Multinational composition of the population Russian Federation enshrined in the first lines of the Constitution and conditioned historical traditions left over from previous historical eras.
The documents of the last census fixed the voluntary nature national definition individual, therefore, the question "how many nationalities are there in Russia" can only receive a conditional answer.
Construction of a common house
The history of Russian statehood, which began in ancient times, is the process of formation on a vast area of a social organism, consisting of very different in composition national formations. The quantitative predominance of the Russian nation largely determined the qualitative composition of the multinational formation. The real Russian mentality is characterized by natural tolerance, which was formed from the habit of living in peace with neighbors. And how many nationalities in Russia - those who came with formidable intentions, and who became united people with the Russians? How can one not recall the history of the Kazan Khanate or nomadic peoples from the southern steppes.
Another reason for the increase in the number of peoples who gathered on one sixth of the land was the imperial policy of expanding the territory, which led to the unification under a single public education a huge number of "foreigners" with their own customs, languages and culture. Respectful attitude titular nation To way of life other peoples was in many ways the basis of state unity, and how many nationalities there are in Russia can be understood by the huge variety of languages, costumes and traditions.
Ethnicity
It is human nature to strive to realize one's place in society, belonging to certain linguistic, cultural, professional, educational, religious groups. division by ethnicity has always been one of the most important and familiar, nationality - one of the main categories of stratification. Appeals to return to the roots, to search for national roots are characteristic of even the most advanced and educated strata of society.
Unfortunately, the desire for national identity often takes the form of a fad, a fashion fad, or, even worse, xenophobia and chauvinism, to please the political needs of the moment. This has always been a serious danger, considering how many nationalities live in Russia. But hope remains for the minds of people, because a rare nationality can consciously declare intolerance towards other people's customs, call for the destruction of a culture born within the framework of another people.
Fifth column
A mandatory item about nationality (in the sense of belonging to a specific ethnic group) was in the Soviet passport, which was in direct accordance with the beliefs of the founder of the communist state - Lenin. Even before the revolution, in the questionnaires of the Russian Social Democratic Labor Party, at the direction of the leader, the column "nationality" was introduced.
Stalin became a faithful successor national policy, which had the goal of hiding interethnic problems, and solving obvious and urgent ones with an iron fist, not taking into account the diversity, how many nationalities and nationalities there are in Russia, evicting entire peoples from their usual places or creating artificial formations such as complex in composition autonomous republics. During the collapse of the USSR, this approach created huge problems in the form of interethnic conflicts, often with the use of armed force.
The Soviet document flow made the state bureaucracy a powerful force. It was easier to take into account how many nationalities live in Russia with such a document flow, although some nationalities, in particular small Finno-Ugric groups, were considered non-existent because they were not included in the list approved by the authorities.
Modern perspectives on national identity are in the nature of approaching specific person, which itself draws conclusions about belonging to a particular ethnic group based on linguistic and cultural preferences.
Number of nations and nationalities
More than 800 answers to the census questionnaire question about nationality, but after processing the figures with the participation of ethnographers, it turned out that the names of many nations and nationalities differ only in pronunciation in various dialects.
Thus, 193 ethnic formations of various scales were identified: 145 were separate ethnic groups, and 48 were their constituent parts in the process of historical and cultural evolution. This is one of the answers to the question "how many nationalities are there in Russia". That this is only an option is clear from an analysis of the results of censuses conducted in other years. It becomes clear that the allocation of ethnic groups in a separate category or their inclusion in another entity is made at the discretion of expert ethnographers on the basis of their scientific developments.
indigenous peoples
There is another type of statistical data showing how many nationalities there are in Russia. They divide all the nationalities of Russia into three groups:
The first is large ethnic groups, most of who lives within the borders Russian state, often forming national-administrative units. A minority of these peoples live outside the Russian Federation. This group includes Russians, Tatars, Chuvashs, Komi, Yakuts, Kalmyks and others - about 100 peoples in total.
The second group is the peoples from the countries of the near abroad (former Soviet republics). Namely: Ukrainians, Belarusians, Armenians, Kazakhs, etc.
In the third group - representatives of the peoples, which are not numerous in terms of population, most of which live outside Russia: Romanians, Hungarians, Chinese, Vietnamese, etc. The total number ethnic groups the second and third categories depend on the method of calculation and range from 60 to 90. This statistics shows how many nationalities in Russia and nationalities whose representatives belong to a foreign ethnic group.
The majority of the population of Russia consider themselves Russians - 81%, this is 111 million people. In addition to them, there are six more nationalities that number more than 1 million people: Tatars - 5.3 million (3.72%), Ukrainians - 1.92 million (1.35%), Bashkirs 1.58 million (1.11% ), Chuvash 1.43 (1.01%), Chechens - 1.41 million (1.0%) and Armenians - 1.1 million (0.83%).
Geographic ethnography
The history of the Russian Empire, the history of the Soviet Union, the current period is an endless process of interaction between large and small ethnic entities, resettlement of peoples, migration and re-emigration. And how many nationalities in Russia have experienced cataclysms of various scales in their history at the behest of the authorities?
As a result, there are no more or less vast areas inhabited by representatives of one nation on the map of Russia, there are areas with a relatively homogeneous national composition and areas that are a motley mixture of customs and languages. The latter can be safely attributed to the Middle Volga and North Caucasus. Using their example, one can imagine how many nationalities live in Russia, if, say, in small developed mountainous areas, speakers of several dialects belonging to different language families coexist.
language tree
It is the language, and not a typical way of life for a group of people or similar external signs, is a defining category for the nationality. How many nationalities in Russia - almost the same number of languages! That is, no one knows a definite answer, and every linguist and ethnographer has his own special opinion. This is as true as the fact that language is like a living organism: it changes, develops or withers away. Science knows many dead languages.
The number of only language families is striking, to which scientists include dialects spoken by Russians, there are 14 of them. This is like the number of branches extending from a single trunk, and smaller branches extend from them, the number of languages is comparable to the number of leaves, and in the case of languages throughout Russia, according to a number of scientists, this figure is approaching two hundred.
Conclusion
The most reasonable answer to the question of how many nationalities and languages there are in Russia, even world-famous scientists, linguists, ethnographers, sociologists, consider the option - more than a hundred. But just reasonable people add that the point is not in quantity, but in the fact that common house enough room for happy life to all peoples, and the smallest of them would feel like a part of a friendly family.
Great and varied. In its open spaces, nature is beautiful in its versatility, and other wonders created by man. In addition, the territory itself big country the world sheltered dozens different peoples. Exactly this great wealth amazing hospitable state.
We know that many nationalities live in Russia - Russians, Udmurts, Ukrainians. And what people still live in Russia? Indeed, in the far corners of the country, small and little-known, but interesting peoples with their own unique culture have been living for centuries.
The national composition of the population of Russia
We will stipulate right away that Russians make up approximately 80% of the total population. A full one would be very large. According to some reports, more than 200 different nationalities are registered. This information is current as of 2010.
We will begin our acquaintance with the rest of the national composition of Russia with the most common. Large nationalities are those that are present on the territory of the state in the amount of more than 1 million.
Tatars
The ratio of the Tatar nationality among all others in the country is 3.8%. has its own language and regions of the greatest distribution.
In addition, it includes several ethnic groups: Crimean Tatars, Volga-Ural, Siberian and Astrakhan. Most of them live in the Volga region.
Ukrainians
Let's continue our short excursion on the topic of what peoples live in Russia, and move on to the Ukrainians. Their number in Russia is 2% of total population. According to some historical references, the name of the nationality comes from the word "outskirts", which served as the basis for the name of the country - Ukraine.
Ukrainians living in Russia continue to honor their traditions, celebrating holidays according to their customs, wearing folk clothes. A feature of Ukrainian clothing is embroidery in a variety of colors. Main symbolic colors in ornaments - red and black.
Bashkirs
The ratio of the Bashkirs to the entire population of the country is 1.2%. The territories where most of these people live are Altai, Tyumen, and other regions of Russia (Orenburg, Sverdlovsk, Kurgan and others).
To this day, ethnologists have not agreed on where the name of the nationality came from and what it means. The most common interpretations are " head wolf”, “a separate people”, “brother-in-law of the Ugric peoples”. In total, there are about 40 different assumptions.
The culture of the Bashkirs is significant for their songs, fairy tales, ditties.
Chuvash
Next, let's talk about the Chuvash, answering the question of what peoples live in Russia. The Chuvash people make up 1.1% of the population of Russia. Most of the Chuvash live in Tatarstan, Samara and many other regions of the country, the Krasnoyarsk Territory. And today their main occupation is handicraft, animal husbandry and agriculture.
The Chuvash culture is surprisingly beautiful and interesting. They have their own ancient developed mythology. National clothes extremely diverse, has many dozens of different cuts, color options.
Chechens
Chechens in Russia are about 0.9% of the total population. This is one of the most severe nationalities in the country. At the same time, they are distinguished by wit, courage and endurance are inherent in them.
A feature of Chechen songs is a deep, incommensurable longing for home. There are many motifs of exile in their poetry and songs. Such poetry is not to be found in any other folklore.
One can notice the similarity of the Chechen people with the Circassian and Lezgin. There is a simple explanation for this: all three nationalities belong to a single Caucasian.
And we continue to uncover most interesting question about what peoples live in Russia.
Armenians
In the population of Russia, Armenians make up 0.8%. Their culture is very ancient. Its roots can be traced back to Greek culture. The special flavor of this nation is created by their indefatigable cheerfulness and hospitality.
Armenian music appeared before our era. And today we know many world singers from Armenian roots. Among them french singer David Tukhmanov, Jivad Gasparyan and many others.
Armenian clothing is distinguished by luxury and pretentiousness. And children's costumes are simply irresistible, which is not seen in other nations.
We now know what peoples inhabit Russia, but this is far from all. In the far corners huge country there are still peoples who are not so many in number, but their culture is so diverse and interesting that we simply cannot help but remember them.
small nations
Russians know quite a lot about peoples whose number exceeds 1 million. But there are also small peoples of Russia, which you may not even hear about in your entire life.
So, in the Volga-Vyatka region, for many centuries, such nationalities as the Mari, Mordovians have lived. The server region is native to Karelians, Komi, Saami, Nenets. Komi-Permyaks and Udmurts live in the Urals. Kazakhs and Kalmyks have long settled in the Volga region.
Western Siberia is the homeland for the Selkups, Altaians, Mansi, Khanty, Shors, Eastern Siberia is for Tuvans, Buryats, Khakasses, Dolgans, Evenks.
On Far East such nationalities live as the Yakuts, Koryaks, Evens, Udeges, Nanais, Orochs and many other peoples, the number of which is very small.
The peculiarity of small peoples is that they have preserved and to this day revere their ancient pagan beliefs. They are characterized by following animism (animation of natural objects and animals) and shamanism (belief in shamans - people who speak with spirits).
How many peoples live in Russia in total?
In 2002, a pan-European data collection also included information on the ethnic composition of the countries' populations. Then received interesting information about what peoples live in Russia, and about their numbers.
The census figures in Russia showed that representatives of 160 different nationalities. This figure is simply huge in comparison with European countries. On average, people belonging to 9.5 nationalities live in them. On a global scale, Russia's performance is also high.
Interestingly, in 1989, when a similar census was conducted in Russia, a list of 129 nationalities was compiled. The reason for such a difference in indicators, according to experts, is the possibility of self-identification as belonging to one or another nationality. Such an opportunity appeared in 1926. Previously, various peoples of Russia considered themselves Russians, based on the geopolitical factor.
Dynamics in the ratio of nationalities
According to experts in demographic studies, in last years The number of Ukrainians in Russia has decreased threefold. Belarusians have also become much smaller, as well as Mordovians.
The number of Armenians, Chechens, Azerbaijanis, and Tajiks increased. Some of them even entered the number of those of which there are more than a million on the territory of Russia.
The dynamics in the ratio of nationalities is believed to be influenced by several factors. One of them is the decline in the birth rate, which has affected the entire country. The other is emigration.
Jews left Russia. Russian Germans also emigrated from the country.
Positive dynamics is observed among small indigenous peoples. On the contrary, they recent decades became more. Thus, we see that the question of what peoples inhabit Russia is always relevant for study due to its dynamics.
Do only Russians live somewhere?
We learned that many different nationalities live in Russia, in addition to Russians. Many who have discovered it may wonder if there is an area where only Russians live.
The answer is unequivocal: there is no region with a completely homogeneous composition of the Russian population. Only close to it central District, Central Black Earth, Northwestern. All other territories of the country are full of different nationalities.
conclusions
In the article, we examined which peoples live on the territory of Russia, learned what they are called and where they are most common. We were once again convinced how rich the country is not only natural resources, but also human, and this is much more important.
In addition, we learned that the national composition of the population of Russia is not something static. It changes over the years under the influence of various factors (migration, the possibility of self-determination, etc.).
We hope that the article was interesting for you: it helped you make a mental journey through the expanses of Russia and introduced you to its so different, but so hospitable and interesting inhabitants. Now we can, without hesitation, tell anyone who wants to, if he becomes interested, what kind of peoples live in Russia.
Russia is famous for multinational state More than 190 peoples live in the country. Most of them ended up in the Russian Federation peacefully, thanks to the annexation of new territories. Each nation is distinguished by its history, culture and heritage. Let us analyze in more detail the national composition of Russia, considering each ethnic group separately.
Large nationalities of Russia
Russians are the most numerous indigenous ethnic group living in Russia. The number of Russian people in the world is equated to 133 million people, but some sources indicate a figure of up to 150 million. More than 110 (almost 79% of the total population of the country) millions of Russians live in the Russian Federation, most of the Russians also live in Ukraine, Kazakhstan and Belarus. If we consider the map of Russia, then the Russian people are distributed in large numbers throughout the entire territory of the state, living in every region of the country ...
Tatars, compared with Russians, make up only 3.7% of the total population of the country. Tatar people has a population of 5.3 million people. This ethnic group lives throughout the country, the most densely populated city of Tatars is Tatarstan, more than 2 million people live there, and the most sparsely populated region is Ingushetia, where there are not even a thousand people from the Tatar people ...
The Bashkirs are the indigenous people of the Republic of Bashkortostan. The number of Bashkirs is about 1.5 million people - this is 1.1% of total number all residents of the Russian Federation. Of the one and a half million people, most (about 1 million) live on the territory of Bashkortostan. The rest of the Bashkirs live throughout Russia, as well as in the CIS countries ...
Chuvash are indigenous people Chuvash Republic. Their number is 1.4 million people, which is 1.01% of the total national composition of Russians. According to the census, about 880 thousand Chuvashs live on the territory of the republic, the rest live in all regions of Russia, as well as in Kazakhstan and Ukraine ...
Chechens are a people who settled in the North Caucasus, Chechnya is considered their homeland. In Russia, the number Chechen people amounted to 1.3 million people, but according to statistics, since 2015 the number of Chechens in the territory of the Russian Federation has increased to 1.4 million. This people accounts for 1.01% of the total population of Russia ...
The Mordovian people have a population of about 800 thousand people (about 750 thousand), which is 0.54% of the total population. Most of the people live in Mordovia - about 350 thousand people, followed by the regions: Samara, Penza, Orenburg, Ulyanovsk. Least of all given ethnos lives in the Ivanovo and Omsk regions, even 5 thousand belonging to the Mordovian people will not gather there ...
The Udmurt people have a population of 550 thousand people - this is 0.40% of the total population of our vast Motherland. Most of the ethnic group lives in the Udmurt Republic, and the rest is dispersed in neighboring regions - Tatarstan, Bashkortostan, Sverdlovsk region, Perm region, Kirov region, Khanty-Mansiysk autonomous region. A small part of the Udmurt people migrated to Kazakhstan and Ukraine ...
Yakuts represent indigenous people Yakutia. Their number is equal to 480 thousand people - this is about 0.35% of the total national composition in the Russian Federation. Yakuts make up the majority of the inhabitants of Yakutia and Siberia. They also live in other regions of Russia, the regions most densely populated by Yakuts are the Irkutsk and Magadan regions, the Krasnoyarsk Territory, Khabarovsk and the Primorsky District ...
According to statistics available after the census, 460,000 Buryats live in Russia. This is 0.32% of total Russians. Most of the Buryats (about 280 thousand people) live in Buryatia, being the indigenous population of this republic. The rest of the people of Buryatia live in other regions of Russia. The most densely populated territory by Buryats is the Irkutsk Region (77 thousand) and the Trans-Baikal Territory (73 thousand), and the less populated territory is the Kamchatka Territory and the Kemerovo Region, even 2000 thousand Buryats cannot be found there ...
The number of the Komi people living on the territory of the Russian Federation is 230 thousand people. This figure is 0.16% of the total population in Russia. For living, this people chose not only the Komi Republic, which is their immediate homeland, but also other regions of our vast country. The Komi people are found in the Sverdlovsk, Tyumen, Arkhangelsk, Murmansk and Omsk regions, as well as in the Nenets, Yamalo-Nenets and Khanty-Mansi Autonomous Okrugs ...
The people of Kalmykia are indigenous to the Republic of Kalmykia. Their number is 190 thousand people, if compared as a percentage, then 0.13% of the total population living in Russia. Most of these people, not counting Kalmykia, live in the Astrakhan and Volgograd regions - about 7 thousand people. And least of all Kalmyks live in Chukotka autonomous region And Stavropol Territory less than a thousand people...
Altaians are the indigenous people of Altai, therefore they live mainly in this republic. Although some of the population left historical territory habitat, now they live in the Kemerovo and Novosibirsk regions. Total population Altai people is 79 thousand people, as a percentage - 0.06 of the total number of Russians ...
Chukchi belong to small people from northeastern Asia. In Russia, the Chukchi people have a small number - about 16 thousand people, their people make up 0.01% of the total population of our multinational country. This people is scattered throughout Russia, but most of them settled in the Chukotka Autonomous Okrug, Yakutia, the Kamchatka Territory and the Magadan Region ...
These are the most common peoples that you can meet in the vastness of Mother Russia. However, the list is far from complete, because there are also foreigners in our state. For example, Germans, Vietnamese, Arabs, Serbs, Romanians, Czechs, Americans, Kazakhs, Ukrainians, French, Italians, Slovaks, Croats, Tuvans, Uzbeks, Spaniards, British, Japanese, Pakistanis, etc. Most of the listed ethnic groups make up 0.01% of the total, but there are peoples with more than 0.5%.
You can continue endlessly, because the vast territory of the Russian Federation is capable of accommodating many peoples under one roof, both indigenous and those arriving from other countries and even continents.
Planet Earth is a multiethnic community inhabited by a large number of various nationalities. How many nations live in the world? Surely every person at least once in his life asked a similar question. At the same time, the exact answer is practically unknown, since even historians find it difficult to give exact figures. Only in Russia lives more 1194 nationalities, and if we take into account how many peoples are in the CIS countries, then the number will be several times greater.
General classification of nationalities
Most people are interested in a quantitative indicator, but if you collect all the data, how many peoples exist, then the list can be almost endless. Most often, the unification of different peoples into groups occurs either according to species characteristics, or according to the language spoken by this or that group, or according to the territory of residence.
Sometimes the division into groups can occur in accordance with cultural traditions and foundations
In total, there are 20 language families on the planet, which include different peoples.
In 2016, the largest language families were the following 4 groups:
- Indo-European. In total, this group contains 150 peoples, which are located on the territory of Asia and Europe. The total population of this group is 2.8 billion people.
- Sino-Tibetan. This group includes the entire population of China and neighboring countries with a common language and culture. In total, there are almost 1.5 billion people in this group.
- Afro-Asian. language family, which includes the peoples of Southwest Asia and North Africa.
- Niger-Kordofanian. The rest of the peoples inhabiting the African continent, including areas of Central and South Africa.
The largest nationalities of the world
Throughout the history of existence on Earth, a large number of peoples have developed
Some of the nationalities, by the standards of history, are small in number and number no more than a million people (there are only 330 such peoples). There are numerous, where the number of people exceeds 100 million. There are only 11 such nationalities:
- Chinese. The palm is occupied by the Chinese, of whom there are 1 billion 17 million people on the planet.
- Hindustanis. In second place is the nationality of India, which has 265 million people.
- Bengalis. Their number is 225 million.
- Americans. There are more than 200 million people in the United States.
- Brazilians. There are 175 million indigenous people in Brazil.
- Russians. If you say how much Slavic peoples If there are, then we can note the number of Russians, who constitute a large group and number 140 million people.
- Japanese. Despite the limited territory of the islands, their population is 125 million people.
- Punjabis. Another nationality of India, the number of which is 115 million people.
- Biharis. A people also living in India and numbering 115 million.
- Mexicans. There are 105 million of them around the world.
- Javanese. The last of the 11 large nationalities, which number 105 million people.
Summing up
Speaking about the concept of "people", it is very difficult to achieve a single interpretation.
Also, do not forget that the planet is home to several endangered nationalities, some of which number only 280 people. In any case, each nationality is originality and uniqueness.
Related videos
How many peoples live in Russia?
The existence of the population of Russia as the sum of numerous peoples - nationalities - has become an integral part of our consciousness and being. One of the first articles of the Russian Constitution reads: "The bearer of sovereignty and the only source of power in the Russian Federation is its multinational people." Thus, the presence in Russia of many nationalities is also fixed by law.
And how many are there? The phrase “more than a hundred peoples live in Russia” is familiar. It is interesting that they said so about the Russian Empire, and about Soviet Union.
As a legacy from the USSR, Russia inherited a fairly clear fixation of the ethnic (in the official Russian terminology “national”) affiliation of each individual. Until recently, there was a mandatory fixation of such belonging. Until now, ethnicity, if desired, is noted in the documents of the natural movement (birth and death certificates). There are statistical summaries of demographic phenomena. Questions about ethnic background regularly reported in population censuses. Moreover, by law, it is the census data that should serve as the basis for all official documents. The official ethnic picture seems to be very definite, with clear inter-ethnic boundaries, an exact place in it, almost for every person. Moreover, nationality/ethnicity for a long time was officially considered almost an integral feature, received at birth and irreplaceable all life. In many respects, such an ethnic picture is also presented in the mass consciousness, and such is often presented in academic articles. Most scholars - not ethnographers use census materials as a background accompanying certain historical processes, as a slice of reality that helps to better understand the current situation in a particular period of time.
As we have already said, the main source of information about the national composition of Russia is population censuses. In public opinion, the population census looks like a procedure for inventorying the human resources of the country.
But among ethnographers and anthropologists, the opposite hypothesis is also widespread. It is most argued in the work of B. Anderson "Imagined Communities", where the author convincingly shows that the way the state designates, classifies people, greatly affects how these people perceive themselves. Those. The "fiction" of the state contributes to the formation of self-awareness of its citizens. Anderson showed nations not as pre-existing, but as communities created through the use of the printed word and literacy, maps, and censuses.
From this point of view, both the conditions and methods of conducting population censuses become significant. And censuses, in turn, are not only mirror reflection real ethnic composition, but also a tool for its formation and, possibly, change.
Technologically it looks like this.
In all Soviet and Russian censuses, when answering the question about nationality (nationality), the principle of self-determination was and is still in effect. In particular, when asked about nationality, the enumerated person can give any name/name of the nationality, nationality or ethnic group to which he refers himself. And the enumerator (before 2002 - the enumerator) writes down what was said in the census form without changes.
However, when developing census materials, not all answers are identified. Before the census, a list / list of nationalities is determined, which will be identified during the census, and for which its materials will be developed.
Special manuals are being created: dictionaries of nationalities and languages, which indicate to which of the selected nationalities this or that answer should be attributed. These lists of nationalities and the corresponding dictionaries are the fruit of the joint work of ethnographers (now ethnologists) and statisticians.
Here is how they wrote about this procedure after the last census.
In general, in the last population census, the stages of structuring the national composition of Russia were most fully and openly presented:
- all the peoples identified during the development of the census materials are listed: they turned out to be only 182. And 142 of them - were presented as independent peoples, and 40 - as ethnic groups that are part of some of these independent peoples. It was to such a list that it was ultimately reduced 776 ethnonym variants.
As for previous population censuses, we can only see the final results of this " technological process» - finite number of selected ethnic/national units.
In the 1897 census, the question of ethnicity, as is well known, was not asked. In 1926, it was allocated 175 ethnic units (including 4 ethnic groups that were part of the Georgians, and 6 nationalities that ethnographers considered "inaccurately designated"); in the "rejected" census of 1937, they intended to allocate 109 ; in 1939 allocated 99 "nations, national groups, nationalities and nationalities” (including two prefabricated groups: “other nationalities of Dagestan” and “other northern nationalities”); in 1959 121 ethnic unit ; in 1970 - 122 ; in 1979 - 123 ; in 1989 - 128 ; in 2002 - 182 (including 40 ethnic groups that were part of other peoples (Fig. 1).
Figure 1. The number of ethnic units counted in Russia during population censuses
The singling out of individual peoples depended and depends not only on certain modern scientific views of ethnologists, but also on the political situation, often on the influence of lobbying groups, etc.
For example, the Latgalians were considered a separate people in 1926, 1939. and were developed in the results of the census, and in 1959-1989 they were not distinguished and were classified as Latvians. It can be assumed that until 1940 they were considered an oppressed national minority of a foreign and capitalist state, and after that they merged with the mighty Latvian socialist nation. In confirmation of my assumption, in 2002 they were again singled out as a separate people.
There were also examples of direct dependence on the domestic political situation. In 1926 and 1939, the Crimean Tatars did not stand out among the rest of the country's Tatars during the census. And in 1959-1989. they were considered a separate people and data on them were developed on the basis of the results of all four censuses. But nowhere in the official open publications of 1959-1979. the name "Crimean Tatars" was not mentioned, they were added to the rest of the Tatars, and only in the 1989 census were data about them published openly.
Thus, the exact number of peoples is each time only a reflection of today's opinions of the ethnological and political community. And, to the question “How many nationalities are there in Russia?”, It is best to answer “More than a hundred” - you will certainly not be mistaken.
The duty phrase wanders from text to text and applies both to the country as a whole and to individual regions, and more accurate numbers are often mentioned. Sometimes this accuracy even looks strange ... For example: "According to the 2002 census, there are more than 134 nationalities in the Saratov region (according to the 1989 census, 111 nationalities lived in the region)". N.B. Telyatnikov. The peoples of the Saratov Volga region: modern demography. Questions of Statistics 2007, 4, p.64 Literally, this can be understood as follows: in 1989 there lived representatives of exactly 111 nationalities, and by 2002, more than twenty-three more people were somehow added, perhaps arrived. Without understanding the procedure for conducting and processing census data, this is difficult to understand.
Such a hereditary fixation of nationality was introduced through the efforts of the NKVD in personal documents (passports, etc.) in 1938.
Similar ideas are expressed in the article by V. Tishkov "Construction of categories and identities" .
“In the USSR, the question of nationality is included in the programs of all population censuses ... To develop the materials of the 1989 population census, a list of nationalities was adopted containing 128 names. ... In all post-war population censuses, the number of selected nationalities fluctuated ... very slightly: in the 1959 census, 126 nationalities were identified, in 1970 - 122, in 1979 - 123. ( National composition population of the USSR. M.: Finance and statistics, 1991. P.3).
True, 40,551 people with “answer options for the question of nationality not listed above” are surprising. What can be "NOT LISTED" options, if the list itself implies ALL answers. It remains to be assumed that these are fictitious names, such as "goblins", "elves", etc.
