Post on 22-Mar-2023
SOCIAL ISSUES IN POST-SOVIET RUSSIA
SUBMITTED TO ASST. PROF. DR. IŞIK KUSCU-BONNENFANT
THE GRADUATE SCHOOL OF SOCIAL SCIENCES
OF
MIDDLE EAST TECHNICAL UNIVERSITY
BY
ECEM SECKIN
THE DEGREE OF MASTER OF ARTS
IN
EURASIAN STUDIES
SEMINAR
JANUARY 2015
i
TABLE OF CONTENTS
1. INTRODUCTION........................................................................................................1
2. CULTURAL ISSUES……………………………..………………………….…................2
2.1. Migration and Diaspora…………………...…………….......................................2-3
2.2. Ethnic and Identity Issue……...…………….........................................................3-4
2.3. Linguistic Issues………...………………………....................................................4-5
2.4. Religious Issues…………………………………....................................................5-6
3. SOCIETAL ISSUES…………………………….………..…...………………....…….......6
3.1. Gender Issues…………………………………………………….........................6-7
3.2. Civil Society…………………………………………..…………………..................8
3.3. Educational Issues…………….……………………..…………………................8-9
4. CONCLUSION................................................................................................................9
5. LITERATURE REVIEW...............................................................................................10
BIBLIOGRAPHY...........................................................................................................11-12
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1. INTRODUCTION
Society in a general description is a group of people having shared cultures and
historical past together with common interests. Most of the characteristics of contemporary
Russian society come from tsarist Russia and Soviet period. In the Russian society, there is
a visible distinction between practice and theory. For example, in Soviet time, there was
not a class based society in theory but society dominated by the class cleavage in practice.
In modern Russia, class distinction still continues especially transition to market economy
after the collapse of Soviet Union. Moreover, formally, there was not poverty in the Soviet
Union but in reality, nearly 40 million Soviet citizens in the poverty limit. These examples
can be increased but may be the most important issue in social sphere is that both in Soviet
Union and also today’s Russia, social sphere is ignored and the state generally focuses on
political and economic issues. Most of the social problems transferred from the Soviet
Union to contemporary Russia as a heritage. In addition, historically and traditionally,
Russian society expects from state to handle social problems because the state in Russia
has primary importance (Gontmakher & Maleva, 9-10).
In transition period, because Russian state focuses on economic and political sphere in
order to modernize rapidly, social sphere is overlooked. Moreover, society slowly
perceives that it should be demanded from state for solving social problems. In this article,
social problems of Russia faced with and how these problems are directly related to
modernization of state will be discussed. Social problems of Russia will be discussed in the
two main parts which are societal and cultural problems. In the first part, cultural issues
like migration and diaspora, ethnic and identity, language and religious problems will be
addressed. In the second part, societal issues like gender, civil society and education will
be analyzed.
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2. CULTURAL ISSUES
2.1. Migration and Diaspora
Migration is one of the instruments of state policy to arrange both economic and
political realms. However, the results of migration issue are clearly sociological. Almost
half of the Russians live outside of their place of birth. This fact demonstrates the both
forced and willingly migration density in Russia. Moreover, because of Soviet nationalist
and labor policy throughout decades, most of the towns and cities in Russia, there is people
from many different nations live. At the same time, many Russian had to migrate from
Russia to former Soviet republics as a part of Soviet policy. After the collapse of Soviet
Union, large scale migration occurs among these states. At this point, another important
issue is emigration of many educated and skilled Russian people to abroad. On the one
hand, with the lifting of restriction on exit from the country, number of people who turn
back to their countries increased rapidly. On the other hand, with the permission of border
restrain, illegal migration in Russia increased dramatically and in the first years of Russian
Federation, this situation got out of control of the state. Moreover, transition in market
economy and opening of the Russian economy to abroad, the trafficking of Russian women
to the West has been increased (Pilkington, 167-168).
In the migration decision, cost and benefit balance is influential. Potential migrants
consider their economic conditions in where they live and also place that they plan to
migrate. In this decision, social structure of the place of immigration is generally ignored.
Moreover, some criteria like age, education level and sex play important role in decision
making of Russian people. For example, migration rate is high in people who graduated
from college and consider their careers but it decreases in retirement ages. Furthermore,
ethnic violence is another reason for Russian migrators, especially from former Soviet
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republics. So, there are different reasons impact migration pattern in post-Soviet Russia
and these migration movements have direct effects on structure of population and also
social policies in Russia. Other than returning of Russian diaspora who lived in non-
Russian states, many people migrate to their native lands. Thus, these migration
movements directly influence ethnic composition of Russian population and also changes
in population effect budget and social policies of state (Heleniak, 532-533).
2.2. Ethnic and Identity Issues
Tolz mentions five different Russian identity determinations as a nation. The first
one is the union identity. In the union identity, Russians are defined by their ultimate aim
to construct a supranational state. In the Soviet Union and in imperial Russia the
boundaries of state kept people together. So, common history and territorial togetherness
created a common identity for Russian people. The second one is Russians as Slav nation.
This type of determination is related to being common origin. Ethnic and cultural
similarities and having common past are main connection points for Slav nationality. The
third one is Russians as Russian speakers without paying attention to ethnic origin.
Without doubt language is an indicator of national identity. Moreover, in Russia, both in
pre-revolutionary Russia and Soviet Russia, Russian language has connective force in
society. In this category, religion is also unifying point for the Russian identity. Russian
speakers regardless of their ethnic origin, give importance to Orthodoxy as a marker of
Russian identity. The fourth one is Russians defined racially. To make connection with
blood ties to define Russian nationality is racist side of defining nationality. The last one
is civil Russian nation which composed to contemporary Russian society. It includes all
Russian people without considering ethnic and cultural origin (Tolz, 995-996).
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Identity issue is in the realm of politics in international arena but in the boundaries
of a country, it becomes social issue. The collapse of Soviet Union led to the emergence of
15 independent states in the region. Each of them promotes national identity in order to
reconstruct their territorial sovereignty. The situation in the Russian Federation is different
than other post-Soviet states. It has to deal with problems related to multi-ethnic structure
of its society. In the post-Soviet Russia, Boris Yeltsin used Russian sovereignty in order to
reinforce his position against Gorbachev but he never used Russian national identity term
for this purpose. Moreover, Yeltsin encouraged the leaders of the ethnic republics for self-
rule by saying that “take as much sovereignty as you can” in his speech in Tatarstan. This
situation is as an indicator of the origin of nationality and ethnicity issues in the Russian
Federation because Russia has ethnically diverse population as a legacy of the Soviet
Union. Furthermore, Yeltsin did not develop an obvious approach both towards ethnic
minorities and also ethnic Russian. So, Russian government did not define the Russian
people rather it prefers to use citizens of the Russian state term. In the contemporary
Russia, the ethnic Russians are composed four fifths of the country. Therefore, Russia
should guarantee the rights of other ethnic groups in its territory. President Putin also did
not solve the uncertainty of nationality policy in Russia (Rutland, 7).
2.3. Linguistic Issues
The Russian Federation includes 176 different ethnic groups today and this number
of ethnic groups also equals to number of language that are spoken in contemporary
Russia. In addition, minority languages are composed of 20% of total language spoken in
Russia. Language issue is the important sociocultural indicator in Russia. After collapse of
Soviet Union, almost nearly all post-Soviet countries replace Cyrillic letters to Latin
alphabet but another dimension of language issue is minority languages in post-Soviet
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Russia. According to Red Book on Endangered Languages report of UNESCO, almost all
minority language except from only three of them are in danger of extinction. Therefore,
other languages are at the limits of extinction. This situation sometimes causes minorities
to start radical to move for the purpose of preserve and continue their language and also
identity. Because the language issue is related to the recognition of the identity, it is source
of strain in itself. Thus, these actions may lead some social tensions foster cultural and
ethnic conflicts (Leprete, 6-7).
In Russia, the language issue seems less critical in Russia because Russian language is
internationally accepted as a common language. Moreover, Russian language is internally
accepted as official language in majority of autonomous region in Russia. The problem is
the criteria for selecting Russian language as official language. Except from four districts
have accepted language regulation which gives precedence to minority language. Because
language is a strong sign of ethnic identity, it demonstrates who is member of which ethnic
and cultural group. In Russia, all languages are not equal and a hierarchical order exists
among languages. Although different languages are spoken in Russia, Russian language is
predominant language depends on population size of nationality (Pavlenko, 301-302).
2.4. Religious Issues
Although Soviet constitutions guaranteed freedom of belief of all Soviet citizens, in
reality there was anti-religion propaganda. Therefore, Soviet Union violated constitution
by discriminating its citizens according to their beliefs. With glasnost and perestroika,
there was a relaxation in religious restrictions. The changes and development in religious
life of Russian citizens continues with Yeltsin in Russian Federation. At the beginning of
1990’s, there was increase in religious associations and religious activities also increased
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in the society. In 1993, Russian constitution has article on religion of the state and it
confirms that Russia is officially secular country. In the new legislation on religion, all
believers’ rights are guaranteed by legal system. However, because of the density of
Christian population in Russian society, there has been unofficial discrimination among
different religions. Moreover, until Putin, the Orthodox Church become the most
influential and powerful social institution in in post-Soviet Russia. Under the Putin, war
against Islamic fundamentalism in Chechnya gained importance especially at the beginning
of 2000’s (Knox, 284-285).
In Russia, in spite of the fact that majority of the population is Orthodox Christian;
there is diversity in religious issue. However, religious tradition and values are much more
based on Christianity due to majority of believers in Russia. So, Russian Orthodox Church
is not only just a religious institution besides, it has crucial role of civil society in Russia.
Even if people do not believe in Christianity, they identified themselves with values and
norms of Christianity. Therefore, the religious organizations and intuitions play active role
in social sphere in post- Soviet Russia. For instance, in 2000, the Russian Orthodox Church
admitted a document namely “Bases of the Social of the Russian Orthodox Church” which
positions the Church in Russian society and also it includes social and ethical issues from
public morality to ecological problems. Therefore, religion is important part of the Russian
social life especially in post-Soviet Russia (Kazmina & Filippova, 1071).
3. SOCIETAL ISSUES
3.1. Gender Issues
During the Soviet rule, women were not liberated but rather mobilized by state as a
labor force in the communist system. In this system, they have unskilled and low paid jobs
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so that their economic independence is problem. After the collapse of Soviet Union, social
status of women decrease and discriminatory environment for women occurred with the
changing political and economic conditions. Nevertheless, with the establishment of the
modern Russia, women try to find their social identity. At the beginning of transition
period, gender roles of both women and men did not change too much and these roles and
identities were defined for requirement of the state. Even though in modern Russia
motherhood was not glorified as in the Soviet Union, women identity still based on paid
work and motherhood. Moreover, household responsibilities, raising child and family care
were perceived as duty of women in contemporary Russia (Sargeant, 1996, 269-271).
Social transformation of Russian society after dissolution of the Soviet Union did
not equally impact men and women. In some realms of the social life, women are still
subject to oppression and discrimination in the patriarchal system. For example, in
educational life, women are supported more than men but in health care system, women
have limited access to full equipped medical care as compared with provided health care
service in Soviet Union. (Mezentseva, 2009, 17-19). Another important social issues
related to Russian women are domestic violence, women trafficking and sexual assault.
Russian administration is not capable of prevent violence against women in Russia and
women expect to reform in legal system and also its implementation together with
improvement in social services in order to support women suffered from domestic
violence. Women’s trafficking is also a big problem related to gender issue in the Russian
society but the government is failure to take precautions. Unfortunately, there has not been
any regional preventative action to avoid it (Johnson, 2009, 97).
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3.2. Civil Society
In Russia, state understanding is strong as a legacy of Soviet Union and also
imperial Russia. With the establishment of modern Russia, state increased its influence in
social life through its institutions. Centralization of political power limited space for the
development of civil society. Although there is increase in the number of civic
organizations after the Soviet Union, membership is very low in civil society. However,
social movements and civic activism increase against Putin administration but these are
unorganized mass society movements. This situation demonstrates there is not any
structured and institutionalized civil society understanding in Russia. Furthermore, most of
civic organizations are financed by international funding. State also supports civic
organizations in order to impose them aims of state. Through this strategy, state plans to
control over civic organizations in Russia. So, some financial and political constraints
make influence of civil society passive (Golenko 14-15).
3.3. Educational Issues
After dissolution of Soviet Union, modernization in education also occurred in
transition period. In education system one of the most important issues is inequality in
school education. Schools are basic units of democratic institutions provides children
different world view and social background. As a social institution, learning in school is
defined by social status in Russia. For instance, wealthier parents of students prefer to
spend more money on their children’s education except from school education. Private
courses or academic coaches are more accessible for them. Therefore, economic prosperity
of families is one of the important determinations in Russian education. Especially with the
marketization of school education, social strata have becoming visible. Demographic and
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cultural structure of the any region in Russia is also another parameter in education issue.
Importance given to education varies from region to region in Russia. Intellectuality level
of people influences the demands for education system. The number of people who visit to
the theatre or museum or average number of book that people read in a specific of time
determines the education (Sobkin, 296-297).
Although some educational reforms were applied in higher educational system in
Russia, there are some structural problems. The first one is inadequate wage of teachers.
The academic wages is decreased due to financial burden of the reforms in educational
system in Russia. Another point is social status of teachers in the society. The respect for
the teacher profession is little and there is a perception that people had not another choice
in their career and did not find any job in public or private sector, become teacher. In
addition, graduated people who could not find suitable job had to continue higher
education in Russia. In addition, because of compulsory army service, the majority of
young men register higher education. Therefore, all of these structural problems lead social
problems in educational system in Russia (Fursova & Simons, 28-29).
4. CONCLUSION
In conclusion, Russia has experienced social transformation after the collapse of the
Soviet Union. Multi-ethnic structure of Russian society leads some social problems.
Migration issues, linguistic and national identity issues are directly related to cosmopolitan
composition of Russian society. Social realm in Russian society is at the second plan.
Russian government gives more importance to political and economic issues. Civil society
is significant part of Russian population to reinforce social sphere in Russia but it seems to
long way to go.
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5. LITERATURE REVIEW
In literature, there is a lot sources related to social issues in post-Soviet Russia. These
academic studies generally focus on migration and ethnic identity issues. Gender issues are
also popular as research areas. Education, religion and language issues do not come
forward. Moreover, social issues are usually analyzed in the light of political and economic
issues. Especially in the last decade, civil society, social movements and civic
organizations are featured subjects.
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BIBLIOGRAPHY
Fursova, Valentina., Simons, Greg. “Social Problems of Modern Russian Higher Education:
The Example of Corruption”. International Education Studies; Vol. 7, No. 10; 2014. 25-31.
Golenkova, Zinaida T. Civil Society in Russia. Russian Social Science Review, vol. 40, no. 1.
January-February 1999. 4-18.
Gontmakher, E., Maleva, T. “Russia’s Social Problems and Alternative Ways of Resolving
Them”. Problems of Economic Transition, vol. 51, no. 12, April 2009, 3–17.
Heleniak, Timothy. “Migration and Restructuring in Post-Soviet Russia”, Demokratizatsiya,
Vol. 9, no. 4, Fall 2001. pp. 531-549.
Johnson, Elise Janet. Gender Violence in Russia: The Politics of Feminist Intervention. USA:
Indiana University Press. 2009.
Kazmina, Olga., Filippova, Olga. “Re-Imagination of Religion in Post-Soviet Society:
Challenges and Responses”. International Education Studies; Vol. 7, No. 10; 2014. 1050-
1076.
Knox, Zoe. “Religious Freedom in Russia: The Putin Years”. Religion, Morality and
Community in Post-Soviet Socieities. Ed. Steinberg, Mark D., Wanner, Catherine. USA:
Woodrow Wilson Center Press. 281-315.
Mezentseva, Elena. “Gender Inequality in Today Russia: Who Bear the Social Costs of
Reforms? ”. Demokratizatsiya: The Journal of Post-Soviet Democratization, Volume 17,
Number 1 / Winter 2009. 17-24.
Lepretre, Marc. “Language Policy in the Russian Federation: Language Diversity and
National Identity”. Sociolingüística internacional. Primavera 2002. 1-9.
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Pavlenko, Aneta. “Multilingualism in Post-Soviet Countries: Language Revival, Language
Removal, and Sociolinguistic Theory”. The International Journal of Bilingual Education and
Bilingualism Vol. 11, Nos. 3&4, 2008. 275-314.
Pilkington, Hilary. Migration, Displacement and Identity in Post-Soviet Russia. London:
Routledge. 1998.
Rutland, Peter. “The Presence of Absence: Ethnicity Policy in Russia”. Institutions, Ideas and
Leadership in Post-Soviet Russia, ed. Julia Newton & William Tompson USA: Palgrave
Macmillan. 2010.
Sargeant, Elena. “The ‘woman question’ and problems of maternity in post-communist
Russia”. Women in Russia and Ukraine. Ed. Rosalind Marsh. UK: Cambridge University
Press. 1996. 269-286.
Sobkin, Vladimir. “Education and the Problem of Social Inequality in Russia”. International
Journal of Inclusive Education, 2001, Vol. 5, No. 2/3, 293-303.
Tolz, Vera. Forging the Nation: National Identity and Nation Building in Post-Communist
Russia. Europe-Asia Studies, Vol. 50, No.6, 1998, 993-1022.