Per the Al Jazeera piece: "In the early 1930s, Joseph Stalin embraced Russian nationalism based on the old imperial myth of the greatness of the Russian people. Bolshevik Moscow made ethnic Russians the most privileged group in the Soviet Union and sent Russian settlers to populate and control non-Russian regions.
Purging native leaders, forcefully resettling entire ethnic groups and creating conditions that led to mass deaths were all part of Soviet colonisation. Non-Russian people’s cultures, languages and histories were disparaged while Russification was presented as enlightenment."
Thus began the original conflict in the Donbas that has been perpetuated since 2014 with claims the area is Russian. In fact my understanding it has been mixed all along and pre-2014 most citizens had come to terms with being Ukrainian with some resentment toward an out-of-touch central government. Somewhat like southern CO or NM which have quite different political viewpoints compared to the central government - the urban vs rural divide, if you will.
The article summary: "To appreciate the ways out of colonial dictatorships, one needs to study the successful transformations of states like Ukraine. This would require dismissing the myth of the “artificial nation” and finally seeing Russia as an empire." Quite on-target.
Per the Al Jazeera piece: "In the early 1930s, Joseph Stalin embraced Russian nationalism based on the old imperial myth of the greatness of the Russian people. Bolshevik Moscow made ethnic Russians the most privileged group in the Soviet Union and sent Russian settlers to populate and control non-Russian regions.
Purging native leaders, forcefully resettling entire ethnic groups and creating conditions that led to mass deaths were all part of Soviet colonisation. Non-Russian people’s cultures, languages and histories were disparaged while Russification was presented as enlightenment."
Thus began the original conflict in the Donbas that has been perpetuated since 2014 with claims the area is Russian. In fact my understanding it has been mixed all along and pre-2014 most citizens had come to terms with being Ukrainian with some resentment toward an out-of-touch central government. Somewhat like southern CO or NM which have quite different political viewpoints compared to the central government - the urban vs rural divide, if you will.
The article summary: "To appreciate the ways out of colonial dictatorships, one needs to study the successful transformations of states like Ukraine. This would require dismissing the myth of the “artificial nation” and finally seeing Russia as an empire." Quite on-target.