жителей Москвы в 2014-2015 гг. Будут затронуты следующие сюжеты: кто более склонен к контактам в российских/московских условиях, а что, напротив, отвращает москвичей от общения с мигрантами; в чем подводные камни соседства с последними в многоквартирных жилых домах и почему такое соседство заставляет размышлять об особенностях культурного расизма в большом городе; как в постсоветских условиях работает фактор перепадов социального статуса между "местными" и "приезжими" и, наконец, как проявляет себя в Москве, в сравнении с европейской ситуацией, слом "защищенных локальных пространств".
Резюме: В российском публичном и академическом дискурсе настоящее и будущее русского языка в пост... more Резюме: В российском публичном и академическом дискурсе настоящее и будущее русского языка в постсоветских странах неотделимо от усилий России, направленных на помощь «соотечествен-никам». В статье показано на примере Казахстана, что в силу особенностей имперско-советского освоения территорий, занимаемых сейчас странами Центральной Азии, важной чертой русскоязычного культурного пространства является здесь его надэтнический характер: кроме собственно рус-ских, оно массово охватывает представителей других этнических групп, прежде всего титульной. Основываясь на результатах полевых исследований в Алма-Ате, авторы предлагают корректировки российской политики «мягкой силы» с учетом специфики различных социально-демографических групп казахов. Ключевые слова: Казахстан, русскоязычное пространство-история становления, языковая по-литика после 1991 г., соотношение казахского и русского языков, лингвокультурные предпочтения студентов, «мягкая сила» России. Для цитирования: Космарская Н.П., Савин И.С. Судьба русского языка в Казахстане: возможности и барьеры использования российской «мягкой силы». Восток (Oriens). 2020. № 5. С. 119-130. Abstract: The article explores the present role and future of the Russian language in the Republic of Kazakhstan. It contrasts state language policies and the views of ordinary Kazakhstani citizens, recorded mainly in interviews (including expert ones) and focus-group discussions with students of various Almaty universities conducted in 2016 and 2017. Attention is focused on the views of Kazakh students, members of the so-called "Nazarbayev generation" because from their ranks future elites will be recruited. Suggesting that the Russian linguistic-cultural space in Central Asia is largely a historically rooted phenomenon and has not been genuinely dependent on Russia, the authors suggest that the Russian Federation needs to readjust its external language and culture promotion so far geared almost exclusively to the so-called “compatriots” and seriously take into consideration the needs of another, more numerous target-group. These are the titular (Kazakh) Russian-speakers of various age and social status ‒ now they comprise the larger part of those whose Russian language skills are on the native or near-to-native level. Drawing on the results of empirical research, authors suggest that Russia’s efforts geared at the preservation and development of the Russian linguistic and cultural space in Kazakhstan need to be restructured in order to overcome the “sedative” effect of the too familiar environment inherited from the Soviet past and acknowledge the potential of the local “mobilizing” factors making this restructuring a very topical task. Among these factors are the specifics of cultural globalization in Kazakhstan, and Russia’s competition with some other international players in Central Asia. Keywords: Kazakhstan, formation of Russian linguistic-cultural space, language policies after 1991, state language vs the Russian language, linguistic attitudes of students, “soft power” of Russia.
Russia and the Contemporary World Россия в современном мире , 2020
Аннотация. В статье анализируется восприятие России особой группой казахстанского общества-студен... more Аннотация. В статье анализируется восприятие России особой группой казахстанского общества-студенческой молодежью, из которой будут рекрутироваться новые элиты. По мнению автора, при изучении восприятия различных стран на микроуровне важным дополнением к массовым опросам могут служить качествен-ные методы, в частности фокус-группы. При их использовании, в ходе свободного общения с информантами, интересующие исследователей сюжеты раскрываются сквозь призму биографической истории, культурной и семейной памяти людей; их жизненных стратегий и личного опыта. Именно апеллирование к личному опыту дало возможность исследователям снизить воздействие на мнения студентов публичных дискурсов, транслируемых СМИ и социальными сетями. Представлены результаты дискуссий на десяти фокус-группах, проведенных в октябре 2016 г. и мае 2017 г. со студентами различных вузов Алма-Аты. Обсуж-дались следующие сюжеты: 1) впечатления от пребывания / проживания в России; 2) ситуация вокруг русского языка в Казахстане: оценка его настоящей и будущей роли; 3) отношение ко Дню Победы, наличие / отсутствие личной сопричастности этой исторической дате. Дискуссии со студентами свидетельствуют о сохраняющемся пространстве культурно-языковой и ментальной общности Казахстана и России-пространстве, которое пока еще охватывает и молодые поколения. Рабочая гипотеза о том, что в условиях многовекторности геополитического курса Казахстана возможны существенные разрывы в мировосприятии казахской молодежи и более старших поколений (в том числе и касающиеся отношения к России), не получила обоснованного подтверждения. Показаны эмоциональные и рациональные факторы, способствующие сохранению общности (семейная память, инструментальная роль русского языка). В статье рассматриваются также причины появления «зон отчуждения» в восприятии России и способы их преодоления. Abstract. The goal of the article is to analyze attitudes of Kazakhstani students towards Russia (this socio-demographic group is important because in time new elites would be recruited from it). According to the author, qualitative methods, such as focus groups, can be an important addition to mass surveys in the research of the perception of different countries at the micro-level. In the course of free communica-tion with informants, subjects of interest to researchers are revealed through the prism of cultural and family memory of people, their life strategies and personal experience. It was precisely that appeal to personal experience that allowed to reduce impact on students' views of public discourse produced by media and social networks. The article presents the results of discussions in ten focus groups held in Oc-tober 2016 and May 2017 with students from various universities in Almaty. The fol-lowing topics were discussed: 1) impressions from staying/residence in Russia; 2) the situation around the Russian language in Kazakhstan, assessment of its present and future role; 3) attitude to Victory Day, the presence/absence of personal involvement with this historical date. As focus-group discussions testify, cultural-linguistic and psychological affin-ity between residents of Kazakhstan and Russia is still in force, embracing also the younger generations, future part of Kazakhstani elite. The hypothesis stating that un-der the conditions of the multi-vector geopolitical course of Kazakhstan, there may be significant gaps in the worldview of Kazakhstani youth and older generations (includ-ing those related to attitudes towards Russia), has not received reasonable confirma-tion. Emotional and rational factors working for maintenance of the affinity with Russia (transmission of memory through generations, instrumental role of the Russian language) are analyzed, as well as roots of discontent of informants towards Russia and relevant ways to mitigate it.
Keywords. Perception of Russia in Central Asia, youth of post-Soviet coun-tries, Kazakhstani students, Russian language in Kazakhstan, memory on war and practices of commemoration, personal experience of being/living in Russian, qualitative methods.
Now the whole text of the article is available on Academia.edu (previously only Abstract was uplo... more Now the whole text of the article is available on Academia.edu (previously only Abstract was uploaded).
This article explores the relationship between reformatting of Bishkek's central square "from above" and mosaics of meanings, claims, and practices produced by different social actors "from below" in response to the ongoing transformation of this space. Drawing on narratives of long-term Bishkek residents and recent internal migrants to the city, we investigate commonalities and divergences in their perception of Ala-Too's changing image. It is shown why the square, despite its planned multifunctionality, does not fulfill the needs of various segments of the city population. We also analyze political meanings of the "emptiness" of the square and the ambivalent public reaction to the ways it is being "filled." The square becomes a spatial mirror of society-a society that remains in constant flux, searching for social stability and for unifying national symbols, heroes, and slogans.
In order to investigate the phenomenon of "Russian culture" in Central Asia (which, for the purpo... more In order to investigate the phenomenon of "Russian culture" in Central Asia (which, for the purposes of this paper will inevitably be limited to the three countries where the presence of Russians and other Russophones is still numerically significant: Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, and Uzbekistan), the author will proceed from, first of all, the specificity of Russians' self-designation in the "imperial peripheries" and, secondly, the character of imperial penetration into the region. The course of events on these two "fronts" largely explains the formation, especially in urbanized territories of Central Asian states, of a Russified and modernized segment of Kyrgyz, Kazakhs and Uzbeks, who are tangibly different from their rural co-ethnics in terms of lifestyle, values, linguistic and cultural orientations, etc. Both the titular elites and the Russified segments of titular populations have retained if not an emotional, but, at the very least, a steady pragmatic interest in preservation of the Russian linguistic and cultural milieu. This Russian linguistic and cultural space (RLCS), within which specific cultural norms, knowledge, values and behavioral modes are circulated and practiced, embraces not only social actors of various ethnic origins, but also formal and informal institutions and cultural networks that are mostly based in the Russian language. The goal of this paper is to investigate the dynamics of the RLCS as it is experienced by the urban populations of the Central Asian states in the post-Soviet period as well as to reveal historical roots of the current situation and the factors working for maintenance or shrinkage of the RLCS itself.
Keywords: Russian cultural-linguistic space (RCLS) in Central Asia; rise of RCLS through the lens of colonization and urbanization in the region; specifics of "Russian culture" in Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, and Uzbekistan; factors working for maintenance/shrinkage of RCLS; universal (supra-ethnic) character of urban culture in Central Asia.
Цели данной статьи – анализ динамики русскоязычного культурно-лингвистического пространства (РЛКП) в Центральной Азии (в том его виде, в каком это пространство существует в городах региона), а также выявление факторов, способствующих его сохранению (расширению) или «сжатию» в постсоветский период. Имеется в виду культурно-языковое пространство, в пределах которого задействованы особые культурные нормы, знания, ценности и поведенческие паттерны, которое включает социальных акторов различного этнического происхождения (а не только самих русских), а также (не)формальные институты и социальные сети, опирающиеся преимущественно на русский язык. В статье раскрывается исторический контекст формирования РЛКП в Киргизии, Казахстане и Узбекистане, а также специфика вовлечённости в него трёх названных стран. Затронут вопрос о том, нуждается ли «русская культура» в постоянной поддержке извне, со стороны России, или же в регионе действуют факторы, способствующие её самовоспроизводству на «местной» почве.
Ключевые слова: русскоязычное культурно-лингвистическое пространство; история становления сквозь призму колонизации и урбанизации; специфика "русской культуры" в Казахстане, Киргизии и Узбекистане; факторы сохранения и "сжатия"; универсализм городской культуры в Центральной Азии.
The goal of the paper is to reveal factors which make an impact on how popular perception of Russ... more The goal of the paper is to reveal factors which make an impact on how popular perception of Russia manifests itself in present-day Kazakhstan. Two dimensions of formation of the image of Russia are taken on board: perception of Russia as a "resource" (in the economic sense) and historical-cultural dimension. The article is based on empirical materials (semi-structured interviews) collected in June 2016 in the city of Petropavlovsk (Northern-Kazakhstan Region, Kazakhstan) and also on results of content-analysis of the two leading Kazakhstani newspapers (published in Kazakh and in Russian). Several thematic aspects of perception of Russia by various socio/ethno/cultural groups representing local community are analyzed: situation in the educational sphere; Russia as a sales market; transport accessibility; prevalent modes of language use; perception of the Soviet past, and other.
This article explores the relationship between reformatting of Bishkek's central square " from ab... more This article explores the relationship between reformatting of Bishkek's central square " from above " and mosaics of meanings, claims, and practices produced by different social actors " from below " in response to the ongoing transformation of this space. Drawing on narratives of long-term Bishkek residents and recent internal migrants to the city, we investigate commonalities and divergences in their perception of Ala-Too's changing image. It is shown why the square, despite its planned multifunctionality, does not fulfill the needs of various segments of the city population. We also analyze political meanings of the " emptiness " of the square and the ambivalent public reaction to the ways it is being " filled. " The square becomes a spatial mirror of society—a society that remains in constant flux, searching for social stability and for unifying national symbols, heroes, and slogans.
The goal of this chapter is to investigate sources, manifestations and regional specifics of ever... more The goal of this chapter is to investigate sources, manifestations and regional specifics of everyday migrant phobia and xenophobia among residents of Moscow which has been, throughout the post-Soviet period, one of the main magnets for numerous labour migrants from poverty- and/or war-stricken Transcaucasian republics and North Caucasus in Russia itself, and also, since the early 2000s, from certain parts of Central Asia. The analysis is deliberately comparative in two aspects. First, it is aimed at drawing some parallels between the scale and manifestations of anti-migrant sentiments in different countries of Western Europe and those among residents of Russia (taking Moscow as a case-study). This type of research both in Europe and in Russia operates with the results of large-scale surveys based on representative samples. The first part of the paper is an attempt to show how the main factors provoking anti-migrant attitudes in Europe (various individual-level and contextual factors) as well as the main concepts explaining these attitudes (e.g., concepts of potential threat, of social contact; defended neighbourhood theory, etc.) might reveal themselves and operate under the social conditions of the biggest city of Russia. Second, proceeding from the idea that quantitative and qualitative methods of collecting empirical data are complementary, in the second part of the chapter we turn to comparison of the results of ROMIR large-scale survey conducted in Moscow in June 2013 within the framework of the NEORUSS project, with those of a series of 30 in-depth interviews conducted by the authors among Muscovites in 2013-2014. In the authors’ knowledge, micro-level research of popular attitudes towards migrants and migration have not yet been conducted in Russia. According to the interviews, two features of Muscovites’ perceptions of labour migrants deserve special attention. This is, first, social-political contextualization of “migration issue” within wider social situation in Moscow — the fact which reveals itself in a marked overweight of social/political associations in respondents’ narratives, compared with a much lower interest in “ethno-cultural otherness” of migrants. Second, Muscovites’ opinion is marked by what we call a “demonstrative xenophobia”. Many of them select questionnaire options which reflect their perception of migrants as a source of threat to the Russian culture, economy, etc. In the same time the ways of interpretation of migration via interviews testify that real migrants whom Muscovites meet every day in various parts of the city, are not perceived through the lens of “threat”.
"Co-Ethnics as Unwanted Others. Exploring Identity and Conflict Under Intra-Group Interaction. I... more "Co-Ethnics as Unwanted Others. Exploring Identity and Conflict Under Intra-Group Interaction. Introduction into the Theme".
The introductory paper discusses the current state of research on co-ethnic conflicts brought about by the collapse of the USSR. It explores both Western and Russian-language academic literature, and demonstrates the conceptual and terminological difficulties in identifying the reasons for co-ethnic tensions. These difficulties are mostly connected with the essentialising of motivations for migration and of ethno-cultural difference between the co-ethnic groups. Key-words: intra-ethnic conflicts after the fall of communism; state of the art in the field of co-ethnic migration; state-imposed images of national belonging; identity shifts under "ethnically privileged migration"; intra-group contacts and the terms to describe them.
Статья в сборнике: "Миграция и мигранты в России и мире: опыт социально-антропологических и этног... more Статья в сборнике: "Миграция и мигранты в России и мире: опыт социально-антропологических и этнографических наблюдений". Ред. Степанов В.В. – М.: ИЭА РАН, 2015. – 272 с. ISBN 978-5-4211-0129-1
This article explores the relationship between ‘memory’ and ‘place’ in understandings of urban ch... more This article explores the relationship between ‘memory’ and ‘place’ in understandings of urban change in Central Asia. Drawing on narratives of long-term residents we investigate the ways in which positive memories of the Soviet past emerge when people speak about the urban environment of today. We explore why such fondness for the Soviet past has emerged; what elements of the past are most cherished, and which urban communities remember these elements. We ask what these forms of memory reveal about what has been disrupted and lost, and how this disruption and loss is being negotiated and framed in the present.
Abstract
This article takes as its focus post-Soviet Bishkek and explores the arrival to the cit... more Abstract
This article takes as its focus post-Soviet Bishkek and explores the arrival to the city of a Kyrgyz migrant population and the perceptions of and reactions to this migrant population on the side of long-term residents (predominantly ethnic Kyrgyz (Russian-speaking); ethnic Russian, and other Russian-speaking communities). The article explores the way migrants are constructed and represented in the language of long-term residents. The data reveals an anti-migration discourse on the side of the long-term residents as the migrants are identified as culturally (e.g. not ‘urban’); linguistically (e.g. Kyrgyz speaking having poor Russian); and behaviourally (e.g. uncivilized) as not being part of their past, present or future vision of Bishkek. The article looks also at the ways in which migrants themselves perceive their position in Bishkek. Their narratives, highlight the diversity present amongst the migrant population, and demonstrate a counter-representation of themselves and their place within a changing city, which in its very pragmatism and realism, contests the simplistic representation favoured by the long-term residents. The article reveals important insights into emerging notions of both urban identity and Kyrgyz identity in the post-Soviet period, where linguistic and ethnic boundaries become blurred and moveable and new categories of inclusion and exclusion are constructed.*
В центре внимания данной статьи – миграция киргизов из разных частей Киргизской республики в столицу, город Бишкек, и отношение к этим мигрантам со стороны старожилов города (это так называемые городские, русскоязычные киргизы, а также собственно русские и представители других русскоязычных этнических групп). Для авторов особенно важно показать, как ситуация вокруг мигрантов и сами мигранты представлены в дискурсе старожилов. Анализ собранных эмпирических материалов свидетельствует о том, что этот дискурс носит анти-мигрантский характер: "приезжие" видятся как люди, не принадлежащие ни прошлому, ни настоящему, ни будущему города, поскольку они "другие" культурно (не городские), лингвистически (в основном киргизоязычные и плохо говорят по-русски) и с точки зрения поведенческих моделей ("нецивилизованные").
В статье также уделяется важное внимание тому, как сами мигранты видят свою жизнь в городе. Их нарративы показывают, как разнородны мигранты и траектории их адаптации к городским условиям, хотя всё это воспринимается старожилами в едином ключе. Прагматично-реалистичная картина выживания и постепенного "движения вверх" ставит под сомнение упрощённые представления старожилов о "приезжих". Авторы также выявляют важные грани собственно городской и киргизской идентичности в постсоветский период, когда этнические и языковые границы расплываются, уступая место новым формам социального исключения и адаптации.
Russia’s attitudes toward millions of Russophones in the newly independent states (NIS) have been... more Russia’s attitudes toward millions of Russophones in the newly independent states (NIS) have been noted, since 1991, for their ambivalence. The concept of a “Russian diaspora” has been pursued as an ethno-selective ideological project. On the practical-political level, however, Russian authorities were obliged to rest upon a loose notion of “compatriots”. In this article, “virtual diasporization” is juxtaposed with Russophones’ identities and behavior, to substantiate the point that these populations do not possess the “diasporic” features ascribed to them. Moreover, official Russian policies have failed to evoke any “diasporic” sentiment within Russophones toward their putative “homeland”. I argue that, to be more realistic and responsive, these policies should be more sensitive to commonalities and zones of common interest between Russophones and the titular populations of the NIS.
Politics of the Russian Language Beyond Russia, ed. by Ch. Noack, EUP, 2021
The chapter explores the present role and the future of the Russian language in Kazakhstan. It co... more The chapter explores the present role and the future of the Russian language in Kazakhstan. It contrasts state language policies with the views of ordinary Kazakhstani citizens, recorded mainly in interviews and round-table discussions with students of national universities conducted between 2016 and 2019. Suggesting that the Russian linguistic-cultural space in Central Asia is largely a historically rooted phenomenon and has not been primarily dependent on Russia, the authors suggest that the Russian Federation should readjust its external language and culture promotion, which has so far been geared almost exclusively to the so-called ‘compatriots’, and should take the needs of non-Russian Russian-speakers into serious consideration.
Moscow, Institute of Oriental Studies, Russian Academy of Sciences (Москва, Институт востоковедения РАН) , 2021
Книга посвящена различным аспектам восприятия России жителями трех стран Центральной Азии — Казах... more Книга посвящена различным аспектам восприятия России жителями трех стран Центральной Азии — Казахстана, важнейшего стратегического и экономического партнера России, имеющего с ней огромную по протяженности общую границу, а также Киргизии и Узбекистана. Их связи с Россией исторически обусловлены и разнообразны, но сейчас определяются в первую очередь многолетним притоком в страну сотен тысяч трудовых мигрантов. Исследование основано на эмпирических материалах, собранных авторами в 2014-2019 гг. качественными методами (экспертные и биографические интервью, фокус-группы, контент-анализ сетевых публикаций).
Все представленные в книге сюжеты неразрывно связаны с Россией, в ее различных ипостасях — как бывшей империи, колонизовавшей бескрайние пространства азиатского материка; как преемницы государства, когда-то общего для многих людей разных национальностей, населяющих сейчас страны региона; как движущей силы в рамках существующего в регионе экономического объединения (ЕАЭС); наконец, как части сохраняющегося в этих странах, но во многом живущего здесь своей собственной жизнью русскоязычного культурного пространства.
Издание рассчитано на историков, социологов, политологов; на студентов и аспирантов этих специальностей, на преподавателей вузов, а также на всех читателей, которых могут заинтересовать искренние и непредвзятые мнения о России, высказанные обычными жителями стран — наших бывших соседей по общему дому.
This book focuses on various aspects of how Russia is perceived by the residents of three Central Asian countries – Kazakhstan, Russia's most important strategic and economic partner, which shares a vast border with Russia, as well as Kyrgyzstan and Uzbekistan. The ties of these two countries with Russia are historically conditioned and diverse, but are now determined primarily by the massive inflow of migrant workers. The study is based on empirical materials collected by the authors in 2014-2019 through the use of qualitative methods (expert and biographical interviews, focus-groups, and content analysis of online publications).
All of the narratives presented in the book are inextricably linked to Russia in its various guises – as a former empire that colonized the vast expanses of the Asian continent; as the successor of a state once common to many people of different nationalities who now inhabit the countries of the region; as a driving force within the region's main economic association (EAEU); and finally, as part of the Russian-language cultural space that remains in these countries, but largely lives its own life here.
According to numerous pieces of research conducted in Europe and based on large-scale surveys, va... more According to numerous pieces of research conducted in Europe and based on large-scale surveys, various contacts between migrants and receiving population have served as strong predictors of lesser intolerance towards migrants (though to different extent). Quantitative research in Russia has brought similar results. The paper argues that these findings alone, with all their statistical reliability, do not fill marked gaps in our knowledge on how and why interaction itself creates more tolerant or, possibly, more negativistic perceptions of migrants in a given national/regional setting. The paper is an attempt to highlight these aspects of the theme through qualitative research taking Moscow as a case-study.
Drawing on a series of semi-structured interviews with Muscovites collected in 2014-2015, we will approach the following research questions: who might, more likely, be prone to interact with migrants and, oppositely, what makes Muscovites more reluctant to set up contacts; what might be reasons behind their often unconscious anxiety about having migrants as neighbours in multistoried dwellings and what these contacts as neighbours might add to our understanding of specifics of "cultural racism" in a huge city; how views of Muscovites about various migrants (especially preferences related to social status) manifest itself in post-Soviet setting and, finally, what is the local specifics, in comparison with Europe, of collapse of "defended neighbourhoods" in the city of Moscow.
Как показывают многочисленные количественные исследования в европейских странах, различные формы контактов принимающего населения с мигрантами делают восприятие последних хотя и в разной степени, но более толерантным. Описанная закономерность также фиксируется и российскими опросами. По мнению авторов, эти общие выводы, при всей их статистической надежности, оставляют значительные лакуны в наших знаниях о том, как происходит общение с мигрантами, в чем и почему оно помогает или, возможно, мешает снижению антимигрантских настроений в конкретной страновой/локальной ситуации.
Статья является попыткой прояснить данные аспекты темы на примере крупного российского города — через анализ нарративов, собранных в ходе интервьюирования жителей Москвы в 2014-2015 гг. Будут затронуты следующие сюжеты: кто более склонен к контактам в российских/московских условиях, а что, напротив, отвращает москвичей от общения с мигрантами; в чем подводные камни соседства с последними в многоквартирных жилых домах и почему такое соседство заставляет размышлять об особенностях культурного расизма в большом городе; как в постсоветских условиях работает фактор перепадов социального статуса между "местными" и "приезжими" и, наконец, как проявляет себя в Москве, в сравнении с европейской ситуацией, слом "защищенных локальных пространств".
Резюме: В российском публичном и академическом дискурсе настоящее и будущее русского языка в пост... more Резюме: В российском публичном и академическом дискурсе настоящее и будущее русского языка в постсоветских странах неотделимо от усилий России, направленных на помощь «соотечествен-никам». В статье показано на примере Казахстана, что в силу особенностей имперско-советского освоения территорий, занимаемых сейчас странами Центральной Азии, важной чертой русскоязычного культурного пространства является здесь его надэтнический характер: кроме собственно рус-ских, оно массово охватывает представителей других этнических групп, прежде всего титульной. Основываясь на результатах полевых исследований в Алма-Ате, авторы предлагают корректировки российской политики «мягкой силы» с учетом специфики различных социально-демографических групп казахов. Ключевые слова: Казахстан, русскоязычное пространство-история становления, языковая по-литика после 1991 г., соотношение казахского и русского языков, лингвокультурные предпочтения студентов, «мягкая сила» России. Для цитирования: Космарская Н.П., Савин И.С. Судьба русского языка в Казахстане: возможности и барьеры использования российской «мягкой силы». Восток (Oriens). 2020. № 5. С. 119-130. Abstract: The article explores the present role and future of the Russian language in the Republic of Kazakhstan. It contrasts state language policies and the views of ordinary Kazakhstani citizens, recorded mainly in interviews (including expert ones) and focus-group discussions with students of various Almaty universities conducted in 2016 and 2017. Attention is focused on the views of Kazakh students, members of the so-called "Nazarbayev generation" because from their ranks future elites will be recruited. Suggesting that the Russian linguistic-cultural space in Central Asia is largely a historically rooted phenomenon and has not been genuinely dependent on Russia, the authors suggest that the Russian Federation needs to readjust its external language and culture promotion so far geared almost exclusively to the so-called “compatriots” and seriously take into consideration the needs of another, more numerous target-group. These are the titular (Kazakh) Russian-speakers of various age and social status ‒ now they comprise the larger part of those whose Russian language skills are on the native or near-to-native level. Drawing on the results of empirical research, authors suggest that Russia’s efforts geared at the preservation and development of the Russian linguistic and cultural space in Kazakhstan need to be restructured in order to overcome the “sedative” effect of the too familiar environment inherited from the Soviet past and acknowledge the potential of the local “mobilizing” factors making this restructuring a very topical task. Among these factors are the specifics of cultural globalization in Kazakhstan, and Russia’s competition with some other international players in Central Asia. Keywords: Kazakhstan, formation of Russian linguistic-cultural space, language policies after 1991, state language vs the Russian language, linguistic attitudes of students, “soft power” of Russia.
Russia and the Contemporary World Россия в современном мире , 2020
Аннотация. В статье анализируется восприятие России особой группой казахстанского общества-студен... more Аннотация. В статье анализируется восприятие России особой группой казахстанского общества-студенческой молодежью, из которой будут рекрутироваться новые элиты. По мнению автора, при изучении восприятия различных стран на микроуровне важным дополнением к массовым опросам могут служить качествен-ные методы, в частности фокус-группы. При их использовании, в ходе свободного общения с информантами, интересующие исследователей сюжеты раскрываются сквозь призму биографической истории, культурной и семейной памяти людей; их жизненных стратегий и личного опыта. Именно апеллирование к личному опыту дало возможность исследователям снизить воздействие на мнения студентов публичных дискурсов, транслируемых СМИ и социальными сетями. Представлены результаты дискуссий на десяти фокус-группах, проведенных в октябре 2016 г. и мае 2017 г. со студентами различных вузов Алма-Аты. Обсуж-дались следующие сюжеты: 1) впечатления от пребывания / проживания в России; 2) ситуация вокруг русского языка в Казахстане: оценка его настоящей и будущей роли; 3) отношение ко Дню Победы, наличие / отсутствие личной сопричастности этой исторической дате. Дискуссии со студентами свидетельствуют о сохраняющемся пространстве культурно-языковой и ментальной общности Казахстана и России-пространстве, которое пока еще охватывает и молодые поколения. Рабочая гипотеза о том, что в условиях многовекторности геополитического курса Казахстана возможны существенные разрывы в мировосприятии казахской молодежи и более старших поколений (в том числе и касающиеся отношения к России), не получила обоснованного подтверждения. Показаны эмоциональные и рациональные факторы, способствующие сохранению общности (семейная память, инструментальная роль русского языка). В статье рассматриваются также причины появления «зон отчуждения» в восприятии России и способы их преодоления. Abstract. The goal of the article is to analyze attitudes of Kazakhstani students towards Russia (this socio-demographic group is important because in time new elites would be recruited from it). According to the author, qualitative methods, such as focus groups, can be an important addition to mass surveys in the research of the perception of different countries at the micro-level. In the course of free communica-tion with informants, subjects of interest to researchers are revealed through the prism of cultural and family memory of people, their life strategies and personal experience. It was precisely that appeal to personal experience that allowed to reduce impact on students' views of public discourse produced by media and social networks. The article presents the results of discussions in ten focus groups held in Oc-tober 2016 and May 2017 with students from various universities in Almaty. The fol-lowing topics were discussed: 1) impressions from staying/residence in Russia; 2) the situation around the Russian language in Kazakhstan, assessment of its present and future role; 3) attitude to Victory Day, the presence/absence of personal involvement with this historical date. As focus-group discussions testify, cultural-linguistic and psychological affin-ity between residents of Kazakhstan and Russia is still in force, embracing also the younger generations, future part of Kazakhstani elite. The hypothesis stating that un-der the conditions of the multi-vector geopolitical course of Kazakhstan, there may be significant gaps in the worldview of Kazakhstani youth and older generations (includ-ing those related to attitudes towards Russia), has not received reasonable confirma-tion. Emotional and rational factors working for maintenance of the affinity with Russia (transmission of memory through generations, instrumental role of the Russian language) are analyzed, as well as roots of discontent of informants towards Russia and relevant ways to mitigate it.
Keywords. Perception of Russia in Central Asia, youth of post-Soviet coun-tries, Kazakhstani students, Russian language in Kazakhstan, memory on war and practices of commemoration, personal experience of being/living in Russian, qualitative methods.
Now the whole text of the article is available on Academia.edu (previously only Abstract was uplo... more Now the whole text of the article is available on Academia.edu (previously only Abstract was uploaded).
This article explores the relationship between reformatting of Bishkek's central square "from above" and mosaics of meanings, claims, and practices produced by different social actors "from below" in response to the ongoing transformation of this space. Drawing on narratives of long-term Bishkek residents and recent internal migrants to the city, we investigate commonalities and divergences in their perception of Ala-Too's changing image. It is shown why the square, despite its planned multifunctionality, does not fulfill the needs of various segments of the city population. We also analyze political meanings of the "emptiness" of the square and the ambivalent public reaction to the ways it is being "filled." The square becomes a spatial mirror of society-a society that remains in constant flux, searching for social stability and for unifying national symbols, heroes, and slogans.
In order to investigate the phenomenon of "Russian culture" in Central Asia (which, for the purpo... more In order to investigate the phenomenon of "Russian culture" in Central Asia (which, for the purposes of this paper will inevitably be limited to the three countries where the presence of Russians and other Russophones is still numerically significant: Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, and Uzbekistan), the author will proceed from, first of all, the specificity of Russians' self-designation in the "imperial peripheries" and, secondly, the character of imperial penetration into the region. The course of events on these two "fronts" largely explains the formation, especially in urbanized territories of Central Asian states, of a Russified and modernized segment of Kyrgyz, Kazakhs and Uzbeks, who are tangibly different from their rural co-ethnics in terms of lifestyle, values, linguistic and cultural orientations, etc. Both the titular elites and the Russified segments of titular populations have retained if not an emotional, but, at the very least, a steady pragmatic interest in preservation of the Russian linguistic and cultural milieu. This Russian linguistic and cultural space (RLCS), within which specific cultural norms, knowledge, values and behavioral modes are circulated and practiced, embraces not only social actors of various ethnic origins, but also formal and informal institutions and cultural networks that are mostly based in the Russian language. The goal of this paper is to investigate the dynamics of the RLCS as it is experienced by the urban populations of the Central Asian states in the post-Soviet period as well as to reveal historical roots of the current situation and the factors working for maintenance or shrinkage of the RLCS itself.
Keywords: Russian cultural-linguistic space (RCLS) in Central Asia; rise of RCLS through the lens of colonization and urbanization in the region; specifics of "Russian culture" in Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, and Uzbekistan; factors working for maintenance/shrinkage of RCLS; universal (supra-ethnic) character of urban culture in Central Asia.
Цели данной статьи – анализ динамики русскоязычного культурно-лингвистического пространства (РЛКП) в Центральной Азии (в том его виде, в каком это пространство существует в городах региона), а также выявление факторов, способствующих его сохранению (расширению) или «сжатию» в постсоветский период. Имеется в виду культурно-языковое пространство, в пределах которого задействованы особые культурные нормы, знания, ценности и поведенческие паттерны, которое включает социальных акторов различного этнического происхождения (а не только самих русских), а также (не)формальные институты и социальные сети, опирающиеся преимущественно на русский язык. В статье раскрывается исторический контекст формирования РЛКП в Киргизии, Казахстане и Узбекистане, а также специфика вовлечённости в него трёх названных стран. Затронут вопрос о том, нуждается ли «русская культура» в постоянной поддержке извне, со стороны России, или же в регионе действуют факторы, способствующие её самовоспроизводству на «местной» почве.
Ключевые слова: русскоязычное культурно-лингвистическое пространство; история становления сквозь призму колонизации и урбанизации; специфика "русской культуры" в Казахстане, Киргизии и Узбекистане; факторы сохранения и "сжатия"; универсализм городской культуры в Центральной Азии.
The goal of the paper is to reveal factors which make an impact on how popular perception of Russ... more The goal of the paper is to reveal factors which make an impact on how popular perception of Russia manifests itself in present-day Kazakhstan. Two dimensions of formation of the image of Russia are taken on board: perception of Russia as a "resource" (in the economic sense) and historical-cultural dimension. The article is based on empirical materials (semi-structured interviews) collected in June 2016 in the city of Petropavlovsk (Northern-Kazakhstan Region, Kazakhstan) and also on results of content-analysis of the two leading Kazakhstani newspapers (published in Kazakh and in Russian). Several thematic aspects of perception of Russia by various socio/ethno/cultural groups representing local community are analyzed: situation in the educational sphere; Russia as a sales market; transport accessibility; prevalent modes of language use; perception of the Soviet past, and other.
This article explores the relationship between reformatting of Bishkek's central square " from ab... more This article explores the relationship between reformatting of Bishkek's central square " from above " and mosaics of meanings, claims, and practices produced by different social actors " from below " in response to the ongoing transformation of this space. Drawing on narratives of long-term Bishkek residents and recent internal migrants to the city, we investigate commonalities and divergences in their perception of Ala-Too's changing image. It is shown why the square, despite its planned multifunctionality, does not fulfill the needs of various segments of the city population. We also analyze political meanings of the " emptiness " of the square and the ambivalent public reaction to the ways it is being " filled. " The square becomes a spatial mirror of society—a society that remains in constant flux, searching for social stability and for unifying national symbols, heroes, and slogans.
The goal of this chapter is to investigate sources, manifestations and regional specifics of ever... more The goal of this chapter is to investigate sources, manifestations and regional specifics of everyday migrant phobia and xenophobia among residents of Moscow which has been, throughout the post-Soviet period, one of the main magnets for numerous labour migrants from poverty- and/or war-stricken Transcaucasian republics and North Caucasus in Russia itself, and also, since the early 2000s, from certain parts of Central Asia. The analysis is deliberately comparative in two aspects. First, it is aimed at drawing some parallels between the scale and manifestations of anti-migrant sentiments in different countries of Western Europe and those among residents of Russia (taking Moscow as a case-study). This type of research both in Europe and in Russia operates with the results of large-scale surveys based on representative samples. The first part of the paper is an attempt to show how the main factors provoking anti-migrant attitudes in Europe (various individual-level and contextual factors) as well as the main concepts explaining these attitudes (e.g., concepts of potential threat, of social contact; defended neighbourhood theory, etc.) might reveal themselves and operate under the social conditions of the biggest city of Russia. Second, proceeding from the idea that quantitative and qualitative methods of collecting empirical data are complementary, in the second part of the chapter we turn to comparison of the results of ROMIR large-scale survey conducted in Moscow in June 2013 within the framework of the NEORUSS project, with those of a series of 30 in-depth interviews conducted by the authors among Muscovites in 2013-2014. In the authors’ knowledge, micro-level research of popular attitudes towards migrants and migration have not yet been conducted in Russia. According to the interviews, two features of Muscovites’ perceptions of labour migrants deserve special attention. This is, first, social-political contextualization of “migration issue” within wider social situation in Moscow — the fact which reveals itself in a marked overweight of social/political associations in respondents’ narratives, compared with a much lower interest in “ethno-cultural otherness” of migrants. Second, Muscovites’ opinion is marked by what we call a “demonstrative xenophobia”. Many of them select questionnaire options which reflect their perception of migrants as a source of threat to the Russian culture, economy, etc. In the same time the ways of interpretation of migration via interviews testify that real migrants whom Muscovites meet every day in various parts of the city, are not perceived through the lens of “threat”.
"Co-Ethnics as Unwanted Others. Exploring Identity and Conflict Under Intra-Group Interaction. I... more "Co-Ethnics as Unwanted Others. Exploring Identity and Conflict Under Intra-Group Interaction. Introduction into the Theme".
The introductory paper discusses the current state of research on co-ethnic conflicts brought about by the collapse of the USSR. It explores both Western and Russian-language academic literature, and demonstrates the conceptual and terminological difficulties in identifying the reasons for co-ethnic tensions. These difficulties are mostly connected with the essentialising of motivations for migration and of ethno-cultural difference between the co-ethnic groups. Key-words: intra-ethnic conflicts after the fall of communism; state of the art in the field of co-ethnic migration; state-imposed images of national belonging; identity shifts under "ethnically privileged migration"; intra-group contacts and the terms to describe them.
Статья в сборнике: "Миграция и мигранты в России и мире: опыт социально-антропологических и этног... more Статья в сборнике: "Миграция и мигранты в России и мире: опыт социально-антропологических и этнографических наблюдений". Ред. Степанов В.В. – М.: ИЭА РАН, 2015. – 272 с. ISBN 978-5-4211-0129-1
This article explores the relationship between ‘memory’ and ‘place’ in understandings of urban ch... more This article explores the relationship between ‘memory’ and ‘place’ in understandings of urban change in Central Asia. Drawing on narratives of long-term residents we investigate the ways in which positive memories of the Soviet past emerge when people speak about the urban environment of today. We explore why such fondness for the Soviet past has emerged; what elements of the past are most cherished, and which urban communities remember these elements. We ask what these forms of memory reveal about what has been disrupted and lost, and how this disruption and loss is being negotiated and framed in the present.
Abstract
This article takes as its focus post-Soviet Bishkek and explores the arrival to the cit... more Abstract
This article takes as its focus post-Soviet Bishkek and explores the arrival to the city of a Kyrgyz migrant population and the perceptions of and reactions to this migrant population on the side of long-term residents (predominantly ethnic Kyrgyz (Russian-speaking); ethnic Russian, and other Russian-speaking communities). The article explores the way migrants are constructed and represented in the language of long-term residents. The data reveals an anti-migration discourse on the side of the long-term residents as the migrants are identified as culturally (e.g. not ‘urban’); linguistically (e.g. Kyrgyz speaking having poor Russian); and behaviourally (e.g. uncivilized) as not being part of their past, present or future vision of Bishkek. The article looks also at the ways in which migrants themselves perceive their position in Bishkek. Their narratives, highlight the diversity present amongst the migrant population, and demonstrate a counter-representation of themselves and their place within a changing city, which in its very pragmatism and realism, contests the simplistic representation favoured by the long-term residents. The article reveals important insights into emerging notions of both urban identity and Kyrgyz identity in the post-Soviet period, where linguistic and ethnic boundaries become blurred and moveable and new categories of inclusion and exclusion are constructed.*
В центре внимания данной статьи – миграция киргизов из разных частей Киргизской республики в столицу, город Бишкек, и отношение к этим мигрантам со стороны старожилов города (это так называемые городские, русскоязычные киргизы, а также собственно русские и представители других русскоязычных этнических групп). Для авторов особенно важно показать, как ситуация вокруг мигрантов и сами мигранты представлены в дискурсе старожилов. Анализ собранных эмпирических материалов свидетельствует о том, что этот дискурс носит анти-мигрантский характер: "приезжие" видятся как люди, не принадлежащие ни прошлому, ни настоящему, ни будущему города, поскольку они "другие" культурно (не городские), лингвистически (в основном киргизоязычные и плохо говорят по-русски) и с точки зрения поведенческих моделей ("нецивилизованные").
В статье также уделяется важное внимание тому, как сами мигранты видят свою жизнь в городе. Их нарративы показывают, как разнородны мигранты и траектории их адаптации к городским условиям, хотя всё это воспринимается старожилами в едином ключе. Прагматично-реалистичная картина выживания и постепенного "движения вверх" ставит под сомнение упрощённые представления старожилов о "приезжих". Авторы также выявляют важные грани собственно городской и киргизской идентичности в постсоветский период, когда этнические и языковые границы расплываются, уступая место новым формам социального исключения и адаптации.
Russia’s attitudes toward millions of Russophones in the newly independent states (NIS) have been... more Russia’s attitudes toward millions of Russophones in the newly independent states (NIS) have been noted, since 1991, for their ambivalence. The concept of a “Russian diaspora” has been pursued as an ethno-selective ideological project. On the practical-political level, however, Russian authorities were obliged to rest upon a loose notion of “compatriots”. In this article, “virtual diasporization” is juxtaposed with Russophones’ identities and behavior, to substantiate the point that these populations do not possess the “diasporic” features ascribed to them. Moreover, official Russian policies have failed to evoke any “diasporic” sentiment within Russophones toward their putative “homeland”. I argue that, to be more realistic and responsive, these policies should be more sensitive to commonalities and zones of common interest between Russophones and the titular populations of the NIS.
СfA: Perception of Russia in Contemporary World: Memory, Identity, Conflicts
Conference in Joensu... more СfA: Perception of Russia in Contemporary World: Memory, Identity, Conflicts Conference in Joensuu, University of Eastern Finland Finland, November 27-28th 2017
The book addresses many topical issues of diaspora life, taking into account the specific histori... more The book addresses many topical issues of diaspora life, taking into account the specific historical and socio-political context created by the collapse of the USSR and the demise of socialism in Central and Eastern Europe. As a result of these events, many people found themselves outside their countries of origin, either as a result of border alterations, or as a result of the emergence of new or increasing migration flows. This process did not spare Russia, which after the collapse of the Soviet Union became a «historical homeland» for many «diasporas» (primarily the so-called Russian diaspora) and a host country for hundreds of thousands of labor migrants from neighboring countries. Compared to the situation in different parts of the world, post-Soviet diasporas are much less explored. The book is an attempt to familiarize Russian readers with the diversity of international and Russian experience of academic research of many aspects of life of the post-Soviet (post-socialist) diasporas and their relationships with the states claiming to be their homelands. Why is the word «diaspora» often used in the lexicon of not only scholars, but also politicians, journalists, and officials? For what reasons can the state ignore «co-ethnics» abroad, considering them just as citizens of the other countries? What can small Armenia and vast China have in common, as far as their diaspora politics is concerned? How do the fantasies of «homeland» politicians regarding a «united nation» relate to the everyday practices of diaspora members immersed in the socio-political and cultural realities of the other countries? The book provides answers to these and many other relevant questions related to the social activities and everydayness of expatriate groups. The author also offers an original typology of models of diaspora politics of kin-states based on the analysis of the situation in six countries (Armenia vs China, Uzbekistan vs Azerbaijan, and Russia vs Hungary). Diasporic identity is also examined but not like identity of some individual groups «outside the homeland» but on a more generalized methodological level. This is a chapter on the possible impact of the historical and political context on identity of members of presumed «diasporas»; chapter on their perception of organizations created or patronized by the «homeland»; and another one dealing with the potential for expatriate groups, in their countries of residence, to realize not a diaspora project, but a fundamentally different, autochthonous one (which is most likely in cases of diaspora formation not through migration, but through the movement of state borders).
Book, Moscow, Institute of Oriental Studies, Russian Academy of Sciences, 2021
This book focuses on various aspects of how Russia is perceived by the residents of three Central... more This book focuses on various aspects of how Russia is perceived by the residents of three Central Asian countries – Kazakhstan, Russia's most important strategic and economic partner, which shares a vast border with Russia, as well as Kyrgyzstan and Uzbekistan. The ties of these two countries with Russia are historically conditioned and diverse, but are now determined primarily by the massive inflow of migrant workers. The study is based on empirical materials collected by the authors in 2014-2019 through the use of qualitative methods (expert and biographical interviews, focus-groups, and content analysis of online publications). All of the narratives presented in the book are inextricably linked to Russia in its various guises – as a former empire that colonized the vast expanses of the Asian continent; as the successor of a state once common to many people of different nationalities who now inhabit the countries of the region; as a driving force within the region's main economic association (EAEU); and finally, as part of the Russian-language cultural space that remains in these countries, but largely lives its own life here.
Книга посвящена различным аспектам восприятия России жителями трех стран Центральной Азии-Казахстана, важнейшего стратегического и экономического партнера России, имеющего с ней огромную по протяженности общую границу, а также Киргизии и Узбекистана. Их связи с Россией исторически обусловлены и разнообразны, но сейчас определяются в первую очередь многолетним притоком в страну сотен тысяч трудовых мигрантов. Исследование основано на эмпирических материалах, собранных авторами в 2014-2019 гг. качественными методами (экспертные и биографические интервью, фокус-группы, контент-анализ сетевых публикаций). Все представленные в книге сюжеты неразрывно связаны с Россией в ее различных ипостасях-как бывшей империи, колонизовавшей бескрайние пространства азиатского материка; как преемницы государства, когда-то общего для многих людей разных национальностей, населяющих сейчас страны региона; как движущей силы в рамках существующего в регионе экономического объединения (ЕАЭС); наконец, как части сохраняющегося в этих странах, но во многом живущего здесь своей собственной жизнью русскоязычного культурного прос транства. Издание рассчитано на историков, социологов, политологов; на студентов и аспирантов этих специальностей, на преподавателей вузов, а также на всех читателей, которых могут заинтересовать искренние и непредвзятые мнения о России, высказанные обычными жителями стран-наших бывших соседей по общему дому.
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Papers by Natalya Kosmarskaya
Все представленные в книге сюжеты неразрывно связаны с Россией, в ее различных ипостасях — как бывшей империи, колонизовавшей бескрайние пространства азиатского материка; как преемницы государства, когда-то общего для многих людей разных национальностей, населяющих сейчас страны региона; как движущей силы в рамках существующего в регионе экономического объединения (ЕАЭС); наконец, как части сохраняющегося в этих странах, но во многом живущего здесь своей собственной жизнью русскоязычного культурного пространства.
Издание рассчитано на историков, социологов, политологов; на студентов и аспирантов этих специальностей, на преподавателей вузов, а также на всех читателей, которых могут заинтересовать искренние и непредвзятые мнения о России, высказанные обычными жителями стран — наших бывших соседей по общему дому.
This book focuses on various aspects of how Russia is perceived by the residents of three Central Asian countries – Kazakhstan, Russia's most important strategic and economic partner, which shares a vast border with Russia, as well as Kyrgyzstan and Uzbekistan. The ties of these two countries with Russia are historically conditioned and diverse, but are now determined primarily by the massive inflow of migrant workers. The study is based on empirical materials collected by the authors in 2014-2019 through the use of qualitative methods (expert and biographical interviews, focus-groups, and content analysis of online publications).
All of the narratives presented in the book are inextricably linked to Russia in its various guises – as a former empire that colonized the vast expanses of the Asian continent; as the successor of a state once common to many people of different nationalities who now inhabit the countries of the region; as a driving force within the region's main economic association (EAEU); and finally, as part of the Russian-language cultural space that remains in these countries, but largely lives its own life here.
Drawing on a series of semi-structured interviews with Muscovites collected in 2014-2015, we will approach the following research questions: who might, more likely, be prone to interact with migrants and, oppositely, what makes Muscovites more reluctant to set up contacts; what might be reasons behind their often unconscious anxiety about having migrants as neighbours in multistoried dwellings and what these contacts as neighbours might add to our understanding of specifics of "cultural racism" in a huge city; how views of Muscovites about various migrants (especially preferences related to social status) manifest itself in post-Soviet setting and, finally, what is the local specifics, in comparison with Europe, of collapse of "defended neighbourhoods" in the city of Moscow.
Как показывают многочисленные количественные исследования в европейских странах, различные формы контактов принимающего населения с мигрантами делают восприятие последних хотя и в разной степени, но более толерантным. Описанная закономерность также фиксируется и российскими опросами. По мнению авторов, эти общие выводы, при всей их статистической надежности, оставляют значительные лакуны в наших знаниях о том, как происходит общение с мигрантами, в чем и почему оно помогает или, возможно, мешает снижению антимигрантских настроений в конкретной страновой/локальной ситуации.
Статья является попыткой прояснить данные аспекты темы на примере крупного российского города — через анализ нарративов, собранных в ходе интервьюирования жителей Москвы в 2014-2015 гг. Будут затронуты следующие сюжеты: кто более склонен к контактам в российских/московских условиях, а что, напротив, отвращает москвичей от общения с мигрантами; в чем подводные камни соседства с последними в многоквартирных жилых домах и почему такое соседство заставляет размышлять об особенностях культурного расизма в большом городе; как в постсоветских условиях работает фактор перепадов социального статуса между "местными" и "приезжими" и, наконец, как проявляет себя в Москве, в сравнении с европейской ситуацией, слом "защищенных локальных пространств".
Ключевые слова: Казахстан, русскоязычное пространство-история становления, языковая по-литика после 1991 г., соотношение казахского и русского языков, лингвокультурные предпочтения студентов, «мягкая сила» России.
Для цитирования: Космарская Н.П., Савин И.С. Судьба русского языка в Казахстане: возможности и барьеры использования российской «мягкой силы». Восток (Oriens). 2020. № 5. С. 119-130.
Abstract: The article explores the present role and future of the Russian language in the Republic of Kazakhstan. It contrasts state language policies and the views of ordinary Kazakhstani citizens, recorded mainly in interviews (including expert ones) and focus-group discussions with students of various Almaty universities conducted in 2016 and 2017. Attention is focused on the views of Kazakh students, members of the so-called "Nazarbayev generation" because from their ranks future elites will be recruited. Suggesting that the Russian linguistic-cultural space in Central Asia is largely a historically rooted phenomenon and has not been genuinely dependent on Russia, the authors suggest that the Russian Federation needs to readjust its external language and culture promotion so far geared almost exclusively to the so-called “compatriots” and seriously take into consideration the needs of another,
more numerous target-group. These are the titular (Kazakh) Russian-speakers of various age and social
status ‒ now they comprise the larger part of those whose Russian language skills are on the native or
near-to-native level.
Drawing on the results of empirical research, authors suggest that Russia’s efforts geared at the
preservation and development of the Russian linguistic and cultural space in Kazakhstan need to be
restructured in order to overcome the “sedative” effect of the too familiar environment inherited from the
Soviet past and acknowledge the potential of the local “mobilizing” factors making this restructuring a very
topical task. Among these factors are the specifics of cultural globalization in Kazakhstan, and Russia’s
competition with some other international players in Central Asia.
Keywords: Kazakhstan, formation of Russian linguistic-cultural space, language policies after 1991, state
language vs the Russian language, linguistic attitudes of students, “soft power” of Russia.
Abstract. The goal of the article is to analyze attitudes of Kazakhstani students towards Russia (this socio-demographic group is important because in time new elites would be recruited from it). According to the author, qualitative methods, such as focus groups, can be an important addition to mass surveys in the research of the perception of different countries at the micro-level. In the course of free communica-tion with informants, subjects of interest to researchers are revealed through the prism of cultural and family memory of people, their life strategies and personal experience. It was precisely that appeal to personal experience that allowed to reduce impact on students' views of public discourse produced by media and social networks.
The article presents the results of discussions in ten focus groups held in Oc-tober 2016 and May 2017 with students from various universities in Almaty. The fol-lowing topics were discussed: 1) impressions from staying/residence in Russia; 2) the situation around the Russian language in Kazakhstan, assessment of its present and future role; 3) attitude to Victory Day, the presence/absence of personal involvement with this historical date.
As focus-group discussions testify, cultural-linguistic and psychological affin-ity between residents of Kazakhstan and Russia is still in force, embracing also the younger generations, future part of Kazakhstani elite. The hypothesis stating that un-der the conditions of the multi-vector geopolitical course of Kazakhstan, there may be significant gaps in the worldview of Kazakhstani youth and older generations (includ-ing those related to attitudes towards Russia), has not received reasonable confirma-tion. Emotional and rational factors working for maintenance of the affinity with Russia (transmission of memory through generations, instrumental role of the Russian language) are analyzed, as well as roots of discontent of informants towards Russia and relevant ways to mitigate it.
Keywords. Perception of Russia in Central Asia, youth of post-Soviet coun-tries, Kazakhstani students, Russian language in Kazakhstan, memory on war and practices of commemoration, personal experience of being/living in Russian, qualitative methods.
This article explores the relationship between reformatting of Bishkek's central square "from above" and mosaics of meanings, claims, and practices produced by different social actors "from below" in response to the ongoing transformation of this space. Drawing on narratives of long-term Bishkek residents and recent internal migrants to the city, we investigate commonalities and divergences in their perception of Ala-Too's changing image. It is shown why the square, despite its planned multifunctionality, does not fulfill the needs of various segments of the city population. We also analyze political meanings of the "emptiness" of the square and the ambivalent public reaction to the ways it is being "filled." The square becomes a spatial mirror of society-a society that remains in constant flux, searching for social stability and for unifying national symbols, heroes, and slogans.
This Russian linguistic and cultural space (RLCS), within which specific cultural norms, knowledge, values and behavioral modes are circulated and practiced, embraces not only social actors of various ethnic origins, but also formal and informal institutions and cultural networks that are mostly based in the Russian language. The goal of this paper is to investigate the dynamics of the RLCS as it is experienced by the urban populations of the Central Asian states in the post-Soviet period as well as to reveal historical roots of the current situation and the factors working for maintenance or shrinkage of the RLCS itself.
Keywords: Russian cultural-linguistic space (RCLS) in Central Asia; rise of RCLS through the lens of colonization and urbanization in the region; specifics of "Russian culture" in Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, and Uzbekistan; factors working for maintenance/shrinkage of RCLS; universal (supra-ethnic) character of urban culture in Central Asia.
Цели данной статьи – анализ динамики русскоязычного культурно-лингвистического пространства (РЛКП) в Центральной Азии (в том его виде, в каком это пространство существует в городах региона), а также выявление факторов, способствующих его сохранению (расширению) или «сжатию» в постсоветский период. Имеется в виду культурно-языковое пространство, в пределах которого задействованы особые культурные нормы, знания, ценности и поведенческие паттерны, которое включает социальных акторов различного этнического происхождения (а не только самих русских), а также (не)формальные институты и социальные сети, опирающиеся преимущественно на русский язык. В статье раскрывается исторический контекст формирования РЛКП в Киргизии, Казахстане и Узбекистане, а также специфика вовлечённости в него трёх названных стран. Затронут вопрос о том, нуждается ли «русская культура» в постоянной поддержке извне, со стороны России, или же в регионе действуют факторы, способствующие её самовоспроизводству на «местной» почве.
Ключевые слова: русскоязычное культурно-лингвистическое пространство; история становления сквозь призму колонизации и урбанизации; специфика "русской культуры" в Казахстане, Киргизии и Узбекистане; факторы сохранения и "сжатия"; универсализм городской культуры в Центральной Азии.
The analysis is deliberately comparative in two aspects. First, it is aimed at drawing some parallels between the scale and manifestations of anti-migrant sentiments in different countries of Western Europe and those among residents of Russia (taking Moscow as a case-study). This type of research both in Europe and in Russia operates with the results of large-scale surveys based on representative samples. The first part of the paper is an attempt to show how the main factors provoking anti-migrant attitudes in Europe (various individual-level and contextual factors) as well as the main concepts explaining these attitudes (e.g., concepts of potential threat, of social contact; defended neighbourhood theory, etc.) might reveal themselves and operate under the social conditions of the biggest city of Russia.
Second, proceeding from the idea that quantitative and qualitative methods of collecting empirical data are complementary, in the second part of the chapter we turn to comparison of the results of ROMIR large-scale survey conducted in Moscow in June 2013 within the framework of the NEORUSS project, with those of a series of 30 in-depth interviews conducted by the authors among Muscovites in 2013-2014. In the authors’ knowledge, micro-level research of popular attitudes towards migrants and migration have not yet been conducted in Russia.
According to the interviews, two features of Muscovites’ perceptions of labour migrants deserve special attention. This is, first, social-political contextualization of “migration issue” within wider social situation in Moscow — the fact which reveals itself in a marked overweight of social/political associations in respondents’ narratives, compared with a much lower interest in “ethno-cultural otherness” of migrants. Second, Muscovites’ opinion is marked by what we call a “demonstrative xenophobia”. Many of them select questionnaire options which reflect their perception of migrants as a source of threat to the Russian culture, economy, etc. In the same time the ways of interpretation of migration via interviews testify that real migrants whom Muscovites meet every day in various parts of the city, are not perceived through the lens of “threat”.
The introductory paper discusses the current state of research on co-ethnic conflicts brought about by the collapse of the USSR. It explores both Western and Russian-language academic literature, and demonstrates the conceptual and terminological difficulties in identifying the reasons for co-ethnic tensions. These difficulties are mostly connected with the essentialising of motivations for migration and of ethno-cultural difference between the co-ethnic groups.
Key-words: intra-ethnic conflicts after the fall of communism; state of the art in the field of co-ethnic migration; state-imposed images of national belonging; identity shifts under "ethnically privileged migration"; intra-group contacts and the terms to describe them.
This article takes as its focus post-Soviet Bishkek and explores the arrival to the city of a Kyrgyz migrant population and the perceptions of and reactions to this migrant population on the side of long-term residents (predominantly ethnic Kyrgyz (Russian-speaking); ethnic Russian, and other Russian-speaking communities). The article explores the way migrants are constructed and represented in the language of long-term residents. The data reveals an anti-migration discourse on the side of the long-term residents as the migrants are identified as culturally (e.g. not ‘urban’); linguistically (e.g. Kyrgyz speaking having poor Russian); and behaviourally (e.g. uncivilized) as not being part of their past, present or future vision of Bishkek. The article looks also at the ways in which migrants themselves perceive their position in Bishkek. Their narratives, highlight the diversity present amongst the migrant population, and demonstrate a counter-representation of themselves and their place within a changing city, which in its very pragmatism and realism, contests the simplistic representation favoured by the long-term residents. The article reveals important insights into emerging notions of both urban identity and Kyrgyz identity in the post-Soviet period, where linguistic and ethnic boundaries become blurred and moveable and new categories of inclusion and exclusion are constructed.*
В центре внимания данной статьи – миграция киргизов из разных частей Киргизской республики в столицу, город Бишкек, и отношение к этим мигрантам со стороны старожилов города (это так называемые городские, русскоязычные киргизы, а также собственно русские и представители других русскоязычных этнических групп). Для авторов особенно важно показать, как ситуация вокруг мигрантов и сами мигранты представлены в дискурсе старожилов. Анализ собранных эмпирических материалов свидетельствует о том, что этот дискурс носит анти-мигрантский характер: "приезжие" видятся как люди, не принадлежащие ни прошлому, ни настоящему, ни будущему города, поскольку они "другие" культурно (не городские), лингвистически (в основном киргизоязычные и плохо говорят по-русски) и с точки зрения поведенческих моделей ("нецивилизованные").
В статье также уделяется важное внимание тому, как сами мигранты видят свою жизнь в городе. Их нарративы показывают, как разнородны мигранты и траектории их адаптации к городским условиям, хотя всё это воспринимается старожилами в едином ключе. Прагматично-реалистичная картина выживания и постепенного "движения вверх" ставит под сомнение упрощённые представления старожилов о "приезжих". Авторы также выявляют важные грани собственно городской и киргизской идентичности в постсоветский период, когда этнические и языковые границы расплываются, уступая место новым формам социального исключения и адаптации.
Keywords: Kyrgyzstan, Bishkek, migration, long-term resident, urban change, mutual perceptions
http://anthropologie.kunstkamera.ru/files/pdf/012/12_forum.pdf (in Russian)
http://anthropologie.kunstkamera.ru/files/pdf/eng007/forum.pdf (in English)
Все представленные в книге сюжеты неразрывно связаны с Россией, в ее различных ипостасях — как бывшей империи, колонизовавшей бескрайние пространства азиатского материка; как преемницы государства, когда-то общего для многих людей разных национальностей, населяющих сейчас страны региона; как движущей силы в рамках существующего в регионе экономического объединения (ЕАЭС); наконец, как части сохраняющегося в этих странах, но во многом живущего здесь своей собственной жизнью русскоязычного культурного пространства.
Издание рассчитано на историков, социологов, политологов; на студентов и аспирантов этих специальностей, на преподавателей вузов, а также на всех читателей, которых могут заинтересовать искренние и непредвзятые мнения о России, высказанные обычными жителями стран — наших бывших соседей по общему дому.
This book focuses on various aspects of how Russia is perceived by the residents of three Central Asian countries – Kazakhstan, Russia's most important strategic and economic partner, which shares a vast border with Russia, as well as Kyrgyzstan and Uzbekistan. The ties of these two countries with Russia are historically conditioned and diverse, but are now determined primarily by the massive inflow of migrant workers. The study is based on empirical materials collected by the authors in 2014-2019 through the use of qualitative methods (expert and biographical interviews, focus-groups, and content analysis of online publications).
All of the narratives presented in the book are inextricably linked to Russia in its various guises – as a former empire that colonized the vast expanses of the Asian continent; as the successor of a state once common to many people of different nationalities who now inhabit the countries of the region; as a driving force within the region's main economic association (EAEU); and finally, as part of the Russian-language cultural space that remains in these countries, but largely lives its own life here.
Drawing on a series of semi-structured interviews with Muscovites collected in 2014-2015, we will approach the following research questions: who might, more likely, be prone to interact with migrants and, oppositely, what makes Muscovites more reluctant to set up contacts; what might be reasons behind their often unconscious anxiety about having migrants as neighbours in multistoried dwellings and what these contacts as neighbours might add to our understanding of specifics of "cultural racism" in a huge city; how views of Muscovites about various migrants (especially preferences related to social status) manifest itself in post-Soviet setting and, finally, what is the local specifics, in comparison with Europe, of collapse of "defended neighbourhoods" in the city of Moscow.
Как показывают многочисленные количественные исследования в европейских странах, различные формы контактов принимающего населения с мигрантами делают восприятие последних хотя и в разной степени, но более толерантным. Описанная закономерность также фиксируется и российскими опросами. По мнению авторов, эти общие выводы, при всей их статистической надежности, оставляют значительные лакуны в наших знаниях о том, как происходит общение с мигрантами, в чем и почему оно помогает или, возможно, мешает снижению антимигрантских настроений в конкретной страновой/локальной ситуации.
Статья является попыткой прояснить данные аспекты темы на примере крупного российского города — через анализ нарративов, собранных в ходе интервьюирования жителей Москвы в 2014-2015 гг. Будут затронуты следующие сюжеты: кто более склонен к контактам в российских/московских условиях, а что, напротив, отвращает москвичей от общения с мигрантами; в чем подводные камни соседства с последними в многоквартирных жилых домах и почему такое соседство заставляет размышлять об особенностях культурного расизма в большом городе; как в постсоветских условиях работает фактор перепадов социального статуса между "местными" и "приезжими" и, наконец, как проявляет себя в Москве, в сравнении с европейской ситуацией, слом "защищенных локальных пространств".
Ключевые слова: Казахстан, русскоязычное пространство-история становления, языковая по-литика после 1991 г., соотношение казахского и русского языков, лингвокультурные предпочтения студентов, «мягкая сила» России.
Для цитирования: Космарская Н.П., Савин И.С. Судьба русского языка в Казахстане: возможности и барьеры использования российской «мягкой силы». Восток (Oriens). 2020. № 5. С. 119-130.
Abstract: The article explores the present role and future of the Russian language in the Republic of Kazakhstan. It contrasts state language policies and the views of ordinary Kazakhstani citizens, recorded mainly in interviews (including expert ones) and focus-group discussions with students of various Almaty universities conducted in 2016 and 2017. Attention is focused on the views of Kazakh students, members of the so-called "Nazarbayev generation" because from their ranks future elites will be recruited. Suggesting that the Russian linguistic-cultural space in Central Asia is largely a historically rooted phenomenon and has not been genuinely dependent on Russia, the authors suggest that the Russian Federation needs to readjust its external language and culture promotion so far geared almost exclusively to the so-called “compatriots” and seriously take into consideration the needs of another,
more numerous target-group. These are the titular (Kazakh) Russian-speakers of various age and social
status ‒ now they comprise the larger part of those whose Russian language skills are on the native or
near-to-native level.
Drawing on the results of empirical research, authors suggest that Russia’s efforts geared at the
preservation and development of the Russian linguistic and cultural space in Kazakhstan need to be
restructured in order to overcome the “sedative” effect of the too familiar environment inherited from the
Soviet past and acknowledge the potential of the local “mobilizing” factors making this restructuring a very
topical task. Among these factors are the specifics of cultural globalization in Kazakhstan, and Russia’s
competition with some other international players in Central Asia.
Keywords: Kazakhstan, formation of Russian linguistic-cultural space, language policies after 1991, state
language vs the Russian language, linguistic attitudes of students, “soft power” of Russia.
Abstract. The goal of the article is to analyze attitudes of Kazakhstani students towards Russia (this socio-demographic group is important because in time new elites would be recruited from it). According to the author, qualitative methods, such as focus groups, can be an important addition to mass surveys in the research of the perception of different countries at the micro-level. In the course of free communica-tion with informants, subjects of interest to researchers are revealed through the prism of cultural and family memory of people, their life strategies and personal experience. It was precisely that appeal to personal experience that allowed to reduce impact on students' views of public discourse produced by media and social networks.
The article presents the results of discussions in ten focus groups held in Oc-tober 2016 and May 2017 with students from various universities in Almaty. The fol-lowing topics were discussed: 1) impressions from staying/residence in Russia; 2) the situation around the Russian language in Kazakhstan, assessment of its present and future role; 3) attitude to Victory Day, the presence/absence of personal involvement with this historical date.
As focus-group discussions testify, cultural-linguistic and psychological affin-ity between residents of Kazakhstan and Russia is still in force, embracing also the younger generations, future part of Kazakhstani elite. The hypothesis stating that un-der the conditions of the multi-vector geopolitical course of Kazakhstan, there may be significant gaps in the worldview of Kazakhstani youth and older generations (includ-ing those related to attitudes towards Russia), has not received reasonable confirma-tion. Emotional and rational factors working for maintenance of the affinity with Russia (transmission of memory through generations, instrumental role of the Russian language) are analyzed, as well as roots of discontent of informants towards Russia and relevant ways to mitigate it.
Keywords. Perception of Russia in Central Asia, youth of post-Soviet coun-tries, Kazakhstani students, Russian language in Kazakhstan, memory on war and practices of commemoration, personal experience of being/living in Russian, qualitative methods.
This article explores the relationship between reformatting of Bishkek's central square "from above" and mosaics of meanings, claims, and practices produced by different social actors "from below" in response to the ongoing transformation of this space. Drawing on narratives of long-term Bishkek residents and recent internal migrants to the city, we investigate commonalities and divergences in their perception of Ala-Too's changing image. It is shown why the square, despite its planned multifunctionality, does not fulfill the needs of various segments of the city population. We also analyze political meanings of the "emptiness" of the square and the ambivalent public reaction to the ways it is being "filled." The square becomes a spatial mirror of society-a society that remains in constant flux, searching for social stability and for unifying national symbols, heroes, and slogans.
This Russian linguistic and cultural space (RLCS), within which specific cultural norms, knowledge, values and behavioral modes are circulated and practiced, embraces not only social actors of various ethnic origins, but also formal and informal institutions and cultural networks that are mostly based in the Russian language. The goal of this paper is to investigate the dynamics of the RLCS as it is experienced by the urban populations of the Central Asian states in the post-Soviet period as well as to reveal historical roots of the current situation and the factors working for maintenance or shrinkage of the RLCS itself.
Keywords: Russian cultural-linguistic space (RCLS) in Central Asia; rise of RCLS through the lens of colonization and urbanization in the region; specifics of "Russian culture" in Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, and Uzbekistan; factors working for maintenance/shrinkage of RCLS; universal (supra-ethnic) character of urban culture in Central Asia.
Цели данной статьи – анализ динамики русскоязычного культурно-лингвистического пространства (РЛКП) в Центральной Азии (в том его виде, в каком это пространство существует в городах региона), а также выявление факторов, способствующих его сохранению (расширению) или «сжатию» в постсоветский период. Имеется в виду культурно-языковое пространство, в пределах которого задействованы особые культурные нормы, знания, ценности и поведенческие паттерны, которое включает социальных акторов различного этнического происхождения (а не только самих русских), а также (не)формальные институты и социальные сети, опирающиеся преимущественно на русский язык. В статье раскрывается исторический контекст формирования РЛКП в Киргизии, Казахстане и Узбекистане, а также специфика вовлечённости в него трёх названных стран. Затронут вопрос о том, нуждается ли «русская культура» в постоянной поддержке извне, со стороны России, или же в регионе действуют факторы, способствующие её самовоспроизводству на «местной» почве.
Ключевые слова: русскоязычное культурно-лингвистическое пространство; история становления сквозь призму колонизации и урбанизации; специфика "русской культуры" в Казахстане, Киргизии и Узбекистане; факторы сохранения и "сжатия"; универсализм городской культуры в Центральной Азии.
The analysis is deliberately comparative in two aspects. First, it is aimed at drawing some parallels between the scale and manifestations of anti-migrant sentiments in different countries of Western Europe and those among residents of Russia (taking Moscow as a case-study). This type of research both in Europe and in Russia operates with the results of large-scale surveys based on representative samples. The first part of the paper is an attempt to show how the main factors provoking anti-migrant attitudes in Europe (various individual-level and contextual factors) as well as the main concepts explaining these attitudes (e.g., concepts of potential threat, of social contact; defended neighbourhood theory, etc.) might reveal themselves and operate under the social conditions of the biggest city of Russia.
Second, proceeding from the idea that quantitative and qualitative methods of collecting empirical data are complementary, in the second part of the chapter we turn to comparison of the results of ROMIR large-scale survey conducted in Moscow in June 2013 within the framework of the NEORUSS project, with those of a series of 30 in-depth interviews conducted by the authors among Muscovites in 2013-2014. In the authors’ knowledge, micro-level research of popular attitudes towards migrants and migration have not yet been conducted in Russia.
According to the interviews, two features of Muscovites’ perceptions of labour migrants deserve special attention. This is, first, social-political contextualization of “migration issue” within wider social situation in Moscow — the fact which reveals itself in a marked overweight of social/political associations in respondents’ narratives, compared with a much lower interest in “ethno-cultural otherness” of migrants. Second, Muscovites’ opinion is marked by what we call a “demonstrative xenophobia”. Many of them select questionnaire options which reflect their perception of migrants as a source of threat to the Russian culture, economy, etc. In the same time the ways of interpretation of migration via interviews testify that real migrants whom Muscovites meet every day in various parts of the city, are not perceived through the lens of “threat”.
The introductory paper discusses the current state of research on co-ethnic conflicts brought about by the collapse of the USSR. It explores both Western and Russian-language academic literature, and demonstrates the conceptual and terminological difficulties in identifying the reasons for co-ethnic tensions. These difficulties are mostly connected with the essentialising of motivations for migration and of ethno-cultural difference between the co-ethnic groups.
Key-words: intra-ethnic conflicts after the fall of communism; state of the art in the field of co-ethnic migration; state-imposed images of national belonging; identity shifts under "ethnically privileged migration"; intra-group contacts and the terms to describe them.
This article takes as its focus post-Soviet Bishkek and explores the arrival to the city of a Kyrgyz migrant population and the perceptions of and reactions to this migrant population on the side of long-term residents (predominantly ethnic Kyrgyz (Russian-speaking); ethnic Russian, and other Russian-speaking communities). The article explores the way migrants are constructed and represented in the language of long-term residents. The data reveals an anti-migration discourse on the side of the long-term residents as the migrants are identified as culturally (e.g. not ‘urban’); linguistically (e.g. Kyrgyz speaking having poor Russian); and behaviourally (e.g. uncivilized) as not being part of their past, present or future vision of Bishkek. The article looks also at the ways in which migrants themselves perceive their position in Bishkek. Their narratives, highlight the diversity present amongst the migrant population, and demonstrate a counter-representation of themselves and their place within a changing city, which in its very pragmatism and realism, contests the simplistic representation favoured by the long-term residents. The article reveals important insights into emerging notions of both urban identity and Kyrgyz identity in the post-Soviet period, where linguistic and ethnic boundaries become blurred and moveable and new categories of inclusion and exclusion are constructed.*
В центре внимания данной статьи – миграция киргизов из разных частей Киргизской республики в столицу, город Бишкек, и отношение к этим мигрантам со стороны старожилов города (это так называемые городские, русскоязычные киргизы, а также собственно русские и представители других русскоязычных этнических групп). Для авторов особенно важно показать, как ситуация вокруг мигрантов и сами мигранты представлены в дискурсе старожилов. Анализ собранных эмпирических материалов свидетельствует о том, что этот дискурс носит анти-мигрантский характер: "приезжие" видятся как люди, не принадлежащие ни прошлому, ни настоящему, ни будущему города, поскольку они "другие" культурно (не городские), лингвистически (в основном киргизоязычные и плохо говорят по-русски) и с точки зрения поведенческих моделей ("нецивилизованные").
В статье также уделяется важное внимание тому, как сами мигранты видят свою жизнь в городе. Их нарративы показывают, как разнородны мигранты и траектории их адаптации к городским условиям, хотя всё это воспринимается старожилами в едином ключе. Прагматично-реалистичная картина выживания и постепенного "движения вверх" ставит под сомнение упрощённые представления старожилов о "приезжих". Авторы также выявляют важные грани собственно городской и киргизской идентичности в постсоветский период, когда этнические и языковые границы расплываются, уступая место новым формам социального исключения и адаптации.
Keywords: Kyrgyzstan, Bishkek, migration, long-term resident, urban change, mutual perceptions
http://anthropologie.kunstkamera.ru/files/pdf/012/12_forum.pdf (in Russian)
http://anthropologie.kunstkamera.ru/files/pdf/eng007/forum.pdf (in English)
Conference in Joensuu, University of Eastern Finland
Finland, November 27-28th 2017
Why is the word «diaspora» often used in the lexicon of not only scholars, but also politicians, journalists, and officials? For what reasons can the state ignore «co-ethnics» abroad, considering them just as citizens of the other countries? What can small Armenia and vast China have in common, as far as their diaspora politics is concerned? How do the fantasies of «homeland» politicians regarding a «united nation» relate to the everyday practices of diaspora members immersed in the socio-political and cultural realities of the other countries?
The book provides answers to these and many other relevant questions related to the social activities and everydayness of expatriate groups. The author also offers an original typology of models of diaspora politics of kin-states based on the analysis of the situation in six countries (Armenia vs China, Uzbekistan vs Azerbaijan, and Russia vs Hungary). Diasporic identity is also examined but not like identity of some individual groups «outside the homeland» but on a more generalized methodological level. This is a chapter on the possible impact of the historical and political context on identity of members of presumed «diasporas»; chapter on their perception of organizations created or patronized by the «homeland»; and another one dealing with the potential for expatriate groups, in their countries of residence, to realize not a diaspora project, but a fundamentally different, autochthonous one (which is most likely in cases of diaspora formation not through migration, but through the movement of state borders).
All of the narratives presented in the book are inextricably linked to Russia in its various guises – as a former empire that colonized the vast expanses of the Asian continent; as the successor of a state once common to many people of different nationalities who now inhabit the countries of the region; as a driving force within the region's main economic association (EAEU); and finally, as part of the Russian-language cultural space that remains in these countries, but largely lives its own life here.
Книга посвящена различным аспектам восприятия России жителями трех стран Центральной Азии-Казахстана, важнейшего стратегического и экономического партнера России, имеющего с ней огромную по протяженности общую границу, а также Киргизии и Узбекистана. Их связи с Россией исторически обусловлены и разнообразны, но сейчас определяются в первую очередь многолетним притоком в страну сотен тысяч трудовых мигрантов. Исследование основано на эмпирических материалах, собранных авторами в 2014-2019 гг. качественными методами (экспертные и биографические интервью, фокус-группы, контент-анализ сетевых публикаций). Все представленные в книге сюжеты неразрывно связаны с Россией в ее различных ипостасях-как бывшей империи, колонизовавшей бескрайние пространства азиатского материка; как преемницы государства, когда-то общего для многих людей разных национальностей, населяющих сейчас страны региона; как движущей силы в рамках существующего в регионе экономического объединения (ЕАЭС); наконец, как части сохраняющегося в этих странах, но во многом живущего здесь своей собственной жизнью русскоязычного культурного прос транства. Издание рассчитано на историков, социологов, политологов; на студентов и аспирантов этих специальностей, на преподавателей вузов, а также на всех читателей, которых могут заинтересовать искренние и непредвзятые мнения о России, высказанные обычными жителями стран-наших бывших соседей по общему дому.