Beda Journal. Issue #1

People, not territories

Reversing the colonial gaze is never an easy task. Considering indigenous people as objects while swallowing their lands, colonizers build their rigid hierarchies through power and control. Seemingly indestructible, these hierarchies start shattering both infrastructurally and metaphysically once people being marked as voiceless, faceless ‘them’ turn their pain and trauma into action and a call for solidarity. Being arrogantly unable to zoom in while observing the captured territories, the colonizers fail to notice the multiple gaps, cracks and ruptures appearing in the narratives they have been weaving.

In order to support the ongoing struggle of those fighting with Russian and other non-western imperialisms, we launched Beda to highlight their efforts in countering the colonial narratives and provide some insight into how to subvert them. This is the very first issue of Beda Journal we are proud to present.

“Politically passionate people must somehow be eliminated, so they are sent to war”

An interview with Ruslan Gabbasov, a Bashqort political activist and one of the former leaders of the political organization “Bashqort”, banned in Russia. We spoke with him about the colonization of Bashqortostan, the reasons behind the participation of different ethnic groups in the war in Ukraine and his views on the republic's future.

War and myth. The cult of the Great Patriotic War and the militarization of Russian society

“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.“

Multan case. What does being a “foreigner” mean in the Russian Empire?

The “Multan case”, initiated in 1892, took its place among numerous false accusations of blood libel and once again demonstrated how the Russian Empire treats ethnic minorities. Accused of the ritual murder of a Russian peasant, the Udmurts endured torture and spent several years in prison until, thanks to the intervention of human rights activists and wide publicity, they received a well-deserved acquittal. In addition to interrogation methods inherited by today's Russia, an ethnographer approaching his work from pro-imperial position also played an essential role in the prosecution.

Special displacement operations. Why do the empire and its strong managers need them?

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.

Tatarstan—super good! The politics of multiculturalism in the republic

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.

Who are the Erzya and what is Erzyan Mastor?

Beda & Feminist Translocalities present to you Valdo's text, in which he traces the history of the Erzya, a Finno-Ugric ethnic group in Russia's Volga region, from the beginning of the 12th century subjected to brutal colonization, forced russification and attempts to erase their culture. Who are the Erzyas and how did Erzyan Mastor survive colonization by the Russian empire, the Soviet Union and modern Russia?