“Russian Question” in the History of Formation of the State National Policy of the Russian Federation

Abstract

Russian national policy, which is being developed and implemented, inevitably presents its official vision to the society, firstly, of the place and role of the Russian people both in history and at the present stage of the development of national statehood, and secondly, of the correlation of Russian self-consciousness and Russian national identity. Throughout the entire post-Soviet period, the severity of the "Russian question" in the above-mentioned interpretation remains, which determines the relevance of the subject of the research. Based on the study of the development, adjustment and updating of the official narrative of the state national policy of the Russian Federation — the Constitution of the country, doctrinal documents (concepts and strategies), statements of the highest leaders of the state this article shows how the understanding of the Russian cultural dominant as the basis of the Russian national identity and the idea of the state-forming role of the Russian people were developed and refined. Theoretical approaches developed by Russian and foreign researchers (E. Smith, M. V. Remizov, V. A. Tishkov et al.), allowed to substantiate the regularity of cultural and value homogenization of a complex multiethnic society based on the culture of the dominant ethnic group in the process of forming and strengthening modern national identity. Noting the incorrectness of reducing Russian national identity to its purely civil component, the authors argue that the concept of Russian cultural dominant (a single cultural code) in the lexicon of modern state national policy of Russia indicates the cultural component of Russian national identity. In the last decade, the idea of the state-forming role of the Russian people has been firmly established in the official discourse of Russian politics. This is reflected in the 2020 constitutional amendment on the Russian language, which, as the language of the state-forming people, is the state language of the Russian Federation throughout its territory.