Returning the “nationality” column to the passport

In July, the ORP "Rus" held an action "Your nationality in the passport" - distributed inserts in the passport to those who wished, in which they could enter their nationality. Most of the newspapers that responded to this event did not treat it otherwise than as a farce. However, one can note the difference in the presentation of the material.

Only "Komsomolskaya Pravda" (Larisa Kaftan) completely avoided any mention of ethnicity and treated what was happening exclusively as not entirely clever propaganda.

The newspaper "Rossiya" (editor's report) published a statement by one of the leaders of "Rus", deputy of the St. Petersburg Legislative Assembly, Vladimir Belozerskikh : state-forming" . The newspaper itself recalls at the same time that many prominent historical figures in Russia were not Russian.

The Moscow News newspaper (Yana Aleksandrova) published a selection of opinions of four residents of Saratov. Three respondents were absolutely indifferent to the nationality in the passport. However, one of the answers was as follows: “In my opinion, it is absolutely necessary (insert - ed.). You know, it seems to me that many people now hide their nationality. This is how the Germans searched for Jews during the war, and they were hiding. And they are still hiding. And it’s impossible to do that... For me, for example, it’s important that they know that I’m Russian. Otherwise, they can call me whatever they like: German, Jewish, Tatar. People are like that, they will do anything ... "

I would especially like to note the Moskovsky Komsomolets newspaper (Elena Bayun), which, despite its ironic attitude to the action, did not fail to note that many people from the Caucasus and Central Asia took part in it.

The newspaper "Vremya-MN" (Semyon Shatskoy) did the same, but here the author emphasizes that in a similar way "non-Russian" Muscovites are forced to act by the desire that " skinheads and their sympathizers lag behind them" and recalls the experience of socialist Bulgaria, where for successful career local Turks had to have Slavic surnames.

One can see how dangerous it is to use ethnic motifs in advertising : how easy it is to provoke domestic nationalist sentiments is shown by the publication of Moskovskiye Novosti. And again, it is worth paying attention to the style of presentation of the material. The author of "Vremya-MN" is perplexed by the phrase "Worthless is the price of such a national revival" , which ends the note. Perhaps (and even more likely!) the author complains about the growth of nationalist sentiments in society, fueled by actions like this one, but from the context it can also be understood that he is dissatisfied precisely with the fact that people "with Caucasian surnames" are recorded as "Russians". In the case of MK, it is not at all clear why it was necessary to mention the ethnicity of the participants in the action.

** Kaftan Larisa. The people were asked to indicate their nationality // Komsomolskaya Pravda. 2003. 24 July.

Do you want to be Russian? Be it! // Russia. 2003. 24 July.

Aleksandrova Yana. The "fifth column" will be entered into the passport. While voluntarily // Moscow news. 2003. August 5-11.
Shatskoy Semyon. "Mobile" nationality // Vremya-MN. 2003. July 23.
Bayun Elena. Fifth fad // Moskovsky Komsomolets. July 23, 2003.**