Liberating the Regions?: Russian Regionalism Yesterday and Today, 1830-Present

• In Event: Regions and Republics of Russia in Historical Context: Compliance, Resistance, or Liberation?

Abstract

This paper examines how regionalism developed among ethnic Russians from the 1830s to the present, with a particular focus on Siberia and the Russian North. Using a wide array of sources from literature to declarations of independence, it brings to bear 20 years of study on the topic. It argues that there were two strands of regionalism in Russia: unofficial and official. Unofficial regionalism developed out of a mystical regionalism found in Siberia and the Russian North from the seventeenth century, which focused on springs and local saints. Official regionalism evolved from a rejection of the specificity of regions during the era of Catherine the Great to an approach that focused on the local as a microcosm of the nation without arguing for the political needs of the region for representation. The paper seeks to follow the interaction of these forces over 150 years by choosing a representative person or group from each at key turning points.

Author

• Susan Smith-Peter, CUNY College of Staten Island