THE SOCIAL ORGANISATION OF CULTURAL DIFFERENCE: ORIENTALISATION OF SIBERIAN ETHNIC MINORITIES AT WAR ON UKRAINE

Zbigniew Szmyt

doi:10.23858/ethp.2024.45.3749

Published: 2024-12-17

Vol. 45 (2024)

THE SOCIAL ORGANISATION OF CULTURAL DIFFERENCE

Zbigniew Szmyt

Ethnologia Polona

Section: Main topic of the issue

https://doi.org/10.23858/ethp.2024.45.3749

Abstract

This paper explores the orientalisation of Siberian ethnic minorities who have actively participated in the war on Ukraine. The overrepresentation of Buryats and Tuvans within the Russian army has sparked public discussions in Ukraine and Russia about the relations of Siberian minorities with the Russian state. This study is a starting point in analysing the relationship between the state, nationalism, and ethnic minorities in contemporary Russia, particularly in the Russo-Ukrainian conflict. The orientalisation of Siberian ethnic minorities is interpreted as a significant aspect of a broader national and cultural boundary construct between Russian and Ukrainian societies. The research focuses on two key areas: (1) an examination of discursive representations of Siberian minorities in both Ukrainian and Russian media and (2) an exploration of the process of national and cultural differentiation between Russian and Ukrainian societies.

Keywords:

siberian ethnic minorities, Tuva, Buryatia, war in Ukraine, Russia, ethnic soldiering, orientalization, collaborative nationalism

Most read articles by the same author(s)

Zbigniew Szmyt, Stephan Dudeck, INTRODUCTION , Ethnologia Polona: Vol. 45 (2024): War and State among Ethnic Minorities in Russia

Download files

PDF

Citation rules

Szmyt, Z. (2024). THE SOCIAL ORGANISATION OF CULTURAL DIFFERENCE: ORIENTALISATION OF SIBERIAN ETHNIC MINORITIES AT WAR ON UKRAINE. Ethnologia Polona, 45, 169–191. https://doi.org/10.23858/ethp.2024.45.3749

Cited by / Share

Licence

This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivatives 4.0 International License.

References

Barth, Fredrik. 1969. “Introduction.” In Ethnic groups and boundaries: The social organisation of cultural difference, edited by Fredrik Barth. Oslo: Universitetsforlaget.
Google Scholar

Bazhan, Oleh, 2022. “U chomu poliahaie dekolonizatsiia v ukrainskomu publichnomu prostori w umovakh Rosiisko-ukrainskoi viiny?” [What was decolonisation in the Ukrainian public space in the context of the Russian-Ukrainian war?] In Perelom: Viina Rosii proty Ukrainy u chasovykh plastakh i prostorakh mynuvshyny. Dialohy z istorykamy [The Turning Point: Russia’s war against Ukraine in the time layers and turns of the past. Dialogues with historians], edited by Valentyn Smolii, 109. Kyiv: NAN Ukrainy.
Google Scholar

Bessudnov, Andrii. 2023. “Ethnic and regional inequalities in the Russian military fatalities in the 2022 war in Ukraine”. Arctic Review on Law and Politics 14: 70-75. DOI: https://doi.org/10.31235/osf.io/s43yf
Google Scholar

Bobylkina, Yana. 2023. “Vperedi reshajushhaja bitva na Dnepre: burjatskie bozhestva raskryli vremja okonchanija SVO. Pochemu istorija mozhet sdelat’ krug i vernut’ nas v sobytija IV veka” [The decisive battle on the Dnieper River is ahead: Buryat deities revealed the time of the end of the SMO. Why can history make a circle and return us to the events of the IV century?]. Daily Storm, June 13. Accessed May 26, 2024. https://dailystorm.ru/chtivo/vperedi-reshayushchaya-bitva-na-dnepre-buryatskie-bozhestva-raskryli-vremya-okonchaniya-svo.
Google Scholar

Buchowski, Michał. 2020. “Distant vs. Familiar Significant Others: Attitudes towards Absent Muslim Refugees and Extant Labor Migrants in Poland.” Asian Journal of Peacebuilding, 1(8): 73-91. DOI: https://doi.org/10.18588/202005.00a121
Google Scholar

Buyskykh, Julia. 2023. “Old-New Colonial Tendencies in Social Anthropology: Empathy in Wartime.” Ethnologia Polona 45: 55-85. DOI: https://doi.org/10.23858/ethp.2023.44.3366
Google Scholar

Chakrabarty, Dipesh. 2000. Provincializing Europe: Postcolonial Thought and Historical Difference. Princeton: Princeton University Press.
Google Scholar

Comaroff, John, and Jean Comaroff. 2009. Ethnicity, Inc. Chicago: University of Chicago Press. DOI: https://doi.org/10.7208/chicago/9780226114736.001.0001
Google Scholar

Dashkevych, Yakiv. 2013. “Yak Moskoviia pryvlasnyla istoriiu Kyivskoi Rusi.” [How Moskovia appropriated Kyiv’s Rus’ history] In Ukrainski realii: neharazdy, zahrozy [Ukrainian Reality: Hardships and Threats], edited by O. Hlushko and B. Karpenko, 6-9. Kyiv: Universytet Ukraina.
Google Scholar

Dijk, Teun van. 1993. “Principles of critical discourse analysis.” Discourse and Society 4 (2): 249-283. DOI: https://doi.org/10.1177/0957926593004002006
Google Scholar

Dirlik, Arif. 1996. “Chinese History and the Question of Orientalism.” History and Theory 35 (4): 96-118. DOI: https://doi.org/10.2307/2505446
Google Scholar

Dugar de Ponte, Rajana. 2022. “Buryaty i ‘russkiy mir’. Radzhana Dugar-De Ponte o tom, chto ‘pozor etoy voyny pridet·sya delit’ porovnu” [Buryats and the ‘Russian world’. Radzhana Dugar-De Ponte on how ‘the shame of this war will have to be shared equally’]. Sibir’.Realii, May 12. Accessed May 5, 2024. https://www.sibreal.org/a/buryaty-i-russkij-mir-/31844184.html.
Google Scholar

Durani, Kashif et al. 2023. “Visual audience gatekeeping on social media platforms: A critical investigation on visual information diffusion before and during the Russo–Ukrainian War.” Information Systems Journal 34 (2): 1-54. DOI: https://doi.org/10.1111/isj.12483
Google Scholar

Enikeev, Gumer, and Šaukat Kitabčy. 2013. Nasledie Tatar. Moskva: Algoritm.
Google Scholar

Etkind, Alexander. 2011. Internal Colonization: Russia’s Imperial Experience. Cambridge: Polity Press.
Google Scholar

Ferguson, Brian, and Neil Whitehead. 1992. “The Violent Edge of Empire.” In War in the Tribal Zone, edited by Brian Ferguson and Neil Whitehead, 1-29. Santa Fe: School of America Research.
Google Scholar

Franko, Ivan. 1944. Zakhar Berkut. Translated by Theodosia. Boresky. New York: Teo Gaus’ Sons Inc Publisher.
Google Scholar

Gerasimov, Igor. 2014. “Ukraine 2014: The First Postcolonial Revolution.” Ab Imperio 3: 22-44. DOI: https://doi.org/10.1353/imp.2014.0072
Google Scholar

Górny, Maciej. 2014. “Five great armies against our enemies. A comparative study in the history of racism.” Kwartalnik Historyczny 121: 95-121. DOI: https://doi.org/10.12775/KH.2014.121.SI.1.04
Google Scholar

Graber, Kathryn. 2020. Mixed Messages: Mediating Native Belonging in Asian Russia. Ithaca, NY: Cornell University Press. DOI: https://doi.org/10.7591/cornell/9781501750502.001.0001
Google Scholar

Hall, Stuart. 1997. Representation: Cultural Representations and Signifying Practices. London: Sage Publications.
Google Scholar

Hrabovych, Oksana. 1994. “Kolonializm i yoho spadshchyna v suchasnii Ukraini.” [Colonialism and its legacy in modern Ukraine] Arka 1 (3): 23-28.
Google Scholar

Karpanov, Volodymyr. 2023. Ščo ne tak z rosijs’koju? Istorija Ukrajiny vid imeni T.H. Ševčenka [What is wrong with Russian? History of Ukraine by T.G. Shevchenko]. YouTube video 27:02. May 7. Accessed January 3, 2024. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QA6ebKxQMAI.
Google Scholar

Kotubei-Herutska, Olesia. 2022. “Ponevoleni narody Rosii: chomu ukraintsiam potribno znaty pro nykh ta chym Ukraini vyhidna dezintehratsiia RF” [Russia’s enslaved peoples: why Ukrainians need to know about them and how Ukraine benefits from Russia’s disintegration]. Suspil’ne Kul’tura, May 16. Accessed May 5, 2024. https://suspilne.media/culture/459950-ponevoleni-narodi-rosii-comu-ukraincam-potribno-znati-pro-nih-ta-cim-ukraini-vigidna-dekolonizacia-rf/.
Google Scholar

Kozinets, Robert. 2020. Netnography: The Essential Guide to Qualitative Social Media Research. London: Sage Publications Ltd. DOI: https://doi.org/10.4324/9781003001430-2
Google Scholar

Kraliuk, Petro. 2022. “Viina i mozhlyvyi rozpad Rosii. Chetverta sproba?” [War and the possible disintegration of Russia. A fourth attempt?]. Radio Svoboda, August 2. Accessed March 13, 2023. https://www.radiosvoboda.org/a/forum-vilnykh-narodiv-rosiya/31970290.html.
Google Scholar

Krâžev, Andrey. 2022. “V Minoborony RF rasskazali o bessilii VSU pered ‘tuvinskim fenomenom’.” [The Russian Ministry of Defence told about VSU’s powerlessness over the ‘Tuvan phenomenon’] Radio Sputnik. Accessed March 17, 2023. https://radiosputnik.ria.ru/20220904/fenomen-1814368064.html.
Google Scholar

Mbembe, Achille. 2003. “Necropolitics.” Public Culture 15 (1): 11-40. DOI: https://doi.org/10.1215/08992363-15-1-11
Google Scholar

Moscovici, Serge. 2011. “An Essay on Social Representations and Ethnic Minorities.” Social Science Information 50: 422-461. DOI: https://doi.org/10.1177/0539018411411027
Google Scholar

Loomba, Ania. 2015. Colonialism/Postcolonialism. London, New York: Routledge. DOI: https://doi.org/10.4324/9781315751245
Google Scholar

Mazurenko, Andrii. 2022. “Zelenskyi vidkynuv tezu pro spilne istorychne korinnia z RF: Yaka vy Rus’, vy – orda” [Zelenskyy rejects the thesis of common historical roots with Russia: ‘What kind of Rus are you, you are a horde’]. Ukrainska Pravda, April 15. Accessed March 8, 2023. https://www.pravda.com.ua/news/2022/04/15/7339688/.
Google Scholar

Namsaraeva, Sayana. 2024. “Haunted by Ukrainian Ghosts. Three Stories of Ethnic-Military Relationships in Buryatia during the Russia–Ukraine War Crisis.” Inner Asia, 26: 109–14.
Google Scholar

Oliinyk, Yurii et al. 2022. “Dekolonizatsiia rosii – z choho pochynaty” [Decolonisation of Russia - where to start]. Nederzhavnyi analitychnyi tsentr Ukrainski studii stratehichnykh doslidzhen, October 7. Accessed May 18, 2024. https://ussd.org.ua/2022/10/07/dekolonizacziya-rosiyi-z-chogo-pochynaty/.
Google Scholar

Ong, Larissa. 2017. “The Chino Cubano Complex: Five Artists’ Strategic Self-Orientalization and Reclamation of Chinese Identity.” Transmodernity: Journal of Peripheral Cultural Production of the Luso-Hispanic World, 7 (2): 119-138. DOI: https://doi.org/10.5070/T472035429
Google Scholar

Pakhlovska, Oksana. 2008. Ave, Europa!: Statti, dopovidi, publitsyka (1989-2008). Kyiv: Pulsary.
Google Scholar

Polishchuk, Yaroslav. 2020. Poshuky Skhidnoi Yevropy: tini mynuloho, mirazhi maibutno [Searching for Eastern Europe: Shadows of the past, mirages of the future]: Chernivtsi: Knyhy.
Google Scholar

Postill, John. 2017. “Remote Ethnography: Studying Culture from Afar.” In The Routledge Companion to Digital Ethnography, edited by L. Hjorth et al., 1-54. New York, London: Taylor & Francis.
Google Scholar

Putin, Vladimir. 2021. “Pro istoryčnu jedniss’ rosijan ta ukrajinciv.” [On the historical unity of Russians and Ukrainians] Accessed January 6, 2024. http://kremlin.ru/events/president/news/66182.
Google Scholar

Quijad, Justine. 2019. Buddhists, Shamans, and Soviets: Rituals of History in Post-Soviet Buryatia. New York: Oxford University Press. DOI: https://doi.org/10.1093/oso/9780190916794.001.0001
Google Scholar

Riabchuk, Mykola. 2013. “Colonialism in Another Way. On the Applicability of Postcolonial Methodology for the Study of Postcommunist Europe.” Porównania 13: 47-59.
Google Scholar

Said, Edward. 1994. Orientalism. New York: Vintage Books Edition.
Google Scholar

Serdjuk, Katerina. 2023. “‘U nas zabyrajut’ vse’: u batal’joni Sybir rozpovily, čomu vojujut’ proty Rosiji” [“Everything is being taken away from us”: members of the “Siberia” battalion tell why they are fighting against Russia]. Television News Service, October 28. Accessed January 2, 2024. https://tsn.ua/svit/u-nas-zabirayut-vse-u-batalyoni-sibir-rozpovili-chomu-voyuyut-proti-rosiyi-2438782.html.
Google Scholar

Shakhvorostova, Valeriya. 2023. Elektronna petytsiia №22/170958-ep. Accessed March 11, 2023. https://petition.president.gov.ua/petition/170958.
Google Scholar

Shkandrii, Mykola. 2004. V obiimakh imperii. Rosiiska ta ukrainska literaturi [In the arms of the empire. Russian and Ukrainian literature]. Kyiv: Fakt.
Google Scholar

Sinchenko, Oleksandr, and Maryna Havrylovska. 2014. “Postkolonialni doslidzhenia: ukrainskyi vymir.” [Postcolonial studies: the Ukrainian dimension] Literaturnyi protses: metodolohiia, imena, tendentsii 3 (2014): 109-113.
Google Scholar

Spivak, Gayatri. 1996. “Subaltern Studies: Deconstructing Historiography?” In The Spivak Reader, edited by D. Landry and G. MacLean, 203-237. London: Routledge.
Google Scholar

Steporuk, Nazar. 2022. “Rozsliduvachi vstanovyly osobu soldata, yakyi kastruvav ukrainskoho polonenoho na video.” [Investigators identify soldier who castrated Ukrainian prisoner on video] Unian. Accessed October 10, 2023. https://www.unian.ua/war/rozsliduvachi-vstanovili-osobu-soldata-yakiy-kastruvav-ukrajinskogo-polonenogo-na-video-novini-vtorgnennya-rosiji-v-ukrajinu-11930961.html.
Google Scholar

Sumlennyi, Sergej. 2023. “Jak rozpadatymet’sja Rosija ta čy varto c’oho očikuvaty?” [How Russia will fall apart and whether it is worth looking forward to it?] Ukrajins’kyj tyžden’. Accessed December 31, 2023. https://tyzhden.ua/iak-rozpadatyme-tsia-rosiia-ta-chy-varto-tsoho-ochikuvaty/.
Google Scholar

Szmyt, Zbigniew. 2014. Modern Nomads. Antropologičeskie očerki sovremennyh burâtskih migracii v Rossii. Irkutsk: Ottisk.
Google Scholar

Szmyt, Zbigniew. 2023. “Syberyjskie mniejszości na wojnie w Ukrainie: od reprezentacji społecznych po wernakularne formy ideologizacji.” [Siberian minorities at war in Ukraine: from social representations to vernacular forms of ideologisation] Lud. Organ Polskiego Towarzystwa Ludoznawczego 107: 42-76. DOI: https://doi.org/10.12775/lud107.2023.02
Google Scholar

Tararuev, Vasiliy. 2022. “Uchastnik SVO s pozyvnym «Burjat» razdelil ukrainskih bojcov na tri kategorii” [An SVO participant with the nickname ‘Buryat’ divided Ukrainian fighters into three categories]. MK Burâtii, December 2. Accessed March 17, 2023. https://ulan.mk.ru/social/2022/12/06/uchastnik-svo-s-pozyvnym-buryat-razdelil-ukrainskikh-boycov-na-tri-kategorii.html.
Google Scholar

Thompson, Ewa. 2000. Imperial Knowledge: Russian Literature and Colonialism. Westport, CT and London: Greenwood.
Google Scholar

Thompson, Ewa. 2011. “A jednak kolonializm: uwagi epistemologiczne.” [And yet colonialism: epistemological remarks] Teksty Drugie: teoria literatury, krytyka, interpretacja 6 (132): 289-302.
Google Scholar

Todorova, Maria. 1997. Imagining the Balkans. New York: Oxford University Press.
Google Scholar

Velychenko, Stephen. 2004. “Postcolonialism and Ukrainian History.” Ab Imperio 1: 391-404. DOI: https://doi.org/10.1353/imp.2004.0028
Google Scholar

Voennoslužaŝij…. 2023. “Voennoslužaŝij batal’ona upravleniâ s pozyvnym «Kâhta» rasskazal o svoej motivacii i boevyh budnâh.” [A soldier of the command and control battalion with the nickname ‘Kyakhta’ described his motivation and everyday life in combat] Minoborony Rossii. Accessed January 4, 2024. https://rutube.ru/video/e806b01fb77b928f0a42eb627965f267/?r=a.
Google Scholar

Voloshyn, Vlad. 2022. “Tuva yde, abo Orda kativ u humovykh chobotakh” [Tuva is coming, or the horde of executioners in rubber boots]. Armiia Inform, April 7. Accessed May 24, 2024. https://armyinform.com.ua/2022/04/07/tuva-jde-abo-orda-kativ-u-gumovyh-chobotah/.
Google Scholar

Vynohradova, Ulyana. 2022. “Naizhorstokishi i neshchadni: Anatolii Anatolich pokazav buriativ, yaki zvirstvuvaly v Buchi.” [The day before and the day after tomorrow: Anatolii Anatoliiovych showed the graves that were reported in Bucha.] Obozrevatel. Accessed May 5, 2024. https://news.obozrevatel.com/ukr/show/people/najzhorstokishi-i-neschadni-anatolij-anatolich-pokazav-buryativ-yaki-zvirstvuvali-v-buchi.htm.
Google Scholar

Vyushkova, Maria, and Evgeny Sharkhanov. 2023. “Russia’s ethnic minority casualties of the 2022 invasion of Ukraine.” Inner Asia 25 (1): 126-36. DOI: https://doi.org/10.1163/22105018-02501011
Google Scholar

Waldstein, Maxim and Sari Turoma (eds.). 2016. Empire De/Centered: New Spatial Histories of Russia and the Soviet Union. London: Taylor & Francis. DOI: https://doi.org/10.4324/9781315579320
Google Scholar

Wiederkehr, Stephan. 2007. “Eurasianism as a Reaction to Pan-Turkism.” In Russia between East and West. Scholarly debates on Eurasianism, edited by Dmitry Shlapentokh, 39-60. Leiden, Boston: Brill. DOI: https://doi.org/10.1163/ej.9789004154155.i-198.23
Google Scholar

Xotyn, Roman. 2022. “Čomu Ukrajina vyznala Čečnju okupovanoju Rosijeju i čy označaje ce vyznannja nezaležnosti Ičkeriji?” [Why did Ukraine recognise Chechnya as occupied by Russia and does this mean recognition of Ichkeria’s independence?]. Radio Svoboda, October 19. Accessed December 31, 2023. https://www.radiosvoboda.org/a/ukrayina-rosia-chechnya-nezalezhnist-ichkeria/32091704.html.
Google Scholar