Colonised
The Indigenous Peoples of Russia
Deutsche Fassung
Abstract
Indigenous peoples have inalienable rights, particularly the right to collective self-determination. Among the indigenous peoples of Russia, such as the Nenets and Khanty, both collective self-consciousness and awareness of such rights are poorly developed. Commodity companies, with the support of the state, are destroying their land and depriving them of the possibility of continuing their traditional way of life. But the indigenous communities are atomized. The violence of collectivisation, the murder of their leaders, and forced assimilation have deprived these peoples of a distinct sense of self and turned the people into subjects of the state. Russia’s war against Ukraine has made the situation even worse. However, members of these peoples now living in exile are developing an awareness that their communities have been victims of colonisation ever since the conquest of Siberia.
(Osteuropa 1-3/2024, pp. 213–233)