Changes in the Ethnic Heterogeneity of Russian Regions over the 2010s‒2020s in the Light of Ethnic Contact Zones

Ethnic contact zones (ECZs), being one of the components of the geocultural space and ethnic system, are characterized by hierarchy and by mosaic, spatial, and temporal dynamics. The novelty of the study is related to the development of a methodology for determining the phases of development of ECZs, which has been tested at the level of Russian regions in accordance with the results of the 2010 and 2021 population censuses. Statistical, graphic, and cartographic research methods are used. Four main phases of development of ECZs have been identified: (1) the initial phase, (2) the growth phase, (3) the beginning of the dissolution of the ECZ, and (4) the return to a monoethnic environment and the completion of ethnic replacement. At present, there are no regions in Russia where the formation of new ECZs begins that are associated with an increase in the share of the ethnic Russian population. At the same time, in most minority regions, there is now an increase in the share of titular peoples. The republics of Altai, Buryatia, Bashkortostan, and Khakassia, as well as the Chukotka Autonomous Okrug, have entered the phase of growth of ECZs. The phase of the beginning of the dissolution of the ECZ, when the titular peoples exceeded half of the population and continue to increase their share, characterizes most of the minority regions of the North Caucasus, as well as the republics of Tatarstan, Tyva, and Sakha (Yakutia). Monoethnicity has been achieved by two republics: Chechnya and Ingushetia. The category of regions with an increase in ethnic mosaic pattern due to an increase in the proportion of the non-ethnic Russian population, which corresponds to the initial phase of the development of ECZs, comprised a whole group of ethnic Russian regions, including Moscow and St. Petersburg. However, the bulk of ethnic Russian regions still fell into the categories corresponding to the phases of the dissolution of ECZs and the transition to the status of monoethnic territories. Thus, most regions of the country, both ethnic Russian and minority, in the second decade of the 21st century, moved towards the dissolution of ethno-contact zones and the growth of monoethnicity, which confirms the conclusion made earlier by ethnogeographers that the population of Russia was being drawn into their minority formations.