Paul
Goble
Staunton, February 25 – Stung by two
recent indications that Moscow is now working behind the scenes to downgrade
the status of their republic, residents of Chuvashia in the Middle Volga region,
have responded by demanding their republic be renamed the Republic of Chuvashia
-- Volga Bulgaria to reflect its history and to allow them to defend their
interests.
On February 12, in a report on the “Vremya”
news program of Russia’s First Channel, Chuvashia and Udmurtia, a Christian
Turkic and Finno-Ugric republic respectively, were listed on the screen as “the
Chuvash Oblast” and “the Udmurt Oblast” even though all other national
formations were properly described (www.irekle.org/news/i708.html).
That
sparked outrage in the local media and blogosphere, all the more so because
this broadcast came only weeks after some Duma members had suggested that
republics be eliminated and folded into larger, Russian-dominated oblasts or
krays. Some of the Chuvash outlets
suggested that their republic was now slated for such a fate.
Two
days later, Andrey Kulagin, a deputy on the republic’s State Council,
challenged Chuvash head Mikhail Ignatyev about the second irritant. He asked
Kulagin to explain why republic officials last year had unilaterally dropped
references to “statehood” in the republic’s constitution.
Ignatyev’s
response did little to calm the situation.
According to one report, Ignatyev said that “the level of life of the Chuvash
people does not depend on whether the Constitution mentions a state formation
or not” (a-b-belov.livejournal.com/337792.html).
Given the “Vremya” fiasco, that only added fuel to the fire.
(It
is worth noting that this Constitutional change has been much criticized in the
Chuvash blogosphere. For an example of a
detailed legal critique of what Ignatyev and his command have done, see, among
other, chuvashiya.livejournal.com/364950.html).
The Chuvash have responded in a most
interesting way. Last week, a group of
leading intellectuals and public figures petitioned the State Council in
Cheboksary to “return to the region its historical name, ‘the Republic of
Chuvashia-Volga Bulgaria’” (chuvashiya.livejournal.com/403078.html
and ria.ru/society/20130221/924100852.html).
The appeal points out that
in 1993, all the former autonomous republics except Chuvashia were successful
in having their land renamed. Thus, Mari became Mari Il, North Osetia became
North Osetia – Alania, Yakutia became Sakha and so on, and the Chuvash ASSR
should have become the Republic of Chuvashia-Volga Bulgaria. But that didn’t happen even though the idea
was promoted already in the 1920s.
It continues by noting that “The
Government, the State Council of the Chuvash Republic and all of us are the
heirs of the ancient Bulgar civilization, its history, language and culture”
and that all can only “be concerned by the situation” that has emerged as a result
of the catastrophic decline in the number of the Chuvash people.”
Based on the figures of the 2010
census, the appeal says, the number of Chuvash in the Russian Federation over
the previous eight years had declined by 200,000 and over the last 25 had
fallen by 410,000.
“Restoring the historical name of
the republic will raise the status of the region,” it continues, “give a chance
for the unification and consolidation of the forces of the Chuvash people in
overcoming the difficulties in the popularization of our native history and
native language, promote the rebirth of cultural and historical values, and
raise the image of Chuvash scholars in the international community.”
Cheboksary officials have now
acknowledged that they have received the appeal and are studying Russian laws
governing requests for change in names. They have made no promises than that as
to when they will respond to the Chuvash people regarding this new request.
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