Udmurts Offer Third Way Between Two Self-Defeating Radicalisms, Shtepa Says

Paul Goble

            Staunton, Sept. 29 – Non-Russians all too often either strike out radical poses and demand independence for their nations rather than cooperation with those who live among them or yield to Moscow’s demands that they yield their national languages and traditions and accept Russian ones instead, Vadim Shtepa says.

           The first of these positions is self-defeating because Moscow can play up divisions between these ethnic groups and defeat any possibility of achieving either more autonomy or independence; and the second is so as well because it promotes the idea that resistance to what the Russian authorities are demanding is somehow inevitable. Neither need to be the case, the editor of the Tallinn-based Region.Expert portal says.

            But one nation and its representatives abroad have adopted a third way in between those positions, calling for the defense of the rights of all those who live on their territories regardless of nationality and the gradual acquisition of the language of the titular republic and thus a way to expand the nation's reach and ability to cooperate rather than limit both. 

            In an article for the Estonian journal Diplomaatia (diplomaatia.ee/udmurdi-revolutsioon-omaalgatuslikud-valimised/) which has been translated into Russian (region.expert/udmurt/) praises this moderate position and sees it as a model others non-Russian and Russian should consider adopting.

            For a discussion of how Udmurts living abroad have used secure voting to choose a body that supports this middle way and is appealing to international organizations, see my article on the Udmurt position and the election it has arranged are so important at jamestown.org/two-russian-elections-whose-outcome-really-matters-in-south-ossetia-and-udmurtia/.