In RF, Members of Nations who Physically Resemble Russians Face Different Challenges than Those of Peoples whose Physiognomy is Different, Komi-Permyak Man Says

Paul Goble

            Staunton, July 18 – Members of nations within the current borders of the Russian Federation who look very different from the ethnic Russian majority routinely suffer from xenophobia, but those who come from ethnic communities who are not so significantly different physically suffer from another and more insidious form of attack.

            That is the conclusion that arises from the story of a young Komi-Permyak man who has had to overcome other challenges to maintain his identity, a story the Horizontal Russia portal has published in its “Non-Russian World” series (semnasem.org/articles/2025/07/18/nerusskij-mir-kak-komi-permyak-yurij-otkazalsya-byt-podvidom-slavyan).

            Yury, now 37, says that his “parents rejected their Komi-Permayak identity in favor of a Russan one.” Only some of his older relatives spoke Komi, while other members of the family regularly said that “Komi-Permyak identity was a sign of intellectual underdevelopment,” of being from rural areas without prospects.

            “It always seemed to me,” he continues, “I was ‘an incorrect Russian.’” Some of his schoolmates viewed him as alien but others accepted him as a Russian with the view that it didn’t make any difference. That often depended on whether they looked at him from the left or the right because his two eyes are of different sizes, one more Asiatic and one more Russian.

            Yura says he realized he was a Komi-Permyak “only at the age of 17 when he asked his father about it. Then, I googled my family and began to study Komi-Permyak culture.” A teacher at the university he went to supported him in his search; and Yury hoped to get to the point that he could write heavy metal songs in Komi-Permyak.

            “I always have related to migrants with sympathy,” Yury says. “Because of the injustice which I have felt on myself, I began to volunteer and help migrants from Central Asia,” eventually launching a project called “I too am a migrant.” Now, he says, he is “writing a book where he talks about identity and the experience of indigenous peoples in Russia.”

            Yury sums up his experience in this way: “In Russia, indigenous peoples with clearly expressed and distinctive facial features encounter racism more often. Those like the Komi-Permyaks have a different problem – the denial of their identity, something that makes it very difficult for them to avoid Russification and assimilation as they are subject to gaslighting.”

            “I constantly hear that I am a Russian, although this is not so.”

            The Komi-Permyaks, a Finno-Ugric people who were a federal subject until 2005 when they were combined with the Perm Oblast to form the Perm Kray, have been declining in numbers for decades. But since Putin’s amalgamation, which cost them their majority status in their district, they have become more aware of their identity and willing to protest.

            For background, see windowoneurasia.blogspot.com/2009/03/window-on-eurasia-putins-regional.html, windowoneurasia2.blogspot.com/2012/01/window-on-eurasia-komi-permyaks-victims.html, windowoneurasia2.blogspot.com/2023/02/dying-out-of-finno-ugric-languages-in.html and windowoneurasia2.blogspot.com/2024/01/neither-government-support-for-cultural.html.