Paul
Goble
Staunton, January 7 – Yaroslav
Zolotaryov, a prominent Siberian regionalist leader who headed the Council of
the Siberian People until Russian officials forced it to shut down in 2013,
says that Moscow has failed to suppress either the Siberian language or
Siberian identity and that both will re-emerge stronger than ever when Vladimir
Putin’s repressive regime weakens.
In a commentary for the AfterEmpire
portal, the Siberian regionalist points out that “the movement for a Siberian
language was begun almost immediately after its appearance as a literary
standard” and took the form first of all in a network of Internet communities (afterempire.info/2017/01/05/siberian-2/).
The movement was
especially active a decade ago, with a Living Journal page real_siberian, a website volgota.com , and a Siberian Wikipedia
account ru.wikipedia.org/wiki/Википедия_на_«сибирском_языке.
But all were subject to hacker attacks and Russian government interference and
either closed down and became inactive, Zolotaryov says.
A new upsurge in Siberian identity
and language activity occurred around the 2010 census when activists tried to
force Russian census takers to record what Siberians said they were – Siberians
– rather than reclassifying them as ethnic Russians. That effort was only
partially successful.
On the one hand, it led to the
formation of a Council of the Siberian People which crafted a program before
Moscow forced its closure. (For the program text, see ichkeria.info/index.php/about-russia/8356-sovet-sibirskogo-naroda; for Moscow’s
moves to close it down, see wikireality.ru/wiki/Закрытие_Совета_сибирского_народа.)
But
on the other, activists had some limited success in getting their numbers
registered as Siberians, even though again Moscow intervened to try to force
the reclassification of all such people as ethnic Russians to boost the total
of the latter. (On these competing efforts, see windowoneurasia2.blogspot.com/2013/12/window-on-eurasia-east-of-urals-people.html and windowoneurasia2.blogspot.com/2013/09/window-on-eurasia-moscow-admits-those.html).
According
to Zolotaryov, “the measures the authorities have taken to suppress information
about these issues are ineffective because the activity of the communities was
only a manifestation of specific attitudes in society, including in Siberian
society.” And closing down such discussions only drives things underground and
makes any resolution more difficult.
But
the Siberian regionalist expresses confidence that “in the case of any
weakening of the political censorship or the appearance of an occasion for
discussion, one should expect a rapid rebirth of organized structures of the
Siberian national movement, as has happened more than once in the past.”
(For
background on the Siberian language and identity in recent times, see among
others windowoneurasia.blogspot.com/2008/05/window-on-eurasia-activists-work-to.html, windowoneurasia.blogspot.com/2009/06/window-on-eurasia-moscows-anti.html, windowoneurasia2.blogspot.com/2013/01/window-on-eurasia-siberia-where-bright.html, windowoneurasia2.blogspot.com/2013/02/window-on-eurasia-civil-suit-seeks-to.html, windowoneurasia2.blogspot.com/2013/08/window-on-eurasia-siberia-can-do-very.html, , windowoneurasia2.blogspot.com/2013/08/window-on-eurasia-independent-siberia.html, windowoneurasia2.blogspot.com/2014/08/window-on-eurasia-moscow-blocks.html, windowoneurasia2.blogspot.com/2014/08/window-on-eurasia-putin-police-block.html, windowoneurasia2.blogspot.com/2014/07/window-on-eurasia-scholars-to-discuss.html, windowoneurasia2.blogspot.com/2014/07/window-on-eurasia-any-siberians-no.html, windowoneurasia2.blogspot.com/2014/06/window-on-eurasia-russian-officials.html, windowoneurasia2.blogspot.com/2014/08/window-on-eurasia-moscow-now-worried.html, windowoneurasia2.blogspot.com/2015/01/new-russian-law-said-making-siberia.html and windowoneurasia2.blogspot.com/2016/08/senior-omsk-official-accused-of.html.)
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