Ethnic tensions often seem to result in less violences within socialist police states (e.g. the former Yugoslavia), right?
- -- Luke ------------------ For one thing, they're police states. For another, outright ethnic violence totally contradicts the internationalist, humanistic rhetoric.
Russia itself has historically been a pretty tolerant place compared to Europe (except for Jews, of course) up until quite recently. It is hugely multi-ethnic. There have been muslims here for hundreds of years, and there has never been real conflict with them on religious grounds. Russia has never had a religious war, unless you count Bolshevism as a religion. There have never been problems with the Tatars, Bashkirs, Buryats (who are Buddhists) and so forth. As the Russian expression goes, "Scratch a Russian, find a Tatar." Tolerance is one of the characteristics with which Russians usually identify the national character -- something pretty wierd to hear during a period of extensive ethnically moticated street violence.
I predict an increase in ethnic violence as a) people who were educated after communism reach adulthood and b) the percentage of ethnic Russians in the population shrinks.
Chris Doss The Russia Journal