Paul Goble
Staunton,
November 24 – Speculation that Moscow is planning a new round of regional
amalgamation is generating demands that other borders within the Russian
Federation be changed, just as Vladimir Putin’s previous efforts to combine
smaller non-Russian republics with larger and predominantly ethnic Russian
regions did during the first round five years ago.
Both
the potential “losers” in any such prospective transfers and Moscow are certain
to oppose these moves, the latter because of the way in which such shifts of
territory and population would decrease their power and ability to get federal
subsidies and the former because of how this could disorder the economy and
trigger uncontrolled activism from below.
The
most widely publicized of such efforts in recent months was Chechen leader
Ramzan Kadyrov’s call for changing the borders between Ingushetia and his
republic, an appeal that Moscow rejected noting that the Constitution requires
mutual agreement. But Kadyrov’s suggestion was generally viewed as a reflection
of his and his republic’s special status.
More
intriguing are similar claims being advanced by ethnic activists elsewhere,
either on their own or with the possible covert support of the leaders of their
federal subjects or even of Moscow, which may see this as a way to weaken those
leaders or undermine efforts to promote cooperation among adjoining republics
and oblasts.
A
case that could create all these problems and thus may reflect all these
reasons is to be found in Chuvashia, a Christian Turkic republic in the Middle
Volga. Activists there have appealed to
the head of the regional parliament to “initiative at the federal level a
review of the borders of the republic” (mariuver.wordpress.com/2012/11/22/chuvashia-me/#more-32468).
The
appeal, published this week, said that “the current borders of the Chuvash
Republic, established in the 1920s, do not correspond to present-day realities.” Consequently, to “correct this historical
injustice,” it said, portions of Nizhni Novogor and Ulyanovsk oblast and of the
republics of Tatarstan and Mari El need to be transferred to within its
borders.
Officials
and experts in Mari El are already furious because the district the backs of
the appeal want to be shifted to Chuvashia include the approaches to the bridge
across the Chekorsak Hydro-Electric Station, an object which the appeal says of
such “strategic importance” that it must not be part of the neighboring
republic.
Mari El experts have pointed out
that “the theme of ‘historical justice’ in Russia is always quite complicated.” Gennady Ayplatov, a historian at Mari State
University, said that if one were to follow the logic of the appeal, then
Chuvashia would also have to be given part of Kirov oblast.” Clearly, he continued, “the Chuvash activists
have chosen “a dangerous path.
According to the appeal’s authors, however, they are not
just seeking the righting of past wrongs but a means to promote “the general
development” of Chuvashia. But
commentators there have noted that among the authors are nationalists who earlier
and without success have “demanded the return of historical names” in place of
those imposed during Soviet times.
Pyotr
Stolyarov, the head of the Mari El district that the Chuvash would like to
absord, says that the whole idea is “completely absurd” and suggests that those
behind it “have nothing better to do.”
But at the same time, he said that a more logical solution would be for “the
northern part of Chuvashia to become part of Mari El, something he said no one
was proposing.
Stolyarov
added that unnamed outsiders may be doing this to spark tensions among the
adjoining regions and republics of the Middle Volga. He does not mention Moscow or Russian
officials, but they are the most likely candidates given the recent media
campaigns against Tatarstan and Bashkortostan.
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