Russian regionalist Media «7x7. Horizontal Russia» compiled a map of attacks on the military commissariats (draft & recruiting stations) all over Russia from Feb 24 to May 31, 2022. Unlike most of what passes for "liberal Russian media" in the West, this one isn't based in Moscow
«7x7. Horizontal Russia» was established in the northern Komi republic. Having expanded to dozens of Russian regions it still keeps its regional focus. They do massive work on the ground that remains virtually unnoticed in the West semnasem.org
I'm inclined to think that the focus of Western journalists, politicians and (let's be honest) researchers on everything Moscow-related at the expense of the rest of the country is motivated not only by their implicit biases or prejudices but also by simple laziness
How come that the Western media pay nearly zero attention to a wildly successful regional initiative?
1. They're biased 2. They're lazy
And they lack self awareness to realize either of this
Look whom the Western media are quoting and interviewing. Almost always it will be the representatives of a closely interconnected political&media ecosystem of Moscow tusovochka. Those who work in the province get almost zero coverage no matter how much they are doing
Interestingly enough the same Westerners usually can reflect their own biases and prejudices when it comes to their own country. But for some reason they lose their ability when it comes to the Eastern Europe. The can't overcome their basis because they don't know it exists
Why do Westerners give voice only to the Moscow tusovochka? My guess:
1. It's easy 2. It's pleasant. Tusovochka usually has that social polish that will make Westerners feel good. And feeling good is the priority here 2. They think they can add some positive knowledge this way
It's delusion for most part. I would argue that talking to, writing about, quoting the Moscow tusovochka has negative rather than positive value for the progress of knowledge. You give additional representation to people and institutions which are already wildly overrepresented
Giving additional platform and additional representation to the already wildly overrepresented Moscow establishment skewes the already existing bias even further. You are not helping, you are making things worse. Just stop it
Instead of quoting the Moscow media how about quoting the regional ones such as 7*7? Instead of quoting the Moscow politicians and activists how about quoting the regional ones which currently have almost no voice and no representation in the West at all? End of thread
PS Moscow's domination over the regions is not "natural". It's constructed. And its key element is the cultural hegemony which largely results from Moscow being almost the sole intermediary with the West (with the single exception of StP). This cycle must be broken
When you give additional platform and additional voice to Moscow you reinforce its cultural hegemony over the regions. You increase its status and its symbolic capital. You reinforce the current imperial system. It's a political act
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- What is long, green and smells with sausage?
- Moscow-Tver train
Why? Well, under the USSR provincials had to go shopping to Moscow. Their shops had no food, often very literally. Today we'll learn an expression "supply category"🧵
Under the centrally planned economy it was the state which supplied food to the localities. It would assign each city one of four "supply categories" determining how much food there will be on shelves. Moscow was supplied far better than anyone while cities like Tver - horribly
Provincial Soviet cities of the lower supply categories might have no food on the shelves at all. Sometimes very literally. Sometimes they would have only the scraps from the table of the higher status city: like some algae, or the disgusting paste "Ocean"
I find this line of argumentation illustrative of the general state of Russian discourse, whether "patriotic" or "liberal". Everything Turkic occupies the same place in the Russian debates as everything Irish in the Imperial British. The Inner Other and the source of all the evil
Reading the Russian-Ukrainian debates with both sides accusing each other of racial impurity and having too many Steppe admixtures or influences, I noticed that their argumentation is mirroring each other. See this Russian nationalist material for example sputnikipogrom.com/history/15934/…
This mutuality and almost exact symmetry of Russian-Ukrainian accusations reminds me of a brilliant
thread on the British rule over the Ionian Isles. Bach then the discourse was similar. Brits and Greeks were constantly accusing each other of Irishness
Russian bureaucracy is *massive*. It's also diverse. Judging from my observations, it's less integrated than let's say the apparatus of the U.S. federal bureaucracy. Different agencies have different cultures and operate by different rules. Avoid sweeping generalisations (not🧵)
I see a very common attitude among the Russian pro-war community. It can be summarised this way:
"We expected dumb and incompetent bureaucrats to destroy our economy. But our glorious army would prevail against all odds. It turned out we were wrong. It's the other way around"
Now much of the Z-community argues that they greatly overestimated the Russian army (and the military apparatus). It's very, very much worse than anyone thought before. But they underestimated the economic bureaucracy. Which is very much better than they could have thought
No. Describing Russian regime as "kleptocracy" is misrepresentation. It's not technically false, just absurdly reductionist. Let's be honest, if Putinism was *entirely* about stealing it would not be able to wage wars or produce armaments. And it produces hella lots of them
Keep in mind that public rhetorics work according to the rhetorical logic. Public position doesn't have to be factually accurate, it has to be rhetorically advantageous for it to work. They talk about "corruption" so much because it's rhetorically advantageous. That's it
When you don't have a positive agenda/vision of future or it's too hideous, you talk about "corruption". Examples - Lukashenko or Yeltsin. "Anti-corruption fight" is an ideal topic for a power hungry politician. Because talking about corruption = avoiding the actual conversation
Kremlin may not have a grey cardinal. But it has a bald engineer. The Kinder Egg is a major architect of Putinism. In 1998 he made Putin the FSB Chief. In 2000s he dismantled the regional autonomy imposing the centralised rule. Now he manages Putin's domestic policy and Ukraine🧵
Sergey Kirienko was born as Sergey Israitel in a mixed Russian-Jewish family. After the divorce his mother changed his surname from father's "Israitel" to her own "Kirienko". That could be a pragmatic decision. A boy with a Slavic name would have better career chances in the USSR
In childhood Kirienko lived with his mom in subtropical Sochi. Here he started the bureaucrat career as a Komsomol manager (комсорг) of his high school class. NB: the role of Komsomol in Soviet to post-Soviet transition is underrated. Komsomol management were its main benefactors