This paper was submitted as a presentation for the ‘Debate: The Russia-Ukraine War from the Perspective of Russian Ethnic Minorities’ held on Friday, August 29.

 

The lecture will cover the Russian colonial empire and its impact on the indigenous populations of the North, Siberia, and the Far East. My presentation will primarily focus on the Siberian region of Russia, specifically the Buryats, as that is the ethnic group to which my mother belongs. I won’t be able to cover in depth the colonization of the Siberian Turkic people, the notable representation being the Tuva and Sakha people, as I am not that familiar with their culture and do not wish to distort their history. I will be covering the colonization of Mongolic people, but would still like to acknowledge the colonization of Siberian Turkic, Uralic, Tungustic, Paleosiberian, Eskaleut, and Sino-Tibetan people.

 

Introduction

Buryatia is currently a region owned by the Russian Federation, and it encompasses the area south, east, and a bit of land west of Lake Baikal. The north of Baikal is the region of Irkutsk. The capital of Buryatia is currently Ulan Ude. The area is around 351,000 m2. The population is around 978,000. This area will be the focus of our conversation along with mention of Irkutsk.

 

 

 

Life before Russian Empire

The Buryat people, much like Mongolians, lived a nomadic lifestyle while herding cattle, such as horses and sheep. There is also a distinct group of Buryats in the west of Baikal Lake, as the area was good for crops, which would take on a more pastoral lifestyle, like having wooden homes instead of yurts. But still, it is worth mentioning that Buryats across Siberia valued hunting, much like Mongolians did. 

 

Like most Mongolians, the Buryat people were also practicing shamanism until the 16th century. But they would convert eventually to Tibetan Buddhism during the 16th century when the religion took over Mongolia. With that being said, some Western forest Buryats kept shamanism.

 

Buryats also participated in bartering, exchanging animal products for Chinese textiles and metals.

 

Buryat society consisted of the khan aristocracy that had reigned over other classes of Buryats. East Buryats had rich herdsmen called noyon. Despite that, there was no privatised land ownership, and the main mode of exchange could be classified as mutual aid or reciprocity. 

 

Buryats would be under Chingis Khan’s rule in the 13th century, keeping some semblance of autonomy under his rulership. Buryats would also engage in conflicts where they victimized the Tungus and Samoyed people.

 

Such conflict led the Buryats to be known to Russians as the Tungus, and the Samoyed people had been robbed of their belongings by the Buryats long before Russians could take anything from them. 

 

First contact with Russians, the conquest

20 years after becoming aware of the Buryat people, the Russians decided to conquer them. Silver was the main driver of the conquest as the Baikal region had an abundance of it.

 

The first attack happened in 1628, in Enisey. The Russians did not loot them initially, but did kidnap the women and children. The following year, Commander Beketov started taxing the Buryat people. By the end of the conquest of Angar, the renaming of stolen land was established. The land was renamed to Bratsk, Idynsk, and Irkutsk. Buryats would try to defend by establishing anti-Russian campaigns in 1634 that would continue until 1641. One of the biggest resistance campaigns that followed suit in 1644 led to the complete siege of Irkutsk. It was the 1640s when the Buryats realized they couldn’t fight off the Russians, so they moved down to Mongolia. Most Buryats were forced to move elsewhere (typically Mongolia) when their lands were stolen. Russian Cossacks were used to take over Buryatia, Russian Cossacks being the East Slavic and Eastern Christian people.

 

Life under the Russian Tsar

Slavery was not a concept before its introduction by the Russians. The Khans and Noyons of Buryatia would then start exploiting the non-aristocratic class for products. Buryats were used by the Russians in the same way as Cossacks were, mostly posted on the Chinese border.

 

A law of Aliens would be created in 1822, where 3 classifications were available: pastorals, nomads, and strays. Among these, the Buryats were classified as nomads, and that meant for them that a native Buryat authority would be responsible for the Buryats in their steppe administration. Each steppe administration would have its own jurisdiction. The authority would either be chosen (not specified by whom) or inherited through the aristocracy. Though Buryats were given autonomous authority, they were not given rights to their land. The land belonged to the Russian Empire. The land was to be used by the nomads and to be guarded from unauthorized theft. The Russian Government would utilize the existence of the aristocracy to extort Buryat labor.

 

The Question of Religion

Buryats were forced into two religions, Christianity and Buddhism, all while being forced to discard shamanism. The West would enforce Christianity, while the south-east would force Buddhism upon them. For half a century, the Christians tried to convert Buryats through means of violent baptism and burning of shamanic relics. The first attempt at christianization fails, but the second time the missionaries learn the Buryat language, schools open, and Christian literature is created. The Christians try to seem benevolent, but after the first attempt, the Buryats mostly resort to Buddhism as resistance against forced Christianization. The baptized Buryats were forced to abandon their cultural heritage. The Russians noticed the resistant nature within the acceptance of Buddhism among Buryats, so they would try to cut contact between Buryats and Mongolians, the main exporters of Buddhism, and Petr I would have staunch anti-Buddhist reforms in his rulership, unlike Catherine II.

 

The education of Buryats in Russian went smoothly due to the fact that, unlike Mongolians, Buryats were mostly illiterate. However, Buryats still resisted by refusing to learn to read in general.

 

The 20th century

The 20th century is when the Russian Empire tried to actually eradicate Buryat cultural heritage along with the autonomy of Buryat steppe regions, whereas in the beginning, some cultural heritage was left along with governmental autonomy. As resistance, the Buryats demanded democratic autonomy and for Buryat-taught schools to open. Due to this, Buryats start to Russify; the western Buryats give their children Russian names while the eastern Buryats try to keep their cultural names. 

 

The Revolution of the Soviet Union

Nationalist tendencies already started to become popular among Buryat people, with demands for language change from Russian to Buryat in the region and invasive land reforms occurring during the 20th century. During the revolution of 1917, some Buryats joined the white faction in hopes of building a pan-Mongolist state independent from Russia via lama Neise-Gegeen. But this endeavor fails, and more Burats mostly join the Red Army. However, as the tensions rise in Russia, the Buryats simply evacuate and immigrate to Mongolia and China. 

 

The Soviet Union and Stalinism

The soviet union does a good job of uniting West and East Buryats under the autonomous soviet socialist republic of Buryatia. This strengthens the idea of pan-mongolism even more. But alas, in 1937, the Buryat intellectual and political elite was accused of collaborating with the Japanese, which led to the loss of 6 districts. 

 

The Koryo people also suffered from similar accusations, which Stalin's regime forced them to move from Siberia to Uzbekistan and Kazakhstan. That is why the percentage of Koryo people in Russia is much smaller than that of neighboring Central Asian countries. 

 

The Leninist government was not opposed to pan-mongolism in the beginning, but during Stalin’s 1937 repressions, the Soviet government took drastic measures against pan-mongolism. This takes form in anti-religion campaigns, collectivization, and russification. This led to the imprisonment of many lamas and shamans, especially as shamans were cultural relics for Buryats to hold onto. 

 

Also, as I mentioned about the Alien law, unlike nomads, peasants had rights similar to serfs during the imperial era of Russia. So the reclassification of the Buryat people into semi-nomadic was done to urbanize the population. 

 

This is also the era when the Buryat language was forced to use Cyrillic, much like the Mongolian language. While the Buryats emigrated to Mongolia, they would also later face repression by Mongolia’s Choibalsan, as he believed that the Chinese, Kazakhs, and Buryats were the enemies of the revolution.

 

After The Fall Of Soviet Union

Before the fall of the USSR, the Buryat people would make an appeal to the USSR in 1990 for the rehabilitation and reunification of the territories on the basis that they were repressed people, to which Yeltsin’s administration at the time replied that since Buryats were highly educated, they could not achieve the status of repressed people. There is some truth to the overeducation of Buryats, as Buryat people during the USSR would quickly strive to achieve academic success under the USSR, all while not being able to use the Mongolian script for their alphabet. The UN would even recognise the repression of the Buryat people, but the now Russian Federation, in 1994, would not. Then, after the fall of the USSR, in 2007, the Buryat people would make another appeal. The appeal remained unanswered. Ridicule followed in the newspapers on this appeal. 2007 to 2010 would mark the years when propaganda of voluntary entry began to circulate, as Putin would try to rewrite history to paint a picture of Buryats willingly joining Russia for the sake of protection. This, of course, is false, as I have described the colonization of the Buryat people. Soon after, the Buryat language would be banned from schools, calling the language a dog dialect. 

 

The same resource plundering from the Russian Empire still exists, as resources (metals) would be all centralized economically in Moscow.

 

The War on Ukraine

And now, with the current war in Ukraine, the Buryat people are used as troops, bribed with money to participate in a war that doesn’t serve them.

 

The Republic of Buryatia is currently one of the most militarized regions, much like other eastern regions of Russia. Buryatia, along with Chukotka and Tuva, is one of the poorest regions in Russia. Economic disadvantage comes from the fact that resources (like metal) are being economically extorted from the west of Russia. Along with that, there is not much money to make in Buryatia, as most citizens live off less than minimum wage. The economic disadvantage of Buryatia made it an easy target for money-based militarization.

 

The Buryat troops were the first to enter the territories of Ukraine. 2.5% of Russian troops dead were found to be Buryats, while the population of Buryats in Russia only consisted of 0.35%. This means that per 100,000 people, 252 people would die during combat. The Moscow region lost 1200 people in a city with 13 million, which means only 9 deaths per 100,000 people.  This percentile discrepancy reflects that regions with indigenous populations are being targeted and heavily militarized, while Moscow and other western regions do not have heavy militarization programs. The Khabarovsk region has also been targeted for militarization, specifically the indigenous people of Khabarovsk. 

 

There is heavy propaganda aimed at the Buryat people to join the war effort. Slogans like “Russians don’t surrender, Buryats don’t run” are used, all the while the Kremlin government heavily suppresses forms of protesting, especially protesting against the war and the government.

 

Towards A Decolonized Revolution, Towards Internationalism

The USSR, the bastion of anticolonialism, has failed to truly free the indigenous population of the former Russian Empire. 

 

Indigenous people did not feel much representation during the revolution of the Soviet Union, as they simply immigrated, seeing no hope in the revolution for autonomy or independence. 

 

Although at first the Soviet Union did support pan-mongolism to some extent, Stalin’s regime would drastically oppose the idea of pan-mongolism and would punish the indigenous population for resistance against the continuation of being under Russia’s former rule.

 

The war in Ukraine also brought about a new rise in nationalism among indigenous populations stricken with war. Many desire complete freedom or maximum autonomy for the indigenous population and their lands, while some revert to nationalism via pan-mongolism, notably among Buryats and Sakha peoples. Such nationalist tendencies in the liberation movement of Buryatia are not enough for the complete liberation of the Buryat people. 

 

The pan-Mongolist stance that most Buryat revolutionaries take is a stance that will ultimately lead to the merging of Buryatia with Mongolia, reminiscent of the Chingis Khan empire. Although I see the appeal of pan-mongolism, as Buryatia does not have the power to seek independence alone, that is exactly why I believe that freedom of Buryatia will be fulfilled only via an internationalist anti-colonial resistance movement. Buryat people must unite with those who are also colonized, not only in Russia, but across the world, to bring about freedom for all colonized lands. 

 

I have told this story to encourage comrades fighting for the revolution to put into consideration the experience of the colonized and to liberate us, not only from traditional Western imperialism of Europe and the neo liberal colonization done by the US, but also to examine Russia as an imperialist force that could not bring about the liberation of indigenous people during the Soviet Union.