Russian Heartland: European Russia

1. Russian Heartland:European Russia Joel Stevens Geography 308 Geography of Russia and Eastern Europe

2. Outline • European Russia: What is that? • Search Towards Democracy • Political Evolution • Social Change • Economic Transformation • Poverty • Religion • Future?

3. European Russia Generally refers to the European Plain, the area west of the Ural Mountains.

4. European Russia • High levels of industrialization and population density in European Russia • Roughly 78 percent of the population lives in the European part of Russia • The Asian part of Russia is much more sparsely populated, with some isolated areas of high industrialization

5. Search For Democracy • What is democracy? • Defined as a political system in which: • the formal and actual leaders of the government are chosen through regular elections based on multiple candidates and secret balloting • all citizens have the right to vote • leaders are chosen via free and fair elections

6. Democracy • Level of democratization is dependant upon: • The degree to which adult suffrage is universal • Elections are fairly conducted • All persons are eligible for public office • The degree to which leaders compete for votes • The higher number of rights universally enjoyed by the population

7. Measuring Democratic Consolidation • One way to measure consolidation is to apply the “two-turnover test” • A democracy may be viewed as consolidated if the party or group that takes power in the initial election at the time of transition loses a subsequent election and turns over power to those election winners, and if those election winners then turn over power to winners of a later election

8. Measuring Democratic Consolidation • Of the post communist states only Lithuania had by the end of 1996 passed the two-turnover test

9. Russia’s Political Evolution • Product of a series of radical changes in the institutional framework of the Soviet and Russian state • Compared with Central Europe, Russia’s post communist political evolution has been both turbulent and inconclusive

10. The Soviet Transition • The dismantling of the communist system occurred in the absence of negotiated agreement between outgoing and challenger elites • Gorbachev and Yeltsin followed somewhat parallel strategies • Employing electoral democracy to mobilize mass support in elections as a counterweight to the communist party apparatus • Then transferring their base of operations to an executive presidency

11. Rise of Partisan Politics • Contemporary parties arose in the late 1980s due to Glasnost and the accompanying widening of political rights that allowed autonomous groups to organize • Under Gorbachev elections tended to mobilize radical national and democratic forces

12. Partisan Politics • Under Yeltsin elections after 1991 resulted in major victories for nationalists and communists strongly antagonistic to his policies

13. Russian Constitution • Russia’s current constitution was ratified in a national referendum held simultaneously with parliamentary elections in December 1993 • However, suspicion lingers that the results of the referendum were falsified and that the required 50 percent turnout of the population was not in fact achieved

14. Russian Constitution • The new constitution is a hybrid of presidential and parliamentary forms

15. Social Change • Since 1989 the state’s control over society has receded significantly • Citizens have gained the freedom to form political associations and to articulate demands • Hundreds of political parties have registered • The Central Electoral Commission stated that as of August 1995 some 259 political associations were registered and eligible to participate in the 1995 electoral campaign • There are over 3500 civic associations registered in Moscow

16. Social Change • Civil freedoms have benefited religious organization • Both Orthodox and non-Orthodox • The state has turned buildings over to churches and citizens are no longer pressured to reject religion • Private schools have formed

17. Social Change • Government control over the mass media continues to be strong but by no means as all-encompassing as in the Soviet era • Much of the current control derives from the financial dependence of both print and broadcast media on government subsidies • Government also uses its monopoly over state television to promote positive images of state leaders and policies

18. Social Change • NTV is an independent, commercially-backed television firm which offers alternative news and opinion programming • A crucial test of the press’s ability to defend its political independence occurred over the question of its coverage of the fighting in Chechnya • Television correspondents from NTV and press journalists on the ground were able to show that the government was flatly lying when it claimed that it had refrained from carrying out massive destruction of civilian areas

19. Economic Transformation • Profound changes have occurred in the ownership and control of economic resources • The system of centralized economic planning and administration has been dismantled Ex-Soviet block countries share 4.8% of the world GDP.

20. Economic Transformation • For an independent Russia attempting to develop a market economy, federalism has proven a double-edged sword functioning in any meaningful way under centralized authority • Presence of scores of regional governments has added several degrees of difficulty to an already complex and uncertain effort to create new political and economic institutions amid the ruins of the Soviet Union

21. Economic Output • A great deal of economic activity in Russia is off-book • Not because it is illegal, but often to escape taxation • A conservative estimate of the scale of the output of the unrecorded, untaxed goods and services is 20 percent of the GDP

22. Economic Inequality • The transition period has been characterized by growing economic inequality among Russia’s regions • A lot of the inequality in Russia is coming from inequality inside the two largest urban centers • Moscow and St. Petersburg • As well as from an increasing gap between these two centers and the rest of the country

23. Economic Rebound • In May 1995, for the first time since radical reform began, economic production showed an increase • Some branches of the economy have been growing steadily • Especially parts of the construction industry

24. Decentralization • The Russia that emerged from this disintegration was a federal system composed of a jumble of 89 republics, regions, oblasts, okrugs and krais • Decentralization is one of the most important systemic changes to have occurred in Russia since 1991 • The regions have become responsible for planning, delivering, and financing most public services

26. Decentralization • Decentralization also helped spawn a form of corruption that undermined productivity and entrepreneurship • In the mid-’90s, regional governments were spending roughly half of their budgets on subsidies to local enterprises – subsidies that allowed unproductive firms, often led by local political elites, to stay in business long past any point of rationality • They also diverted resources from more constructive endeavors, such as investments in physical or social infrastructure

27. Decentralization Effects • Increasing regional differences in poverty results from: • The local responsibility for financing social assistance • Restructuring oblasts with different economic structures • Poorer oblasts are less able to assist the large numbers of poor people within their jurisdiction • Local-revenue sharing measures are in force, but it has not provided poorer regions with adequate financing for the increased demand for social services.

28. Rising Poverty • For individuals, the economic reforms of 1992-1993 have had mixed effects. • It created a pattern of widening inequality between rich and poor

29. Increasing Inequalities (Russian Household Budget Survey )

30. Rising Poverty • Poverty has continued to grow • Between 1993-1995 multiple reports vary, but 20 to 30 percent of the Russian population is living in poverty • as compared with 2 percent in 1987-1988 • At least 50 million children in eastern Europe and the former Soviet Union live in poverty and are exposed to levels of tuberculosis usually associated with the Third World

31. The Silent Crisis • Poverty in the region has increased more than ten-fold over the last decade due to cuts in government spending on health, education and social programs • Since the break-up of the Communist system, conditions have become much worse

32. The Silent Crisis • The poverty strikes across social lines as more and more professionals, teachers and office workers survive on less than 1,100 rubles ($40) a month

33. Great Depression • "In view of the extent of the economic collapse ... the term 'transition' seems a euphemism. 'Great Depression' might be more appropriate.” • “I don't understand what has happened to my country," said a Moscow man who came out in the pouring rain for his only hot meal of the day, served up by a charity soup kitchen. "In Soviet times we were promised a bright future, and we believed it. I never imagined the Russian people would have to suffer so much." -Democratic Changes and Authoritian Reactions in Russia, Ukraine, Belarus, and Moldova

34. Fall In Life Expectancy • The fall in life expectancy has not affected all parts of the country equally • Varies widely between regions • But there is a strong correlation between the decline in men and women • The regions with the largest decreases were predominantly urban • High rates of labor turnover • Large increases in recorded crime • Higher average but unequal distribution of household income • Life expectancy at birth has fallen by more than 5 years since 1990

35. Too Much Vodka • Increasing rates of death between the ages of 30 and 60 accounted for most of the fall in life expectancy • The greatest contributions being from conditions directly or indirectly associated with heavy alcohol consumption

36. Inflation • Persistent problem • Currently rate has fallen, it still poses a severe hardship • Part of the government’s policy for fighting inflation has been by not paying wages • More than half of Russian workers report that they were not paid on time or at all for at least one month in 1994

37. Increasing Ethnic and Religious Identity in Post-Communist Russia • Foremost among these is the resurgent status of the Russian Orthodox Church in state and society • The Church has benefited from two trends in the late 1980s and early 1990s • New legal rights and a considerable measure of political prestige • A surge in religious affiliation on the part of Russian citizens

38. Growth of Orthodox Church

39. Russian Orthodox Church • The church now has the right of legal personhood • Entitling it to own property and enter into contractual agreements • Eagerness of the political elite to associate itself with the church • Gorbachev’s celebration of the millennium of Russian Christianity in 1988 • Yeltsin and Putin’s attendance at major church events

40. Church As a Symbol • Regarded as a symbol of Russian national unity, continuity, and statehood • Moscow Mayor Luzhkov’s forceful drive to rebuild the Cathedral of Christ the Savior, which was torn down under Stalin

41. Religious Freedom • Not all Russians are affiliated with the Orthodox Church • Many have gravitated to Protestantism and Islam • The Church has also labored to preserve its control over Orthodox faith in other newly independent states

42. Religion in School • School administrators in the Noginsk district, 22 miles southeast of Moscow, have added religion to the curriculum as a moral framework • After a recent endorsement from the Education Ministry, such programs are set to spring up around the country • Despite a federal law prohibiting religion in schools and the Russian constitution's separation of church and state. 

43. Religion in School • Officials in Noginsk and the local priests who helped develop the class, "The Fundamentals of Orthodox Culture," say their version of the subject is respectful to other faiths • They argue that they are merely exposing students to the country's traditional religion

44. Opposition From Other Religious Groups • The Russian Orthodox Church has tense relations with other churches • The government expelled five foreign-born Catholic priests in 2002 • The Spiritual Board of Muslims in European Russia said it had no objection as long as the course is optional • School officials are quick to point out that anyone can opt out of the class

45. Religious Competition • The Orthodox Church has lobbied to protect itself from the influence of competing churches • The Church seeks to minister to the more than 25 million ethnic Russians living outside Russia’s borders

46. What does the Future Hold? • Economic and political future is uncertain • But, it has been improving in the last 3-4 years • Opinions and predictions differ greatly depending on time, place, and political affiliation • Moscow and the heartland region provide leadership for the rest of the Federation • “Moscow, in many instances, takes the lead in changes of public opinion and is joined by the rest of the country with some time lag” -(Igor Zevelev)