This article examines the contemporary project of the "ethnic revival" of the Ainu in Kamchatka. The study aims to critically analyse the socio-political mechanisms underpinning this movement, the objectives of its leader, A.V. Nakamura, and the ultimate reasons for its failure to achieve official recognition of the Ainu as an indigenous minority people of the Russian Federation. Methodologically, the research employs a case study approach, drawing on historical analysis, critical examination of census data and media sources, and the author’s field materials. This allows for the application of a constructivist lens to deconstruct the phenomenon. The central finding is that the campaign led by Nakamura does not constitute a genuine ethnic revival but rather represents an ethno-constructivist simulacrum. This simulacrum is a phantom community, legitimised through statistical data and media discourse despite the absence of a substantiated, collective Ainu identity among its purported members. The study concludes that the primary driver of this project is the ongoing ethnicization of natural resource management, wherein ethnicity is instrumentalised as a legal gateway to access fishing quotas and other economic benefits. The practical significance of the work lies in its demonstration of the pitfalls associated with the primordialist perception of ethnicity in Russian policy and legislation, which creates incentives for strategic ethnic entrepreneurship and simulacra, thereby complicating genuine indigenous rights protection.
Ainu, Kamchadal Kuril Ainu, Indigenous People, Ethnic Revival, Ethnopolitical Myth, Kamchatka
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