The Red Book of the Peoples of the Russian Empire

Igor Tõnurist, Margus Kolga

Description

The publisher of this book was a man who was born in 1938, in a free and democratic country (Estonia), with Estonian identity and citizenship. That all was amended in 1940 by Russian Empire as a result of the occupation of a sovereign country. The book was written with help of leading specialists of that time and with an attempt to stay neutral, almost as bystanders. The purpose was to describe cultures and ethnic groups of people who have suffered or have been eradicated under the power of "Russian Empire". Oppression of neighbors has taken place for over 500 years, and continues even today with Russian Federation changing daily into more totalitarian and dangerous state in an attempt to restore it`s former glory. Also Russian Federation is the only surviving colonial country in the world, from whose clutches have fled only a few nations, who gained sovereignty. Still this is not an complete view of the Empire, because the 84 nations covered in this book is only a third of more than 200 nations and cultures, whose fate is evanesce and disappearance into the larger Russian population by aggressive social politics. This relentless process is irreparable loss to world cultural heritage, diversity and democratic freedoms. On the other hand, it is also a loss to these nations economy, because the aggressor ravages and robs natural resources while destroying the environment.

The idea of the book the author, publisher and financier â?? Thomas Niimann.

Sujets

• Former Soviet Union
• Histoire
• URSS
• Russia
• History

Informations

• Publié par: eBookIt.com
• Date de parution: 19 juillet 2013
• Nombre de lectures: 0
• EAN13: 9789949330980
• Langue: English
• Poids de l'ouvrage: 1 Mo

Extrait

Margus Kolga, Igor Tõnurist, Lembit Vaba, Jüri Viikberg
 
THE RED BOOK OF THE PEOPLES OF THE RUSSIAN EMPIRE
Consultants
Ants Viires
Lauri Vahtre
 
Translated by
Sirje Ainsaar
Heli Greenbaum
Krista Kaer
Lembit Liivak
Krista Mits
Erkki Sivonen
Triin Tobber
Viivi Verrev
 
Edited by
Andrew Humpreys, Krista Mits
 
ISBN 9985-9369-2-2
ISBN 978-9949-33-098-0 (epub)
ISBN 978-9949-33-099-7 (kindle)
 
[e-mail]
All rights reserved 1993 - 2013.
To the Publisher
My congratulations and admiration on publication of the Red Book of the Peoples of the Russian Empire . I am convinced of the huge role the book will have in publicising the situation of oppressed nations. Undoubtedly it will set an example for compiling the publisher of a similar book with regard to of the book for the whole world. UNPO is looking forward to early publication of translations.
 
Linnart Mäll
Deputy Secretary-General Unrepresented Nations and Peoples Organisation
Address on the publication of the Red Book of the Peoples of the Russian Empire in Estonian
 
 
 
On behalf of the Republic of Estonia I thank the publisher of the book. It is the duty of Estonia to inform the world of the situation of the small nations in Russia.
Mart Laar,
Prime Minister of the Republic of Estonia
On presentation of the book, in Estonian
 
 
 
The idea of the publication of the book is to make the world concious of the dangers of living in the neighbourhood or among an imperialistically aggressive large nation.
 
Toomas Niimann,
publisher of the book
On presentation of the book in Estonian
FOREWORD

In the early 1930s, Vladimir Bogoraz wrote an ABC-book for the Chukchi language and called it The Red Book. Unfortunately, the ensuing 60 years have brought the Chukchi — and many other nations — to a deplorable position of being candidates for the pages of another Red Book, the one usually associated with rare plants and animals. The necessity of a book detailing endangered peoples has been recognized for some time, though mostly in the form of rhetorical questions musing whether the time has really come for the Mordvins, for example, or for all the minorities of Siberia, or of the whole former Soviet Union, to be entered in a Red Book. The present volume represents the first major attempt to draw public attention to those peoples whose existence is truly marked by the threat of extinction. The public at large may have heard at least something of the Khatyn mass murder and of the Molotov­Ribbentrop Pact, but there is still little awareness of an even greater crime of Russian chauvinism: veiled with slogans promising everybody a brighter future, this chauvinism has been working methodically towards the elimination of ethnic entities and cultures. This is a crime against the whole of humanity.
Setting out to compile such a book, one first has to define the conditions under which a people could be classified as an endangered people. The cultural revolution and the gigantic economic projects have inflicted serious damage on all national cultures, the Russians included, by severing their roots, forcing enormous crowds to migrate from place to place, and tearing the life-web of cultural contacts between generations. In laying down their criteria of selection the authors of this book decided to include only those peoples who
a. are not yet extinct,
b. whose main area of settlement is on ex-Soviet territory,
c. whose numbers are below 30,000,
d. of whom less than 70% speak their mother tongue,
e. who form a minority on their ancient territory,
f. whose settlement is scattered rather than compact,
g. who have no vernacular school, literature or media.

These criteria disqualify those peoples already extinct (like the Meryans, Motors and Koibals) as well as those whose main territory lies elsewhere (like the Germans and Koreans). The other criteria are less strictly observed, particularly in regard to the population. A combination of several features were generally to be considered, some of which tended to show mutual correlation (for example, scattered settlement and being in the minority on their own territory, or lack of vernacular schooling and poor competence in their mother tongue). As a result, the final decision on inclusion was usually based on our assessment of the general situation rather than on individual criterion. Of the 96 peoples on the original list, the book now contains data on only 85. In several cases a decision had to be made whether a possible entry was indeed a separate nation or simply a dialect group (for example, the Solons were treated as part of the Evenks, but the Khufis and the Roshanis separately). In some cases it was impossible to find any written material at all (the Modern Assyrians are one example). There were also some exceptions made due to other circumstances: the Karelians were included (unlike other nations having their own autonomous republic) out of consideration for the rapidly diminishing proportion they make up in the population of their own ancient aboriginal territory, and also because of their extremely unfavourable demographic and linguistic situation.
The Soviet Union was, until recently, a huge place, which, unfortunately, made it impossible for the authors to bear eyewitness to the situation of every single ethnic group included in this book. This volume then, cannot claim to contain the whole and absolute truth, rather, it may be the opening part of a long-term research project. We truly hope that the forthcoming issues will be excluded from future editions, either for a joyous or a sad reason.
The Red Book of the Peoples of the Russian Empire is being compiled in complicated times: the borders and names of administrative units are changing, the whole national doctrine of the central power is being reconsidered, and entire nations are awakening from apathy. By the time you read this book some of the above processes will have led to new and perhaps unexpected developments that may shed new light on the story of some of the included peoples. It was not the authors aim to foretell future developments but just to attempt to characterize the situation of the endangered peoples living in the Soviet Union at the end of the 1980s.
The changing times are also reflected in the title of the book. What was begun as a description of the peoples living in the Soviet empire has become an overview of nationalities who have — throughout centuries — been living in the Russian empire, the Soviet period being but one period in the history of Russian expansion.
What is especially valuable about this book is that it discusses different manifestations of Russian and Soviet national policies and their impact on peoples of very different cultures. The detrimental effects of sovietization are illustrated on civilized nations with their own well­ established literary traditions (like the Ingrians) as well as on people living in their natural state (like the Saame Lapps of the Kola peninsula). Entries show that the disappearance of a people can be slow and relatively smooth (as with the metamorphosis of the Itelmens into the Kamchadals), but also sudden and all the more brutal (the Siberian Eskimo). Usually, a clear point or period of breakdown can be discerned. The turning- point tends to be especially noticeable in the case of primitive peoples as their self-image differs from that of nations with a literary tradition. The identity of a primitive tribe can be extinguished by the mere destruction of their natural environment, entailing no open display of hostility.
The national policy of the Soviet government can be divided into two major phases. The first phase began with the establishment of Soviet power (the time differed from place to place) and ended in the midle 1930s. The second phase last­ ed until very recently. The nature of the first phase is somewhat contradictory as the recognition of small nations and a certain encouragement of their self-consciousness proceeded in parallel with collectivization and the heavy repressions known as “class struggle”. For most of the Red Book peoples collectivization meant forced settlement. In addition, former economic systems were dissolved by a liquidation of small villages and households. Economy being an inseparable part of culture, this was an initial step in the ruination of national cultures. Collectivization was accompanied by a centralization of the economy which began alienating people from their work and environment, separated them from nature, and made them dependent on centrally apportioned supplies. At the same time it should be appreciated what was done for the development of literacy among small peoples. Many languages received their own newly devised writing systems. These were based on the Latin alphabet as pending “World Revolution” even Russian was intended to be transferred to Roman letters.
Towards the end of the 1930s the situation changed radically. The Stalinist regime abandoned the least pretences of adherence to the principles of freedom and equality, and embarked on a course of blatant russification. National writing systems were either replaced by the Cyrillic alphabet or cast into disuse. Local intellectuals were dispersed and killed. For many nations the final blow was dealt by World War II. In the postwar period, most of the minor nations suffered from the lack of vernacular schooling and letters. Their habitats were flooded with (mostly Russian) migrants. At the same time, official propaganda constantly intensified its efforts to depict Russians as the chosen people who would lead the whole world into Communism. This, together with the obvious political supremacy of the Russians, led several minor peoples to develop inferiority complexes to the extent that they denied their own nationality.
The migrant influx was resisted only by those peoples protected by forbidding (mostly Caucasian) mountains and a trad