Equity, exit and national identity in a multinational federation: The 'multicultural constitutional patriotism' project in Russia

The broadly-defined field of ethnic politics in today's Russia is characterised by a complex and frequently intertwined web of ethnic claims and contentious issues that span entry, equity and exit, all set against a background of the attempted construction of a new overarching idea of the national community. This article focuses on the state approach to issues of equity and exit. More specifically, it describes and analyses the current attempts to deconstruct the Soviet legacy and build a new policy approach to deal with the so-called 'nationalities', and on the concomitant struggle to elaborate a new civic conception of the national community, as these efforts are manifested at the official level of constitutional provisions, laws and policy documents but also in the writings of some Russian scholars. Such endeavours culminated in June 1996 with the adoption of the policy document entitled 'Conception of the State National Policy of the Federation of Russia' and of the 'National-Cultural Autonomy' Act. The parallel processes of restructuring the institutional and policy approach to ethnocultural diversity and of building a new conception of the national community are the two very interconnected sides of the ambitious and difficult goal of establishing what we call the 'multicultural constitutional patriotism' project. The article shows and argues that such a process, though in principle valuable, is inherently controversial and contradictory due to two factors: the inherited ethno-federalism and the ambiguous and ambivalent position of ethnic Russians and their identity in such a project.