| Popis: |
This chapter examines the degree to which Tyvans, a Turkic-language-speaking people with an overwhelming demographic majority in their own republic, have been able to consolidate their identity as an ethnonational group. This depends on their ability to negotiate use of their regional resources and maintain much-needed subsidies from Russia while preserving their cultural, ecological, and spiritual values. Significantly, Tyvans are among the few non-Russian peoples of Russia, along with the Chechens and Chuvash, who constitute a substantial majority within the current borders of their “titular republic.” The Republic of Tyva, despite considerable internal diversity, provides a key case for exploring contingent dimensions of relative and nested sovereignty within Russia. The chapter considers the shifting dimensions of what aspirations are plausible for a non-Russian group within Russia, as the centralizing state has become increasingly less federal and more authoritarian. It places Tyva in the context of Russia, and of Russian nationalism, by reviewing historical legacies, secessionist dynamics, language activism, ecological advocacy integrated with homeland discourses, and religious-spiritual revitalization. |
