Doctoral Dissertation Research: Geography and Identity Among Russia's Buddhist Populations

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In contemporary Russia, the state-instituted atheism of the Soviet Union has been replaced by a growing religiosity. Social science researchers have found a significant rise in the proportion of religious believers in Russian society. At the same time, Russia continues to negotiate the federal structure inherited from the USSR, which facilitated the territorialization of identities among titular groups during the transitional period from communism to democracy. The nationalist mobilizations that developed had a range of political and cultural goals, from autonomy to the redrafting of language laws. Only in the case of Chechnya did an ethnic republic's opposition to the center lead to conflict, but taken together, these regions have served as key sites of interaction in center-periphery bargaining during the post-Soviet period. More recently, religion has emerged as a key basis for political action and resistance, as exhibited during the second Chechen war and the ongoing conflict in the North Caucasus. As a result of these and other centrifugal factors, Russia's long-term cohesion is far from assured, and when future challenges to the state emerge, the federal republics will be positioned to promote alternative political and economic projects. This doctoral dissertation research project will analyze religion and territoriality as predictors for nationalist mobilization in the three Buddhist ethnic republics of the Russian Federation, Kalmykia, Tuva, and Buryatia. The doctoral candidate will seek answers to the following research questions: (1) To what extent do the titular and Russian nationals in the three republics support forms of political self-governance, from increased power in Russia's federal structure to autonomy or independence? (2) With respect specifically to titular groups, what is the degree of religious revival among practicing Buddhists in the post-Soviet period, and is there a verifiable relationship between such practices and stronger attachments to territory and nation? (3) What other factors, including socioeconomic status and attitudes regarding intergroup relations, influence support for changes to each of the republics' respective positions in the Russian federal hierarchy? To answer these questions, the student will employ a mixed-methods approach, combining quantitative analysis of survey results with a qualitative approach using focus groups. The findings are expected to demonstrate the strength of the religious revival in the three selected republics and further explore religion as a politically mobilizing force in Russia. Diverging from previous work on state viability and the challenge of ethno-religious communities in the Russian Federation, which has primarily focused on the importance of ethnic entrepreneurs as organizers of political support and Islam as the principal religious challenge, this project will collect survey responses from individuals living in the federation's Buddhist ethnic republics in order to investigate the localized characteristics in these regions that are most relevant to political behavior. In doing so, the project will provide new insights into the geographical, cultural, and religious contexts in which mobilization can occur, disaggregating Russia's ethno-territorial divisions for a more in-depth study of three regions of particular importance. More broadly, the research will address the association between religious identity and the consolidation of territorially-based national identities, a topic that is understudied in the literature in political geography. As a Doctoral Dissertation Research Improvement award, this award also will provide support to enable a promising student to establish a strong independent research career. This project is jointly supported by the NSF Geography and Spatial Sciences Program and the NSF Office of International Science and Engineering.