TERMINOLOGY PERTAINING TO ETHNIC RELATIONS AS USED IN LATE IMPERIAL RUSSIA

Abstract

The article discusses the denotation and changes in the meaning of terms describing ethnic relations in various formal and informal texts originating from late Imperial Russia, examining the terminology regarding the Empire’s ethno-political geography and regional dimension, as well as the correlation between the hierarchical concepts of Russian Empire – Russia – borderlands. The article also outlines the identifying characteristics of the basic ethnic categories in the Empire, i.e. Russians and non-Russians (инородцы), and addresses the issue of non-Russians “becoming Russian”. Consideration is given to phrases and expressions illustrating the central government’s ethnic integration policy in non-Russian territories. Among those most frequently encountered are “rapprochement” (сближение), “merging” (слияние), “Russification” (обрусение, русификация): terms that lack proper, unambiguous definition, and have produced no consensus among either contemporaries or modern researchers. The government pursued the homogeneity of the Empire not by respecting multi-culturality and diversity or guaranteeing free development of ethnoses, but rather by aggressively enacting rapprochement with the Russian nation, forcing the Russian language upon residents of the Empire (also as the language of tuition in primary schools), and disseminating the Orthodox faith, thus crippling the peoples’ natural strive for self-realisation and self-determination. The attempts to eradicate native-language primary education give enough reason to speak about Russification in the sense of assimilation (Russianisation), regardless of whether or not this was a conscious effort and goal set by the masterminds behind the reforms. Estonian national movement activists and intellectuals interpreted the government’s ethnic policy as forcible denationalisation and re-ethnification set to annihilate the Estonian nation through the dominance of the Russian language in education and public administration. Whether the government was indeed harbouring such plans, or to what extent, remains unclear. The Empire remained based on dynastic statehood until its demise; nationalism did not become a ruling ideology despite the Russian and non-Russian ethnocentricity thriving and Russian nationalists striving to reshape the dynastic state into a nation state. The central government launched multiple Russification programmes in the border regions, yet these were eventually thwarted by resistance put up by non-Russian peoples.