“Republic day” congratulatory discourse as a component of regional identity policy: does ethnicity matter?

Introduction. The article uses materials on the Russian “national republics” to show how the ethnic component manifests itself in the discourse of the “Republic Day” holiday, formally associated with the regional supra-ethnic identity, but in real fact capable to act as a discursive platform for actualizing the ethnic component by the republican authorities. Aims. To determine the extent of cross-regional variation in the institutionalization of ethnicity in the context of one of the components of regional identity policy in the Russian “national republics”, associated with official public address by republican leaders to the region residents on the annual celebrations of “The Day of Republic”. Methods. Discourse analysis of congratulatory texts incorporated into the cross-regional comparative analysis of 20 Russian “national republics” for 2012-2019. Results. It has been concluded that under the present consideration cross-regional variability of ethnicity institutionalization in the identity policy of Russian “national republics” in actual fact is absent. The generally shared model of ethnicity institutionalization as fixed through the analysis of the congratulatory discourse in relation to the “days of the republics” is proposed to be outlined as the model of balanced ethnic diversity accentuation. However, within the formulated model, in the case of Buryatia, Yakutia, Tyva and Chuvashia, one can detect the variability of semantic arrangements with respect to ethnicity. Conclusion. Ethnicity does matter in the context of the congratulatory discourse by the Russian republics leaders on a key regional holiday, although its discursive institutionalization does not manifest a large-scale variability in the cross-regional dimension.