Ethnic discrimination in late imperial Russia

Abstract

The Russian Empire was multi-ethnic and multi-confessional Empire in which the “titular” ethnic group was in the minority. In 1646, the Russian share accounted for about 90 % of the total population, by 1917 only 43 %. This article examines the sectoral structure of employment of the people of the Russian Empire according to material from the first all-Russian census of the population in 1897 and on this basis it evaluates the ethnic status of various groups and their role in the economic and social life of the country. All ethnic groups were represented in the government (administration, the courts, police, the social and estate service) and also in the army, including Jews, Yakuts, Romani, Chechens, and Abkhazians, each roughly proportional to its share in the population of the empire (with the exception of Jews in the administration). But in various spheres of economic activity the ethnic groups participated in different ways, depending on their inclination and cultural traditions. Ethnic discrimination was observed almost exclusively in relation to unbaptized Jews. So-called ‘Russification’ contributed to the fact that those representatives of non-Russian ethic groups who received a Russian education had the opportunity to take administrative positions and participate more actively in the management of their region. The government’s flexible ethnoconfessional policy ensured the absence of ethnic discrimination. This policy stipulated the status quo the new area and its population, extensive cooperation with the local elites, religious and ethnic tolerance, creating some advantages in the legal status of non-Russians in comparison with Russian, the right of indigenous peoples of annexed territories to be civilian actors on par with Russians. Such management techniques by a multi-ethnic and multi-confessional population allowed for gradual integration of various ethnic groups into the Empire, inclusion into a unified Imperial economic, legal and social space, alignment of their level of development by creating additional benefits for lagging regions, modernization of traditional society at “the outskirts” with their particular economic, legal and social structures, and to ensure the long preservation of the unity of the Russian Empire. Refs 85. Tables 3.