Paul Goble
Staunton, Feb. 24 – A newly-formed Committee of Representatives of the Moksha people in emigration says that decades of assimilation (Russification) and atomization (Mordvinization) have left the Moksha with no choice but to struggle against both and to pursue independence rather than wait for anyone to hand it to them as happened to some nations in 1991.
The Moksha, whom Moscow views as a subgroup of the Mordvin nation along with the Erzya, say that at present they lack an independent leader who can speak for them but “do not have time to wait” for the Russian Federation to disintegrate. Instead, they must start the fight now (idel-ural.org/archives/obrashhenie-komiteta-predstavitelej-naroda-moksha-v-emigraczii-k-dvizheniyu-svobodnyj-idel-ural/ and t.me/toramanj_terdema).
To that end, the Moksha committee says it seeks to cooperate in the first instance with the Erzya national movement and the Free Idel-Ural Movement but that it hopes to pursue a more radical cause, expanding the presence of all online and creating a weekly publication to reach older people who don’t use the internet as often.
Specifically, the committee continues, “we propose to change the tactic from the current one of reaching a small but quality audience to a larger one that is also quality.” Unless that happens, the Moksha are in such serious straits that they may not survive. They no longer have the time to wait.
(On the Moksha, who have attracted much less attention than the Erzya, see windowoneurasia2.blogspot.com/2022/12/mordovias-erzya-and-moksha-look-to.html, windowoneurasia2.blogspot.com/2022/10/moksha-emigration-comes-ou t-against-war.html and especially windowoneurasia2.blogspot.com/2020/03/as-mordvins-approach-majority-status-in.html.)
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