Moscow Increases Repression of Erzya, Seeking to Crush that Nation’s Traditional Ruling Structure and Replace It with One the Center Controls

Paul Goble

    Staunton, Apr. 9 – As it has done with other minorities, the Russian government is seeking to suppress the traditional structure of the Erzya nation and replace it with a pocket body fully controlled by Moscow and its agents. That effort, like so many Kremlin ones, is proving counterproductive because it is so blatant and is sparking more Erzya activism.

    The Erzya is one of two nations Moscow has grouped together as Mordvins in a Middle Volga republic named for that creation. The Erzya form approximately a third of this Soviet-established nation, but the Moksha as the other is known are far more dominant than that figure might suggest.

    Not surprisingly the Erzya have been the more active of the two and far more opposed to both the republic government and the Russian one, although it recent times, the Moksha have become more active as well. Moscow has moved against both, but it has become especially active in seeking to suppress the Erzya.

    The latest Russian moves involve bringing to trial two senior Erzya leaders, putting Erzya leaders in exile on a watch list and creating an alternative to the Erzya’s traditional organization and insisting that this new body and not the one which enjoys authority among the Erzya will be recognized (indigenous-russia.com/archives/43152).

    There is no sign that these actions have intimidated the Erzya and at least some that they have sufficiently outraged that Finno-Ugric nation that Moscow is going to come out the loser in this latest move on the extremely complicated chessboard of politics not only in Mordvinia but in the Middle Volga region more general.

    For background on the Erzya and the emergence of their national movement over the last few years, see windowoneurasia2.blogspot.com/2023/05/erzya-national-movement-most-active-and.html,windowoneurasia2.blogspot.com/2023/01/putin-pursuing-russification-only-as.html, windowoneurasia2.blogspot.com/2022/11/erzyan-national-movement-recognizes.html, windowoneurasia2.blogspot.com/2022/10/erzya-congress-calls-for-pursuing.html, windowoneurasia2.blogspot.com/2022/09/russian-repression-forces-finno-ugric.html, windowoneurasia2.blogspot.com/2022/08/erzyan-emigre-leader-calls-on-west-to.html, windowoneurasia2.blogspot.com/2021/04/erzya-can-survive-pandemic-but-not.html, windowoneurasia2.blogspot.com/2020/03/as-mordvins-approach-majority-status-in.html  and windowoneurasia2.blogspot.com/2019/10/ethnic-divisions-among-those-moscow.html.

    For background on the Moksha and their increasingly active national movement, one whose relationship with the Erzya may very well change as a result of Moscow’s moves against the Erzya, see windowoneurasia2.blogspot.com/2023/08/mordvinias-moksha-nation-issues.html,  windowoneurasia2.blogspot.com/2023/02/emigre-mokshas-unite-to-fight-against.html, 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.