Discover and read the best of Twitter Threads about #RussianColonialism

for centuries russians did not shy away from calling themselves colonizers and a colonial empire. #RussianColonialism civilizing mission became an official ideology already in 18th century

by 19th century russia has been actively appropriating western colonial lingo and describing the vast portfolio of stolen lands as “colonies”

russian government offices were stacked with western journals about colonialism and history books about western colonies. there was even a semi-official government periodical about colonization

"#RussianColonialism 101" book is almost done. We need a bit of your help to cross the finish line.

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Stas Olenchenko 🇺🇦

@TheStanislawski

Hey everyone,

I’ve gathered up a thread of threads with some of the highlights of @uaexplainers and my personal threads that I believe deserve a read.

I will keep updating it from time to time.

The story of my family transforming from Ukr-speaking farmers to Ru-speaking Kyivites throughout the XX century.

My story is not unique – it reflects the cross-generational russification of millions of Ukrainian families in the last hundred years.

https://twitter.com/TheStanislawski/status/1520421209355296768?s=20

Part 2 of that thread, 6 months later.

How and why my family has gone back to speaking only Ukrainian at home in the last year. An emotional journey that started somewhere around 2004 and seems complete now following Russia’s full-scale invasion:

https://twitter.com/thestanislawski/status/1620127712252928000?s=52&t=L-ZhSxsS0MUQ6k4ceR0-zA

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f*cking hell. r*ssia is orchestrating a coup in Moldova to swallow another European democracy in total colonial occupation

video by @NewsMakerMD

how many more genocide frontlines moscow has to open before the rest of the world finally breaks the neck of this fascist death cult with full-scale sanctions and unrestricted arms supply for Ukraine?

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Leon Berlino

@Leon_Berlino

wenn Andere nebenbei "Bombenangriff auf Kyiv" erwähnen, kommen mir immer diese Bilder in den Sinn. Das ist es, was #russischerKolonialismus mit Tschetschenien und Grosny gemacht hat, als diese im Jahr 2000 versuchten, das Imperium zu verlassen.

Ein Kriegsverbrechen schrecklichen Ausmaßes, aber dem Rest der Welt war es egal, also machte Moskau weiter. Moskau ist furchtbar unkreativ. In den letzten hundert Jahren hat #russischerKolonialismus immer wieder dieselbe Invasions- und Besatzungstaktik angewandt. Ein thread: 🧵

1911-44. Tannu-Tuva versucht, den russischen #Kolonialismus zu verlassen. Moskau putscht, installiert ein Marionettenregime, beginnt mit der kulturellen Auslöschung, schickt russische Siedlerkolonialisten und annektiert schließlich das Land. en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tuvan_Peo…

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r*ssian “opposition”: if the west doesn’t give us money and backing, expect things much worse than genocide in Ukraine

how exactly this is different from putin? rhetorical question, really.

the only effective opposition to putin is Ukraine’s armed forces

this kind of rhetoric surprises no one in the societies affected by long history of #RussianColonialism. it is the best illustration to what we mean when we say this is not putin’s war, but it is r*ssia’s war

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Dr. Nik Ford 🍉✙

@ford_nik

Today marks 79years since the #Aardakh Genocide also known as— Operation Lentil. This is when Stalin ordered the deportation of the entire Chechen and Ingush populations. #Chechnya #Ichkeria 🧵 #russiancolonialism #russiaisaterroriststate

During WWII, Stalin became suspicious of the Chechen population because the Germans got within a close margin of the Western mountainous region of the North Caucasus and suspected the Chechens of colluding with the Nazis— even though many were fighting on behalf of the Red Army.

This fact was irrelevant. Stalin decide they were all Nazis and must be destroyed.

Since 1918 Feb 23rd was a day to celebrate the Red Army— knowing this, the Soviets used this day to trick the Chechens.

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while some westerners proudly announce that in 2023 they finally start seeing centuries-old patterns of #RussianColonialism, let me share a 2003 essay by Ukrainian historian @globalrhizome where he told you everything to know about r*ssia, Ukraine, colonialism but few listened

yes, it was in English. yes, it was published by a respected Western academic journal. i bet if 30 pages of 'Postcolonialism, Russia and Ukraine' became a classic of eastern european and r*ssian studies, this genocide wouldn't be happening
jstor.org/stable/25748122

on r*ssian 'imperial innocence': 'in present-day Russia postcolonialism is perhaps the only major contemporary theoretical discourse that largely continues to be proudly and persistently ignored (old imperial habits die hard)"

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the fact that some westerners have zero problem with hardcore neo-nazi roots of r*ssia’s opposition leader and fashy vibe of russian national identity but instead get obsessed with some marginal far-right freaks in Ukraine nobody really knows is classic western colonial gaze

https://twitter.com/rynkrynk/status/1625730517512474624

Ukrainians always are expected to fit the impossible standard: our society cannot have far-rights, crooks, murderers, and just mean people — even though every other has. Even as we are being murdered in genocide

r*ssian literal war criminals get fancy book deals and politicians who called for extermination of ethnic minorities end up being gloried heroes, but reputation of every Ukrainian in public eye gets policed to the level of insane absurdity. this is so f*cking exhausting

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Andrew Chakhoyan 🇺🇦

@ChakhoyanAndrew

🔴 Why did #russia launch a full-scale invasion last year?
🔵 Whether you're pro-russian, anti-russian, or Elon Musk [who just can't decide], Feb 24th doesn't make any sense
🔵 So, here is a short thread 🧵to explore the 3 most compelling explanations I've heard
1/5

1️⃣ Kool-Aid drinking party in the bunker
As @TarasKuzio explained in his piece for @ACEurasia
"It would appear that Putin simply fell victim to his own propaganda."
atlanticcouncil.org/blogs/ukrainea…
2/5

2️⃣ regime preservation: a plan to conduct a quick & victorious war [repeating "Crimea success"] & thus accrue sufficient legitimacy for the putin-kleptocracy to run/pillage russia for decades to come

As @RG_Horvath argued here
lowyinstitute.org/the-interprete… via @LowyInstitute

3/5

Daniel Asher in solidarity 🌻🇺🇦✊🇺🇸🌊

@abstractedaway

@imax9000 This thesis is blatantly pro-russia. It acknowledges Dugin's extremism, but advocates for another form of #russianColonialism:

"a Russian-led ‘big space’ is not only a preferable, but the only possible option for a successful future of the observed region."

@imax9000 At 64 pages long, you might feel uncomfortable at how often it raises russian talking points, like "NATO expansion".

@imax9000 The author's made much of her interview with Dugin, and indeed his Nazi-esque extremism is noted. This was just before some of his most famous statements for the #genocideOfUkrainians but it was already clear what he was.

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Voytsekhovskyi

@fermerzpolissia

🧵Thread with pages from Soviet magazine "Перець" ('Pepper') from 1930s. This is one of the most blatant propaganda papers that was extremely popular in Ukrainian SSR and was published in Ukrainian. Another example how russians used national languages. #RussianColonialism /1

1932. Holodomor. Millions of Ukrainians are starving to death as a result of man made famine. Meanwhile, the article tells us about food riots in Hindenburg (now Zabrze, Poland) and how police arrest hungry people there. /2

1933. Holodomor. Millions of Ukrainians are starving to death as a result of man made famine. The cover shows the dialogue of two peasants:
- Why are there so many people in the field?
- As the proverb says: Hard work brings plenty of food to kolkhoz. /3

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i think many still don’t get it: no Ukrainian or any other indigenous survivor of russian colonialism gives any shit about navalny per se (nor the majority of russians do tbh). your uncritical support for imperialist and racist russian opposition is what is triggering

the serial pattern of foreign attitude always allowing russian imperial elites to swap regime names without ever critically examining the cultural, historical and societal roots of russian colonialism is what helped them to keep millions of us colonized and enslaved for centuries

the world betrayed us in paris 1918 when dozens of nations begged you to help them to liberate themselves from #RussianColonialism and you brush us off and saying “but it is a new better russia, just try it”

how #RussianColonialism copied european colonial tactics of “liberating indigenous women” to cement colonization of Central Asia in 1920-30s and hijack indigenous cultural codes. from brilliant “veiled empire” by douglas northrop:

“many european colonial regimes of late 19-mid-20 century attempted to govern vast numbers of subjects with a comparative handful of officials, soldiers, and settlers. since direct physical force and coercion alone could not guarantee imperial power.

these regimes needed other means to control indigenous populations. laws and legal norms often served this purpose, creating codes of behavior against which colonized individuals could be measured. If all went well, from the standpoint of colonial authorities, these norms

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Darya Zorka

@daryazorka

What is like to grow up in a heavily russified country and to be deprived of your culture and identity. A thread about personal experience and consequences of #russiancolonialism. 1/19

*Photo of my beautiful grandmother wearing a Belarusian embroidered shirt, year 1957.

I saw a phrase by Citizenset, a Ukrainian poet who lives in San Francisco, and it resonated deeply with me: “I came to my identity as Ukrainian and I stopped waiting for someone to give me permission to be who I am.” I struggled with my Belarusian identity all my life.

When I was growing up I almost didn’t experience Belarusian culture, I didn’t speak Belarusian language, I didn’t learn accurate history - everything was heavily russified, history books were rewritten in favor of russia and russification affected every aspect of life.

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as someone who is forever robbed by russian colonialism of my own family history, it is honor to amplify other indigenous stories

https://twitter.com/maksymeristavi/status/1613179226563252225

i might never know why half of my family looked asian but had georgian surname and the other part got missing in russian concentration camps - their voices are erased forever. but i can help to preserve and amplify indigenous stories that survived despite #RussianColonialism

join me on this mission:
russiancolonialism.info

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days since russian appropriated ukrainian stories in the most revolting manner: 0

https://twitter.com/n1ckism/status/1608585982173122560

imagine german bands doing a holocaust music show in 1944 🤮

seeing any russian appropriating the sacral word “bucha” for a music show makes me lose my last shit. bucha, where russians slaughtered and raped through women, men & little kids. bucha that became synonymous with genocide. putin or anti-putin - it is all a fucking show for them

it is all road downhill from here for russian colonial empire in ukraine. the citizens of odesa toppled a monument to russian empress ekaterina 2

t.me/odeskaODA/1038

ekaterina 2 led violent colonization of ukraine in 18th century, destroying first ukrainian democracy and putting millions of ukrainians into literal enslavement for centuries to come. generations of ukrainians were genocided under her direct orders

while selling to the west bullshit about “russian renaissance and enlightenment” ekaterina 2 was also using genocides, mass rapes and slaughter to complete full colonization of siberia all the way east to becoming first white colonizer of alaska

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'ukraine’s line of argument in africa can be extremely compelling. despite Russia’s pretenses to the contrary, ukraine is fighting an anti-colonial war'

'and, just as african countries have the sovereign right to make their own alliances, ukraine too has the right to choose its future independently from its historic oppressor.'

'but this is a story only russia’s former colonies can tell africans because when africans hear this argument from the west, they instinctively distrust it. perceptions of western hypocrisy are a gift to the kremlin'

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