1 The intellectuals from Russia’s peoples of the North: from obedience to resistance
It is time for the historians to recognise what was very clear to Russian historians in the 1920s and the early 1930s (Drabina 1930: 33, 45-48) – that the territory of Russia as well as of what was called for some decades the “Soviet Union ” was achieved through quite brutal colonial processes. This...
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| Language: | English |
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| Online Access: | http://citeseerx.ist.psu.edu/viewdoc/summary?doi=10.1.1.473.9904 http://lepo.it.da.ut.ee/~roma1956/images/stories/artiklid/microsoft word - theintellectualsfromrussiaed.pdf |
| Summary: | It is time for the historians to recognise what was very clear to Russian historians in the 1920s and the early 1930s (Drabina 1930: 33, 45-48) – that the territory of Russia as well as of what was called for some decades the “Soviet Union ” was achieved through quite brutal colonial processes. This analysis is most recognised by non-Russian scholars but fails yet to be accepted in Russia. Still, it is not difficult to identify the trace of colonial phenomena in several social and cultural aspects of everyday life. I shall concentrate here on one peculiar aspect of colonial societies – the creation ab nihilo of a new social group – and examine how it has functioned and how it is functioning. The new power, which started in 1917 to rule Russia, did not rely on massive support all over the country. The Northern areas, which had enriched the former regime mainly through the export of furs, were “terra incognita ” for the new leaders of Russia, whose personal experience was urban and linked to the working classes. Therefore, those regions were at first neglected by the central power. But soon their importance as economic resources grew, including the importance of then Arctic Ocean as a way of transportation, while the country had to face international isolation. The present |
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