Boris Nadezhdin: "Mathematics against nationalism, or All people are relatives"

"There is another interesting question that is directly related to the current discussions about the possibility of assimilation of all kinds of foreign migrants: how did it happen that 500 years ago, out of 10-15 million of the population of Slavic, Turkic and Finno-Ugric peoples there were roughly equal numbers, yes and by faith, the Orthodox were definitely not the majority, and today in Russia Slavic peoples make up 83%, Turkic peoples - about 6%, and Finno-Ugric peoples only 3%?

The answer is that for several centuries after 1500 the state power was Russian and Orthodox, and it was during this period that Russia entered into urbanization and industrialization, and the bulk of the population was integrated into culture."