Multiculturalism in Russia and Tatar identity

It is a widely-accepted fact that cultural differences between societies have existed since the beginning of the history. The main problem with these cultural differences is the urge to assimilate or ignore them. A secondary problem is the artificial construction of the identity within the society. This is regarded as the threadbare tailoring to a garment: either hems are hastily elongated to fit society's ever-growing limbs or the body is forced to comply with the ill-fitting design. Although the efforts to create identity in the Russian Federation came to the forefront at the collapse of the Soviet Union, its origins are before Tsarist Russia. With the identity of The Soviet Man (Homosoveticus), which was created during the Soviet period, the free life of the Soviet peoples and their will to express their identity was taken away from them. Hunger to the identity of the peoples of the region has shown itself through the collapse of the Soviet Union and pushed the peoples of the region to conflict with both Russian and Slavic peoples. The aim of this study is to examine the multiculturalism of Russia and to explain how the Tatar Turk identity influenced it and vice versa while contributing slightly less than Slavic culture. As the famous Russian idiom goes "If you dig into Russian [identity] you will find Tatar beneath". This expression will be examined by applying to quantitative data collection and screening methods along with its effects on Russian multiculturalism. Keywords: Russia, Multiculturalism, Tatar, Identity, Construction of Identity, Assimilation