ETHNIC RUSSIANS

Ethnic group. One principal use of this term refers to Russia’s titular majority, which accounts for approximately 80 percent of the population, that is, residents of Russia who are defined by their ethnic belonging and/or cultural association, includinglanguage,religion, and traditions (calledrusskiein theRussian language). They are thus differentiated from the Russian Federation’s 175ethnic minorities(Tatars,Chuvash,Udmurts, etc.); the latter are referred to in Russian asrossiiane, a word that stems from the wordRossiia, which linguistically designates Russia as a multicultural, multiconfessional association of different peoples.Alternatively, the term refers to those Russians—or people who view Russianness as their primary cultural identity—living outside the borders of the Russian Federation. From the point of view of their ethnic background, they are not always Russian; however, they have strong links with the Russian Federation and thus define themselves as Russian.

There are currently some 19 million ethnic Russians residing in the so-callednear abroad(down from 25 million in 1991). Large numbers of diasporic Russians can also be found inGermany, theUnited States,Canada, and elsewhere. Many are descendents of Russian Civil War–era émigrés and Sovietdissidents, as well as post-1991 economicimmigrants. The Russian Foreign Ministry estimates the total number of Russians living outside the Russian Federation at 30 million people worldwide. During the first administration of PresidentBoris Yeltsin, the cause of Russia’s “countrymen,” i.e., ethnic Russians living in theNewly Independent States, became a political tool for ultranationalists as well as theCommunist Party of the Russian Federation. In particular, Russian relations withEstoniaandLatviawere compromised by those countries’ treatment of ethnic Russians, particularly after legal changes transformed many “Baltic Russians” into noncitizens in the early 1990s.