RUSSIAN ETHNICITY
Russia III
 Geography:
Meet the Profs
 Map test: Europe and Russian
Federation only: 20 questions
 Review
 End of Russian Realm
– Chechnya and Conflict
– Mackinder’s Heartland Theory
– Transcaucasian Republics
North
Caucasus




Distance decay and
periphery of Russian
empire
Putin’s centralism
3 Muslim republics:
Islamist movement
Strategic resources:
– Oil wells
– Pipelines

Russification, Stalin’s
deportations, guerilla
warfare
Roots of the Chechen Conflict I
Russian conquest of Chechnya, Ingushetiya and
Dagestan c. 1860
 Chechens deported to Kazakhstan and Siberia
by Stalin
 Chechen-Ingush ASR restored by Krushchev

Agriculture in north
 Oil installations and urban core, Grozny in
centre

– Dagestan is vital oil source within Russian Federation

Caucasus in south, difficult to control
– crestline forms boundary with Georgia
Roots of the Chechen Conflict II
In 1992, Chechens attempt to put their leader
in place over Ingush
 Partitioned by Moscow with Chechen capital in
Grozny

Chechens refuse to sign Russian Federation
Treaty in 1992
 Russia invades in 1994, Grozny destroyed
 Local guerrillas vs. Russian conscripts
 Terrorism

– 335 children killed in Beslan, North Ossetia
(Christian) in 2004
– Moscow theatre hostage-taking kills 115 in 2002
CHECHNYA: Regional Issue

IN SUPPORT OF RUSSIAN CONTROL
– Infighting after independence was granted in
1991
– Chechens installed a separatist leader
– Attacks on Russians
– Chechen terrorism

WHY CHECHNYA DESERVES
INDEPENDENCE
– Muslim region, fought against the Russian
imperialists in nineteenth century
– Soviets rearranged the borders to include nonChechen homeland, Russifying the internal
republic
– Massive persecution during Stalin’s regime
– 1991 Declaration of Independence
Halford Mackinder
1861-1947
Educated at Oxford, Mt Kenya 1899
 Established geography as academic
subject
 Director of the London School of
Economics
 View of Eurasia as the geographical pivot
and "heartland" of history.
 Theory gets little attention in Britain or
USA
 Heartland as natural seat of power
adopted in Germany and was used to
support Nazi aggression

MACKINDER’S WORLD - 1904
How geographic facts influence policies
Pivot
Area
Consisted of the Moscow region,
the Volga valley, the Urals, Central Asia,
and western and central Siberia.
HEARTLAND THEORY
Heartland
Who rules East Europe commands the Heartland;
who rules the Heartland commands the World Island;
who rules the World Island commands the World.
SPYKMAN’S RIMLAND
Rim
Heartland
Land
Who controls the Rimland rules Eurasia;
who rules Eurasia controls the destinies of the world.
TRANSCAUCASIA
Georgia
Azerbaijan
Armenia
Transacaucasian Republics

Georgia – Tbilisi – 4.4 million
– Eastern Orthodox
– Caucasian language family
– Black Sea coast

Armenia – Yerevan – 3.8 million
– Armenian Orthodox Church,
 Mount
Ararat
– World War I genocide in Ottoman Empire
 ‘Young
Turks’ 1915-1923
– Nagorno-Karabakh – an Armenian exclave in
Azerbaijan
Ethnic
Cleansing of
Armenians in
Turkey
1915-1923
Azerbaijan
Baki (Baku) - 8.3 million
 Azeris also in northern Iran
 Shi’ite Muslim, Turkic language family
 Conflict with Armenia over NagornoKarabakh
 Naxcivan: Azeri exclave between Armenia
and Iran
 Massive oil in Caspian basin
 Pipeline to Novorossiysk, Black Sea

RUSSIA’S EXTERNAL CHALLENGES

Natural resource distribution
– Many natural resources now in former soviet
republics

Irredentism
– Concern for Russians outside its borders

National pride
– Determined to remain the champion of Slavic
interests – Pan-Slavism??
– Desire to remain a world power

Centrifugal forces
– Caucasian periphery