Social and cultural conditions of the Eurasian integration

The most obvious reasons for the creation of the Eurasian Union are the economic needs of the participants in the unification process. However, the success of the future Union will largely depend on how united a single information and humanitarian area in Russia and Central Asia will be, and the relationship between them remains somewhat controversial.

The most obvious reasons for the creation of the Eurasian Union are the economic needs of the participants in the unification process. However, the success of the future Union will largely depend on how united a single information and humanitarian area in Russia and Central Asia will be, and the relationship between them remains somewhat controversial.

Pros and cons

With the advent of the project to create the Eurasian Union, officially presented in the article by V. Putin, there were many pressing problems facing the scientific community, one which was connected with the problem of the socio-cultural reasons in favor of Eurasian integration.

Among the important distinguishing social and cultural factors are language, cultural and historical experience, evaluation of the historical past, as well as the image of the member countries of the integration movement, of which Russia became the locomotives which. Here is a brief overview of the pro-Russian socio-cultural reasons for each member of the Eurasian integration.

Kazakhstan

In Kazakhstan, the idea of Eurasian Union was first put forward in 1994. For a long time President Nazarbayev supported it at the state level, including in secondary and higher education institutions and academic institutes. Over the past twenty years, Kazakhstan has carried out serious work on the study and development of a new Kazakh identity within the framework of Eurasianism. In particular, they studied the fate of the Russian and Kazakh peoples on the territory of the Eurasian steppe belt in a historical perspective, and analyzed the overall socio-cultural experiences of the two countries, both positive and negative. The common economic interests and the availability of a common border with Russia led to the preservation and use of Russian as the official language.

Despite the controversial image of Russia, there are now sufficient conditions for the strengthening of Russia's cultural influence in Kazakhstan. [1] Humanitarian projects the implementation of which does not require serious preparatory work, and needs only the financial and organizational costs (for example - the annual Eurasian Economic Youth Forum, aimed at the strengthening of contacts in the fields of science, education and business) can serve as the means of achieving this goal. Thus, the activation of humanitarian cooperation is the most urgent task facing Russian-Kazakh relations at the present stage, a high level of political culture and readiness for integration is the key for a successful implementation of large-scale humanitarian projects at the state level.

Uzbekistan

From the first days of independence Uzbekistan has taken a course on building Uzbek identity, in which there was no place for Russia. For twenty years, Uzbekistan repeatedly changed its foreign policy orientation. Until 2005 the country experienced a strong Western influence to the detriment of Russia's strategic interests. The history of the Uzbek people in Russia after 1991 was presented through the prism of the "aggression" of the Russian Empire and the Soviet Union and the Russian language was buried in the schools and universities, where even today the situation in this respect is ambiguous.

The attitude toward Russia in government circles and local population of Uzbekistan has been slowly changing for the better since 2005 because of the active Russian-Uzbek intergovernmental contacts after the Andijan events. This is despite the negative assessment of the continuing policy of the Russian Empire and Soviet Union, offences against countrymen working in Russia and some other factors. It is possible that the improvements in relations with Russia are contributed by its military (Collective Security Treaty Organization) and economy (wages for migrant workers), features that are attractive to Uzbekistan. This is reflected in the high school programs on the history and state of Uzbekistan, where since the mid-2000s Russia appears only as an important and reliable economic partner.

Thus, the attitude towards Russia in Uzbekistan is contradictory: on the one hand, public opinion asserts a positive image of the modern Russian-Uzbek economic relations, and on the other hand, it is dominated by propaganda, and promoted by negative evaluation of the historical past.

Unfortunately, neither the Eurasian idea, nor any other socio-cultural base in Uzbekistan could now be considered as a basis for integration of building relationships within the framework of a Eurasian Union, led by Russia.

The way out of this situation may be an intensification of Russian-Uzbek relations in the humanitarian field in the following areas:

• Deployment of state programs for social and cultural adaptation of migrant workers in Russia;
• Promotion of tolerance education programs for the citizens of Russia;
• Implementation of joint grant projects aimed at understanding the history and present state of Russian-Uzbek relations;
• Implementation of joint university projects, and the organization of training in Russian universities for Uzbek students and teachers not only in technical, but also in humanitarian specialties;
• Creation and supporting centers of the Russian language learning in Uzbekistan;
• Development of training programs for Uzbek Teachers of the Russian Language.

Currently, the Uzbek public has a growing interest in the Russian language. In this regard, the Russian leadership is to motivate the Russian scientific community to work with the citizens of Uzbekistan, as well as to fund costly humanitarian projects.

Kyrgyzstan

Photo: www.mesoeurasia.org

Over the past five years in Kyrgyzstan, there were two revolution, which resulted in a state of civil war in the country with all the ensuing consequences (economic recession, rising unemployment, poverty, social unrest, emigration of the population). Solving problems on its own is difficult to achieve for the Kyrgyzstan leadership in both short and long term perspective. Therefore, it is focused on foreign aid, particularly from the United States, China and Russia, which compete with each other to strengthen their position in Kyrgyzstan.

Russia continues enjoying significant political and economic influence in Kyrgyzstan but in cultural terms, it is losing its position.

Census data for Kyrgyzstan indicate the serious decline of the Russian language in the country. According to the latest census (2009), 9% of the population aged over 18 speak Russian as their native language, while 50% of representatives of the same age category consider Russian as their second language. As for Kyrgyzstan youth, among children aged 7-15 years, only 5% are Russian speakers and 26% speak Russian well enough to regard it as a second language.

However, with falling living standards, reduced quality of education and the growth of emigration sentiment in Kyrgyzstan today, you can’t even talk about any ideological motives for the republic's integration in the Eurasian area. With this in mind at the first stage Kyrgyzstan should be more tightly integrated into the Russian and Eurasian economy, which will create the necessary conditions for the implementation of humanitarian and cultural transformations in the long run. The next step is to increase the level and quality of Russian-Kyrgyzstan education and reform it in competition with American and European universities. The important task is the creation of centers of influence and the spread of Russian and Eurasian cultural identity, and regional research and education centers based on the European model, as well as attracting Kyrgyzstan youth to work in the Russian NGOs.

Tajikistan

For a long time, Tajikistan has been in a state of severe, protracted economic, social and cultural crisis, exit from which remains an urgent task even today.

The main sources of replenishment of the state budget are transfers from labor migrants working in Russia. According to official statistics, in 2011 900 thousand workers went from Tajikistan to Russia (of a total population of the republic of 7.6 million). More than 60% of Tajikistan's population lives below the poverty line.

Over the past twenty years in Tajikistan, there is a whole generation of young people who know very little about Russian history, culture and Russia's contribution to the development of their country. The current situation in the republic does not imply the presence of socio-cultural reasons for its integration in the Eurasian community. The level of education of the population is extremely low. In 2010 the Russian language was completely excluded from official use, which further weakened the cultural influence of Russia in Tajikistan.

Nevertheless, Tajikistan is ready to become a member of the Eurasian Union today. The main reason for this is the dependence of the national economy on external financial injections.

In order to strengthen its self-image and influence in Tajikistan, Russia should position itself as the most active explorer of economic and humanitarian policies in the country, to support the socio-political and intellectual establishment, to develop a system of student and academic exchange, to support the activities of NGOs and their work to attract promising young Tajiks.

***

Thus, in Central Asia today, there is a contradictory trend: on the one hand, Russia has been actively involved in the economic life of the Central Asian states; on the other hand, there is a cultural and linguistic squeezing of Russia out of the region (with the exception of Kazakhstan). In some countries of Central Asia (Tajikistan, Uzbekistan, Kyrgyzstan) the prerequisites for Eurasian integration are due, for the most part, to the orientation of their national economies to Russia since the Soviet Union, not to the existence of a common social and cultural area in the region. In the short term the key strategic partner and soul mate of Russia in terms of Eurasian integration will be only Kazakhstan. The strengthening of the integration aspirations of the rest of the region will depend on Russia's policy.

The primary objective of Russia in Central Asia should be the promotion of economic integration in Eurasia with subsequent intensification of contacts in the humanitarian sphere. You must create new conditions for the strengthening of Russian influence in the region, rather than trying to revive the past in Russia's relations with Central Asia. It is obvious that along with the involvement of young people and professionals from those countries in the activities of Russian NGOs, additional measures will be required to motivate the representatives of the Russian scientific community to work directly in the Central Asian republics.

1. Adilov VA The image of Russia in Kazakhstan: the experience of designing the country's image in the external environment. Author. Diss. ... Candidate. Sociologist. Sciences: 23.00.02. Moscow State Humanitarian University, 2009.