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The Mass Media and the National Question in Udmurtia in the 1990s

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  20 November 2018

Aleksandr Shkliaev  and
Eva Toulouze
Aleksandr Shkliaev
Affiliation:
Udmurt State University, Russia
Eva Toulouze
Affiliation:
Department of Germanic and Romance Languages, University of Tartu, Estonia
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Extract

The so-called “national,” or ethnopolitical questions, whose existence has long been denied in Russia, is a significant issue in the Udmurt Republic. The Soviet propaganda machine long advanced the theme of friendship among all the peoples of the multinational USSR until glasnost', when this notion began to be questioned by society. In the minority areas ethnic questions finally emerged at the end of the 1980s and since then have occupied a prominent place in the mass media, in Udmurtia and elsewhere. This article highlights the polemic character of the debate on ethnic issues in Udmurtia, which is located in the Volga-Urals region, against a background of the particular local historical and demographic factors.

Type
Articles
Information
Nationalities Papers , Volume 29 , Issue 1 , March 2001 , pp. 97 - 108
Copyright
Copyright © 2001 Association for the Study of Nationalities 

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References

Notes

1. Taagepera Rein, The Finno-Ugric Republics and the Russian State (London: Hurst, 1999), p. 284.Google Scholar

2. Lallukka Seppo, The East-Finnic Minorities in the Soviet Union. An Appraisal of the Erosive Trends (Helsinki: Suomalainen Tiedeakatemia, 1990), p. 106. The entire Udmurt population in the Udmurt Republic was, according to the 1989 census, 497,900 people, representing 66.5% of all the Udmurts in Russia (Taagepera, op. cit., p. 276).Google Scholar

3. This is the Udmurt name for Izhevsk, the present-day capital of Udmurtia.Google Scholar

4. Izhevsk is still a very important center of arms production, in which, for example, Kalashnikovs are produced.Google Scholar

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7. A very detailed study of the Udmurts' participation in these uprisings is given by M. A. Sadakov, “Uchastie udmurtov v krest'ianskoi voine pod rukovodstvom Pugacheva,” Zapiski, vyp. 11 (Izhevsk: Udkniga, 1949), pp. 3–33. In spite of the severe ideological frame imposed by the period in which the article was written, the data presented are most interesting.Google Scholar

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9. The affair is called by the name of the village where the initial event happened, Vuzh Multan, in Udmurt, which translated means “Old Multan.” There exists abundant literature on this event. A good overview by a witness of the process, P. N. Luppov, who was also a very competent historian, appeared as Gromkoe delo multanskikh udmurtov (votiakov) obviniavshikhsia v chelovecheskom zhertvoprinoshenii (1892-1986 gg.) (Izhevsk: Udkniga, 1925). Recently an interesting overview has been presented by M. I. Bunia in a book dedicated to V. Korolenko: V. G. Korolenko v Udmurtii (Izhevsk: Udmurtiia, 1995), pp. 141–256. See also Robert Geraci, “Ethnic Minorities, Anthropology, and Russian National Identity on Trial: The Multan Case, 1892-96,” Russian Review, Vol. 59, No. 4, 2000, pp. 530–554.Google Scholar

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11. There were among them several remarkable personalities. One who stands out is Kuzebai Gerd, teacher, poet, scholar, editor, and journalist, the most charismatic figure in Udmurt intellectual life in the 1920s.Google Scholar

12. “Nationalism is a reactionary bourgeois ideology, which preaches national exclusiveness, privileges for one ethnic group and contempt towards others,” in Slovar' russkogo iazyka v 4 tomakh (Moscow: Gosizdatel'stvo inostrannykh i natsional'nykh slovarei, 1958), p. 572.Google Scholar

13. This process was the first in Soviet Russia forged directly against intellectuals belonging to minority nationalities. This example afterwards would be repeated across the state.Google Scholar

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20. Published in “Sovershenstvovat' natsional'nuiu politiku,” Udmurtskaia pravda, 31 October 1989. The district (raion) of Sharkan is situated in east-central Udmurtia and is one of the regions where the Udmurt population is most concentrated, representing some 75-85% of the inhabitants. See Lallukka, op. cit., p. 108.Google Scholar

21. “Sovershenstvovat' natsional'nuiu politiku.”Google Scholar

22. On this issue, see K. A. Ponomarev and T. S. Tomshich, eds, Ponimat' drug druga. O problemakh mezhnatsional'nykh otnoshenii v Udmurtskoi ASSR (Izhevsk: Udmurtiia, 1990).Google Scholar

23. In Udmurt, “Together.” The following data about the Udmurt national movement is taken from Taagepera, op. cit., pp. 288–293.Google Scholar

24. The word Kenesh has very significant meaning in Udmurt culture, designating the Udmurt form of village self-government until the revolution (and even in the 1920s to some degree). This ethnic council was severely attacked by the Soviet authorities as a form of class exploitation of the poorer peasants. The word was taboo in the Soviet era, and its return is deeply symbolic. Besides its choice as the name for the leading organ of the ethnic movement, Kenesh also became the name of the monthly Writer's Union journal, which was known as Molot (Hammer) under the Soviets.Google Scholar

25. On this question, see M. I. Shishkin, Dva goda v “Keneshe” (Izhevsk, 1995).Google Scholar

26. The so-called “Russian Democrats” also often used the term “national-communism.”Google Scholar

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28. Interview with Kisarev, Viacheslav, “Osoboi vrazhdy net,” Gorodskoi stil', 11 March 1996.Google Scholar

29. Serafima Pushina-Blaginina, “My—korennoi narod, a ne natsional'noe men'shinstvo!” Udmurtskaia pravda, 3 September 1996.Google Scholar

30. Kisarev, Viacheslav, “… minus russkie,” Gorodskoi stil', 17 June 1996.Google Scholar

31. Ibid.Google Scholar

32. Shumilov, Evgenii, “Zapros ‘finno-ugram’ ot indoevropeitsa,” Udmurtskaia pravda, 10 August 1992. Quoted in P. Chernov, “Osveshchenie natsional'nogo voprosa v sredstvakh massovoi informatsii Udmurtii,” in Finno-ugorskie narody i Rossiia (Tallinn: Institut Jaana Tõnissona, 1994), p. 110.Google Scholar

33. As in Iu. Iakovkin's article, “‘Dzhinn’ iz parlamentskogo ‘kuvshina’,” Udmurtskaia pravda, 17 October 1991.Google Scholar

34. Iu. Iakovkin, “‘Dzhinn’ pokazyvaet kharakter,” Udmurtskaia pravda, 19 October 1991.Google Scholar

35. Kisarev, Viacheslav, “Bezymiannyi pogos,” Gorodskoi stil', 11 March 1996.Google Scholar

36. Al'bert Razin, “Az'lanezly oskysa,” Kenesh, No. 4, 1994, p. 49.Google Scholar

37. Chernov, “Osveshchenie natsional'nogo voprosa,” p. 105.Google Scholar

38. See K. Ponomarev, “Maly peshkytzy syures urdsy?” Udmurt dunne, 14 January 1995.Google Scholar

39. This argument has been enhanced by the Udmurt scholar and politician K. Kulikov in a pamphlet, Komu vygodna ksenofobiia (Izhevsk: Udmurtskii institut istorii, iazyka i literatury, 1996).Google Scholar

40. Kokorin, Mikhail, “Ot protivopostavleniia k sblizheniiu,” Udmurtskaia pravda, 19 August 1996.Google Scholar

41. The Udmurt words mentioned mean respectively, “Hotel,” “Clothes,” “Perepech” (a type of Udmurt pizza), “Sacred grove.” In Viktor Shibanov, “Mar vite as'medy az'palan,” Kenesh, No. 4, 1995, p. 9.Google Scholar

42. The national question is represented in much milder forms in the countryside, where Russian and Udmurt peasants share the same kind of everyday life.Google Scholar