Authors

Aigerim Nurseitova¹;  ¹ University of Tartu, Estonia

Discussion

Empirical research on ethnic minority studies in the Eurasian context has often relied on Rogers Brubaker’s triadic nexus to explain the relationship between national minorities, host, and homeland states. Some scholars, including Brubaker himself, have interpreted national minorities as threatening to the nationalizing host state. In the most used form of the triadic nexus theory, the national minority lacks agency and power relative to the ‘host,’ ‘homeland’ states, which dictate the defining features of the national minority, where its own identity and perceptions of the world often fall under the radar. Using the case of the Russian-speaking minority in Estonia and Kazakhstan, I offer an alternative account from the perspective of the national minorities, answering the research question of how surges of ethnic majorities’ nationalism are perceived in the process of the minority’s identity construction. To do this I collect data using discourse analysis of Russian-language newspapers produced by Estonian Russians and Kazakhstani Russians between 1990-2007. Going against the presupposition that the minorities’ identity development opposes the nationalizing state, the data show that the minority forms a separate group identity, but not necessarily in opposition to the host state. The proposed research adds to the understanding of group identity construction in border regions and interethnic relationship dynamics in post-Soviet states.