SINCE THE OUTBREAK OF HOSTILITIES IN UKRAINE, the call for the decolonization of Russia has become one of the most prominent political slogans. The requirement is a natural consequence of systemic discrimination against people of various nationalities in Russia. In wartime, inequality only intensified, which is manifested in the mass conscription of military personnel from the national republics, and in everyday racism, and in the absence of a political voice among many peoples. At the same time, it was women who became the driving force behind decolonization – we talk about their contribution to the fight against centuries of discrimination and the connection of feminism with the decolonial movement.
Ethnic anti-war organizations, media, and associations began to form across the country, including the Free Buryatia, Free Yakutia, New Tuva, and Free Kalmykia foundations. National activists continue to work, for example, the creator of the Angry Chuvashia telegram channel Semyon Kochkin, the head of the banned Bashkir National Political Center Ruslan Gabbasov, and the Chechen human rights activist Abubakar Yangulbaev.
“Why should our languages be electives and the constitutions of the national republics rewritten? Why can’t we rent an apartment in our own country, since it is “only for the Slavs”, and you can go to jail for any statement about self-determination?” – says the manifesto of the Free Buryatia Foundation, which declared 2023 the year of the decolonization of Russia. The association draws attention to the fact that the trauma of imperialism was not overcome either after the revolution or after the collapse of the USSR, and now many indigenous peoples are in a vulnerable position in their own country – without the right to real federalization and political will.
Supporters of decolonization seek to return unconditional rights to the peoples. “It’s time to admit that the Russian Federation as a Federation does not exist. Instead, there is an empire in which there is a “state-forming people” and a “great and mighty Russian language.” Every Russian must realize that all the peoples inhabiting Russia are equal. And the problems of the Bashkir, Buryat, Udmurt, Kalmyk, Tuva, Chechen, Tatar, Yakut and other peoples are no less important than the problems of ethnic Russians.”
Women in the decolonial movement are visible and important – they lead resistance teams, act as decolonial researchers and activists, drawing attention to their own negative experience of discrimination. “I started driving at 23 because I didn’t want to go down the subway, where I was always looked at with hostility,” saysPresident of the Free Buryatia Foundation Alexandra Garmazhapova. — One day I was walking to the escalator, and right in front of the entrance to it there was a traffic jam. Some man started pushing me out of the queue with his shoulder, but I kept walking. Then he abruptly pushed me away and said: “You must always let the Russians go ahead, understand?” I was stunned, but since I had already learned to respond to such attacks, I told him: “Well, since you are a representative of a superior race, why are you still taking the subway?”
