Engendering the Boundaries of Belonging: The Moscow Popular Press in the Reimagination of the Russian Nation by Allison Elizabeth Keating, B.A. A thesis submitted to The Faculty of Graduate Studies and Research in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree of Master of Arts Institute of European, Russian and Eurasian Studies Carleton University Ottawa, Ontario January 2010 ©2010, A. 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The author retains copyright L'auteur conserve la propriete du droit d'auteur ownership and moral rights in this et des droits moraux qui protege cette these. Ni thesis. Neither the thesis nor la these ni des extraits substantiels de celle-ci substantial extracts from it may be ne doivent etre imprimes ou autrement printed or otherwise reproduced reproduits sans son autorisation. without the author's permission. In compliance with the Canadian Conformement a la loi canadienne sur la Privacy Act some supporting forms protection de la vie privee, quelques may have been removed from this formulaires secondaires ont ete enleves de thesis. cette these. While these forms may be included Bien que ces formulaires aient inclus dans in the document page count, their la pagination, il n'y aura aucun contenu removal does not represent any loss manquant. of content from the thesis. 1+1 Canada Abstract The rise of racism in post-Soviet Russia, once the center of a multinational union that claimed to have forged an inviolable 'friendship of the peoples,' demands a serious investigation. This thesis contends that Moscow's popular press has played a critical role in the manufacture, legitimization, and perpetuation of a climate of ethnic intolerance in Russian society. Over the course of the post-Soviet period, the nation's most popular newspapers, as represented by Komsomolskaya Pravda, Moskovskii Komsomolets, and Argument)? i Fakty, have employed familial, gendered, and sexualized tropes in their Slavocentric reconceptualization of the Russian nation and Moscow, and concomitant exclusion and racialization of non-Slavic 'Others'. Chapters explore these publications' discourses on women's reproduction, ethnic minority children, interethnic marriages, Russian masculinity, and the media-constructed 'hypersexual' non-Slavic male 'Other,' as potent and anxiety-ridden expressions of their increasingly ethnocentric and racialized renegotiation of the post-Soviet boundaries of national belonging. u Acknowledgements I would like to take this opportunity to convey my immense gratitude to the people who have assisted me in completing this project. To my supervisor, Professor Jeff Sahadeo, thank you for your dedicated support, guidance, motivation, understanding, and encouragement during this process and indeed throughout my studies at Carleton. From helping to ensure that my family felt welcome in a new city to providing me with the opportunity to travel to Saint Petersburg and Moscow to conduct primary research for my thesis, you have always gone well beyond the call of duty. I am truly grateful to have had the experience of working with you. Your research, teaching abilities, and sincere commitment to your students have been an inspiration to me. I would also like to extend my deep appreciation to Professor Piotr Dukiewicz who has also been tremendously supportive of me during my time at EURUS. Thank you for providing important guidance during the early stages of my thesis development and opportunities for me to apply and further develop my research and writing skills outside of the classroom setting. I am likewise grateful to our administrator, Ms. Ginette Lafleur, for all of her assistance in navigating the complexities of grad school regulations. Finally, I would like to express great thanks to my family for supporting me throughout this process. To my husband, Yury, who on weekends and after long days at his own work would come home to take over the duties of the household so that I could focus on this project. Cnacn6o JIK>6HMB,IH! YOU are both an amazing father and partner in life. I could not have done this without you by my side. To our daughter, Liliana, whose sweet smiles, endless hugs and kisses, and wonder in life inspired me to persevere even at those times when I felt that my strength had been utterly tapped. You are a true blessing in our lives. To my parents, Sheila and Murray, for their unwavering support in this and all of my life's endeavours. Thank you both for always believing in me and for teaching me to live out my dreams. I dedicate this thesis to my family, whose unconditional love and encouragement have helped to make me the person I am today and continue to inspire me in my life's journey. in Table of Contents. Abstract ii Acknowledgements iii List of Figures v Introduction 1 Chapter One. '(M)Othering' the Nation: Conceiving the 25 Post-Soviet Body Politic through Discourse on Women and Reproduction. Chapter Two. From a Vehicle of Assimilation to a Threat 81 to the 'Russian Nation': The Reconceptualization of 'Mixed Marriages' in Moscow's Popular Press. Chapter Three. (T)Racing the Boundaries of the Russian Nation: 134 The Construction of the 'Hypersexual' Racialized Male 'Other' as a Threat to Russian Womanhood and a Challenge to Russian Masculinity. Conclusion 184 Bibliography 191 IV List of Figures Figure 1 77 Figures 2 and 3 78 Figure 4 79 Figure 5 80 Figures 6 and 7 129-30 Figure 8 131 Figure 9 132 Figure 10 133 Figure 11 179 Figure 12 180 Figure 13 181 Figure 14 182 Figures 15, 16, and 17 183 ' V Introduction. From the streets of Kondopoga1 to the markets of Moscow2, the intensification of ethnic Russian nationalism, xenophobia,3 and racism in post-Soviet Russia has captured the attention of observers both inside and outside the country. Violent and murderous attacks against visible ethnic minorities are recorded by human rights organizations virtually every day.4 Activists accuse local and central authorities of turning a blind eye to the endemic corruption of police who supplement their salaries by combing the streets looking for visibly non-Slavic citizens and immigrants from whom to extort bribes for 1 In the autumn of 2006, a violent anti-Caucasian pogrom was ignited in the small Karelian town of Kondopoga after a bar room brawl between ethnic Russian and Chechen residents turned deadly. Businesses owned by non-Russians were ransacked, and on September 3, more than 2,000 of the town's residents gathered in the main square demanding the forced expulsion of all 'Caucasians' from the region. The local authorities were criticized for doing little to quell the violence in the first few days of the conflict. While nationalist groups, such as the Movement Against Illegal Immigration (DPNI), used the crisis to gain national exposure and promote their xenophobic platform. Pogroms directed against 'Caucasians' also erupted in Stavropol in 2007. See: Galina Kozhevnikova, "Osen' 2006: Pod Flagom Kondopogi," Tsentr- Soya, January 4, 2007, available at http://www.xeno.sova center.ru/29481C8 /883BB9D. 2 Ethnic minorities working at Moscow's markets have become the targets of racially-motivated attacks. One of the most deadly attacks occurred in 2006, when an ultranationalist group exploded a bomb at Cherkizovsky market killing 14, and injuring fifty, mostly immigrant workers. See: "Racist bombers sentenced to life for market blast," Russia Today, May 15, 2008, available at http://rt.com/Top_News/ 2008-05 15/Racist_bombers_sentenced_to_life_for_market_blast.html. 3 Here xenophobia is understood as the expression of fear, suspicion, hostility, and intolerance towards groups which are perceived in the public consciousness as 'strangers'. A particular form of xenophobia is ethnophobia, in which intolerance is specifically directed against 'ethnic groups' and those loosely grouped together as ethnic 'Others.' The most common manifestations of ethnophobia in contemporary Russian society include 'Caucasusophobia,' which refers to xenophobia directed toward non-Slavic minorities from the Transcaucasus region, and the related 'Chernophobia,' which is derived from the Russian word for black, chernyi, and connotes animosity and expressions of intolerance toward persons of colour. In terms of ideology and practice, these manifestations of ethnophobia are virtually indiscernible from racism in that they seek not only to differentiate, but also to subordinate. See: Aleksandr Iskandaryan, "Black-phobia," Novoe Vremia. September 1996, 20-22. 4 According to Sova-Centre, a Moscow-based organization that monitors hate crimes in Russia, 2008 marked the deadliest year on record for racially-motivated violence in the country, with 97 murders (57 of which were committed in the capital region) and no less than 525 beatings. Sova contends that the actual number of racially-motivated attacks is much higher than these figures suggest as a result of endemic underreporting. While there is increasing evidence that prosecutors are ready to identify racial motivations when investigating crimes, and in recent years courts have been more inclined to issue convictions for hate- related violent crimes, the number of hate crimes committed in Russia still far exceeds convictions.