Dictionaries explain that the word "nationality" means that a certain group of people belongs to a specific ethnic group. At the end of the nineteenth century it was determined by the language spoken by the person, and his religion. Those. Nationality “Russian” was indicated only for those people who spoke exclusively Russian.
Soon the situation changed. In the USSR, a person was obliged to choose a nationality that coincided with the nationality of one of the parents. So, at least, the Constitution of that time demanded. However, in fact, there were curious cases.
Once a girl received a passport, her father was Ossetian, and her mother was Ukrainian. By the way, parents at the same time passed their passports for exchange. In the same passport office.
As expected, their nationalities were recorded in passports. As expected, the girl in a statement wrote, "I ask you to assign father nationality." The deadline has passed, and the girl receives a passport, which says that she is Russian. The citizen, perplexed, turns to the passportist, whose answer was stunned. He sounded like this:
“Do you care?”
The girl did not care: in the USSR everyone was equal. But when her parents received passports, the shock became even stronger. In the column "nationality" Russian was indicated by the father, Russian - by the mother. So this family has Russified. Only one thing calmed them: both the mother and the girl’s father, their relatives in the fourth knee were born and grew up in a completely Russian city, in the middle lane. And Ossetians and Ukrainians were recorded by the nationality of their parents.
The current Constitution of the Russian Federation directly indicates that a person has the right to independently determine his nationality, and no one can interfere with this. Sometimes funny cases arise. In one of the major cities in the eighties they played a Russian wedding between a student from Cameroon and a black girl from South Africa. Now their grandson, charming dark-skinned, broad-nosed and puffy-faced Luis NJOGU Mwai, who is about 30 today, indicates in all profiles: nationality - Russian. Reading his documents caused more than one smile from officials.
But Louis is really Russian. For his incomplete 30 years, he has been to Africa four times, has a residence permit in one very large Russian city, is fluent in Russian and four other languages, among which, alas, there are no dialects of his parents. And most importantly - his soul is Russian: kind, broad, responsive.
The concept of "Russian nationality" has become much broader. We still share the habit of Russian and Ukrainians, Belarusians and Kazakhs. For Turkey, Egypt, Japan and many other countries, for any representative of the territory on which the USSR used to be, there is only one nationality: Russian.
There is a certain greatness in this word, great pride, involvement in history. After all, Russians are a Russian national ballet that has been considered unsurpassed for more than a hundred years. Russians are a victory over fascist Germany and the first flight into space.
Russian is a proud, strong and great word. You must always remember this. We must be proud that we are Russians.
