analysis

The article by political scientist Aida Amangeldina sheds light on the threat of desertification of the Caspian Sea, outlining its main causes and consequences

Intertwining decolonial, environmental and feminist activisms and studies

On environmental consequences of the soviet project in the countries of Central Asia, Southern Caucasus, and Eastern Europe. November—December 2023

Social researcher Anna Kalinina discusses the key features of organizational practices and principles of the protest against the Russia’s invasion of Ukraine.

Alik Pukhaev’s essay about the situation with the Ossetic, Adyghe, Karachay-Balkar, and other languages.

The Republic of Tatarstan is often described and presented in terms of “multiculturalism” as an example of a region where different ethnicities live in harmony without conflicts. It is said not only by officials and pro-government media but also by representatives of the academic community, tourists, and residents of the republic. At the same time, the ethnic “diversity” usually narrows to the two “main” ethnicities—Tatars and Russians. This state of things is especially characteristic of Kazan, the republic's capital.

With the beginning of Russia’s full-scale invasion of Ukraine, people were forced to leave their homes. Legally speaking, they became internally displaced and refugees. Forced displacement is not always a spontaneous but at least partially controlled process. It is built within a state or international infrastructures, which can both smoothen and intensify the negative consequences: from so-called ‘interethnic conflicts’ to the loss of part of traditions and inability to integrate into a new life due to a change of lifestyle.

“Public commemoration in the form of memorials and monuments; the aggressive patriotic upbringing of children and adolescents over the past 22 years; the cult of the power of the state; the cult of victory, in which Russia is presented as the liberator of the world and Europe, and the previous generations who died for their homeland are perceived as immortal: these are the factors that formed a war-oriented Russian identity.“

We provide you with the most important concepts, take a brief overview of historical examples of decolonization, and argue that decolonization is different from separatism.