Commentary
Though Orban is gone, Putin can still count on some like-minded individuals in Central and Eastern Europe. However, they will seek to avoid open confrontation with EU institutions over Ukraine and their ties with Moscow.
Dimitar Bechev
REQUIRED IMAGE
Paper
The Russian World—Changing Meanings and Strategies
The collapse of the Soviet Union resulted not only in new borders for Russia, but left millions of ethnic Russians in former Soviet republics. For these people, the Russian language remains a defining influence in their lives, even where local nationalist agendas seek to downplay and underestimate its prevalence.
By Valery Tishkov
Published on Aug 17, 2008
The collapse of the Soviet Union resulted not only in new borders for Russia, but left millions of ethnic Russians in former Soviet republics. For these people, the Russian language remains a defining influence in their lives, even where local nationalist agendas seek to downplay and underestimate its prevalence. Many remain members of the “Russian world”—preserving ties of culture and identity with Russia, hold Russian citizenship, and consider themselves Russian, even if they live outside Russia’s boundaries.
In The Russian World: Changing Strategies and Meanings, Valery Tishkov lays out a framework for understanding the ways in which those connected to the Russian language and culture relate to one another and to Russia. Writing for an English-speaking audience, he explains how and why Russian intellectuals began to press the government of the Russian Federation to embrace the idea of a “Russian world” and support its members.
Tishkov argues that conventional estimates of the prevalence and social importance of the Russian language in post-Soviet countries such as Georgia, Latvia, and some Central Asian states are distorted by skewed self-reporting, willful suppression of Russian by the governments, and other biases. For this reason he believes that Russian should become an official language in several former Soviet republics, including Kazakhstan, Ukraine, and Latvia, due to the high proportion of Russian speakers there.
The changing status and perception of the Russian language in the newly independent states reflect ongoing processes of national consolidation and self-understanding. Tishkov’s analysis helps to shed light on how Russians are navigating these challenging questions.
Valery Tishkov has served as director of the Institute of Ethnology and Anthropology, Russian Academy of Sciences, since 1989. He is also director of the IEA Center for the Study and Management of Conflicts, and serves as chairman of the Commission on Tolerance and Freedom of Conscience of the Public Chamber of the Russian Federation. He is a prolific writer, having published more than twenty books, including two encyclopedias on Russian ethnicity. He is a member of the Public Chamber of Russia and the Global Commission on International Migration.
About the Author
Valery Tishkov
Carnegie does not take institutional positions on public policy issues; the views represented herein are those of the author(s) and do not necessarily reflect the views of Carnegie, its staff, or its trustees.
More Work from Carnegie Endowment for International Peace
- What Does Central Europe’s Post-Orban Russia Policy Look Like?
- Are Russia-Japan Relations Really Warming Up?Commentary
The truth is that Japan’s government is seeking a degree of reengagement but at a vastly reduced level than under Abe. Most significantly, Japan has shown no willingness to ease sanctions.
James D.J. Brown
- Continental Asia and the Rise of Portfolio PoliticsArticle
“Central Asia” as an analytical category is itself part of the problem. The term is a Soviet administrative inheritance, drawn along lines that served the convenience of Moscow. The Central Asian states the Soviets named no longer see themselves through this category alone and are not aligning across political blocs but are instead building external partnerships sector by sector, assigning different partners to different functions.
Jennifer B. Murtazashvili
- In Russia, Private Companies Have Been Left to Pick Up the Tab for Ukrainian Drone AttacksCommentary
The cost of air defense has become an unregistered tax on revenue for businesses. While military rents are consolidated in the federal budget, the costs of defense are being spread across the balance sheets of companies and regional governments.
Alexandra Prokopenko
- As Trump Threatens to Quit NATO, the Baltic States Are Playing for TimeCommentary
Governments in Estonia, Latvia, and Lithuania want to ensure that a U.S. military withdrawal would not leave them dangerously exposed to a Russian attack.
Sergejs Potapkins
