Paul
Goble
Staunton, March 4 – Tatars and other
non-Russians can effectively defend themselves only if they understand that
Moscow’s goal is the destruction of their state institutions rather than their
languages and cultures and then work to defend those institutions rather than focus
on cultural and linguistic issues alone, Maksim Goryunov says.
The Russian commentator says that
the Tatars and other non-Russians have failed to understand what Moscow plans
and thus are defending against secondary threats rather than the primary ones,
focusing on the defense of languages and cultures rather than republic institutions
(business-gazeta.ru/article/414567
reposted at region.expert/echpochmak/).
After
the Soviet Union disintegrated, Goryunov continues, many in Moscow concluded
that the Bolsheviks had been wrong to set up the non-Russian republics because that
did not save the country as the communists had hoped but rather set the stage
for the demise of the Soviet Union and, if nothing is changed, for that of the
Russian Federation as well.
This
shift in policy was never declared “ex
cathedra,” he says. At the official
level, Moscow appeared to “remain true to Soviet humanism, but experts close to
the powers that be began to say that Russia must forget Lenin and follow the
path of France,” which has actively promoted the elimination of “borders” among
Brittany, Corsica and Normandy.”
The
alternative for Russia was the Chinese approach, but Russians did not want to
be viewed as equally repressive and therefore preferred the soft variant of
destroying non-Russian entities offered by France. “Three former ministers for
nationality affairs, Valery Tishkov, Vladimir Zorin and Valery Mikhaylov, all came
out in favor of ‘the French path.’”
The Moscow
Institute of Ethnology and Anthropology, to which these people are linked, is “the
main consultant to Moscow on issues of nationality policy.” It recently issued a
monograph on “how successfully France assimilated the borderlands.” This French
approach is the reaction to Beloveshchaya pushcha.”
The old Soviet
policy of using non-Russian entities to hold the country together has been
rejected, Goryunov says. And that change
requires that the Tatars and other non-Russians adapt. They were able to live
in a country which did not reject their right to self-determination. “Now they must
learn to live in a federation which is seeking to become a unitary state like
France.”
Academician Tishkov
and his experts, Goryunov continues, “believe that ethnicity is hostile to
democracy and to civic enlightenment. This is their basic conviction. A society
organized on the basis of ethnicity, they are certain, is inclined to force,
authoritarianism and corruption.”
As a result, “Tishkov
proposes not to Russify (russifitsirovatsya)but to non-ethnic Russianize” (rossiyanizirovat) the peoples of Russia.
“According to Tishkov’s plan, a Tatar, having become a non-ethnic Russian nonetheless
remains a Tatar,” speaking the language with family and friends and wearing a
tubeteika.
“The difference
between him and a Tatar today concerns the number of capitals. For Tishkov,
this is the principle question. Tatars today have two capitals, Moscow and
Kazan. Besides, Tatars have two Kremlins, two presidents and two parliaments.”
He believes this threatens the territorial integrity of Russia.
That is the
opposite of the view of Lenin and Stalin who supported national republics in
order to keep the country together and allow it to modernize. “Tishkov thinks otherwise.
From his point of view, Marxists headed by Lenin committed a mistake by
allowing the Tatars and the rest to form their republics.”
Languages and
culture can remain as decorations, but the institutions of the republics must
be eliminated, Tishkov and those who follow him believe. This should be done in a gradual and soft way
as France has done rather than in a rapid and harsh way as the Chinese are
doing.n
According to
Tishkov’s plan, Goryunov says, “’the beautiful Russian Unitary Federaton of the
future’ will be populated by non-ethnic Russians who will have one capital, one
Constitution and one Kremlin. They will begin to speak Russian but they will
remember their roots … but they will not have a separate territorial unit.”
“Museums, yes;
lessons in school, yes; restaurants, yes’ but a district with an administration
which speaks Tatar, absolutely not.” And consequently, Tatars and others must
understand that “Moscow is attacking the republics and not the languages.” Moscow will tolerate the languages and
cultures as long as they are not supporting republics.
“A cultural
community, unlike a political one, does not have its own territory. It is
extra-territorial,” Goryunov says. Moscow will support Tatar and the other
non-Russian languages to the extent that they are not linked to republics, but
it will seek to “deprive republics of their status” and reduce them to an
ordinary oblast. “That is Tishkov’s plan.”
But if one looks
at the defenses the Tatars and others are erecting in the name of defending
themselves, it becomes obvious that they are fighting not against the main
thrust but against feints of one kinds or another, not in defense of republics
and republic institutions, but in favor of language and culture alone.
That is a recipe
for disaster, Goryunov says, because Moscow is prepared to concede at least for
a time on issues of language and culture because it wants to destroy the
republics – and that is not what the Tatars and others in their national
strategies are talking about at all.
Moscow couldn’t be more pleased.
“The Tatars must
have a campaign in support of the republic and its constitution. The parliament
must become more active. If the parliament is working, the people will assemble
around it. In our time,” the Russian commentator says, “the most reliable means
of preserving a people is not culture but a parliament working like a clock.”
Cultures change,
but parliaments remain. Unfortunately, the State Council of Tatarstan is
anything but active. That needs to change: if the parliament wakes up, “the Tatars
can aspire to immortality. If however the sleep of the parliament turns out to
be too deep, the Tatars will soon become like the French fantasies of
Academician Tishkov and those like him.”
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