Vsevolod Bederson,Institute of philosophy and law of the Ural branch of RAS, PSU, CCHPS

The identification with a “cultural hero” during the regional electoral campaigns

2013Focus on legislatures

“Identification invites us to specify the agents that do the identifying” (Brubaker&Cooper)

Reduction (Assman)

Regional legislative elections September 2013

Bashkortostan BuryatiyaKalmykiyaYakutiya-SakhaKhakasiyaChechnyaZabaikalsky krai Arkhangelskaya oblastVladimirskaya oblastIvanovskaya oblastKemerovskaya oblastRostovskaya oblastSmolenskaya oblastUlyanovskaya oblastIrkutskaya oblastYaroslavskaya oblast

Bashkortostan Irkutskaya oblastYaroslavskaya oblast_________________Yakutiya-SakhaKhakasiyaChechnyaArkhangelskaya oblastIvanovskaya oblastUlyanovskaya oblast

Bashkortostan is a region with an acute conflict between the Bashkir elite and Tatar and Russian communities, as well as the conflict between the "old" President Rakhimov and the "new" one Khamitov and their cronies.

Summary• The phenomenon of “cultural heroes" is a

serious political risk and conflict-generating mechanism

• The phenomenon of “cultural heroes" is not just a political resource

• "Cultural heroes" seems to be an inefficient tool for non-personified electoral campaigns

• The territorial identity in contemporary Russia is not a resource or a tool exploited throughout the electoral struggle.

Vielen Dank für Ihre Aufmerksamkeit!