1. Case-study No. & Title:
185. The Moscow Government's nationalities policy and the nationalities participation in its realization (1994-2000)

Keywords

2. Author information
2.1 Author’s Name
Vassily Filippov

2.2 Institutional Affiliation and Contact:
Center for Civilization and Regional Studies
Russian Academy of Sciences
Spiridonovka street 30/1
Moscow, 103001
Russia

Tel./fax:: (095) 202-33-11
E-mail: fvr@east.ru

2.3 Date recorded
05/10/2000

3. Good Practice Information Sheet
3.1 Local Level Good Practice:
Involvement of the representatives of the minority nationalities living in Moscow in the planning and implementation of the city government's initiatives on the maintenance of an inter-ethnic consensus, and preservation and development of various nationalities’ languages and cultures. Moscow Government support for socially important initiatives by the nationalities.

3.2 Location:
Moscow

3.3 Minority/Target Groups:
More than 100 nationalities are registered in Moscow and there are more than 50 Nation Cultural Autonomy institutions functioning in the capital.

3.4 Major Actors Involved

3.5 Budget allocated by local government authorities and/or by other actors
From 1993 onwards a special clause in the Moscow budget has allocated financial support for the nationalities policy. It provides the necessary funds for nationalities’ associative activities, and for the opening of schools offering specific ethno-cultural education.

3.6 Time frame
The initiative was first proposed in 1992, it was officially launched and put into practice in 1994 and it is expected to continue indefinitely

3.7 Local level good practice relation to national level ethnic policy
The Moscow nationalities policy is based on the State Nationalities Policy Conception (1996), as well as on the federal laws "On civic associations "; "On National Cultural Autonomy"; and on amendments and additions to the federal Laws "On languages" and "On education".

4. Good Practice Description
According to 1989 census, about 10% of the population of Moscow consists of individuals who are not ethnic Russians and are representatives of at least 150 nationalities. With the beginning of the democratization’s process in the late 1980s and early 1990s most of these nationalities established national associations in Moscow, as well as in other parts of the country.

In 1992 a special body for dealing with nationalities issues – "the Social and Inter-Regional Relations’ Committee – was established within the Moscow local government. Later, in 1994, the Moscow Inter-Ethnic Advisory Council (MINAC) was created, This has consultative and advisory functions and was attached to the first-mentioned body. In 1997 the Moscow Government decreed that all officially registered nationalities associations had the right to have a representative within the MINAC.

In 1996 the Federal parliament adopted the law: "On National-Cultural Autonomy" (NCA). Ever since then a rapidly growing number of NCAs have been established by some of the nationalities residing in Moscow.

Accordingly MINAC created a special ad hoc group with the task of helping and assisting NCAs in Moscow (the first output was the release of a booklet illustrating the process and the steps necessary for the creation and registration of NCAs.

Later MINAC organized a standing round-a-table (named «National and Cultural Autonomy: Problems and Perspectives») where representatives of the Moscow Government and of nationalities associations periodically meet to discuss the practice of creating NCAs and of making them work. As a result of this work 11 regional NCAs were registered in Moscow by December, 1998 (Armenian, Assirian, Jewish, Kazakh, Korean, Kurdish, Latvian, German, Tartar, Serbian and Polish) and 37 local ones.

A related project, falling within the program «Educational in the Capital-1» (1994), has prompted the Moscow Educational Committee to elaborate the blueprint for ethno-cultural education initiatives for the period 1994-1998. As a result, during this period 47 schools in Moscow launched ethno-culturally specific courses (i.e. courses of languages other than Russian, courses of nationalities’ history and culture).

The program «Development of ethno-cultural education in Moscow (1998-2000) was included as a part of the new program «Education in the Capital - 2».

In May 1998 the Moscow Government adopted the resolution «On the Situation and Development of Ethnocultural Education and Interaction with Nationalities Associations in Moscow». The resolution established a standing Inter-Departmental Commission attached to the Moscow Government for interaction and consultation with nationalities’ associations. The commission includes representatives of the all governmental committees, whose activities impact on the city nationalities policy. The same resolution prescribes provision in the 1999-2000 budget for the costs related to the Program of Ethnocultural Education’s Development. The program provides for the creation of 15 more school institutions with ethno-cultural education programs.

On 1 October 1998 the Moscow mayor Luzhkov signed the resolution No.994-PM establishing the «Moscow house of nationalities» and providing for its financing from the city budget. The Moscow House of Nationalities is to be used by nationalities’ associations and/or by NCAs to organize conferences, receptions and presentation. The building has special rooms for exhibitions, concerts, festivals, sporting, centers of leisure for children, youths and pensioners etc.

After several acts of terrorism during September 1999 had hundreds of victims in Moscow and in its outskirts, the city authorities proclaimed a mandatory registration for newcomers. In the course of the security campaign that ensued, the police indiscriminately targeted individuals whose physical appearance made them fall within the stereotypical category of so-called ‘individual of Caucasian nationality’, many of whom were fined and/or arrested on no legal grounds. These facts have provoked indignation among members of NCAs and of nationalities’ associations.

As a result, on 19 October 1999 Luzhkov issued the special decree establishing a special channel of information and a telephone hotline for non-Russian residents who might fall victim of police harassment and who could call to get the assistance of members of their respective nationality association or NCA.

The Moscow Government supports practically all socially important initiatives on the part of ethnic communities regarding culture and education, organizes actions important for inter-ethnic consolidation, such as: the "Parade of Russian nationalities and lands"; a cultural and instructive program "To Moscow – with Love. Connection of Times – Connection of Peoples"; the traditional Tartar-Bashkirian festival "Sabantuy"; the annual round table "Cultural Dialog of the Peoples of Caucasus in Moscow"; the publication of "Ethnodialogs" brochures and of the "Ethnosphere" magazine etc. In 1999 there were 10 periodicals registered in Moscow, in 9 languages: Armenian, Georgian, Jewish, Kurdish, German, Tartar, Ukrainian, Gypsy and Chechen (the list includes only the periodicals with a circulation of more than 1000 copies, that is why there are an additional number of periodicals that are not registered).

An anonymous public opinion poll of the MINAC members, held in Moscow in 1998 demonstrated that inter-ethnic relations in Moscow as a whole were regarded as positive in character by the local minorities’ representatives. They also considered as positive the Moscow Government’s activities in terms of promoting harmonious inter-ethnic relations. At the same time the most of the persons interviewed regarded as negative the activities of the police, the Migration Service, the Committee of Telecommunications and the SMI. The last-mentioned organisation does not give due consideration to the popularization of the ethnic communities’ activities and does not prevent the publication of some tendentious and amateurish materials on ethnic themes that provoke the minorities' displeasure.