Paul Goble
Staunton, June 13 – Vadim Shtepa, the editor of the Tallinn-based regionalist portal Region.Expert, says that the notion widespread among many non-Russians that their republics on their own can end the Russian Empire is a mistake not only because of their relatively small size but also because of their lack of an internationalist component in their thinking.
Shtepa advanced that argument in his latest Eesti Paevaleht article that he has translated into Russian for his own portal (epl.delfi.ee/artikkel/120383312/vadim-stepa-vene-rahvusvabariigid-on-veelgi-sojakamad-kui-keskvoim-neid-kreml-kartma-ei-pea and region.expert/republics-2/).
Vasily Nikolayev, the editor of the Mariuver.com portal, which is also based in Estonia, says that no one can be against internationalism when it is correctly understood but for that to happen, many must overcome the way in which the Soviet regime corrupted that term (mariuver.com/2025/06/13/a-tak-li-poh-internacionalizm/).
“In and of itself,” the Mari activist says, “the idea of internationalism, the promotion of friendship and cooperation among nations is absolutely positive. But in the USSR, unfortunately, this idea was perverted and under the slogans of internationalism … often was concealed the practice of russification.”
That Soviet variant replaced the centuries-old internationalism “from below” which fostered cooperation among peoples, Nikolayev continued, and was about voluntary cooperation, mutual respect for each other’s culture, the knowledge of more than one language when needed, and the preservation of uniqueness by each people.
“That ‘non-Russian’ internationalism is significantly distinguished from that which was practiced by Soviet power,” he argues, adding that “if present-day national movements in Russia really want to make progress, they need to take their inspiration from this ‘health internationalism’ of the indigenous peoples” and not from the Soviet past.
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