Racial, ethnic and national composition. Ethnic structure (composition) of the population of Russia

RACIAL AND ETHNIC COMPOSITION OF THE POPULATION

Human race- a historically established group of people who have similar external (physical) characteristics that are inherited.

Composition and structure human races, (%).

Ethnic groups (peoples)- an established stable community of people united by language, territory, economy, culture, national identity and opposing itself to all other similar groups.

In total, there are 3-4 thousand peoples, or ethnic groups, in the world, some of which have formed into nations, while others are nationalities and tribes. Naturally, with such a number of peoples, their classification is necessary. For population geography, classifications of peoples are of greatest importance, firstly, by number and, secondly, by language.

The classification of peoples by numbers indicates, first of all, the extremely large differences between them: from the Chinese, of whom there are already more than 1.3 billion, to the Vedda tribe in Sri Lanka or the Botokuds in Brazil, which number less than 1 thousand people. The bulk of the world's population consists of large and especially the largest nations, while many hundreds of small nations account for only a few percent of the world's population. But its contribution to world culture Both large and small nations have contributed and continue to contribute.

The classification of peoples by language is based on the principle of their kinship.

All languages ​​are united into language families, which are divided into language groups. The most common of them is the Indo-European family.

The languages ​​of this family are spoken by 150 peoples with a total population of more than 2.5 billion people, belonging to 11 language groups and living in all parts of the world. IN overseas Europe and America, the languages ​​of this family are spoken by 95% of the total population.

More than 1 billion people speak languages ​​of the Sino-Tibetan family, mainly Chinese, more than 250 million speak languages ​​of the Afroasiatic family, mainly Arabic. The number of most other families is much smaller.

In cases where national (ethnic) boundaries coincide with political ones, mononational states; Most of them are in Europe, Latin America, Australia and Oceania, and the Middle East. There are also binational states- Belgium, Canada. Along with these, there are many countries that represent multinational states; Some of them are home to dozens and even hundreds of peoples. In many cases they have a federal or confederal administrative-territorial structure.

Problems and tests on the topic "Racial and ethnic composition of the population"

• Population of Eurasia - Eurasia 7th grade
• Population size and composition - Population of the Earth 7th grade

  Lessons: 3 Assignments: 8 Tests: 1

• Population and countries of North America - North America 7th grade

  Lessons: 3 Assignments: 9 Tests: 1

• Population and countries of South America - South America 7th grade

  Lessons: 4 Assignments: 10 Tests: 1

• Brazil - South America 7th grade

  Lessons: 4 Assignments: 9 Tests: 1

Leading ideas: The population represents the basis of the material life of society, an active element of our planet. People of all races, nations and nationalities are equally capable of participating in material production and in spiritual life.

Basic concepts: demography, growth rates and population growth rates, population reproduction, fertility (birth rate), mortality (mortality rate), natural increase (natural increase rate), traditional, transitional, modern type reproduction, population explosion, demographic crisis, demographic policy, migration (emigration, immigration), demographic situation, age and sex structure of the population, age and sex pyramid, EAN, labor resources, employment structure; resettlement and placement of the population; urbanization, agglomeration, megalopolis, race, ethnicity, discrimination, apartheid, world and national religions.

Skills and abilities: be able to calculate and apply indicators of reproduction, labor supply (EAN), urbanization, etc. for individual countries and groups of countries, as well as analyze and draw conclusions (compare, generalize, determine trends and consequences of these trends), read, compare and analyze age and gender indicators pyramids of various countries and groups of countries; using atlas maps and other sources, characterize changes in basic indicators across the world, characterize the population of the country (region) according to the plan using atlas maps.

Ethnic composition population is the result of a long historical process of mixing and relocation of representatives of different races and ethnic groups.

Ethnicity (people)- a historically established community of people united by language, territory, economy, culture, traditions, and national identity. Concepts such as ethnicity, nation, people, nationality, tribe are very close.

Reference and literary sources contain various information about the number of ethnic groups (peoples). The most common value is from 2000 to 2500 peoples, but there is evidence of 3 - 5 thousand ethnic groups speaking 2 thousand languages ​​and 12 thousand dialects. Not all nations have their own “languages”. Naturally, with such a number of peoples, their classification is necessary. The most widespread groups of ethnic groups in the geography of the population are: by number; by language; territorial-geographical basis; by the nature of settlement; in terms of clarity of ethnic identity.

Classification carried out taking into account territorial characteristics is called geographical. Grouping people according to a geographical principle shows their spatial distribution and allows us to analyze the process of human settlement of the earth's surface and its individual regions.

Every nation has an ethnic territory where it constitutes the majority of the population. Peoples living in adjacent territories and having similar individual characteristics are grouped according to territorial (or geographic) criteria. ethnic characteristics. Such territories are called historical-ethnic regions(Western Europe, Northern Europe, North Africa, etc.).

Geographical classification used more often for general reviews. Some peoples occupy a compact territory, others are dispersed (Jews, Tatars, Gypsies).

The classification of ethnic groups is carried out according to various criteria, the main ones being numbers and language.

By number The peoples of the world are different. The bulk of the population consists of large nations (over 1 million each), and the largest (over 100 million each) account for more than 40% of the planet's inhabitants (Table 2). Over half of the world's nations have fewer than 1,000 people each.

Table 2 - The largest nations of the world in 1999, million people.

Thus, the largest peoples in the world in terms of population include: the Chinese (1120 million people); Hindustani (219 million people); Americans USA (187 million people); Bengalis (176 million people); Russians (146 million people); Brazilians (137 million people); Japanese (123 million people).

The most widespread classification of peoples is based on the principle of their linguistic proximity: after all, the similarity of languages ​​speaks either about the genetic relatedness of peoples, or about their long-term cultural contacts. Language is the most important distinguishing feature of an ethnic group.

By language Peoples are united into language families, which, in turn, are divided into language groups. The following groups are distinguished: Slavic, Baltic, Germanic, Celtic, Greek, Albanian, Indo-Aryan, Armenian, Nuristan, Hindi, Urdu.

In total, there are 26 language families in the world. The largest in number are 15 families.

The largest in number is the Indo-European family, whose languages ​​are spoken by 150 peoples (about 2.5 billion people). It includes the following groups: Slavic (Russians, Ukrainians, Poles, Belarusians, Bulgarians, Serbs, Croats), Romanesque (French, Italians, Spaniards, Brazilians, Mexicans), Germanic (Germans, Dutch, Swedes, Norwegians, English, Americans USA, Anglo-Austrians), Iranian (Persians, Tajiks, Afghans, Kurds), Indo-Aryan (Hindustani, Bengalis, Nepalese), as well as Celtic, Albanian, Greek, Armenian and Nuristani.

The Sino-Tibetan language family is the second largest by population, the languages ​​of which are spoken mainly in China, Nepal, Bhutan (over 1 billion people). It includes the Chinese and Tibeto-Burman groups.

Of other language families, it should be noted: the Semitic-Hamitic family or Afroasiatic, Altai, Niger-Kordofanian, Khoisan and Nilo-Saharan, Uralic, Austronesian and others.

The most common languages ​​of the world include: Portuguese, Chinese, English, French, Hindi and Urdu, Spanish, Arabic, Russian, Bengali, Japanese, German, Italian.

The linguistic classification of peoples differs significantly from the national one, since the distribution of languages ​​does not coincide with ethnic boundaries. For example, in former colonies Spain, Great Britain, France in Africa, Asia, Latin America speak the languages ​​of the metropolises.

By features national composition, Depending on whether ethnic and state borders coincide or not, the countries of the world are divided into single-national and multinational.

About half of the countries are single-national. These are countries whose state borders coincide with ethnic ones and the main nationality makes up 90% of the total population. They are most numerous in Europe, Latin America, and the Middle East. Such countries include Denmark, Sweden, Germany, Poland, Italy, Japan, Saudi Arabia, Egypt, most countries in Latin America, Africa (Libya, Egypt, Somalia, Madagascar, etc.);

Multinational are countries where several ethnic groups live within their state borders. They can be divided into four groups:

1. With a sharp predominance of one nation in the presence of more or less significant national minorities (Great Britain, France, Spain, China, Mongolia, Turkey, Algeria, Morocco, USA, Australia);

2. Binational (Canada, Belgium);

3. With a complex but ethnically homogeneous national composition (Iran, Afghanistan, Pakistan, Laos);

4. With a complex and ethnically diverse national composition (Russia, India, Philippines, Indonesia, Switzerland, Indonesia).

Many peoples found themselves divided due to the discrepancy between state and ethnic borders. Thus, about 60% of Pashtuns (Afghans) live in Pakistan, the rest in Afghanistan; Kurds live compactly at the junction of Turkey, Iran, Iraq and Syria, Quechua Indians live in Peru, Bolivia, Ecuador, Argentina.

Features of the ethnic composition of the Republic of Belarus. Belarus is a multi-ethnic and multi-confessional state, where representatives of more than 100 nationalities live together with Belarusians (81.2% of the total population).

The people of Belarus as a socio-political community of a specific territory and state, since ancient times, have been a multi-ethnic and multi-confessional community of various ethnic groups, predominantly Slavic linguistic group. These are Belarusians, Russians, Poles, Ukrainians (in small numbers - Czechs, Slovaks); representatives of the Baltic linguistic group (respectively Lithuanians, Latvians, mainly Latgalians, and descendants of the Prussian-Yatvingian population); Semitic group (Jews); Turkic group (Tatars, Karaites); Germanic (Germans, Swedes), Romanesque (French, Italians), Finno-Ugric (Estonians) and Indo-Aryan (gypsies) groups are represented.

According to the 1999 population census, more than 1,142 thousand Russians live in Belarus (11.4% of the total population of the republic). Ethnic Russians have lived in Belarus throughout its history. The overwhelming majority of Russians are largely dissolved in the Belarusian ethnic environment, but they retain their national identity, including their self-name and language, and believers - their religion.

The Poles make up the next largest group of the population of Belarus (after the Russians) – 396 thousand people (3.9%). They have been living in the western lands of Belarus for several centuries. The nature of settlement is generally dispersed, but the highest concentration of the Polish population is characteristic of the western regions of Grodno, Brest, Vitebsk and Minsk regions. Among the urban population, Poles make up about 5%, but in a number of cities in western Belarus (Grodno, Lida, Postavy, Oshmyany, Mosty, Voronovo, etc.) and in Minsk their share is much higher.

Ukrainians constitute the fourth largest group of the population of Belarus after Belarusians, Russians and Poles (as of January 1, 2000, 237 thousand people, or 2.4% of the population). The main influx of the Ukrainian population with a clearly defined self-awareness occurred in the 18th – 20th centuries. Its most numerous groups at the beginning of the 20th century. lived in Pinsk, Kobrin, Brest, Gomel, Rechitsa, Bobruisk and Bykhov districts. IN post-war years Mostly urban residents moved to Belarus - specialists in various fields of industry, officials, intellectuals, artists and cultural figures. The nature of the settlement of Ukrainians in Belarus is generally dispersed; there are compact areas in Pinsk, Kobrin, Brest, Stolin, Gomel and some other southern Polesie regions. By religion, the majority of residents who consider themselves Ukrainians are Orthodox, but there are also Catholics, Uniates and Protestants (Baptists, Pentecostals).

Jews constitute the fifth largest ethno-confessional group in Belarus (over 28 thousand people). Since the 1980s. their number has decreased significantly due to emigration to Israel and Western countries. Behind last years The intensity of migration has decreased significantly. The nature of settlement is dispersed, but with a predominance in cities and small urban-type settlements.

According to the 1989 census, there are about 7 thousand Lithuanians in Belarus. They have been living in Belarus for a long time, generally dispersed, there are villages with compact settlement (Ostrovetsky, Voronovsky districts of the Grodno region, Braslavsky district of the Vitebsk region). Lithuanians are significantly dissolved in the Belarusian or Belarusian-Polish ethnic environment.

About 3 million Belarusians and their descendants live outside of Belarus, most of all in Russia, Ukraine, the USA, Poland, as well as in Latvia, Lithuania, Canada, Argentina. About 70% of the population of Belarus are city dwellers. The largest city in the country is the capital, Minsk, where about 24% of the urban population lives (more than 1.7 million people).

Ethnic composition is the distribution of a population based on its ethnicity or nationality. The ethnic structure of the population is the ratio of the shares of individuals (by ethnicity and nationality)

groups of people in the total population of the world, continent, country, region, and its individual administrative-territorial entities.

To study the ethnic composition and structure of the population, information is used: a) about ethnicity based on the principle of self-determination; b) about the native language of the interviewee. In some cases, indirect information is used: about spoken language, religious or racial composition.

Ethnicity (Greek ethnos - people) is a historically established stable community of people (tribe, nationality, mania).

In the specialized literature, the following conditions are named for the emergence of an ethnos: common territory, language, material and spiritual culture, group psychological characteristics; development of ethnic identity; community of origin or historical destinies of people included in the ethnic group; use of a common self-name (ethnonym); community of religion; proximity of people along racial lines. With strong racial differences, the formation of an ethnic group requires the emergence of significant transitional groups, for example, like the Brazilians, Cubans and other peoples.

The formed ethnic group acts as a social organism, self-reproducing through ethnically homogeneous marriages, transferring language, culture, traditions, ethnic orientation, etc. to each new generation. In the process of historical development, an ethnos can undergo fundamental changes: completely cease to exist, enter into a more large ethnic group, give rise to a new ethnic group.

The main indicators of the ethnic composition and structure of the population are:

The absolute population of individual nationalities in a territorial context, for example, in our country, development is carried out in Russia as a whole, administrative-territorial entities, urban and rural settlements, villages with a population of 5 thousand people or more;

The absolute size of the population by nationality and native language, the language of other nationalities that the respondents speak fluently;
the absolute number of the employed population and the unemployed, the economically active population of each nationality; composition of the population of individual nationalities by gender, age, average and median age, marital status; labor structure of the population of individual nationalities; composition and structure of the population of individual nationalities by occupation, economic sectors;

composition and structure of the population of individual nationalities by sources of livelihood, occupation, and economic sectors.
Russia, like the USSR before, remains a multinational country. According to the 2002 census, representatives of 160 nationalities live in it. Seven peoples have a population of 1 million or more people: Russians, Tatars, Ukrainians, Bashkirs, Chuvashs, Chechens, Armenians. 80% of the population of Russia are Russians.

Along with the study of the ethnic composition and structure of the population, a study of its racial composition. Ethnographers distinguish open and closed features race

Open: skin, hair, eye color; shape of the skull (ratio of its width to length): height; body proportions; protrusion of the jaws; shape of the nose and lips; eye shape; hair growth (on the face and gel).

Closed: blood type, taste characteristics, teeth structure, etc.

The racial composition of the world's population is in constant flux. Thus, in the process of historical development, large and small races and many transitional forms emerged. By the beginning of the 1990s. The racial composition of the world's population was as follows.
The main indicators when studying the racial composition of the population are:

Population size of individual races, their transitional and mixed forms;

Population structure by race (usually in percentage);

Distribution of the population of individual races by land area, by country and continent (in order to study their concentration by part of the world);

Composition and structure of the population of individual races by gender, age and other characteristics.

When studying the ethnic composition of the world's population, it is necessary to study its linguistic composition. There are 5 thousand languages ​​and about 3 thousand peoples in the world. Differences between the number of languages ​​and the number of peoples exist where ethnic and linguistic processes are poorly developed. For example, in New Guinea, several dozen peoples speak more than 1,000 languages.
The main language family of the world's population is Indo-European with groups: Slavic, Baltic, Germanic, Celtic, Romance, Greek, Albanian, Iranian, Nugan, Indo-Aryan, Armenian.

The second largest Sino-Tibetan family with groups: Chinese, Central, West Malay group.

In our country, the most common languages ​​are Indo-European, Uralic, Altai, Caucasian, Sino-Tibetan and other families.

Analysis of population composition by language family covers:

The size of the population speaking the languages ​​of individual language families, distinguishing groups and subgroups;

Placement of individual language families throughout the territory, highlighting places of their concentration;

Identification of the native languages ​​of individual ethnic groups (the number of speakers of these languages);

Selection spoken languages individual countries. Most likely, this includes the official languages ​​of individual countries.

It is known that different peoples have different patterns of population reproduction and birth and death rates. Special studies have shown that nationality itself does not determine the birth rate. Fertility is simultaneously influenced by a combination of factors: physiological, marital, social, economic, cultural, and religious.

For example, physiological factors include a predisposition to multiple births (especially among the peoples of tropical Africa and South Asia, rarely in Europe and East Asia).

The influence of the religious factor is associated with the attitude of individual religions to remarriages and divorces. It is extremely simple for men who profess Islam; more strict among the Khtians and Hindus. The most ascetic of the world's religions is Buddhism. Most of its trends encourage celibacy; the institution of monasticism is highly developed, for example, in Tibet and Mongolia, every second oldest son in a family becomes a monk. At the same time, Buddhism does not approve of birth control measures. The birth rate is influenced by traditions of large families. Under the influence of various factors, the highest birth rates are observed in Africa and South-West Asia, the lowest in Europe, whose population is facing depopulation.

From special studies it is known that the ethnic factor has an even smaller effect on mortality than on fertility. The mortality rate of individual nations depends on natural factor, geographic environment. For example, in Africa, Europeans are more likely to get skin cancer than locals.

Peoples differ in food systems, formed over centuries. For example, peoples who eat spicy and hot foods and smoked foods are more susceptible to digestive cancer. The tradition of feeding babies with “adult food” leads to increased mortality, etc.

The 2002 census in Russia provided the first insight into citizenship. Of the 145.2 million inhabitants of the country, 142.5 (98.1% of the total population of the country) are citizens of Russia, 44 thousand people (0.3%) have citizenship, 1.025 thousand (0.7%) are foreign citizens, 1.3 million (0.9%) did not indicate what citizenship they have. Of the foreign citizens, 906 thousand are from former Soviet republics (88.4%), the rest are from foreign countries; 9 thousand people (0.9%) are from Lithuania, Latvia and Estonia.

Ethnic composition of the population.

Humanity is very diverse ethnically. Ethnos- a historically established group of people who speak the same language, have the same origin, culture, and live in a certain territory. The main characteristic of a people or ethnic group is a common language. One of important signs is also the people’s awareness of their unity and differences from other peoples (customs, traditions, way of life).

There are 11 large peoples on Earth, the number of which exceeds 100 million people: Chinese, Hindustani, Bengalis, US Americans, Brazilians, Russians, Japanese, Punjabis, Biharis, Mexicans, Javanese. In total, there are more than 5 thousand peoples and more than 2 thousand languages ​​in the world. According to the degree of proximity, all languages ​​are united into families and groups. The largest language family is Indo-European (2.8 billion people). The second largest number of representatives is the Chinese-Tibetan (Sino-Tibetan) family (1.3 billion people). The largest ones also include the Afroasiatic family (distributed in the Near and Middle East, North America), the Dravidian family (in South Asia), the Altai family (in Europe and Asia), etc.

On every continent there are countries that are homogeneous and complex in ethnic composition. About half of the world's states are homogeneous in population composition. They are most numerous in Europe, the Middle East, and Latin America. Countries with a complex ethnic composition are characteristic mainly of Asia and Africa. Interethnic relations may become aggravated there. In such countries, two or even more official languages ​​are established.

The first place in terms of prevalence belongs to the Chinese language (1200 million people), the second place to English (520 million people) - the language of international communication. It is used by a significant part of the world's population. There are two official state languages ​​in Belarus - Belarusian and Russian.

Geography of world religions.

Knowledge of not only the linguistic, but also the religious affiliation of the population helps to understand the culture, morals, customs and characteristics of the relationship between peoples, economic development different countries of the world, their public policies. Religion- This special shape awareness of the world, conditioned by belief in the supernatural. It includes a set of moral norms and types of behavior, rituals. World religions unite believers of individual countries and continents. They are especially widespread. World religions have evolved over many centuries and even millennia. These include: Christianity - 2.3 billion (33% of the world's population), Islam - 1.6 billion (23%), Buddhism - about 470 million people (6.7%). In addition to world religions, there are national religions that are professed predominantly by one people. The most widespread of them are Hinduism, Confucianism, Shintoism, and Judaism (Fig. 30).

Christianity arose at the beginning of the first millennium AD. e. in South-West Asia. Religion is based on faith in Jesus Christ, who has a divine nature and came to Earth to atone for the sins of people with his martyrdom.

Rice. thirty. Religious structure peace

Rice. 31. St. Peter's Basilica in the Vatican is the largest Christian church

The main source of Christian doctrine is the Holy Scripture (Bible). The basis of religion is faith in Jesus Christ as the God-man, Savior and God the Son. Christians believe in the equality of all people before God, and that faith in God will lead to reward in heaven. Christianity is divided into 3 main branches: Catholicism, Protestantism, Orthodoxy. The center of the largest branch of Christianity - Catholic - is located in the Vatican (Fig. 31). The residence of the head of the Roman Catholic Church, the Pope, is located here. The Vatican plays the role of a state and participates in the activities international organizations, has permanent observers at the UN, UNESCO, and makes a certain contribution to the protection of peace.

Orthodoxy and Catholicism are the most widely preached religions in Belarus. They gave the world many cultural monuments and works of art.

Islam arose in the 7th century. on the Arabian Peninsula. It is distributed in Southwestern Asia, northern Africa, some countries of Central and Eastern Asia, Indonesia, and to a lesser extent in Europe. The founder of Islam is considered to be Muhammad, a resident of Mecca. The creed is based on the worship of one God - Allah and the recognition of Muhammad as the messenger of Allah.

The main principles of Islam (or Islam) are set out in the holy book of the Koran. Muslims, like Christians, believe in the immortality of the soul, the afterlife, heaven and hell. The cities of Mecca and Medina in Saudi Arabia are considered the cradle of Islam.

The city of Jerusalem became the center of three widespread religions in the world - Judaism, Christianity and Islam. This is where the interests of believers around the world intersect. The city has many historical and religious shrines that serve as objects of mass pilgrimage.

Buddhism , the founder of which is considered to be Buddha, originated in India and is widespread in the countries of Southeast and Central Asia, as well as in India, Nepal, etc. This is one of ancient religions, recognized by a wide variety of peoples with completely different traditions.

The main emphasis in this religion is on a pure, highly moral life of a person, and not on faith in God. Without understanding Buddhism, it is impossible to understand the great cultures of the East - Indian, Chinese, not to mention the cultures of Tibet.

Religion has been and remains an important factor in the development of any state. Its place in the life of countries is determined by the level of development of society, culture, and traditions. At the beginning of the third millennium, great importance is attached to religion in resolving international conflicts. People are united not only by the similarity of the common tasks facing humanity (preserving life on Earth, preventing military conflicts, resolving environmental problems), but also by the vision of spiritual values, their essence, the friendly attitude of man to man, which religions preach.

Geography of world religions. Geography of material and spiritual culture.

The concept of "culture". Civilizations (historical and cultural regions of the world). The concept of “culture” means a set of material and spiritual values ​​created by human society, methods of their creation and use, characterizing a certain level of development of society. The natural conditions surrounding a person largely determine the distinctive features of his culture. Countries differ in the history of their people, the characteristics of natural conditions, culture, and a certain community economic activity. They can be called historical and cultural regions of the world or civilizations.

Geography of culture studies the territorial distribution of culture and its individual components - the lifestyle and traditions of the population, elements of material and spiritual culture, and the cultural heritage of previous generations.

The first cultural centers were the Nile, Tigris and Euphrates valleys. Geographical distribution ancient civilizations led to the formation of a civilization zone from the Atlantic Ocean to the Pacific coast. Outside this civilizational zone, other highly developed cultures and even independent civilizations of the Indian tribes of the Mayans and Aztecs in Central America and the Incas in South America arose. The history of mankind dates back more than twenty major civilizations peace.

Modern civilizations in various regions of the world preserve their culture and develop it in new conditions. Since the end of the 19th century they have been influenced by Western civilization.

Within the Yellow River basin, an ancient cultural center, an ancient Sino-Confucian civilization , which gave the world a compass, paper, gunpowder, porcelain, the first printed maps, etc. According to the teachings of the founder of Confucianism, Confucius (551-479 BC), the Chinese-Confucian civilization is characterized by an attitude towards self-realization of those human abilities that are embedded in it.

Hindu civilization (the Indus and Ganges basins) was formed under the influence of castes - separate groups of people related by origin and legal status of their members.

Cultural heritage Islamic civilization , which inherited the values ​​of the ancient Egyptians, Sumerians and other peoples, is rich and diverse. It includes palaces, mosques, madrassas, the art of ceramics, carpet weaving, embroidery, artistic metalworking, etc. The contribution to world culture of poets and writers of the Islamic East (Nizami, Ferdowsi, O. Khayyam, etc.) is known.

The culture of the peoples is very original Tropical Africa- Negro-African civilization. She is characterized by emotionality, intuition, and a close connection with nature. On current state This civilization was influenced by colonization, the slave trade, racist ideas, mass Islamization and Christianization of the local population.

The young civilizations of the West include Western European, Latin American and Orthodox civilizations. They are characterized by basic values: liberalism, human rights, free market, etc. The unique achievements of the human mind are philosophy and aesthetics, art and science, technology and economics Western Europe. Cultural heritage Western European civilization includes the Colosseum in Rome and Athenian Acropolis, the Louvre in Paris and Westminster Abbey in London, the polders of Holland and the industrial landscapes of the Ruhr, the scientific ideas of Darwin, Lamarck, the music of Paganini, Beethoven, the works of Rubens and Picasso, etc. The core of Western European civilization coincides with the countries that gave the world ancient culture, ideas of eras Renaissance, Reformation, Enlightenment and French Revolution.

Russia and the Republic of Belarus, as well as Ukraine, are the core of modern Orthodox civilization. The cultures of these countries are close to Western European ones.

The boundaries of the Orthodox world are very blurred and reflect a mixed composition of Slavic and non-Slavic populations. Russia, Belarus and Ukraine serve as a kind of bridge between the Western and Eastern worlds. (What contribution have Belarusians made to world culture and art?)

Latin American civilization absorbed the culture of pre-Columbian civilizations. Japanese civilization distinguished by its originality, local traditions, customs, cult of beauty.

Material culture includes tools, housing, clothing, food, i.e. everything that is necessary to satisfy human material needs. Taking into account the characteristics of the natural environment, people on Earth build houses and eat those products that can mainly be obtained in natural area his residence, dresses in accordance with climatic conditions. The essence of material culture is the embodiment of various human needs, allowing people to adapt to natural living conditions.

Housing. The ability of people to adapt to natural conditions is evidenced by log houses in the forest zone, in temperate latitudes. The cracks between the logs are caulked with moss and reliably protect from frost. In Japan, due to earthquakes, houses are built with sliding lightweight walls that are resistant to vibrations of the earth's crust (Fig. 32).

Rice. 32. Types of dwellings of different peoples:

1 - traditional Japanese structure; 2 - Mongolian yurt; 3 - huts of the inhabitants of New Guinea: 4 - log house; 5 - Eskimo igloo; 6 - house on stilts

In hot desert areas, the sedentary population lives in round adobe huts with conical thatch roofs, while the nomads pitch tents. The dwellings of the Eskimos in the tundra zone, built from snow, and the pile buildings of the peoples of Malaysia and Indonesia are amazing. Modern houses in large cities are multi-story, but at the same time reflect national culture and Western influence.

Cloth. Clothing is influenced by the natural environment. In the equatorial climate of many African and Asian countries Women's clothing is a skirt and blouse made of light fabric. Most of the male population of Arab and African equatorial countries prefer to wear floor-length wide shirts. In the tropical regions of South and Southeast Asia, unstitched forms of wrap-around clothing under a belt - sari - are common, convenient for these countries. Robe-like clothing formed the basis of the modern clothing of the Chinese and Vietnamese. The population of the tundra is dominated by warm, deaf long jacket with a hood.

Clothing reflects the national traits, character, temperament of the people, and the scope of their activities. Almost every nation and individual ethnic group has a special version of the costume with unique details of cut or ornament (Fig. 33). Modern clothing of the population reflects the influence of the culture of Western civilization.

Rice. 33. National clothes different peoples: 1 - Arabs; 2 - nilots; 3 - Indians; 4 - Bavarians; 5 - Eskimos

Food. The nutritional habits of people are closely related to natural conditions human habitats, the specifics of farming. Plant foods predominate among almost all peoples of the world. The basis of nutrition is products made from grains. Europe and Asia are areas where they consume quite a lot of wheat and rye products (bread, pastries, cereals, pasta). Corn is the staple grain in America, and rice is the staple grain in the South, East and South-East Asia.

Almost everywhere, including Belarus, dishes made from vegetables are common, as well as potatoes (in temperate countries), sweet potatoes and cassava (in tropical countries).

Geography of spiritual culture. Spiritual culture, associated with the inner, moral world of a person, includes those values ​​that were created to satisfy spiritual needs. This is literature, theater, art, music, dance, architecture, etc. The ancient Greeks formed the peculiarity of the spiritual culture of humanity in this way: truth - goodness - beauty.

Spiritual culture, just like material culture, is closely connected with natural conditions, the history of peoples, their ethnic characteristics, and religion. The greatest monuments of the world written culture are the Bible and the Koran - scriptures

Everything that a person sees around him and what attracts his attention, he displays in drawings, songs, and dances. From ancient times to the present day, folk arts and crafts (weaving, weaving, pottery) have been preserved in different countries.

Rice. 34. Architectural styles: 1 - Gothic (Milan Cathedral in Italy); 2 - classicism (Bolshoi Theater in Moscow); 3 - baroque ( Winter Palace in St. Petersburg); 4 - modernism (House of World Cultures in Berlin)

In different regions of the Earth, various architectural styles. Their formation was influenced by religious views, national characteristics, environment, and nature. For example, European architecture was dominated for a long time Gothic style, baroque The buildings of Gothic cathedrals amaze with their openwork and lightness; they are compared to stone lace. They often express the religious ideas of their creators (Fig. 34).

Many red brick temples are made from local clay. In Belarus, these are the Mir and Lida castles. In the village of Synkovichi, near Slonim, there is a fortress church, which is the oldest defense-type temple in Belarus.

Its architecture displays features characteristic of the Gothic style.

The influence of Western European civilization manifested itself in the countries of Eastern Europe. The Baroque style, which has become widespread in Spain, Germany, and France, is manifested in the architecture of magnificent palaces and churches with an abundance of sculptures and paintings on walls in Russia and Lithuania.

Common among all peoples of the world fine And arts and crafts - Creation artistic products, intended for practical use. Asian countries are especially rich in such crafts. Porcelain painting is common in Japan, metal chasing is common in India, and carpet weaving is common in the countries of Southeast Asia. Among the artistic crafts of Belarus, straw weaving, weaving, and artistic ceramics are known.

Spiritual culture accumulates the history of peoples, customs and traditions, and the nature of their countries of residence. Its originality has been known for a long time. Elements of the material and spiritual culture of the peoples of different countries have a mutual influence, mutually enrich and spread throughout the world.

Bibliography

1. Geography 8th grade. Tutorial for 8th grade institutions of general secondary education with Russian as the language of instruction / Edited by Professor P. S. Lopukh - Minsk “People's Asveta” 2014

The Caucasus is the place where Christian and Muslim world, with the numerical predominance of the latter. Of all the peoples of the Caucasus, only Armenians, Georgians and Ossetians are Christians, almost all the rest are Muslims.
central Asia- a meeting place for such different cultures, like Parthian and Turkic, Arabic and Chinese, Iranian and Mongolian and many others. The Muslim religion (and relatively small Russian Orthodox communities) predominate here. The cultures of sedentary farmers (their descendants are most of the Tajiks and Uzbeks) and nomads (Turkmen, Kyrgyz, Kazakhs) have always interacted in this territory. There are also a few Chinese (Dungans are Chinese Muslims) and Baluchis (immigrants from Balochistan - at the junction of Iran, Afghanistan and Pakistan) who live here. In this region, as in the Caucasus, state borders cut ethnic territories: several million Tajiks and about 2 million Uzbeks live in Northern Afghanistan (which makes it very likely that Afghan civil strife will penetrate into the territories of Tajikistan and Uzbekistan), about a million Turkmen live in Iran, China - about a million Kazakhs.
Modern Kazakhstan has a particularly “butt”, “transitional” situation, the entire northern part of which is inhabited by Russians. They are slightly less than half of the total population of the republic, and some of them appeared on this territory earlier than the Kazakhs. There are many Germans (expelled in 1941 from the territory of the European part of Russia, Ukraine and the Baltic states), in the south there are Uzbeks, Dungans, Uighurs (Muslim Turkic people, the main part of which live in the west of China), etc. Therefore, any manifestations are especially dangerous for Kazakhstan interethnic tension. Apparently, this country can exist within its modern borders only with the “transparency” of these borders and a very “soft” national policy.
The Far North of Russia is sometimes called part of the “fourth world”.
In other words, this is a region of peoples whose way of life is associated mainly with appropriating economy (hunting, fishing, gathering) or with reindeer herding. In total, there are 26 such peoples in Russia with a total population of 180 thousand people.
If we compare the settlement areas of these peoples with a map of the natural living conditions of the population, it turns out that they live
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They live in areas with “unfavorable” natural conditions. This once again speaks to the conditionality of any human assessments: the map was compiled from the point of view of a resident of Central Russia, for whom, for example, life in Taimyr is not at all attractive. But for the Nenets, the indigenous inhabitants of this area, this is precisely the nature to which they have adapted over many centuries. In other conditions, “better” from the point of view of a European, they would not have been able to live, because they would not have had the opportunity to engage in their traditional economy - reindeer herding (and even if they had survived in other conditions, they would have become a completely different people).
Currently, the Far North serves as a “storehouse” for the Russian economy. natural resources", primarily minerals. This is where most of the oil and gas, all diamonds, gold, and many other non-ferrous metals come from. Industrial development of the territory destroys the natural basis of life of these peoples: it disables reindeer pastures and fishing grounds. Therefore, the protection of the natural environment in these areas is a very acute problem: otherwise small nations will simply disappear from the face of the Earth.
Factors of transformation of the ethnic structure of Russia in post-Soviet period. Changes in the ethnic composition of the population of Russia in the post-Soviet period occur under the influence of several factors: differences in the natural movement among various ethnic groups, processes of external migration due to political conflicts after the collapse of the USSR and labor migrations, changes in ethnic self-awareness among representatives of various ethnic groups.
Higher rates of natural growth of peoples North Caucasus, in comparison with other ethnic groups in Russia, influenced the growth of both their absolute numbers and relative weight in the ethnic structure of the country's population.
External ethnic migrations in Lent Soviet time also became one of the significant factors in changing the ethnic structure of the Russian population. In the early 1990s. ethnic emigration to Germany and Israel significantly reduced the absolute and relative number of Germans and Jews in our country.
At the same time, return migrations of the Russian-speaking population from the former republics of the USSR compensated for the demographic
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physical decline in Russia's population. The collapse of the USSR, social conflicts and economic difficulties in the Transcaucasus were one of the main reasons for the mass immigration of Armenians and Azerbaijanis to Russia. Also, the formation of the CIS countries entailed the return of the titular ethnic groups of the former Soviet republics from the Russian Federation to their countries.
In the period from 1989 to 2002, the number of titular ethnic groups in those former USSR republics where ethnic and social conflicts took place increased. The number of Tajiks, Armenians, Azerbaijanis and Georgians has more than tripled.
Data from the 2010 population census show that the active growth in the number of representatives of the Transcaucasian countries in the period 2002-2010. stopped. The number of Georgians and Azerbaijanis in Russia decreased compared to 2002, the number of Armenians increased by 4.6%.
A new trend has become the growth in the number of titular ethnic groups in Central Asian countries, which is a consequence of active labor migration from Central Asia to Russia, which became more active in the first decade XXI V. (Table 2).
Researchers believe that changes in ethnic identity, especially in families where there are representatives of Russian and other ethnic groups, led to a significant decrease in the number of Germans in Russia in the period from 2002 to 2010; similar processes of change ethnic identity occur in mixed Russian-Mordovian and Russian-Ukrainian families.
The 2010 census recorded the 22 most numerous ethnic groups in Russia, the number of which in Russia exceeds 400 thousand people; in 2002 there were 23 such ethnic groups, and in 1989 - 17. Due to population growth, by 2002 this group included Azerbaijanis, Kabardians, Dargins, Kumyks, Ingush, Lezgins and Yakuts, but dropped out due to a decrease number - Jews. In the period from 2002 to 2010, the Germans left this group due to a decrease in numbers, all other ethnic groups retained a population of more than 400 thousand people.
The number of seven peoples in Russia exceeds 1 million people: Russians, Tatars, Ukrainians, Bashkirs, Chuvashs, Chechens and Armenians. There were changes in the composition of this group in the post-Soviet period: in 2002, Chechens and Armenians entered the group, and left it

Changes in the number of titular ethnic groups of the republics of the former USSR,
as well as Germans and Jews in Russia in 1989-2010.

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Belarusians and Mordovians. The same picture was preserved according to the 2010 census.
In accordance with the linguistic classification of languages, the peoples of Russia belong mainly to four language families: Indo-European (81.3% of the population), Altai (8.9%), Uralic (1.7%) and Caucasian (3.6%), which, in turn, are divided into groups. About 4% of Russian residents, according to the 2010 population census, did not indicate their nationality.
The largest in number is the Slavic group of the Indo-European family, which includes 79.5% of the Russian population.
The population of the most numerous among the Slavic peoples - Russians - amounted to 111.02 million people in 2010, this is 77.7% of the population of Russia. The number of Russians compared to 1989 by 2010 decreased in Russia by 8.85 million people. This happened mainly due to natural decline, which could not be compensated by the migration influx of Russians from neighboring countries, which was active in the first decade after the collapse of the USSR and amounted to more than 3 million people during that period.
Russians are settled everywhere, but most of them are concentrated within the main settlement zone. The most mononational are the central and northwestern regions of the European part, where Russian state. Here the share of Russians in the population exceeds 93%. As a result of long migrations, Russians settled in the areas inhabited by other peoples of Russia, and now in most republics and almost all autonomous okrugs Russian population numerically predominant.
The area of ​​settlement of the Russian ethnic group does not coincide with the state borders of Russia. With the collapse of the Soviet Union in 1991, about 25 million (about 17% of all Russians in the USSR) ethnic Russians who had moved from Russia at various times or were born in a new place remained outside the Russian Federation on the territory of other union republics. A distinctive feature of the Russian population of the former republics of the USSR is that most of them are predominantly urban residents and in Soviet times traditionally had a higher social status compared to the titular population of the union republics.
Most Russians outside of Russia live in Ukraine. According to the 1989 population census, there were 11 million people, or 22% of the country's population, and according to the latest Ukrainian census (2001) - a million people. (17.3% of the population of Ukraine). Russians in Ukraine live in the eastern regions, where heavy industry is developed, as well as in the central and southern regions.
There are also many Russians in Kazakhstan: in 1989 there were one million, or 38% of the population, according to the 2009 Kazakhstan census - one million, or 24% of the population ( main reason decrease in the number of Russians in Kazakhstan (migration outflow to Russia). A significant part of the Russians in Kazakhstan are descendants of settlers from the tsarist era, who plowed the fertile lands of Northern Kazakhstan, or who arrived in the 1950s. develop virgin and fallow lands in the same areas. In 2009, Russians made up a significant share of the population in North Kazakhstan, East Kazakhstan, Karaganda, Kustanai, Pavlodar and Akmola regions.
After the collapse of the USSR, there were 1.3 million Russians in Belarus; according to the 2009 census, their number decreased to 785 thousand; in Uzbekistan in 1989, 1.6 million lived, according to various data at the beginning of the 2000s. - 1.2 million; in Kyrgyzstan - 0.9 million, according to the 2009 census - 0.4 million.
A special situation arose in Latvia, where in 1989, out of a total population of 2.6 million people. slightly less than 1 million were Russians. The Latvian government seeks to maintain a number of advantages for the indigenous population and limit the rights of “migrants”, which, first of all, concerns obtaining citizenship and the possibility of studying in Russian. A similar situation has developed in Estonia, although there are fewer Russians there (0.5 million, or 30%).
In other republics of the former USSR, the number of Russians who ended up there ranged from 50 thousand (Armenia) to 500 thousand (Moldova), and their share in the population is much smaller.
TO Slavic group The Indo-European family also includes a million Ukrainians, 521 thousand Belarusians and 47 thousand Poles. A significant part of Ukrainians live in the regions bordering Ukraine
Chernozem region and Krasnodar region. Agrarian resettlement late XIX- beginning of the 20th century formed an increased share of Ukrainians in the population of the Primorsky Territory; during the Soviet period, the main direction of migration became the northern areas of new development - from Vorkuta to Magadan. The largest migration was to oil and gas producing regions Western Siberia: in the population of the Yamalo-Nenets Autonomous Okrug, the share of Ukrainians in 1989 was 17%, Khanty-Mansiysk - 12%, with the Russian average level - 3%. Currently, due to external migrations and changes in ethnic identity, the share of Ukrainians in the Russian population has decreased to 1%, and in these regions to 9.4% and 6%, respectively.
The Indo-European family also includes the peoples of the Germanic group - Germans (394 thousand), living mainly in the south of Western Siberia, and Jews (156 thousand), living mainly in major cities the European part of the country (in the population of the Jewish Autonomous Region their share is less than 1%). The number of these peoples has decreased significantly over the past 20 years due to emigration to Germany and Israel.
Armenians are included in a separate language group, whose number in Russia in the 1990s. more than doubled and amounted to 1.13 million in 2002; by 2010, the active growth in the number of Armenians in Russia ceased, and their number amounted to 1.18 million. Most Armenians live in the North Caucasus.
The largest people of the Iranian group in Russia are the Ossetians (528 thousand). The languages ​​of the Iranian group are spoken by Tajiks (there are 200 thousand of them in Russia), Tats living in the North Caucasus (1.6 thousand) and Mountain Jews (0.7 thousand). The number of peoples of the Baltic group (Latvians (19 thousand), Lithuanians (31 thousand) in Russia is relatively small; there are more Moldovans (156 thousand), whose language belongs to the Romance group.
The Altai language family is represented by several groups, the largest of which is Turkic. The settlement areas of the peoples of the Turkic group are located in the Ural-Volga region, Siberia, and the North Caucasus. This group includes the second largest people in Russia - the Tatars (5.3 million). 38% of all Tatars in Russia live in Tatarstan, a significant proportion of them are settled in Bashkiria, in the Volga regions and in the south of Western Siberia. The same group includes the Chuvash (1.44 million), living in the Middle Volga, and the Bashkirs (1.58 million), inhabiting the south of the Urals.
In the North Caucasus, the Turkic peoples include the Kumyks (503 thousand) and Nogais (104 thousand), living mainly in Dagestan, as well as the Karachais (218 thousand) and Balkars (113 thousand). In Siberia and the Far East, the Turkic group is represented by Yakuts (478 thousand), Tuvinians (264 thousand), significantly smaller Khakassians (73 thousand), Altaians (74 thousand), Shors (13 thousand), as well as Dolgans living in the Far North (8 thousand).
Of the Turkic peoples of the near abroad, the largest number of people in Russia are Kazakhs (648 thousand); they are concentrated in the regions of the Ural-Volga region and the south of Western Siberia bordering Kazakhstan. Central Asian peoples are represented by Uzbeks (290 thousand), Kyrgyz (103 thousand) and Turkmen (37 thousand). The number of Azerbaijanis living in Russia is noticeably higher - 603 thousand; their settlement area is also very wide: less than 1/3 live in the border North Caucasus region.
The Mongolian group of the Altai language family is represented by two related peoples - the Buryats (461 thousand) and the Kalmyks (183 thousand), who migrated from the south of Siberia to the Lower Volga in the 17th century. The Tungus-Manchu group of the same family includes small peoples Siberia and the Far East - Evenks (38 thousand), Evens (22 thousand) and Amur peoples (Nanai, Ulchi, etc.). Koreans (153 thousand) make up a separate language family, most of them live in the Far East.
Peoples Ural family They live mainly in the north of the European part of Russia, in the Volga-Vyatka region and the Urals. In the Finno-Ugric group, the largest and most widely settled ethnic group is the Mordovians (744 thousand), whose numbers are constantly declining due to assimilation. This group also includes Udmurts (552 thousand), Mari (548 thousand), Komi (228 thousand), Komi-Permyaks (94 thousand) and Karelians (61 thousand). The number of Karelians has decreased by almost a third over the past 30 years due to rapid assimilation; their share in the Republic of Karelia is less than 7%. 18 thousand Estonians and 20 thousand Finns live in Russia, and there are very few Hungarians, Vepsians and Sami, who also belong to this language group. Beyond the Urals, the Finno-Ugric peoples are the Khanty (31 thousand) and Mansi (12 thousand), whose share in their autonomous region decreased to 1.5% after

mass migration of the Slavic population during the development of major oil and gas fields. The Samoyed group of the Ural family includes the Nenets (45 thousand), the small Selkups (3.6 thousand) and Nganasans (0.9 thousand) living in the Far North.
The peoples of the North Caucasian language family are represented by two groups. In the northwestern part live the Adygeis (125 thousand) and related Kabardians (517 thousand), Circassians (73 thousand) and Abazas (43 thousand). All of them belong to the Abkhaz-Adyghe group. It also includes Abkhazians living mainly in Transcaucasia. The Nakh-Dagestan group unites the peoples of the southeastern part of the region. Largest nation North Caucasus - Chechens (1.43 million); There are 445 thousand Ingush, close to them in language. In the Dagestan subgroup, the largest people in number are the Avars (912 thousand), followed by the Dargins (589 thousand), Lezgins (474 ​​thousand), Laks (179 thousand) and Tabasarans ( 146 thousand), in addition to them, Dagestan is inhabited by many ethnic groups and subethnic groups (Rutulians, Aguls, Tsakhurs, Udins, etc.).
The Chukchi-Kamchatka language family is extremely small; it includes the Chukchi (16 thousand), Koryak (8 thousand) and Itelmen (3 thousand). There are even fewer Eskimos (1.7 thousand) and Aleuts (0.5 thousand) in Russia, united in a separate family. The languages ​​of two small peoples (Kets and Nivkhs) do not belong to any of the existing language families and stand out as isolated.
Ethnic structure of Russian regions. Of the 83 regions - subjects of the Federation - 26 are national-territorial entities: 21 republics, 1 autonomous region, 4 autonomous districts.
Of the 21 republics of Russia, in 10 titular peoples make up more than half of all residents. This is the majority of the North Caucasus republics: Dagestan (more than 80%), Chechnya (95%), Ingushetia (94%), Kabardino-Balkaria (70%), North Ossetia (65%), Karachay-Cherkessia (53%), and also Kalmykia (57%), Chuvashia (68%), Tatarstan (53%) and Tuva (82%). The minimum shares of titular ethnic groups are in Karelia (7.4%) and Khakassia (12%).
In autonomous okrugs, titular peoples make up a minority of the population. Minimum values ​​due to the influx of new settlers in last decades have Khanty-Mansi (2.1%) and Yamalo-Nenets (about 6%) districts.
The dispersed distribution of many peoples, their intensive contacts with each other and especially with the Russians contributed to the process of assimilation (“dissolution” of some peoples among others). Among the Finno-Ugric peoples, the most dispersed ethnic territory Mordovians: 45% of Mordovians live on the territory of Mordovia. Among the population of Mordovia, Mordovians make up 40%, the rest of the population is mainly Russian, a few Tatars and Chuvash. The share of the titular nation in Karelia is even smaller: there Karelians make up 7.4% of all residents. The number of Karelians and Mordovians has been declining in recent decades due to assimilation among Russians.
The meaning of the Russian language for the peoples of Russia. According to the 2002 census, the Russian language is spoken not only by almost all Russians living in Russia (99.8%), but also by representatives of other nations. Out of 29 million people. The non-Russian population of Russia is 27 million people. stated that they speak Russian. In total, 98.4% of the Russian population speak Russian.
Thus, the vast majority of the Russian population can communicate with each other in Russian. This is especially important for regions where people speak different languages, for example, in Dagestan, where the Russian language serves as a language of interethnic communication. This is also important for other republics, where the titular peoples speak very different languages, for example, for Kabardino-Balkaria (where Kabardian language belongs to the North Caucasian family, and Balkar - to Turkic group Altai family).
In addition, knowledge of the Russian language by representatives of non-Russian peoples allows them to join Russian culture (and through it to the world), receive education not only at home, but also in any region of Russia, and participate in solving all-Russian problems.
At the end of the 1980s. Numerous national movements appeared that set as their goal the revival of their native language and culture. Often their activities were accompanied by increased ethnocentrism and nationalism, and ethnic conflicts. In the struggle of the Russian republics for sovereignty and increased status, ethnic reasons were not always the main ones. Most often the main driving force conflict with the federal authorities was the desire of the republican elites for greater independence from the Center, for which the national card was played.
The real manifestations of separatism were strongest in Chechnya, where the conflict lasted for more than 10 years. In the early 1990s. Separatism was also noticeable in Tuva, which for several decades had own statehood and only in 1944 was annexed to the Soviet Union. A positive example of reaching a compromise between the federal and republican authorities was the Republic of Tatarstan, which was the first to conclude an agreement on the division of powers, which put an end to the confrontation.
Another reason for the emergence of conflicts is interethnic contradictions, which were the result of the deportations of some peoples during the war years (see the section “Population migrations”) and the repeated redistribution of the borders of the republics. The most acute were the armed clashes between the Ingush and Ossetians over the Prigorodny region, which belongs to North Ossetia, but was previously part of the Chechen-Ingush Republic. Similar contradictions exist between the peoples of Dagestan, but they are resolved peacefully. The change in the borders of the republics led to the transfer to their composition of part of the flat lands inhabited by the Cossacks. The growing agrarian overpopulation of the republics of the North Caucasus has increased competition for land, which is now leading to the displacement of Russians from these areas and increasing contradictions between different ethnic groups.
Conflicts related to the numerical predominance of one of the two ethnic groups and the concentration of power in the hands of its representatives exist in Kabardino-Balkaria and Karachay-Cherkessia. Somewhat different problems are typical for Bashkiria, where until recently the Bashkirs were only the third largest people after the Russians and Tatars (the 2002 and 2010 censuses recorded a slightly larger number of Bashkirs in Bashkiria than Tatars).
Most interethnic conflicts have roots in ancient and recent Russian history, aggravated by ethno-demographic and economic problems, so there are no simple paths to agreement. To resolve interethnic problems, it is necessary to improve national policy, strengthen real federalism, create conditions for the free development of languages ​​and cultures, strengthen guarantees that exclude infringement of the rights of citizens according to ethnicity, taking into account the vital interests of small peoples when implementing large projects in the main territory of their residence.
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The confessional (religious) composition of the population of Russia is characterized by the absolute predominance of Orthodoxy. Orthodoxy is professed by the overwhelming majority of believers among the East Slavic peoples - Russians, Ukrainians, Belarusians, Finno-Ugric peoples of Russia - Mordovians, Udmurts, Maris, Komi, Komi-Permyaks, Karelians, a number of Turkic peoples - Chuvash, Khakass, Yakuts. Among the peoples of the North Caucasus, only Ossetians profess Orthodoxy.
The second largest religion in Russia is Islam. It is professed by Tatars, Bashkirs and almost all peoples of the North Caucasus (except Ossetians).
Buddhism became widespread among the Mongol-speaking peoples - the Buryats, Kalmyks, and also among the Tuvans.
The majority of believers among representatives of small nationalities of the North, Siberia and the Far East (Nenets, Khanty, Mansi, Shors, Evenks, Nanais, etc.) are officially considered Orthodox, but in most cases they also profess tribal, pagan beliefs (shamanism).
The number of religious supporters of other faiths in Russia is small. Recently, there has been active missionary activity by representatives of non-traditional faiths in Russia.
Questions and tasks Define ethnicity. Describe the main approaches to ethnicity. What ethnic processes do you know? Give examples of ethnic
ical processes. Describe the ethnogeographical position of Russia. Indicate the main factors for changing the ethnic structure in
villages of Russia in the post-Soviet period. The number of which ethnic groups in Russia has changed due to mass
new ethnic migrations after 1991? Which ethnic groups in Russia are most actively affected by the AS process?
simulation? Give an ethno-linguistic classification of the ethnic groups living
in Russia. List five most numerous peoples Russia. Give a description of the ethnic structure of Russian regions.

168. What are the main causes of ethnic contradictions? What religions predominate in Russia?
Literature http://demoscope.ru - demographic weekly "Demoscope" http://www.perepis-2010.ru - portal "All-Russian census
leniya 2010". http://www.gks.ru - official website Federal service state
gift statistics. http://www.cisstat.com - interstate statistical company
CIS meeting. http://www.iea.ras.ru - website of the Institute of Ethnology and Anthropology
RAS. http://www.ethnology.ru - site “Ethnography of the Peoples of Russia”. http://socioline.ru - site “Sociology in a new way.”