To the question of the nation-building in post-soviet Russia in context of delayed transition

Abstract

National construction has been the object of close attention of scientists. One of the main aspects is how nation-building and development of political representation institutions influence each other. The Russian case is interesting because of growing contradiction between the current vector of national construction and the urgent need to protect human and civil rights and freedoms, democratic mechanisms of coordination, control and participation . The issue of national construction in post-Soviet Russia in Russian historiography is not only debatable, but also politicized. Valery A. Tishkov and his colleagues from the Institute of Ethnology and Anthropology of the Russian Academy of Sciences appeal to the state identity, which occupies the first position in the set of identities, as the key marker of the fully-formed political nation. Dmitry Oreshkin, Emil Pain indicate that Russian society has not yet found an answer to the key question for the formation of community – “Who we are in relation to power?” This, coupled with the actualization of the public demand for democracy, brings us back to the problems of democratic transition not only in terms of the “transit of power”. Of course, it is impossible to uncover fully and deeply the Russian national construction issue within the relatively small text. The main object of this paper is to propose a general framework, conceptual foundations for analyzing the problem. The Russian conditions, factors, and subjects of national construction are in focus too. The preliminary findings should be discussed in scientific communities.