scholarly journals The Russian population of the near abroad: geodemographic dynamics of the post-Soviet period

2021 ◽  
Vol 7 (5) ◽  
pp. 100-120
Author(s):  
Sergey Sushchiy
Keyword(s):  
Central Asia ◽  
Russian Population ◽  
Soviet Period ◽  
Baltic Countries ◽  
Quantitative Changes ◽  
The Baltic ◽  
Almost All ◽  
Near Abroad ◽  
Relationship Of ◽  
Post Soviet Period

This article explores the geodemographic dynamics of the Russian population of the near abroad in the post-Soviet period. It analyzes the quantitative changes and transformation of its geography, the level of urbanization and the gender and age structure. The study shows that in the post-Soviet period there was a sharp decline in the number of Russians in all of the near abroad. This process was most intensive in the 1990s. The maximum demographic losses during this period were suffered by the Russian population of Transcaucasia and a number of countries in Central Asia. At the beginning of the twenty-first century, the rate and absolute scale of decline are decreasing, but the trend itself remains stable. This is associated with the natural decline of the Russian population, its migration to Russia and foreign countries, and assimilation. The relationship of these factors to the quantitative decline has varied across time and across individual countries. In almost all Russian communities a significant preponderance of women is recorded. The median age of Russians in all countries of the near abroad is more than 40 years. The level of urbanization of Russians in most of these countries has decreased. Better preserved are the metropolitan and rural Russian populations. The demographic ratio of the Russian communities of individual countries and macroregions has changed. The numbers of Russians in Kazakhstan and Ukraine (without the people's republics of Donbass) are already comparable, and there are more Russians in the Baltic countries than in Central Asia. Russian communities of unrecognized (or partially recognized) States are characterized by increased demographic stability.

scholarly journals Russians in the republics of the North Caucasus: frontiers of geo-demographic retreat (the first half of the 21st century)

2017 ◽  
pp. 109-132
Author(s):  
Sergei Sushchiy
Keyword(s):  
Age Distribution ◽  
Russian Population ◽  
Soviet Period ◽  
North Caucasus ◽  
Rapid Reduction ◽  
The North ◽  
Demographic Dynamics ◽  
Almost All ◽  
Post Soviet Period

The article analyzes the geo-demographic dynamics of the Russian population of the republics of the North Caucasus in the post-Soviet period, registering the pace of reduction for each republic and studying the central role of migration in this depopulation process. Currently, the Russian population of the North Caucasus has returned to the level of the mid-1930s. The Republics of Chechnya and Ingushetia have lost almost all of their Russian population, while Dagestan has lost a significant part of its, too. Although demographic losses in other republics of the region have not been so great, a rapid reduction in the number of Russians has become a steady trend of the entire North Caucasus. In order to determine the corridor of the most likely demographic dynamics of Russians in the region up until 2050, a series of calculations was carried out, establishing that by 2030 the number of Russians in the North Caucasus will be reduced to 690-780 thousand people, and by mid-century – to 490-700 thousand. No less a threat will come from the deterioration of the age distribution of the local Russian population, which could lead to its demographic "collapse" in the period 2060-2070.

scholarly journals The Role of the Elites in Choosing the Foreign Policy Priorities of the Baltic States

2020 ◽  
Vol 22 (4) ◽  
pp. 603-616
Author(s):  
Vadim A. Smirnov
Keyword(s):  
Foreign Policy ◽  
Large Scale ◽  
Soviet Period ◽  
Political Elites ◽  
Baltic States ◽  
Political Transformations ◽  
Baltic Countries ◽  
Political Interaction ◽  
The Baltic

The author analyzed the role of the elites of the Baltic countries in the choice of foreign policy priorities in the period after the declaration of independence. The process of determining the course towards the Euro-Atlantic is inscribed in the sub-regional context, taking into account the current Russian-Baltic political interaction. The study of power groups was carried out on the basis of an examination of large-scale socio-political transformations along with an analysis of individual practices. A comprehensive study of the transformation of the political elites of Baltic states as small countries, involves consideration of both the domestic and foreign policy aspects. The thesis is put forward that, despite a number of differences in the Baltic states, since the 1990s there were similar processes of transformation of political elites. The elite formation was due to the principle of state continuity as continuity with the pre-war regimes of Latvia, Lithuania and Estonia and as a break with the Soviet period, including the EuroAtlantic course as the key priority of the foreign policy. The consolidation of deep divisions in the societies of the Baltic states - ethnic, linguistic, political - was the result of the elite struggle for power in the 1990s. After the implementation of the idea of Back to the West the elites of the Baltic states replaced it with a Russian threat, which made it possible to postpone overcoming internal divisions fraught with weakening of their power.

Geopolitics Thick and Thin

Near Abroad ◽  
2017 ◽  
Author(s):  
Gerard Toal
Keyword(s):  
Soviet Union ◽  
Video Camera ◽  
President Obama ◽  
Baltic Countries ◽  
The Soviet Union ◽  
The Korean War ◽  
Russian President ◽  
Hybrid War ◽  
The Baltic ◽  
Near Abroad

On November 24, 2015, a Turkish F-16 fighter jet shot down a Russian Sukhoi Su-24M aircraft on the Syria-Turkey border. For seventeen seconds the Russian aircraft crossed the southern tip of a salient of Turkish territory that Syria claimed rightfully belonged to it. Two Russians ejected from the plane over Syria. A local Turkmen militia, commanded by a Turkish citizen, fired at the aviators, killing one. A second Russian serviceman was killed during a rescue mission to save the surviving aviator. The incident, recorded on radar systems by many countries and partially captured on video camera, was the first time since the Korean War that a North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO) country’s fighter jet destroyed a Soviet/Russian Air Force aircraft. Fortunately the event did not escalate into a full-blown NATO Russia crisis, although with tensions high over the Ukraine crisis and two authoritarian leaders at loggerheads, it could well have done so. There were background accusations. Turkish president Erdoğan was aggrieved that Russia was bombing co-ethnic kin in its southern near abroad while aiding Kurdish separatists, while Russian president Putin saw Turkey as an accomplice of international terrorists. Entwined territorial and terrorist anxieties, as well as near abroad insecurities, preoccupied both men. Had Russia responded with force against Turkey, this could have triggered Article V of NATO’s Washington Treaty, and NATO members would have faced the prospect of war with Russia over a tiny piece of territory in the Middle East most knew nothing about. Relations between the NATO alliance and Russia are now at their lowest point since the collapse of the Soviet Union. Airspace violations, incidents at sea, military training exercises, and hybrid war hysteria have kept tensions high. After Crimea, NATO moved to strengthen its capacity to respond to perceived Russian encroachment on the Baltic countries. The Obama administration’s European Reassurance Initiative was launched in June 2014 with a $1 billion budget for training and temporary rotations. In a speech in Riga in September 2014, President Obama declared: “We’ll be here for Estonia.

scholarly journals Russian as a native language in the post-Soviet space in comparison with the results of the 1989 census

2021 ◽  
pp. 79
Author(s):  
Andrei Manakov
Keyword(s):  
Soviet Union ◽  
Native Language ◽  
Russian Language ◽  
Russian Population ◽  
Soviet Period ◽  
Soviet Space ◽  
The Republic ◽  
The Russian Language ◽  
Post Soviet Period ◽  
Post Soviet Space

In the post-Soviet period, there was a significant narrowing of the Russian language distribution space. The aim of the study is to identify the changes that have taken place since the collapse of the Soviet Union at the level of the post-Soviet countries in the number and proportion of people who named Russian their native language. The novelty of this study is based on the level of regions in the post-Soviet space and the analysis of the dynamics of such indicators as to the share of the non-Russian population, who named Russian their native language. Almost all post-Soviet states experienced a decrease in the number and share of the Russian-speaking population. Currently, the minimum indicators of the proportion of Russians and Russian-speaking people are characterized by the states of Transcaucasia, as well as Tajikistan, Uzbekistan, and Turkmenistan. The biggest losses in the post-Soviet period of both the Russian and Russian-speaking population, in relative terms, were experienced by Kazakhstan and Kyrgyzstan. A special dynamics of these indicators have developed in two states — in the Republic of Belarus and Ukraine. In these countries, the part of the biethnic population that adopted the identity of the titular ethnic group retained the Russian language. Russian, for example, has declined more rapidly in Ukraine than in the categories of people who consider Russian as their native language, and this has led to a decline in the number and share of the Russian population. The situation in the Republic of Belarus, which is unique in the post-Soviet space, was the result of the 1995 referendum that established the status of the state language for Russian. As a result, along with the decrease in the Russian population in the Republic of Belarus, there has been a significant increase in the category of citizens who named Russian their native language.

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