Anatoly Wasserman: Aggressive - not Russian. We need civilization, not nationalism
Some vigorously propagated versions of nationalism are mutually exclusive. For example, reducing government - proclaiming the need to create a Russian republic in all territories not currently allocated to national territorial entities, followed by the actual (and maybe even legal) departure of the Russian authorities and the Russian people from these national territories - has a longstanding history: this was called for from perestroika years from the rostrum of the Congress of People's Deputies of the USSR in unkind memory. But from the same rostrum they talked about national cleansing - the expulsion from the Russian Federation of all who actually - and even legally - do not apply to the Russian people.
By the way, why in this matter the actual and legal situation are different? Yes, because it is not a secret for anybody: many people unconditionally belonging to the Russian people according to all criteria that are verifiable, at the same time, for various reasons, are formally listed not as Russians, but as representatives of other nations. For example, to this day, the massive Belarusianization and Ukrainization in the Soviet era, and often for political reasons that seemed to be well-founded, were separated from Russia by the Belarusian and Ukrainian union republics - and all Russians born in the territories of these republics, drawn up in documents as Belarusians and Ukrainians. There is also a reverse direction process: cultural evolution. For example, my grandmothers and grandfathers, born to Jews, by the end of their cultural life did not differ much from the rest of the Russians, and even my parents kept the Jewish people apart from the habit of complaining about the various oppression of this nation (I’m not complaining). Given this cultural evolution, it has long been recognized: Russian is not a nation in the classical sense, but a civilization. Russian - anyone who is brought up in Russian cultural traditions, who wants to develop and improve Russian culture. There are, of course, other ways to become Russian - but this method works flawlessly.
But just because of the civilization nature of Russianness, any nationalist slogans - from the aggressive expansion of Russia to its ethnic cleansing (not to mention diminution) - contradict not just well-known Russian traditions, but the very essence of Russian culture, the essence of Russian civilization. It is precisely because of this contradiction that they all remain the inheritance of quite obvious - although sometimes aggressive - minorities. As far as I can tell, watching the experience of many such movements and their leaders (from Barkashov to Shiropaev), all of them are doomed to remain marginalized, which the Russian people themselves perceive as distorted and definitely non-Russian.
For aggressive nationalism to really become strong, many decades of state agitation in its favor are needed, as happened in Ukraine. And then - although in Ukraine now aggressive nationalism has already reached strength, under which the majority can suppress, but still the overwhelming minority of aggressive nationalists even in Ukraine remains a minority. But in the rest of Russia, in my opinion, it certainly does not have any chances. This, of course, does not mean that we can calmly wash our hands and wait for the historical pattern to do everything. But at least we can be sure: our own efforts, necessary to implement this historical pattern, are not in vain.
- Anatoly Vasserman
- http://www.odnako.org/blogs/agressivniy-ne-russkiy-nam-nuzhno-civilizatorstvo-a-ne-nacionalizm/
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