Promoting Tver Karelian Culture Alone, as Russian Authorities Nominally Do, Won’t Keep That Nation from Dying Out, Activists Say

Paul Goble
    Staunton, Feb. 1 – A debate has broken out among the remaining Tver Karelians, an ethnic community in the Tver Oblast of the Russian Federation that a century ago numbered 140,000 but now has fewer than three thousand members, over how to save and possibly revive that nation.
    Tver Karelian officials, supported by Moscow and other Russian officials, believe that cultural activities are enough and have been seeking to suppress other Tver Karelians who argue that only the restoration of some state formation like the one which existed briefly at the end of the 1930s is required.
    The latter acknowledge that culture is important but argue that it is not enough for a nation to survive and that both political structures and control over the economy of a particular territory are needed. If a nation doesn’t have both of those, it will die out, first by losing its language and then its identity however many cultural festivals are organized in its name.
    A report by journalist Aleksey Ivanov in The New Tab portal is important because it provides a rare glimpse into just how strong such feelings are among numerically smaller peoples that Moscow and many others assume will soon be completely absorbed by the ethnic Russians (thenewtab.io/narod-fantom/).
    At the same time, this article is a reminder that Moscow’s current support for cultural activities instead of real autonomy for non-Russians is a cover for a new assimilation drive and not a support for non-Russians. Or if it is a support, it is like the support that the noose gives a hanging man.
    But this Russian strategy may not work as the authorities expect. It is likely that at least some of those who are attracted to Tver Karelian culture by fairs and celebrations will begin to ask larger questions and conclude that their only hope for the future is political and economic autonomy or even independence.
    If that proves to be the case, then this will be yet another example of the unintended consequences of Putin’s policies.