Mechanisms for the formation of ethnic identity of the peoples of Sayano-Altai in the 20-30's of the XX century: problems of reconstruction

The formation of ethnic groups in the Soviet period took place under the active and multi-channel influence of the state. The main mechanism of the construction of Soviet nationalities (ethnic groups) from ethnically indeterminate tribal groups of Sayano-Altai was assigning to them ethnonyms. The existence of one common eth-nonym, meaning a single ethnic identity, was considered not only necessary, but also ample indication of the ethnic group. The boundaries of the naturally consolidating ethnic communities to the early twentieth century, and ethnic boundaries created in 1920 did not coincide, and out of three ethnonyms assigned to new formations, only one - the Altai-Kizhi - was avtoethnonym. Two other ethnonyms - Khakassia and Shors - were alloethnonyms and the population included into ethnic groups were well aware of their foreignness. New ethnic groups were not homogeneous and consolidated entities: they maintained a real diversity of languages and cultures, there was no single ethnic identity, and ethnonyms were the only unifying feature. The State in the first phase had no intention about cultural and linguistic unification of the population, focusing only on the formation of a new - ethnic - identity. Identity formation went through such channels as the written culture, national school, the policy of indigenization, the passport system. The identity of the population included into ethnic groups was formed through the creation of a set of ideas about the common history and culture. Fully formed components-ideas in the ethnic identity of each particular ethnic group were defined by features of the formation of the ethnic group, the struggle of ethnic elites for the right to fix "their" ethnonym as the ethnic community, by the degree of preservation of traditional culture, and other objective, subjective, and sometimes random factors. However, the impact of mechanisms used by the State to form ethnic identity of each ethnic group and often conflicting results of this impact have been studied insufficiently.

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