#2 - JRL 6586
Novaya Gazeta
December 2, 2002
PARTY OF DEAD SOULS
Party has been created based on the results of the national census
Author: Yekaterina Ignatova
[from WPS Monitoring Agency, www.wps.ru/e_index.html]

IT TURNS OUT THAT THE RESULTS OF OCTOBER'S NATIONAL CENSUS HAVE BEEN DUBIOUS: THE FIGURES MAY BE DIVIDED INTO TWO MAIN CATEGORIES: THE GROWING NUMBER OF QUESTIONABLE ETHNIC GROUPS, AND THE EXACT STATISTICS FOR EACH ETHNIC GROUP IN SOME REGIONS.

As is evident already, the national census has turned out to be a failure. Instead of a portrait of Russian society, we have been given comptroller's fairy tales. On the other hand, the population census has been quite a success. Some 10-15% of "dead souls" which have unexpectedly emerged in the Russian regions will enable someone to pocket state funding. This is not the main success, however. The authorities have acquired a new party comprised of those who are loyal to it and will never betray it. How will the aforementioned 10-15% of the electorate vote at the elections? There's the impression that the "dead souls" will vote in favor of the correct candidates - at the local, the Duma and presidential elections and will ensure implicit victory. The notorious administrative resource has been legalized and has even increased in number. Isn't it beautiful? Thus, no failure should be mentioned. The national census has been conducted and the costs will be converted into economic and political capital.

Some population growth is expected in Russia, although it is only virtual. According to our sources, 5-10% of "dead souls" will appear in some regions of Russia after the census figures are calculated, as well as many new ethnic groups. Moreover, this has nothing to do with the inconsistency so typical of the Russians. The "spare" people are most likely to have a common master. Who are they, the Chichikovs of nowadays? How will these "dead souls" be managed? Over the course of the week designated for the most significant activity of the year, all of the census divisions were suffering from a Soviet-time disease - rushing to fulfill the plan ahead of schedule.

Nowadays, however, the rewards promised for high figures, rather than consciousness of the census takers, has been an incentive for the enthusiasm. For the sake of fulfilling the plan fully (which is a priori impossible), the census forms were filled in according to "the first thought that occurred." As a result, officially, over 90% of the Russians took part in the census and "made themselves part of history." In reality, a sizable category of "out of sight, out of mind" citizens can be distinguished now.

Furthermore, there was widespread boycotting of the census nationwide. The people have refused to participate in the national census owing to various reasons. For instance, radical left-wing parties have explained their refusal by a political and ideological aversion to the ruling party. The extreme right wing linked the State Statistics Committee's methods to Satanism via numerology.

Moreover, the population census has been boycotted nationwide due to the "electoral precedent": for instance, demands to switch on heating supplies immediately. Thus, the frozen residents of some settlements and towns in the Irkutsk, Nizhny Novgorod, Sverdlovsk regions and Nizhny Tagil have ignored the national census.

In Moscow, raising the public transportation fares have been protested; in the Far East, the protests have been linked to high export dues on foreign cars; in Saratov - the people's remonstrance has been against terrifying living conditions in damaged houses; in the Ulianovsk region the people have demanded for social aid. Do all of these citizens could suffice within 2%, which have been officially left "unregistered?" Who have then been included in the census instead of the boycotting citizens? There's, however, a firm belief, that the population of some regions will be artificially overstated.

The ethnic problem is another painful issue. The number of the "minorities" is also a subject for manipulation, either of pecuniary or of political.

For instance, at the expense of 15 new ethnic groups which have appeared in Dagestan and were previously calling themselves as the Avars, positions of the dominating Avar elite will become considerably loosened.

Due to the fact that the census takers have singled out two new ethnic groups out of the Tatar ethnic group - the Kryashens and the Meshars, the Tatars' Islamic identity, declared by Tatarstan's secular and religious circles, become dubious. Legalization of Cossacks as a separate ethnic group could bring additional problems, in the North Caucasus as well.

Results of the population census in Bashkortostan could be given as the most vivid example of manipulating the ethnic issue. According to some sources, the census takers had strict instructions: to make at least 30% of the population Bashkirs.

Bashkortostan authorities have always been annoyed by the fact that in number the title ethnic group is only ranking third, following the Russians and the Tatars. In the Soviet era, administrative methods were used to alleviate the situation - Tatars were registered as Bashkirs. In the post-perestroika era, however, many of the Tatars got their ethnic group changed. Nowadays, the national census will resolve the situation with the unclear status of the republic's national elite. Exact data on the number and composition of the Russian population will be the only fact to remain unclear during the census- taking.

(Translated by Andrei Ryabochkin)