The More Putin Seeks to Russify the Non-Russians, the More Actively They will Resist, Eidman Says

Paul Goble

            Staunton, Dec. 22 – The more Putin seeks to Russify the non-Russians within the Russian Federation both directly and via Russian nationalist groups he supports or are allied with the Kremlin, the more nationalistic the non-Russians will become and the more they will resist, according to Igor Eidman.

            The Russian sociologist who now lives in emigration in Berlin says that the interaction of these two trends points to an approaching explosion (idelreal.org/a/chem-silnee-davyat-tem-silnee-soprotivlenie-igor-eydman-o-rusifikatsii-roste-natsionalnogo-samosoznaniya-i-buduschem-rossii-posle-putina/33626670.html).

            In the past, the Putin regime understood this interrelationship and both limited its own Russification policies and cracked down on Russian nationalists. But since Putin launched his expanded war in Ukraine, the Kremlin leader has decided he needs the Russian nationalists more and thus has changed course.

            Since 2022, Eidman continues, “Russian nationalism has become part of the official discourse and already not just civic but also ethnic.” This isn’t widely advertised, “but never the less, it is the case.” That reflects not only Putin’s views but those of “the ruling hierarchy” dominated by the siloviki who “always have been nationalists, xenophobes and anti-Semites.”

            By their actions, he suggests, the Kremlin leadership is creating new challenges to itself among both Russian nationalists who will never believe the top has gone far enough and non-Russians who are convinced that Moscow will only get worse as far as they are concerned and that they must seek independence to ensure their survival.

            In fact, both Russians and the world need the non-Russians to succeed in doing so because “as long as the Russian empire exists, its expansion can stop only for a limited time before inevitably resume. Consequently, to eliminate the threat to European and world security, this empire must collapse.”

            That is because “as long as it exists, this threat will inevitably reappear eventually. That is not some personal wish of mine,” Eidman says; but rather in general a trend of logic of history. All empires collapsed in the 20^th century … but the Russian Empire has survived. That is an historical anomaly, but it will eventually be eliminated.”

            “That is the logic of history,” the Russian sociologist concludes,” regardless of whether anyone likes it or not.”