Explanation: Forced assimilation and cultural genocide were common pastimes for European powers in the 18th-20th centuries. Some people pretend that Russia, a transcontinental empire with a systemic policy of mass ethnic cleansing and deportations, was different in this regard, and refuse any attempt to examine Russian atrocities as a form of cultural chauvinism or ideological bias - especially strange considering that said atrocities were committed under both a far-right monarchist regime and a left-wing authoritarian regime.
especially strange considering that said atrocities were committed under both a far-right monarchist regime and a left-wing authoritarian regime.
That makes me think of:
[…] I shall not go to the polls. I have not registered. I believe that democracy has so far disappeared in the United States that no “two evils” exist. There is but one evil party with two names, and it will be elected despite all I can do or say. - W.E.B. Dubois
Is it too simplistic to say Russia was a colonial power just like most other European powers? Or is expanding to land that borders too different from taking land far away?
Russia was absolutely a colonial power. We often associate colonization with naval expansion due to most of Europe being surrounded by water, but imperialism and colonizing already-inhabited lands are very possible overland as well.
Russia was a colonial power just like the European powers, but especially just like the US was a colonial power.
Polish remember that well. We mostly resisted being a fairly big nation with established “westish” culture, but many nations did not. Russia ends before Urals. The rest of it is appropriated native lands.
