Paul
Goble
Staunton, February 14 – Those in
Moscow who want Russians and non-Russians within the borders of the Russian
Federation to give up their ethnic identities in favor of a political identity
as Rossiyane often suggest that they
are doing no more than copying the kind of political identity the United States
has promoted.
But a Ukrainian portal has pointed
out how wrong they are because Americans are and even are encouraged to be
proud of their ethnic heritage and instead of shifting from their ethnic
identities in becoming Americans combine the two and proudly declare that they
are both ethnic and American (ukrmir.info/?p=8653).
Unfortunately, ethnic Russians continue
to be denied this opportunity because to speak of their ethnic origins is to
highlight their diversity and the fact that the word “Russian” is an adjective rather
than a noun that modifies but doesn’t replace the underlying ethnic communities
it has been applied to.
“In the US,” the portal says, “live
more than 300 million people who speak 322 languages. Those who are citizens
call themselves Americans but at the same time they clearly recall their roots,
know about their origin and do not forget their ancestors.” They will tell you
that they are “American Jews or Ethiopians or Irish or Poles or Chinese.”
“Practically EVERY American knows
his or her nationality and as rule is proud of it: there are numerous ethnic festivals
and parades.” There are a few who “consider themselves simply Americans [but]
as a rule, these are children of mixed marriages who are not particularly
interested in their genealogy.”
The writer continues that he has
never met anyone in the US who was not proud of both his ethnic background and
his citizenship.
“Why then do the representatives of
the more than 180 peoples of Russia limit their national membership to an
ADJECTIVE?” Why don’t you say that you are a Russian Mordvin or Pomor or Tuvin
or Karel? Is it that you don’t know WHO you are? Or are you ashamed to
recognize your national attachment? Or do you simply NOT WANT to know this?”
“WHY?”
Five hundred years ago, there were
now ethnic Russians, the portal continues.
“The name RUSSIANS appeared after the Moscow princes beginning with Ivan
the Terrible decided to build an empire” by engaging in wars of conquest and
then calling the conquered peoples “RUSSIANS” even if they were Bashkirs or
Chuvash or Buryats or Chukchis or Eskimos.
Some but far from all of these primordial
peoples were able to retain their culture and even something of their identity,
but the appearance of the name “RUSSIAN” which was thought up by Moscow tsars
and forcibly applied to the population didn’t provide an adequate substitute
for the content that was lost.
As a result, many who call
themselves Russians found themselves without a clear definition of what that
meant, and the 1917 revolution only made things worse by promoting “a new
synonym for Russian: the SOVIET MAN or SOVOK.” And many have not been able to
escape from that because they don’t know what they could replace it with.
Ukrainians who interact with
Russians are compelled to ask: why do Russians continue to remain people who do
not recall where they are from, who are satisfied with a national identity based
on an adjective rather than a noun and one that was imposed from the top down
not for their benefit but for the benefit of the imperial state?
And that leads to others: “why are
[Russians], who are in fact representatives of various peoples and tribes
turning away from their nationality, betraying in this way their ancestors,
their historical roots and their national uniqueness? Why are [they] continuing
to remain one” with fw rights and many divisions? “Isn’t it time to change
something?”
To ask those questions, of course,
explains why Moscow is trying to impose the new political identity without any
real ethnic content because to do otherwise would bring the entire falsity of
the Russian identity as currently constructed into focus not only for others
but for the Russians themselves.
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