Contested Ecological, Cultural, and Political Sovereignty in Russia

• Main Author: Mandelstam Balzer, Marjorie
• Format: Book Part
• Language: English
• Published: Cornell University Press 2022
• Subjects: Sakha; Tuva; Yakutia; Siberia
• Online Access: http://dx.doi.org/10.7591/cornell/9781501759772.003.0001

This introductory chapter provides an overview of the fragile and disorganized dynamic of differential, nested sovereignties that has developed within Russia, centered on its frequently overlooked “ethnic republics.” Based on field and historical research in the republics of Sakha (Yakutia), Buryatia, and Tyva (Tuva), the book highlights the implications of indigenous groups' concerns. Self-determination for indigenous groups in Russia's republics is problematic when many of the republics have majority or plurality Russian populations. However, being a minority is far from the key to indigenous status or identity, especially in Siberia, with its historically shifting and varied legacies of uneven colonial settlement in different remote regions. Many indigenous Siberians prefer not to think of themselves as minorities, given that some were majorities in their homelands until relatively recently. The book explores possibilities that indigenous peoples and local Russians have had for cooperation and self-determination in Siberia's Far East.