Window on Eurasia:  The Revival of Another Unfortunate Soviet Tradition

03.03.05

Tartu, February 21 -  Russian officials are resurrecting the Soviet-era technique of hiding ongoing repression against non-Russian ethnic groups by publishing colorful ethnographic articles that are cleverly intended to suggest that these communities are happy and that their situation is just fine.

In contrast to Soviet times, however, when underground samizdat materials from the periphery of the USSR reached the West only after many months if at all, the Internet now allows some non-Russian groups within the
Russian Federation to get their side of the story out so quickly that efforts by officials to cover up their actions may fail.

Nonetheless, Russian officials appear to have good reasons to think that this strategy from the past will work again at least some of the time.  Casual readers are seldom likely to go to the specialized sites on which these direct reports appear. Moreover, most people remain skeptical about the Internet as a source.

And many journalists who do draw on one and the other source will, in the name of balance and objectivity, make reference to both, thus unintentionally contributing to precisely that muddying of the waters some
Russian officials hope for about the actual status of groups about which few people have much information.

A stark example of these possibilities is taking place now.  On Wednesday of last week, the Moscow journal "Sobesednik" published an upbeat interview with the vice president of Moscow's small Mari community about its situation and that of the Mari El Republic in the Middle Volga (http://religare.ru/print14636.htm).

In his remarks, Yuri Yerofeyev talked about the life of the 2,152 ethnic Mari who live in the Russian capital, about why their homeland is now called Mari El - "el" being the Mari equivalent of the Russian word "krai" -- and even about the possibility that the name Moscow is derived from two other Mari words -- "maska" (bear) and "ava" (mother).

Moreover, Yerofeyev linked the appearance of the Mari community in Moscow not to Soviet or post-Soviet developments but rather to the forced Russification and Christianization of part of that nation by tsarist authorities after Ivan the Terrible conquered the Kazan khanate in 1552.

And he described the success of "Kudo+Kodu," a newspaper published in the Mari El capital of Ioshkar-Ola that has featured special articles about the Mari in Moscow and also the contribution of a newly organized social council which includes representatives from each of the more than 25 Finno-Ugric groups living in Moscow

As such articles almost inevitably did in Soviet times, Yerofeyev provided a list of notables in the Russian Federation with Mari backgrounds - including Moscow Mayor Yuri Luzhkov whose mother Yerofeyev said came from a Mari region. And he thanked Luzhkov for supporting Mari activities, including the upcoming launch of a Mari language class in the city's Multi-cultural Educational Center.

But only two days before this article appeared in a Moscow newspaper, the very same Yuri Yerofeyev posted report on the Internet that provides a diametrically opposed portrait of the Mari people and their life today (http://www.mari.ee/rus/soc/polit/jerofeev.htm)

In that report, Yerofeyev said that the authorities in Mari El have created "an atmosphere of political terror which in certain respects resembles the regimes of [Chilean General] Pinochet and other dictators of modern times."

He lists case after case in what he describes as the rising tide of repression against dissidents, including the bankrupting of companies that won't cooperate with the republic's President Leonid Markelov, the firing of anyone suspected of opposing Markelov's mafia, and the unpunished beatings of opposition media figures -- including most recently the February 4th assault on Vladimir Kozlov, the editor of the same "Kudo+Kodu" referred to in the "Sobesednik" interview.

Yerofeyev has good reason to know of what he speaks: In this article, he identifies himself as the Brezhnev-era KGB officer who was charged with rooting out "the ideological diversions" of nationalists and other dissidents in what is now Mari El. And he adds that he never suspected 20 years ago that he would fall into the category of "the politically suspect."

But despite what Yerofeyev describes as Markelov's efforts to "silence the independent media" there and despite upbeat coverage about Markelov's activities in Ioshkar-Ola and Moscow - including President Vladimir Putin's decision to award Markelov the Order of Friendship of the Peoples - ever more reports are emerging to confirm the picture of repression that Yerofeyev provides.

Some of it comes from heroic independent journalists there like Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty's Elena Rogacheva who herself was beaten at the beginning of January.  Other information is placed online either on
independent Russian sites like http://vlasti.net or abroad at http://www.mari.ee  by the Mari opposition movement, "Mariy Ushem".

And now even more is likely to appear because the Mari opposition, having failed to get a response from Moscow about their mistreatment, has sent petitions to the Parliamentary Assembly of the Council of Europe and to Finno-Ugric people living outside of the Russian Federation asking for international help (http://www.mari.ee/rus/soc/polit/oppoz.htm)

In taking this step, the Mari have an advantage over many of the other indigenous nationalities of Russia:  They enjoy close ties with the three Finno-Ugric countries of Europe  -- Estonia, Finland and Hungary - and thus
can gain a hearing or at least press coverage most cannot. (See, for example, http://www.postimees.ee/040205/online_uudised/156947.php).

Such attention, of course, will not by itself end repression in Mari El or anywhere else, but it could force officials there to proceed more cautiously, lest they attract unwanted Western criticism.  And such a change in approach could help improve conditions there and even more generally in the Russian Federation.

But as the appearance of the article in "Sobesednik" suggests, the Russian authorities are already taking Soviet-style steps to obscure what is going on and thus to provide an excuse for foreign leaders concerned about the relations with Moscow not to take up the cause of the Mari opposition and the Mari people.

Paul Goble

Vladimir Kozlov's photo from Helsingin Sanomat International Edition