"Internal Colonization" — Re-colonization

Russian-literature scholars Alexander Etkind and Mark Lipovetsky diverge in their understanding of what brought about the trauma in Russian post-Soviet literature: the individual experience of totalitarianism or the entire modernization experience of Russia, which was marked by an “internal colonization” of its own people. [1]

In recent times the concept of “internal colonization” has been acquiring a noticeable resonance in the Russian humanities. This theory makes use of the achievements of Western postcolonial studies, in particular the analysis of "orientalism" from Edward Said's work. However, it is the position of the colonizer —that is, the one who forms oppositions and appropriates positions of the center — that dominates in this analysis. It is also worth looking at this theory from the position of the subjugated and colonized “other,” which creates yet another perspective for an evaluation of the Russian imperial experience. And what is under discussion here above all is the question about vectors of colonialization itself, both internal and external.

The formation of the Russian Empire was a complex and prolonged process. Paul Bushkovitch states that during the Petrine period a transition was already taking place from the dynastic principle of self-determination to a state-based one, and the concept of All-Russian Empire and Great Russian Empire appears in diplomatic documents of that time. The affirmation of an imperial consciousness is especially associated with Russia’s campaigns against the Turks, and also with conquests in the Caucasus. Generally the external colonization of various peoples (Baskirs, Kalmycks, Don Cossacks, Ukrainians, Finns, Crimean Tatars) is inseparable from the imperial Russian project. True, some regions of the Russian Empire, such as Turkestan or Siberia, resembled colonies more, while others — Finland, the Baltic provinces — did so less.

Contemplating textbook subjects of Russian literature in “a comparative context of colonial politics of the 19th century” Alexander Etkind appeals to the experience of the imperial history of Russia, saying: “Second only to the British Empire, Russian possessions stretched from Finland and Poland to Alaska and Manchuria, spanning the later boundaries of the USSR. The wars waged by Russia from 1815 to 1917 were almost all colonial wars, conflicts over territories lying outside the national borders of the participating countries.” [2] However, Etkind notes that “the main paths of Russian colonization were aimed not outside, but at the interior of the metropolis: not into Turkey, not into Poland, and not even at Siberia, but into the villages of Tula, Pomerania, and Orenburg. Here the state distributed landed estates and subdued uprisings. Here community was discovered and folklore was recorded. Ancient customs and strange religions were studied here. From here the capital’s collections obtained deformities and rarities.” [3] Etkind’s conclusion, which he formulates following ...