Funded by the Vilnius University. Project number MSF-JM-09/2023. Implementation period: 2023–2024
Supervisor: dr. Kristina Jonutytė (Institute of Asian and Transcultural Studies)
Researcher: Edvinas Ivanskis (Institute of International Relations and Political Science)
Purpose and objectives
The war in Ukraine has escalated debates of identity and belonging among non-ethnic-Russian populations in the Russian Federation. While Russia has waged a war for its vision of Eastern Slavic unity, its non-Slavic minorities debate their place in the nation. The war may facilitate their deeper integration: many sacrificed their lives for Russia, with disproportionate losses in minority regions (Mediazona 2022). But the war has also sparked oppositional and separatist movements, as minorities question their place in Russia and call for its “de-nazification”. It is crucial to understand the views and experiences of Russia’s minorities today as social inclusion, belonging, and resistance are complex processes.
The purpose of the project is to examine, through a case study, how Russia’s minority citizens relate to Russia today and what this means for the future of the region.
Objectives:
1. To conduct an ethnographic study of Russia’s Buryat minority, paying attention to alternative visions of belonging, which have limited space for expression in Russia. Buryats, a Mongolian ethnic group, are one of Russia’s largest minority groups and among the highest casualty counts. Buryat ethnic anti-war movement was the first one since February 2022 and the most influential.
2. To explore how the war is reshaping this identification.
3. To productively combine insights from ethnography with political science for a rounded interdisciplinary perspective on Russia’s ethnic minority position.