The republic of Sakha (Yakutia): The evolution of centre‐periphery relations in the Russian federation

Abstract

Russia's greatness will be magnified by Siberia and the Arctic Ocean.1 THE 1991 COLLAPSE of the Soviet Union was an epic event. It resulted in the dismemberment of the USSR and the less tangible, but nonetheless real, unleashing of centrifugal forces of ethnic nationalism and regional self-determination. Political leaders and political analysts alike realised that once the principle of the immutability of borders was abandoned, a Pandora's box had been opened, triggering a process that had no pre-determined end point or natural conclusion. To illustrate this process Bremmer offered the term 'matrioshka nationalism'.2 Just as ever smaller dolls emerge from within a Russian matrioshka doll, ever smaller states would assert their independence from within the new states of Eurasia. To some degree, 'matrioshka nationalism' appropriately describes the early post-Soviet experience in Eurasia. While not internationally recognised, Abkhazia and South Ossetia achieved a precarious de facto independence from Georgia. In Moldova, the Trans-Dniester Republic maintains an equally ambiguous existence. Meanwhile, the possibility of a Crimean break from the Ukraine continues to enliven the political atmosphere. Not surprisingly, the Russian Federation, with its 89 components, has faced a wide variety qf challenges to its sovereignty. While the Chechen Republic has been the most serious threat so far, a number of Russia's components have claimed varying degrees of sovereignty. Despite these visible signs of breakdown, the Russian Federation has not succumbed to the Soviet pattern of disintegration. Russia's ability to stem the tide of state disintegration is not entirely a surprise. Three critical centripetal factors are at work in Russia.3 First, the Russian Federation's population is considerably more homogeneous than the Soviet population. While the Soviet Union was largely composed of ethnically determined components, Russia is much less so. More than 80% of Russia's population is Russian. The Russian Federation is composed of 21 ethnically defined republics and 68 territorially determined components.4 The latter category includes 49 regions (oblasti), one autonomous region, six territories (kraya), two federal cities (goroda) and 10 autonomous areas (okruga). Together these territorially determined components, henceforth regions,5 account for about 70% of Russia's territory and more than 80% of its population.6 In the republics, which have retained more economic and political autonomy than the regions, the titular population is a majority of the population in only five (the Republic of Tuva, the Chechen