The 'People' Category in Russian Constitutional Law (Eurasian Tradition and Modernity)

Abstract

The paper scrutinizes public law aspects of the 'people ' category in the context of creative heritage of the classical Eurasian doctrine. A Eurasian approach to the and other social communities treating them as common, symphonic entities, rather than the mechanical sum of individuals, provides an opportunity to rethink the nature and the mechanism applied to implement constitutional legal capacity of the people, define the perspective nature of the development of the of the category in unity with the idea of human rights, demonstrate the relevance of the structure: rights of the - rights and duties of the person and citizen - rights and duties of the State and its bodies -- applied to ensure the legal balance of the content of the Russian Constitution. The author puts forward and justifies the thesis stating constitutional and legal importance of the not only as the totality of living citizens, but also as a future generation of Russians whose interests are to be taken into account in making political decisions in the economic and social spheres. Much attention has been paid to the Eurasians study of an ethical component of the people category. Attention is focused on the historically justified prediction of the Eurasians that the class solidarity and dictatorship of the proletariat will not be able to preserve the unity of the USSR, nor can it withstand the development of nationalist and separatist aspirations of its peoples. What is important is that the creation of an ethnic (national) substrate is necessary for the establishment of a strong Russian multinational State. In the context of this conclusion the author considers the current problem of the further development of national relations in the Russian Federation. Analyzing the discussion that began with regard to the proposal of President Vladimir V. concerning desirability of drafting and adopting a special law on the Russian nation and supporting this proposal, the author emphasizes the conditions under which the law can become an effective instrument of the national policy. One can not fall into legal idealism and consider that the law itself can form a Russian nation. The formation of a nation is an objective historical process, and the law and other measures of state regulation can only either speed it up or slow it down. The foreign experience of forming the national substrate of the Russian state should also be used with a certain degree of caution. The concept of a 'melting pot' adopted primarily by the United States cannot be applied to Russia because of historical peculiarities of the statehood formation in our countries. Russia is not a country of migrants and settlers, who had created a new state in the USA In Russia, peoples have historically been linked to their territory and merged into one state not as separate entities but as ethnic territorial communities that treat preservation of their national identity as one of main tasks. The summary (although rather incomplete) of Eurasian studies devoted to the 'people' category is indicative of their undoubted relevance. The collective, 'symphonic' personality, i.e. the Russian (the multi-ethnic Russian nation), not only forms the basis of the majority of the Eurasian theoretical structures, but it is also seen as the leading subject of real policy which social and spiritual condition determines the destiny of Russian statehood and the future of Eurasia.