Alik Bahshi
Verified User
Alik Bakhshi
Can Pan-Russianism Happen?
With Putin's arrival in the Kremlin, Russia's political course changed dramatically. The new Kremlin master, seeing how the Russian people, due to their mentality and imperial worldview (1), were spitting blood at democracy, and realizing that democracy and empire were incompatible (2), rolled back all the democratic reforms initiated by Yeltsin. Unconcealed in his regret over the collapse of the Soviet empire, Putin, as a true Russian patriot, led the country back into empire (3), earning colossal popular support. The Russian people enthusiastically welcomed Chechnya's return to the imperial fold and all subsequent actions, such as the war in Georgia and the subsequent annexation of part of its territory, the annexation of Crimea, and the war with Ukraine in general, under the pretext of the newly-minted Führer that Ukrainians and Russians were one people. The threat of losing independence and becoming part of the Russian Empire once again looms over Estonia, Latvia, Lithuania, and Moldova. With his policy of revenge, Putin has opened the floodgates to the Great Russian chauvinism (4, 5) that Lenin and Stalin spoke of. Embracing this spirit, Russian Nazis are already making plans to save the "Russian world" in all the former colonies of the Russian Empire. Under the slogan of saving the Russian language with the Cyrillic alphabet (6), which the empire forcibly imposed on conquered peoples, from extinction, they dream of unifying countries based on the Russian language—a kind of pan-Russian idea, similar to the ideas of pan-Germanism and pan-Turkism. However, this similarity is only at first glance, for at the core of pan-Germanism and pan-Turkism lies the idea of political unity of the nation based on ethnic, cultural, and linguistic identity and, naturally, a national mentality. Pan-Germanism voluntarily united numerous German states, each populated by the same German people and where the native language was German. Pan-Turkism was also entirely feasible after the collapse of the Soviet Union, when many Turkic peoples gained their freedom (7).
There are many states in the world with the same official language. For example, Spanish is the official language in many countries: Mexico, Peru, Panama, the Philippines—23 countries in total. How can they be united when these countries have different peoples, each with their own mentality, traditions, and culture? Yes, they were all once colonies of Spain and achieved independence. Why should they reintegrate into Spain? And Spain is unlikely to want that. The same situation applies to the English language.
In Tsarist Russia, there was a vision of uniting all Slavic peoples, but Pan-Slavism failed because the Slavic peoples speak different languages and have different cultures and traditions. A Russian wouldn't understand a Pole or a Bulgarian. What can I say, even Ukrainian speech is difficult to understand, despite the fact that both Russian and Ukrainian have many words with the same root. Incidentally, the Anglo-Saxons are in a similar situation – Germans don't understand the English.
If pan-Russianism cannot be achieved among the Slavic peoples, then it is completely impossible in the Turkic countries that were formerly part of the Russian Empire or the Soviet Union. In essence, pan-Russianism, the idea that inspired the Russian Nazis, is nothing more than revanchism.
1. The People's Destiny, or To Each Cricket His Own Hearth. https://alikbahshi.livejournal.com/28564.html
2. Democracy is Contraindicated in Empire. https://alikbahshi.livejournal.com/23826.html
3. Back to Empire, or Restoring Historical Justice According to Putin. https://alikbahshi.livejournal.com/22792.html
4. Great Russian Chauvinism, and Putin Its Führer. https://alikbahshi.livejournal.com/21133.html
5. The State-Forming People and Its Führer, or Ukraine and Further Down the List. https://alikbahshi.livejournal.com/21749.html
6. On the Imperial Thinking of a Great Russian. https://alikbahshi.livejournal.com/35178.html
7. One Language – One Homeland. https://alikbahshi.livejournal.com/16879.html
December 9, 2020
Can Pan-Russianism Happen?
With Putin's arrival in the Kremlin, Russia's political course changed dramatically. The new Kremlin master, seeing how the Russian people, due to their mentality and imperial worldview (1), were spitting blood at democracy, and realizing that democracy and empire were incompatible (2), rolled back all the democratic reforms initiated by Yeltsin. Unconcealed in his regret over the collapse of the Soviet empire, Putin, as a true Russian patriot, led the country back into empire (3), earning colossal popular support. The Russian people enthusiastically welcomed Chechnya's return to the imperial fold and all subsequent actions, such as the war in Georgia and the subsequent annexation of part of its territory, the annexation of Crimea, and the war with Ukraine in general, under the pretext of the newly-minted Führer that Ukrainians and Russians were one people. The threat of losing independence and becoming part of the Russian Empire once again looms over Estonia, Latvia, Lithuania, and Moldova. With his policy of revenge, Putin has opened the floodgates to the Great Russian chauvinism (4, 5) that Lenin and Stalin spoke of. Embracing this spirit, Russian Nazis are already making plans to save the "Russian world" in all the former colonies of the Russian Empire. Under the slogan of saving the Russian language with the Cyrillic alphabet (6), which the empire forcibly imposed on conquered peoples, from extinction, they dream of unifying countries based on the Russian language—a kind of pan-Russian idea, similar to the ideas of pan-Germanism and pan-Turkism. However, this similarity is only at first glance, for at the core of pan-Germanism and pan-Turkism lies the idea of political unity of the nation based on ethnic, cultural, and linguistic identity and, naturally, a national mentality. Pan-Germanism voluntarily united numerous German states, each populated by the same German people and where the native language was German. Pan-Turkism was also entirely feasible after the collapse of the Soviet Union, when many Turkic peoples gained their freedom (7).
There are many states in the world with the same official language. For example, Spanish is the official language in many countries: Mexico, Peru, Panama, the Philippines—23 countries in total. How can they be united when these countries have different peoples, each with their own mentality, traditions, and culture? Yes, they were all once colonies of Spain and achieved independence. Why should they reintegrate into Spain? And Spain is unlikely to want that. The same situation applies to the English language.
In Tsarist Russia, there was a vision of uniting all Slavic peoples, but Pan-Slavism failed because the Slavic peoples speak different languages and have different cultures and traditions. A Russian wouldn't understand a Pole or a Bulgarian. What can I say, even Ukrainian speech is difficult to understand, despite the fact that both Russian and Ukrainian have many words with the same root. Incidentally, the Anglo-Saxons are in a similar situation – Germans don't understand the English.
If pan-Russianism cannot be achieved among the Slavic peoples, then it is completely impossible in the Turkic countries that were formerly part of the Russian Empire or the Soviet Union. In essence, pan-Russianism, the idea that inspired the Russian Nazis, is nothing more than revanchism.
1. The People's Destiny, or To Each Cricket His Own Hearth. https://alikbahshi.livejournal.com/28564.html
2. Democracy is Contraindicated in Empire. https://alikbahshi.livejournal.com/23826.html
3. Back to Empire, or Restoring Historical Justice According to Putin. https://alikbahshi.livejournal.com/22792.html
4. Great Russian Chauvinism, and Putin Its Führer. https://alikbahshi.livejournal.com/21133.html
5. The State-Forming People and Its Führer, or Ukraine and Further Down the List. https://alikbahshi.livejournal.com/21749.html
6. On the Imperial Thinking of a Great Russian. https://alikbahshi.livejournal.com/35178.html
7. One Language – One Homeland. https://alikbahshi.livejournal.com/16879.html
December 9, 2020
