10 November 2003 19:02
Census shows shifts in national identity within Russia
Moscow, 10 November: Russia's national composition has changed in the past 13 years. According to the results of
the national census there are now about 160 nationalities within the country - 24 more than were reflected in the
previous census, held in Soviet times in 1989.
This was stated at a news conference today by Vladimir Zorin, the minister in charge of nationality issues.
Zorin pointed out that respondents defined their own nationality.
As before, most of the people within Russia regard themselves as ethnic Russians (80 per cent or 116m), and also as
before the second most numerous nationality are the Tatars (5,560,000). Other nationalities exceeding 1m are the
Ukrainians (2,940,000), Bashkirs (1,670,000) and Chuvash, Chechens and Armenians. A further 23 nationalities have a
numerical strength of over 400,000, including Mordovians, Belarusians, Kazakhs, Udmurts, Russian Germans and
Ossetians.
Armenians, Azeris and Tajiks have gained in number from migration, Zorin said, and the Chinese have gone from 5,000
to 35,000 in the past 13 years. The numbers of Ukrainians, Belarusians and Russian Germans have declined by a third.
Kryashens have appeared in a census for the first time since 1929 - they number about 25,000. There are also 7,000
Christian Tatars. A total of 140,000 assigned themselves to a new nationality - Cossacks. Zorin explained that the first
census in Imperial Russia in 1897 categorized the Cossacks as a social class. There were also those who described
themselves as pechenegs, polovtsy [ancient tribes] and elves, but they were few in number, Zorin said. Some 800
self-descriptions cropped up in census returns.
Zorin also said that 1.5m people gave no indication at all of nationality, two-thirds of them living in Moscow, St
Petersburg and Moscow Region.
The government will adjust its nationalities policy in the light of the census returns, Zorin went on to say, adding
that Russia is regarded as the most ethnically-diverse country in the world. European countries, for example, average
about nine nationalities.
[ITAR-TASS news agency] |
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