Russian Cleavages

The two Chechen wars and continuing Chechen crisis which erupts with insurgent attacks heads up the list of cleavages in the Russian Federation, as it underscores nationality and religious divides in Putin's Russia. Be able to indentify the North Caucasus (these are different than near-abroad independent states like Georgia that Russia still likes to claim influence on.

Ethel Wood (one of two Study Guide authors I recomend) highlights the separations in Russian Society and Politics here. I have updated in (---).

NATIONALITY - The most important single cleavage in the Russian Federation is nationality. Although almost 82% are Russians, the country included sizeable numbers of Tatars, Ukrainians, Chuvashes, Bashkis, Byelorussians, and Modavians. These cleavages determine the organization of the country into a "federation," with "autonomous regions," republics, and provinces whose borders are based on ethnicity. Like the breakaway republics of 1991, many would like to have their independence, although most have trade benefits from the Russian government that induce them to stay within the Federation. A notable exception is Chechnya, a primarily Muslim region that has fought for several years for their freedom. The Russian government has had considerable difficulty keeping Chechnya a part of Russia, and the independence movement there is still very strong. Almost certainly, other regions are watching, and the government knows that if Chechnya is successful, other independence movements may break out in the country.

RELIGION - Tsarist Russia was overwhelmingly Russian Orthodox, with the tsar serving as spiritual head of the church. In reaction, the Soviet Union prohibited religious practices of all kinds, so that most citizens lost their religious affiliations during the twentieth century. Boris Yeltsin encouraged the Russian Orthodox Church to reestablish itself, partly as a signal of his break with communism, but also as a reflection of old Russian nationalism. Today most citizens are still nonreligious, with only about 16% claiming affiliation with the Russian Orthodox Church. Other religious are represented by tiny percentages &endash; Roman Catholic, Jews, Muslim and Protestant. Since the current regime is so new and political parties so uncertain, no clear pattern has emerged that indicate political attitudes of religious v. nonreligious citizens. (That could be beginning to change. During the Soviet-era the State eliminated the Church. Now the Church is Friend with the State, so since there never was a legal separation of Church and State, today's growing fusion between Church and  State has led to a concern by some...see  Orthodox Corruption? A film by Simon Ostrovsky and Veronika Dorman )

SOCIAL CLASS - The Soviet attempts to destroy social class differences in Russia were at least partially successful. The old noble/peasant distinction of Tsarist Russia was abolished, but was replaced by another cleavage: members of the Communist Party and nonmembers. Only about 7% of the citizenry were party members, but all political leaders were recruited from this group. Economic favors were granted to party members as well, particularly those of the Central Committee and the Politburo. However, egalitarian views were promoted, and the nomenklatura process of recruiting leaders from lower levels of the party was generally blind to economic and social background. Today Russian citizens appear to be more egalitarian in their political and social views than people of the established democracies.

Many observers of modern Russia note that a new socio-economic class may be developing within the context of the budding market economy: entrepreneurs that have recently amassed fortunes from new business opportunities. However, the fortunes of many of these newly rich Russians were wiped away by the 1997 business bust, so it is difficult to know how permanent this class may be. Boris Yeltsin's government contributed to this class by distributing huge favors to them, and many believe that a small but powerful group of entrepreneurs sponsored the presidential campaign of Vladimir Putin in 2000.

 Pictured above The Economist reports on the drink-as-you-go pension policy leading to a young vs old conflict.

RURAL VS. URBAN - Industrialization since the era of Joseph Stalin has led to an increasingly urban population, with about 77% of all Russians now living in cities, primarily in the western part of the country. The economic divide between rural and urban people is wide, although recent economic woes have beset almost all Russians no matter where they live. City dwellers are more likely to be well-educated and in touch with western culture, but the political consequences of these differences are unclear in the unsettled current political climate.

(Ironically, in the Tandem "Bro-Mance" rule of Putin and Medvedev, the PM has been "messaging" the rural interests.)