DYNAMICS OF ETHNIC HETEROGENEITY IN RUSSIAN REGIONS FROM 1959 TO 2021

Abstract

In the post-Soviet period, there has occurred a change in the main trends in the transformation of the ethnic space ofRussia, although some of them were laid down in the late Soviet period. The study aims to develop a classification of Russian regionsaccording to the dynamics of ethnic heterogeneity in the late Soviet period (from 1959 to 1989) and the post-Soviet period (from 1989to 2021). The paper examines the features of using such indicators of ethnic heterogeneity of territories as entropy, indices of ethnicpolarization and mosaic. To assess the dynamics of ethnic heterogeneity of the regions, the ethnic mosaic index (Eckel index) wasused. The classification of regions was carried out with the help of a cartographic technique that allows combining two most importantcharacteristics of ethnodemographic dynamics – the change in the proportion of the Russian population and the ethnic mosaic index.According to the nature of the dynamics of these indicators in the late Soviet and post-Soviet periods, classes of Russian regions weredistinguished (five for each period). The study showed that from 1959 to 1989 there prevailed the process of relative alignment of theethnic composition of the population in the regions of Russia. That period was characterized by an increasing ethnic heterogeneity ofboth the majority of regions formed not on the basis of nationality and national-territorial entities. Between 1989 and 2021 the processof regional ethnic polarization became predominant in Russia. It was expressed in growing mono-ethnicity in, on the one hand, theoverwhelming majority of regions with predominance of the Russian population and, on the other hand, most of the republics. Duringthat period, the process of ‘pulling’ the titular peoples into their national-territorial entities manifested itself to the fullest extent.