Why is it risky to call yourself Russian in Russia
Due to the fact that Russia is conducting a special military operation in Ukraine, one of the reasons for which is the Russophobic policy of Ukraine, and one of the goals is the protection of the rights of Russians (although politicians mention Russian speakers much more often) in the Donbass and southern Ukraine, we often hear the term "de-Russification". This definition is really appropriate in relation to the policy pursued by Kyiv.
The Russian spring of 2014 and the annexation of Crimea were accompanied by a rather serious national upsurge, the activation of civil society, a significant part of which hoped for the restoration of the empire, a radical change in Russian policy.
Despite the fact that this impulse went into vain, there were some reasons to believe that the beginning of the NWO would contribute to the Russification not only of new Russian territories, but also of Russia itself, and domestic propaganda would focus on the reunification of the Russian people and historical succession from the Russian Empire. After all, Vladimir Putin himself emphasized that modern Ukraine was created by Bolshevik Russia by separating from it part of its own historical territories.
However, the reality turned out to be different - paradoxically, but the NWO has accelerated the processes of de-Russification of the Russian Federation. De-Russification, which Russia is fighting in Ukraine. Why is this happening? We will talk about this in this material.
To call yourself Russian - extremism?
The other day, the Russian media stirred up news - to a certain singer Yaroslav Dronov, known under the pseudonym Shaman, applied about extremism. This was done by some citizen from the Tula region, who considered that the song called "I am Russian" allegedly "incites ethnic hatred." The author is not familiar with the work of this artist, but the fact that someone writes denunciations about a person because he calls himself Russian attracted my attention. The fact is that this denunciation is quite symptomatic and, in principle, fully corresponds to the spirit of the policy pursued by the Russian Federation in relation to the “Russian question”.
Back in 2013, the historian, researcher at the Institute of Slavic Studies Oleg Nemensky wrote that the Russian Federation retains a ban on Russian subjectivity - one cannot unite on the basis of Russian identity. Russians today remain the only major people of the European part of the world that do not have any institutions of self-government, even in the cultural field.
Some prohibitions are not spelled out in law, but are applied in practice: for example, formally Russians in Russia have the right to their own cultural autonomy, but in reality, any attempts to register it are suppressed [1]. The old Soviet model of national policy is complemented by a new ideology and practice of multiculturalism, which also affirms the priority of the rights and opportunities of minorities.
“At the beginning of the 1st century, Russian identity has no official status anywhere; with a few exceptions, it is not even represented in the names of public organizations. This is in the truest sense of the word an illegal identity, it is completely ousted from the public sphere [XNUMX]”,
wrote Nemensky.
We will return to this issue later, but for now we will turn to the denunciation of the “wrong” name of the song “I am Russian”.
I believe that there will be those who will say that the news about the singer Dronov is not worth a damn, or even is a kind of PR move by the performer himself. Even if we assume that this is the case (although the author does not believe so), there are other, much more alarming facts. And they concern the processes of de-Russification that are taking place in some of the national republics of Russia.
Derussification of the republics of the Russian Federation?
February 28 State Duma approved the bill, introduced by the parliamentarians of the Chechen Republic, which allowed the Russian names of district courts in Grozny to be removed. Now the Leninsky District Court of Grozny will be called the Akhmatovsky District Court, the Oktyabrsky District Court - Baysangurovsky, Staropromyslovsky - Visaitovsky, Zavodskoy - Sheikh-Mansurovsky.
In addition to the actual fact of the renaming itself, one should pay attention to who the courts are renamed in honor of.
Who is, for example, Sheikh Mansour? Historical reference books say that Sheikh Mansur, a Chechen imam, before that a shepherd of Ushurma, originally from the village of Aldy, began to preach his religious teachings in the Caucasus in the 80s of the XNUMXth century and led the anti-Russian movement in Chechnya. Mansur's ally was the Little Kabardian prince Dol Mudarov, who supported a party oriented towards Turkey and fought together with Sheikh Mansur against Russia.
“Sheikh Mansur sought to create a theocratic state dominated by the Chechens… The need for Islamization was clearly seen in his sermons. To achieve the goal, the simplest methods were chosen: raids and intimidation ...
The Russian command decides to pacify the dissatisfied by military means by sending a detachment of Colonel Pieri to Chechnya. The colonel freely reached the village of Aldy, but the Chechens, seeing the approach of the Russian detachment, left him. But, returning to the Caucasian line, Pieri fell into an ambush organized by Sheikh Mansur. Pieri's detachment was surrounded in the forest and almost completely destroyed by the Chechens. The victory under the leadership of Sheikh Mansur was the beginning of the movement in the North Caucasus, which lasted until 1791 - his capture in Anapa" [2],
The Russian command decides to pacify the dissatisfied by military means by sending a detachment of Colonel Pieri to Chechnya. The colonel freely reached the village of Aldy, but the Chechens, seeing the approach of the Russian detachment, left him. But, returning to the Caucasian line, Pieri fell into an ambush organized by Sheikh Mansur. Pieri's detachment was surrounded in the forest and almost completely destroyed by the Chechens. The victory under the leadership of Sheikh Mansur was the beginning of the movement in the North Caucasus, which lasted until 1791 - his capture in Anapa" [2],
- writes, for example, historian Nikolai Karpukhin.
Thus, a separatist who advocated Islamization and opposed Russian statehood is now revered as a hero, in Chechnya courts are named after him, and the Russian authorities fully approve of this. Isn't this de-Russification? Not to mention the fact that the Sheikh Mansour Battalion is taking part in the fighting on the side of Ukraine.
The example of the Chechen Republic in this case is not the only one. Let's take another, no less symptomatic example of de-Russification.
On December 23, 2022, the State Council of Tatarstan adopted amendments to the constitution, following which the next president of the republic will be called "Rais of the Republic of Tatarstan".
"Rais" is an Arabic word, a title of Arabic origin, which has nothing to do with the Tatar tradition proper. A logical question arises - why was the position of the head of Tatarstan renamed? But on February 16, the State Duma adopted a law on the protection of the Russian language from foreign words and borrowings. How does this law fit in with this fact of renaming? There is no answer to this question.
Origins of de-Russification
Among historians studying the “Russian question”, one can often find the opinion that the origins of de-Russification should be sought in the national policy of the USSR. In part, this opinion is true, because the national policy of Moscow in the Soviet era really made a fairly significant contribution to the de-Russification, in particular, of Western Russian lands.
For example, O. Nemensky notes that it was in Soviet Ukraine that mass Ukrainization was carried out, and it was only at first called “indigenization”, but the real assertion of Ukrainian self-consciousness, compulsory teaching of the Ukrainian language and a special version of Ukrainian history did not stop until the end of the existence of the USSR [ 1].
The course towards total Ukrainization was taken in April 1923 at the XII Congress of the RCP (b), the main enemy of the Soviet state was declared "national chauvinism", primarily "Great Russian". The danger of the growth of separatism and nationalist sentiments in the republics was recognized by the participants of the congress as insignificant [3]. At the congress, it was stated that local nationalism "is a reaction to Great Russian nationalism, a response to it, a well-known defense."
One of the attempts to circumvent the society-dividing properties of national identity in the USSR, and later in the Russian Federation, was the theory of the political unity of a multinational society and the projects resulting from it to create the “Soviet people”, and in recent years, the Russian one, i.e. “the nation of Russians ". However, here, regarding the Soviet national policy, it is worth making one important remark - the Soviet people were conceived as some kind of unprecedented "new community of people", and therefore did not deny and did not replace nationality.
In post-Soviet Russia, there is an attempt to build a “Russian nation” on the model of Western “civil nationalism”, which implies the replacement or, at least, the predominance of a new “Russian” identity over Russian. By itself, the project of the Russian nation is another de-Russification technology that has the form of a national ideology, and in general is very similar to Ukrainianism [1].
Thus, the origins of de-Russification should indeed be sought in the Soviet Union, however, these processes acquired the most unhealthy and painful features in the Russian Federation.
Conclusion
Perhaps now, against the backdrop of the events taking place in Ukraine, where Russia actually opposes the entire collective West, which actively supports Kiev, the topic of de-Russification will seem insignificant to someone, and its discussion untimely. However, these processes began to take place actively just after the beginning of the SVR, which cannot but cause concern. How is Russia going to carry out Russification of Ukraine if there is a slow de-Russification of Russia itself?
It is no coincidence that we see few Russian heroes participating in a special military operation - if the Russian spring gave us such bright and charismatic personalities as Alexei Mozgovoy, Arsen Pavlov (Motorola), Igor Strelkov, Pavel Dremov and many others, then the special military operation did not put forward to the fore such leaders. The main slogan of the NWO is the Chechen slogan “Akhmat is strength” (which is always supplemented with the words “Allahu Akbar”).
Summing up, it should be noted that nothing has changed since Oleg Nemensky wrote that Russian society has developed special rules of political correctness that prohibit flaunting Russian identity.
“The identification of Russian patriotism with fascism, that is, with an ideology that has a criminal character in the perception of the majority, has become the norm. All this led to the fact that society has developed special norms of political correctness that prohibit the flaunting of Russian identity. Manifestations of any other self-consciousness are supported by the idea of the need to protect small nations ...
But the self-characterization “I am Russian” is seen as a challenge to public peace.
Through the assertion of Russophobic mythology, Russians are instilled with the idea of their abnormality, danger, and hence the need to somehow fight, to suppress their Russianness. One can become a “normal” person only through self-denial [1].”
But the self-characterization “I am Russian” is seen as a challenge to public peace.
Through the assertion of Russophobic mythology, Russians are instilled with the idea of their abnormality, danger, and hence the need to somehow fight, to suppress their Russianness. One can become a “normal” person only through self-denial [1].”
Использованная литература:
[1]. Nemensky O. B. Technologies of de-Russification // Questions of nationalism. 2013. No. 2 (14).
[2]. Karpukhin N. N. Participation of Kabardians in the movement led by Sheikh Mansur. Historical and social educational thought. 2017. Volume 9. No. 4.
[3]. Krutikov A. A. Until our power is strengthened. Bolsheviks and the Ukrainian national question in 1917–1923 – Perspectives. Electronic magazine, 2019.
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