| That’s certainly one perspective. |
by Petr Ogradov
[REGNUM] INTRODUCTION
Russia is conducting a special military operation (SVO) in Ukraine. Its goal is to protect the Russian minority living in this country from persecution, discrimination, destruction, as well as to ensure the security of the core of the Russian nation in Russia from aggression from the collective West.
After the end of the NMD, the Russian leadership will be forced to reconsider its attitude towards all Russians scattered in the post-Soviet space in order to also protect them. However, the solution of this important managerial task encounters a weak theoretical study of the problem. Russian social scientists give a more or less detailed description of the situation of Russians in the former Soviet republics, but say nothing about the reasons for their persecution, discrimination, extermination, and are not ready to formulate proposals for the eradication of these misanthropic practices.
Partly the cause of theoretical helplessness is the dogmatic approach to the development of the Marxist-Leninist theoretical heritage, partly the timidity in rethinking the theoretical developments of Anglo-Saxon researchers. It does not help the solution of the problem, and the fact that Russian social science is financed at its key points by Western funds, which impose restrictions on the development of research needed by the country's leadership.
It seems to us that the concepts developed by the Anglo-Saxons to solve their own managerial problems can be successfully used to solve the important managerial problem that has arisen. First of all, it is the concept of genocide and ethnocide. This concept was developed in the USA by the Jewish scholar Raphael Lemkin as a response to the persecution, discrimination, and then mass extermination of European Jews in the first half of the last century. It formed the basis of many decisions taken by the US leadership regarding Nazi Germany, its allies and satellites.
For the last fifty years, the development of the concept of genocide and ethnocide in the West has been occupied by hundreds of research centers, in which many thousands of scientists work. They provide their customers with recommendations that are of great practical importance. The acquired knowledge is used, among other things, to manage ethnic conflicts in the post-Soviet space, to disorient the ruling Russian elites.
Let us apply the concept developed by Lemkin to analyze the position of Russians in Eastern Europe at the present time and compare the results obtained with the position of the Jewish diaspora in Western Europe before and during World War II. The basis for this kind of comparison is that both ethnic groups we have chosen are numerous, highly developed socially, dispersed in many countries and deprived of protection from their state. The Jewish diaspora in the first half of the last century did not have its own state at all, Russians living abroad for three decades after the collapse of the USSR did not receive real protection from their "mother" state - Russia. In view of the multidimensionality and volume of the topic, we will focus only on the ethnocide of these two minorities.
ETHNIC GROUPS AND THEIR RELATIONSHIP WITH EACH OTHER
The total society consists of separate ethnic groups - groups of individuals interconnected by common spiritual values ​​and common social practices arising from them. The reproduction of such developed forms of an ethnos as a people and a nation presupposes the use of social institutions. These are churches, schools, universities, libraries, theaters, media.
The main burden in the process of the formation of developed ethnic groups falls on people who act within the framework of social institutions, manage through them the bulk of people - social elites.
Ethnic groups also create institutions of force protection from destructive internal and external influences. For peoples and nations, this is a system of power institutions - the state. The state is run by political elites.
For the production and distribution of material goods, ethnic groups create economic institutions. For peoples and nations, these are manufactories, factories, trading establishments, banks, stock exchanges. They are controlled by economic elites.
Elites, thus, dispose of the main part of the members of the ethnos - the masses. The masses are predominantly engaged in the production and circulation of material goods.
Ethnic groups compete with each other for the possession of the material resources necessary for their existence. With equal strengths of ethnic groups, competition between them is in the nature of an exchange of goods, spiritual values ​​and social practices. The elites who implement this kind of policy can be conditionally defined as "white".
Ethnic groups that gain sufficient strength often attack weaker neighbors in order to profit from their material wealth, to appropriate other people's territories. Between the conflicting parties there are armed clashes - wars.
Winners in wars initially destroyed their ethnic competitors. The policy of physical destruction of a competing ethnic group is called genocide. The elites who pursue this kind of policy can be conditionally designated as "black".
When a certain level of development of productive forces is reached, it becomes profitable not to destroy an ethnic competitor, but to enslave or enslave its members so that they create a surplus product for the conqueror on a permanent basis. Between these two ethnic groups for a long time relations "domination - submission" are established. The elites who pursue this policy can be conditionally defined as "brown".
The ruling "brown" elites seek to consolidate their privileged position in society and therefore pursue a policy of suppression and discrimination of the conquered ethnic group. This policy is called ethnocide. The meaning of ethnocide lies in the destruction of the collective identity of the enslaved ethnic group and depriving it of the ability to organize resistance through this. The result of the policy of ethnocide is the relegation of the enslaved ethnos to the lower rungs of the social ladder or its complete dissolution in the environment of the dominant ethnos. In the first case, the strategy of the separate existence of ethnic groups is carried out - segregation, in the second case - the assimilation of the subordinate ethnic group by the dominant ethnic group. Complete assimilation allows you to increase the number and, accordingly, the strength of the dominant ethnic group,
The ethnos-"lord" is often referred to as the titular ethnos, since it gives the name-title to its state. The enslaved ethnos is often referred to as a minority, although this is not entirely accurate, since the dominant ethnos may be small in number, while the subordinate ethnos may be numerous. For example, the Manchus ruling in the Celestial Empire at the beginning of the 20th century were barely 4 million people, while the Hans controlled by them numbered about 400 million people.
Further in the article, we will use the term "ethnic minority" to refer to an ethnic group that lives in a "foreign" state and is subjected to persecution and discrimination by the titular dominant ethnic group.
Ethnic groups living outside their state or not having a state at all are often referred to as diasporas or, in Russian, scattering. Diasporas become the first victims of aggressor ethnic groups. In the context of the presented material, the term "diaspora" is used by us as a synonym for the term "ethnic minority".
To be continued