The Buryats: Ethno-Social Development and Post-Soviet Transformations (Based on the 2017 Opinion Polls Among the Young People of Buryatia, the Irkutsk Region, and the Trans-Baikal Region)

Abstract

On the basis of the summer 2017 opinion poll among the young Buryat residents of Buryatia, the Irkutsk Region, and the TransBaikal Region, post-Soviet tendencies in Buryat ethnic identity and social mobility are examined. Changes in the traditional lifestyle are analyzed with regard to ethnic consolidation and assimilation. The impact of growing ethnic diversity, social and territorial mobility on identity, language competence, attitudes to religion, and participation in religious ceremonies are discussed. Principal post-Soviet tendencies include ethnic consolidation based on common Buryat identity and the decline of subethnic identities following the collapse of tribal structure. Religion is becoming the key consolidating factor, as evidenced by the rising number of believers among the young people. However, opposite tendencies, such as growing ethnic assimilation and language shift triggered by social and territorial mobility among the young Buryats, are becoming a threat. Young people are potentially ready to abandon their traditional ethnic milieu, live in a multiethnic society, and marry outside of their ethnicity. The growth of assimilative tendencies results in the erosion of ethnicity is a challenge which the Buryat people must face. It is concluded that a new model of Buryat ethnicity is needed at the present stage.