Staunton, September 24 – The Russian
Assembly of Kaliningrad has announced plans to begin a campaign against what it
says is the already “far-reaching Germanization” of that non-contiguous Russian
oblast which, it argues, is designed to lead to the degradation of Russians
there and ultimately the separation of the oblast from the Russian Federation.
(The reference to Germanization, of
course, touches on the history of the oblast, which was Germany East Prussia
until the end of World War II when the German population was killed or expelled
and the land absorbed by the Soviet Union as a trophy territory and renamed
Kaliningrad.)
In a declaration adopted on Monday
and posted on the nationalist Rex information agency yesterday, the
self-described “public organization” says that it opposes both Germanization
and the Westernization of which it is a part in order to prevent the further
spread of separatist ideas (iarex.ru/articles/52023.html).
The group adds that bureaucrats and
cultural workers sometimes intentionally and sometimes because of a failure to
act are “zombifying” the youth of Kaliningrad and promoting “hatred to Russia
and Russians” so that they will accept the notion that “’Kaliningrad is not
Russia’” and be ready when “x hour” arrives for a Ukrainian-style “Maidan.””
In its declaration, the group
asserted that “we consider it far from accidental” that some people have put up
German flags in various parts of the oblast, actions that have brought harsh
legal responses from the authorities. But the crackdown on such things has been
insufficient, the Russian Assembly says.
“With regret, we note that the local
authorities have not opposed the ‘net’-based processes of separatist
mobilization of public opinion,” the declaration says. “More than that, a large
number of leading persons of the region, including the culture minister” are
guilty of distracting the people in a “pro-Western” direction.
The declaration continues: “The
leadership of the chief higher educational institution [in the oblast] – Kant
Federal University – has become ‘a collective promoter’ of Westernism in
humanities studies and in essence has destroyed Russian historical and
philosophical education.” Now, it is trying to force students “’to study’
Russophobic literature.”
The Russian Assembly says that its
most important task is to conduct propaganda to convince Russians in
Kaliningrad that they are part of the Russian world, and to that end, it wants
to create a Center for Russian Culture to give classes, hold conferences, and
promote Russian values.
Russian people in the oblast, the
declaration specifies, must not feel themselves isolated from Russians
elsewhere and thus “helpless” in the face of the actions of other nationalities
like “the Armenians, Belarusians, Jews, Lithuanians, Poles and so on.”
The Russian Assembly of Kaliningrad
pledges to cooperate with the Russian World Foundtion “and with other
structures interested in the preservation and strengthening of Russian culture
in the Western borderlands of Russia” against a rising tide of “lack of respect
and indifference” to Russian values among others.
“Many Russian people,” the Assembly
says, “today have lost hope and faith in the benefits of unity and helping one
another. Negative trends in the Russian world can be changed only by decisive
actions of those in the Russian movement who really love their fatherland and
do not simply imitate patriotism in public.”
“Without a Russian policy, without a
course intended to promote national uniqueness in enlightenment and culture,”
the group says, “Russia is condemned to vegetating and degradation. We call on
citizens to unite and acting in the name of the patriotic goals proclaimed by
the Russian Assembly of Kaliningrad.”
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