Russia, Multicultural Education in

Ethnic, Cultural, Religious, and Linguistic Diversity in Russia

Russia historically has been a multiethnic country. According to the 2002 census, more than 140 ethnic groups live in Russia. In its territorial structure, Russia is an asymmetrical federation with 26 out of 83 subordinate entities being ethnic regions. There are as many as 60 small groups of indigenous peoples (in the North, Siberia, and the Far East) leading an aboriginal lifestyle. As a result of internal migration, almost every region includes significant groups of different ethnic communities.

Russia's linguistic map is also rather complicated: there are about 150 languages belonging to 10 different language families. Russian is the dominant language, spoken by 92.1% of the non-Russian ethnic population.

Russian ethnic groups historically belong to different religious traditions: Christianity (orthodox branch), Islam, Buddhism, Judaism, and others. The post-Soviet period has seen increasing numbers of people who identify themselves as religious, many of whom strive to provide their children with the fundamentals of a religious education.

In recent decades, Russia has been noted for a continuous inflow of migrants, primarily from former Soviet Union countries (e.g., Ukraine, Uzbekistan, Kazakhstan, Tajikistan, Azerbaijan). As a result, Russia has become the second largest receiving country in the world, with 12.1 million migrants or almost 10% of the total population. Therefore the ethnic and cultural situation in Russia, given its political, demographic, language, and religious aspects, is extremely complicated and presents a real problem for education policy.

Education Policy in the Context of Russia's Ethnic and Cultural Diversity before 1991

During the 15th to the 19th century, when Russia was acquiring new territories, the Russian authorities [Page 1877]pursued an “incorporative” education policy aimed at organic incorporation of aboriginal peoples into a single supranational community where religion (orthodox Christianity) was viewed as the basis of identity. Until the second half of the 19th century the objective was largely addressed as part of the missionary work of the Russian Orthodox Church, which taught reading and writing and also provided religious education, for both ethnic Russians and newly christened “aliens” at monastery schools. The multicultural education policy allowed for ethnic diversity in the classrooms while calling for religious singularity.

Education policy in the 19th century was oriented toward the civic assimilation of ethnic groups. Rulers of the empire permitted education in native languages and even confessional diversity in education in exchange for loyalty to the Russian monarchy. Compulsory school disciplines such as history and geography celebrated the diversity of the Russian empire as a symbol of its greatness. In the second half of the 19th century, however, education increasingly became an instrument of Russification, especially at the university and gymnasia levels. The objective of educational policy on these levels was to create a consolidated elite with strong Russian cultural identification.

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