RFE/RL Russian Federation Report: A New Kind of Autonomy

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RFE/RL Russian Federation Report: A New Kind of Autonomy



RADIO FREE EUROPE/RADIO LIBERTY, PRAGUE, CZECH REPUBLIC
________________________________________________________
RFE/RL Russian Federation Report
Vol. 2, No. 17, 10 May 2000

A Survey of Developments in the Regions Outside Moscow
Prepared by the Staff of Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty

******************Note to Readers*****************
A weekly supplement to "RFE/RL Newsline," the "RFE/RL
Russian Federation Report" features news about the
Russian Federation outside Moscow and the North
Caucasus. Those interested in Russia's regions might
also want to look at Russian-language transcripts of
RFE/RL's weekly "Korrespondentskii Chas" at
http://www.svoboda.org/programs/.
**********************************************

......................


END NOTE

A NEW KIND OF AUTONOMY

By Paul Goble

Russia's government has extended extraterritorial cultural autonomy to
the country's 1 million Roma, an arrangement that will almost
certainly benefit them but could call into question Moscow's
commitment to territorial autonomy for other small groups.

Last month, the Russian Ministry for Federation and Nationality
Affairs publicly announced the creation of a
federal national-cultural autonomy arrangement for Russia's Roma. This
was the final step in a process that
began in November 1999 and was legally registered by the Justice
Ministry in March 2000.

This kind of autonomy, ministry officials pointed out, is not like the
territorial autonomy enjoyed by many other groups. It does not give
the Roma control over any particular territory but does strengthen
their rights by establishing a special council under the Federation
and Nationalities Ministry.

For a group like the Roma, who live dispersed in relatively small
groups across the entire Russian Federation, such an arrangement is a
major step forward. Until now, the Roma have been subject to
discrimination in Russia, as in many other countries. They do not have
a single school or newspaper using their own language, and their past
suffering has often been ignored.

Consequently, the establishment of a special council gives them a
chance to speak out in defense of their national interests. And that
is what they did late last month. Their leaders attacked Romany
stereotypes in
the Russian media and the failure of the Russian government to
acknowledge the murder of Roma in Nazi concentration camps.

Even if that is all this council is able to do, the opportunity to
speak out will be welcome in a group that
has seldom had a chance to make its voice heard at an official level.
But the provision of this new kind of
extraterritorial autonomy for one group raises the possibility that
Moscow or someone else might come to
see it as an option for other groups.

The territorial autonomies within the Russian Federation are the
product of a decision taken by Vladimir Lenin and the Bolshevik Party
before the 1917 revolution and institutionalized by Joseph Stalin
after that time.

Indeed, the Soviet commitment to territorial autonomy was defined by
opposition to the concept of extraterritorial cultural autonomy
advanced by Austro-Hungarian Marxists Otto Bauer and Karl Renner.
        
In the early part of the 20th century, Bauer and Renner sketched out a
system whereby individuals would enjoy national rights, regardless of
their place of residence, rather than only in places where they
constituted a majority of the population.

Such an arrangement appealed to many dispersed groups, including the
Jews of tsarist Russia, but it was opposed by Lenin and others who saw
it both as unwieldy administratively and as a threat to the unity of
the
working class.

As a result, the communist authorities always opposed the idea of
extraterritorial cultural autonomy for any group, and the Russian
Federation until now has continued that Soviet-era opposition.

Now, however, Moscow has extended precisely that kind of autonomy to
the Roma, and other widely dispersed groups may come to see that as a
goal for themselves, especially if they are not one of the
nationalities
currently enjoying even the limited rights of territorial autonomy.

But the extension of extraterritorial cultural autonomy to the Roma
could have another consequence for non-Russians in the Russian
Federation, one that could threaten the rights and privileges they now
have.

In 16 of the 22 non-Russian autonomies inside the Russian Federation,
the titular nationality forms less than half of the population and in
some cases vastly less than half. That has angered many Russians, and
at least some might see an extraterritorial arrangement as a way of
reducing non-Russian privileges.

At the very least, this possibility is likely to provoke debate both
in Moscow and in non-Russian regions. And in that debate, ideas born
at the turn of the 20th century may structure new thinking about
arrangements at the beginning of the 21st.

***********************************************
Copyright (c) 2000. RFE/RL, Inc. All rights reserved.

"RFE/RL Russian Federation Report" is prepared by Julie
A. Corwin (JAC) on the basis of a variety of sources,
including reporting by "RFE/RL Newsline" and RFE/RL's
broadcast services. Regular contributors are Jan Cleave
(JC), Liz Fuller (LF), and Paul Goble (PG). It is
distributed every Wednesday.

Direct comments to Julie A. Corwin at [email protected].
For information on subscriptions or reprints, contact
Paul Goble in Washington at (202) 457-6947 or at
[email protected]. Back issues are online at
http://www.rferl.org/russianreport

Technical queries should be emailed to:
[email protected]

For information on subscriptions or reprints, contact
Paul Goble in Washington at (202) 457-6947 or at
[email protected]. Back issues are online at
http://www.rferl.org/russianreport

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