Collapse of Russian Empire ‘Inevitable’ because Urban Identities Becoming ‘Stronger than a National One,’ Gelman Says

Paul Goble

            Staunton, June 21 – Marat Gelman, who has produced cultural events across the Russian Federation, says that the disintegration of that country is “inevitable” because for ever more people, identification with the cities in which most of them live is “stronger” than identification with the country as a whole.

            In the course of an interview with Vadim Shtepa of the Tallinn-based regionalist portal Region.Expert, the producer adds that “even now we observe that anti-war actions continue and people aren’t submitting to the propaganda of an aggressive ‘Russian world’” (egion.expert/regional-culture/).

            Given the confidence the Kremlin has that urbanization will tie the Russian Federation together, Gelman’s observation is noteworthy because he suggests that the growth of cities will have exactly the opposite effect. In about ten years, he says, what will matter is not that you are a Russian, a Ukrainian or a German but a Yekaterinburger, a Lviv resident or a Munchener.”

            Asked why the Russian authorities are suppressing regional cultural projects, Gelman says that “as they say, having taken off your head, you don’t cry about the loss of your hair.” The war has “inevitably led to ‘the totalitarianization’ of consciousness when free cultural projects become inappropriate or even intolerable for the powers that be.”

            “Regional cultural initiatives contradict imperial ideology by demonstrating the diversity” of the population. For war, Moscow needs “a unified mobilization” and “therefore, there is a process of cultural degradation going on in Russia.”

            According to Gelman, “decentralization and modernization are interconnected processes. As soon as the transition to imperial centralization begins, we fall into cultural backwardness and development stops.”