Origins & End of Territorial Self-Government: Tatars in the Russian Federation

• In Event: Ethnic and Religious Mobilization and Conflict; Evidence from Ukraine and Russia

Abstract

Ethnically distinct territorial autonomies and other preferential policies for minority populations granted by the Soviet state were heralded as unique at the time of their formation. In the early 1990s the Russian Federation reaffirmed its commitment to territorial autonomies. In this study I identify factors that predict the formation of territorial autonomy arrangements for regionally-concentrated ethnic communities. While an extensive literature has investigated the capacity of autonomy arrangements to manage interethnic disputes, little research has addressed the precise origins of these institutions. Using the case study of Tatars in the Russian Federation, I trace the origins of territorial autonomy in one of the most important instances of territorial autonomy formation in the post-communist space. In doing so, I employ systematic data on (1) the grass-roots protests organized by the Tatar intellectual elites and (2) the official public statements expressed by the Tatar political elites directly to the Russian government. I then observe the changes in the position of the Russian government toward granting territorial autonomy to Tatarstan. I conclude that groups that rely on peaceful tactics such as verbal or written communication of discontent as well as nonviolent protests have a significant potential to achieve territorial autonomy. In the second part of the paper, I juxtapose the factors that led to the formation of territorial self-governance vis-à-vis more recent developments, which result in diminished autonomy for Russia’s ethnic minority groups. The results of this study have important implications for socio-political development in the Middle Volga and beyond as they deal with the development, survival, and, potentially, the end of minority autonomous regions as political entities.

Author

• Renat Shaykhutdinov, Florida Atlantic University