Is Russia Artificial?

Forget Putin’s twisted invocation of Soviet history. Was Ukraine’s state formation, as Putin implies, more complex than Russia’s? Take a look at any map of Muscovy’s expansion from a tiny statelet in the 14th century to the Russian Federation of today. There was nothing simple or natural or preordained about the process. Successive Muscovite princes and czars fought incessant wars, killed foreign peoples, destroyed foreign cultures, and seized foreign territories. Today’s Russia is the “compound” product of relentless imperial expansion, war, and destruction.

Unsurprisingly, today’s Russia consists of 27 regions (republics, districts, and provinces) that have the status of autonomous non-Russian political entities. That’s 32 percent of the total number of regions, and about 40 percent of the Russian Federation’s territory. According to Putin’s logic, each of these units has the right—and obligation—to secede from Russia.

Things get even worse when one takes a closer look at the Russian “nation.” The Russian state, though artificial, at least exists. But is there anything resembling a coherent Russian nation? Don’t be so certain that the answer is yes. For one thing, Russians aren’t sure whether they’re rossianie or russkie. English makes no difference between these two designations, but, as the rough equivalent of British vs. English, they stand for very different self-perceptions. For another, there are vast differences, in mentality, history, identity, and language, between—just to take three examples—European Russians centered on St. Petersburg and Moscow and those Russians living in Siberia, the Far East, and southern Russia. Siberian Russians have an identity as sibiryaks. Far Eastern Russians resent the intrusiveness of Moscow. Southern Russians sound more like Ukrainians—substituting H for G—than Muscovites and Petersburgers.

In a word, the Russian nation is as artificial as the Russian state. Should both therefore be dismembered—say, by the Chechens, Bashkirs, Yakuts, Tatars, Ukrainians, and Chinese? Should Germany lay claim to Kaliningrad (the former Königsberg)? Should the Crimean Tatars—or perhaps even the Turks—claim the Crimea and boot out the Russians? Should the Kazakhs drive out the Russians in the north of their country? If you believe Putin, then the answer has to be yes. If you’re a rational policymaker or decent human being who suspects that endless border adjustments are a recipe for incessant wars, you may decide that the answer is no. After all, the bottom line is that all nations and all states are artificial historical constructs.

Either way, the issue may be moot. Having opened a Pandora’s Box of territorial revisions, Putin may have dealt a death blow to the artificial Russian state and fragmented Russian nation. In the years ahead, expect the Russian Federation’s many nations, autonomous regions, and large neighbors to test Putin’s commitment to state dismemberment.

http://america.aljazeera.com/articles/2015/9/18/russia-foreign-military-bases.html

http://www.aljazeera.com/indepth/interactive/2014/05/interactive-russia-foreign-military-bases-201459104513678477.html