Ethnic-Cultural Renaissance in Siberia Nowadays: General Description and Regional Specificities (On the Materials from Altai and Khakassia Republics)

The paper presents a general description of the phenomenon of the "ethnic renaissance" in Siberia at the threshold of the XX-XXI centuries. The real social, ethnic and cultural programs involved in the ethnic renaissance process are described on the examples of the Autonomous Republics of Altai and Khakassia. The authors conclude that the notion of the ethnic renaissance has been used to denote processes of ethnic and political sovereignization of peoples of the post-Soviet entity (including indigenous peoples of Siberia) and increasing national self-consciousness since the 1990s. The ethnic renaissance models have been based on the concept of "ethnic individuality" that was proposed by national elites. Social and scientific notion of ethnic renaissance in Siberia emerged as an opposition to diffusion of the objective bases of ethnicity (territory, culture and language) in the context of globalization, social-economic integration and cultural unification. It was a reaction to the change of the political system and national policy of Russia in the late XX - early XXI centuries. Depolitization of the social movement for the ethnic revival in Siberia took place in the early XXI century. The process was aimed at revival of national culture, language and education. The category of "cultural heritage" (preservation, research, interpretation and popularization) has become the key topic in elaboration of the future development models of Siberian regions. Ideology and practices of cultural heritage preservation have been based on the concepts proposed by international (UNESCO and UNO), Russian and regional institutions. Laws on revival of ethnic values and institutions and legal acts on preservation and popularization of cultural (including non-material) heritage have been adopted by regional governments throughout Siberia since the 1990s. Regional renaissance programs have been aimed at preservation of historical and cultural landscapes and sacred places as well as regional development on the basis of both traditional and modern technologies. The proposed programs represent a combination of various trends: increasing interest to archaic features and modernism; attempts to reconstruct authentic practices and stylization; cultural heritage sacralization and integration of traditional practices into recreational and commercial local programs. The features of ethnic renaissance in Siberia are ethnic performances at various local festivals, handicraft centers, folklore movements, ecological and ethnological museums. The "ethnic renaissance" of the threshold of the XX - XXI centuries has become the form and method of modernization of the ethnic and poly-ethnic regional communities and their integration in the Russian and global social and cultural entity.

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