The Development of Russian Nationalism from Gorbachev to Putin

This study will first analyze developments in the last period of the Soviet Union, important to understand today’s Russian nationalism, changes in Russian nationalism and Russian national consciousness during this period, and the reactions of Russian nationalists to the disintegration of the Soviet Union. Later, it will examine the understanding of Russianness in the Yeltsin period after the dissolution of the Soviet Union in Russia which became a nation-state for the first time in its history in this period. Then, this article will discuss the understanding of nationalism during the period of Vladimir Putin in the 2000s. In the Soviet Union, as a result of state policies, a degree of identification was established between the Russians and the Soviet state. The Russians, among the nations in the Soviet Union, were the nation most identified with the state. The events in the perestroika period and the collapse of the Soviet Union had important effects on Russian national consciousness. After the dissolution of the Soviet Union, although most Russians distinguished themselves from the Soviet center they saw as highly bureaucratic, oppressive and exploitative, and from the newly independent republics that they perceived as economical burdens; it was not easy for them to leave the lands they considered theirs. With some exceptions, a large number of Russian nationalists have adhered to the integrity of the Soviet Union and the integrity of the former Soviet territories. During the 1990s, the Yeltsin administration developed a nation-building project based on the idea that all peoples living in Russia, regardless of their ethnic identity, belong to citizenship-based Russianness. During the Yeltsin period the Russian Federation was built as a nation-state based on citizenship. The understanding that prevailed during the Yeltsin period was a nationalism based on the citizenship of the Russian Federation, other than ethnicity. During the Putin era, especially in the last period, the boundaries between the citizenship – based rossiiskii identity and ethnic based russkii identity have been intentionally blurred. The Russian citizenship identity was Russianized, and the basis for Russian identity became the Russian language, Russian culture and values. At the same time, Putin also distanced himself from ethnic Russian nationalism. The culture and values were seen more important than the ancestry and genes to define who is included in the Russian identity. The borders of the russkii identity were extended to include members of other ethnic groups who wanted to join