SUMMARY:

Ekaterina Khodzhaeva investigates how the census was constructed as a political and practical problem in the Russian-language central and Tatarstan press, in 2002 and 2010, who the major newsmakers and groups of interests were, and which factors caused some issues and conflicts to become “problems” while others became marginalized. She analyzes different registers and types of oppositional discourses and shows the intertextuality of the media discourse on the census. Special attention is given to the problem of the “self-determination of Tatar people” as it was constructed in the local and central press in 2002 and again in 2010. Within this theme, Khodzhaeva considers issues such as the “breaking up” of the Tatar nation; the Bashkirization of Tatars in Bashkortostan; the problem of Kriashen (baptized Tatars); the special case of the Bulgar identity; and the issue of “native language.” Khodzhaeva identifies a reduction of intensity in nationalist rhetoric in Tatarstan in the period between the two censuses and offers explanations for it.