Paul
Goble
Staunton, September 9 – Tomsk officials
refused to give permission to Left Resistance activists to hold a Siberian Anti-Imperial
March in the center of that city, but a small group went ahead anyway to
protest the twin imperialisms they say are oppressing Siberia, the Russian and
the Chinese.
The demonstrators carried signs to the
square in front of the city’s main railroad station saying “Down with the
imperialism of Moscow and Beijing.” In
short order, however, all those taking part were arrested. They will come
before a judge next week (region.expert/sibmarsh/
and vk.com/marshsib).
What makes this small event worthy
of note is that over the last several years residents of Siberia and the
Russian Far East have been complaining about the imperialism or neo-imperialism
of China with Beijing’s apparently insatiable demands for Russian timber and
Russian water supplies, complaints that have now linked up with an older Siberian
tradition.
In the 19th and early 20th
centuries, Siberian activists known as the oblastniki labelled their land “a
colony” of Russia and talked about Russian imperialism there. What is
intriguing is that talk about Chinese imperialism has now led to the
reappearance of similar talk about Russian imperialism among Siberians.
To the extent that the two ideas
become linked in the minds of people living east of the Urals, Moscow when it
talks about Chinese plans for Siberia may be unwittingly promoting the rise of
Siberian regionalism/nationalism if residents of that enormous and enormously rich
region begin to view themselves as victims not just of one imperialism but of
two.
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