From Kazakhstan: Are We Postcolonial?
Jane Knox-Voina
jknox at BOWDOIN.EDU
Sat Mar 11 17:35:41 UTC 2006
As I am teaching American Film at the Kazakh National Academy of Arts, The Department of the History and Theory of Film, this discussion of "Postcolonialism" is very interesting. I hope the discussion keeps going. Thanks especially to Nancy Condee for including the piece on "Civil Society" and the new bill on national identitiy.
Jane Knox-Voina
----- Original Message -----
From: Condee <condee at PITT.EDU>
Date: Friday, March 10, 2006 2:33 pm
Subject: Re: [SEELANGS] Are We Postcolonial?
> I pass along this (just in from RFE/RL) concerning attempts to move
> awayfrom the older identity, whether we think of it as imperial or
> not. The
> best bit comes toward the end of the piece:
>
> << one member suggesting the bill looked liked scraps torn at
> random from
> someone's dissertation.>>
>
> RADIO FREE EUROPE/RADIO LIBERTY, PRAGUE, CZECH REPUBLIC
> _____________________________________________________________
> RFE/RL Russian Political Weekly
> Vol. 6, No. 6, 10 March 2006
>
> A Weekly Review of News and Analysis of Russian Politics.
>
> ************************************************************
> HEADLINES:
> * NEW BILL ON NATIONAL IDENTITY GENERATING PROTESTS
> * RUSSIA'S NUCLEAR AMBITIONS HEATING UP
> * A YEAR AFTER MASKHADOV'S DEATH, CONFLICT'S END
> STILL DISTANT
> ************************************************************
>
> CIVIL SOCIETY
>
> NEW BILL ON NATIONAL IDENTITY GENERATING PROTESTS. An attempt by
> Russia'sState Duma to define Russian national identity has run into
> trouble with the
> country's Muslims and national minorities. The driving force behind
> a new
> bill on national identity was President Vladimir Putin himself, who
> hasargued that Russians and Russia need to have a better sense of
> who they are.
> But when the bill was sent out for discussion last month by Russia's
> republican and regional parliamentary assemblies, it ran into a
> storm of
> protest. Deputies in Tatarstan, which has a large Muslim
> population, say
> it's an attempt to strengthen and formalize the dominant role of
> Russians in
> the state and therefore runs counter to the constitution.
> The idea of defining a concept of Russian national identity
> is almost as old as Russia itself -- and just as elusive. Yet Russian
> leaders cannot, it seems, resist the temptation to try. In post-Soviet
> times, Boris Yeltsin made his contribution through the new
> constitution of
> the Russian Federation and the start of a debate on the Russian
> nationalidea.
> Grigory Yavlinsky, the leader of the opposition Yabloko
> party, has appealed for a break from the imperial past. The Russian
> nationalidea, he says, should be based on respect. But such modest
> ambitions are not
> in keeping with President Putin's vision of a muscular new Russia
> pumped up
> by petrol and gas.
> The problem is easily enough defined: how to create a sense
> of shared identity in a country divided by race, language, religion
> and,increasingly, class and wealth? How to give a sense of purpose
> to a new
> state that is still only just emerging from the ashes of the Soviet
> Union? Putin's answer is taking the shape of a bill on the
> fundamentals of
> state national policy, which sees its main aim as strengthening the
> formation of a united multicultural society. Few, it seems, have
> any problem
> with that.
> Where some do have a problem, though, is with the "consolidating
> role" assigned by the bill to the Russian people ("Russkii narod") in
> "providing the unity of the country and strengthening the vertical of
> power." Perhaps they sense an echo of the guiding role assigned the
> Russianpeople in the Soviet Union?
> The proposed legislation has stirred up a hornets' nest
> of protest in the predominantly-Muslim republic of Tatarstan, which
> hasgrown used to a considerable measure of autonomy in the years
> since the
> Soviet collapse. On March 3, its State Council Committee on Culture,
> Science, Education, and National Affairs flatly rejected the bill.
> FoatGalimullin, a deputy in the republican parliament, discussed
> this issue with
> RFE/RL's Tatar-Bashkir Service.
> "We have already survived that unrealistic experiment to create a
> Soviet nation during the era of the USSR," Galimullin said. "And
> now, once
> more, we have plans to create the Russian nation. I consider this law
> provocative in principle and I think that it should be for sure
> rejected." Indus Tahirov, another deputy in Tatarstan's parliament,
> said the bill was at odds with the federal constitution, which
> emphasizesthe multiethnic nature of the Russian people (Rossiskii
> narod). "The bill cannot be accepted in its present form, first of
> all because it is not in accordance with the norms of international
> law,secondly because it contradicts the Constitution of the Russian
> Federation,and thirdly because it does not strengthen mutual
> understanding among the
> peoples of the country because of the articles, which especially
> stand out
> concerning the Russian language and the Russian people."
> Tahirov and other deputies have taken particular issue with the
> provisions of the bill on the Russian language. Tufan Minnullin
> points out
> that a demand contained in the bill that every citizen should know the
> Russian language is at odds with the federal constitution. What
> does "know"
> mean, he asks, and what is the punishment to be for not knowing?
> "This is a very insidious law. It gives the impression of defending
> the Russian people, but in essence it is directed against the Russian
> people. It appears to compliment the Russian people but actually it
> sets the
> Russian people up against all the other peoples. Then there is that
> terriblearticle where it states that citizens of the Russian
> Federation are obliged
> to know the Russian language. What does it mean: "obliged"? If they
> have to
> imprison me, what will they do?"
> It is not just Russia's religious and ethnic minorities
> who are alarmed. Russia's Public Chamber -- set up last year as a
> sort of
> collective ombudsman to monitor the work of parliament, as well as
> federaland regional bodies -- was dismissive, with one member
> suggesting the bill
> looked liked scraps torn at random from someone's dissertation.
> The chamber has set up its own committee to examine the bill, which
> will report back in three months. Valery Tishkov is the head of its
> Commission on Tolerance and Freedom of Conscience and a leading
> expert on
> ethnicity and nationalism. He told RFE/RL's Russian Service that he
> sees no
> place for a "consolidating role" for the Russian people in the modern
> Russian state.
> "We should be talking not just about the multicultural, complex
> composition of the Russian people, but also about its unity. It is
> impossible to create one people out of 100 peoples. We should not
> be talking
> about how to make one nation out of 100, but about the recognition -
> -
> recognition not formation -- of our genuinely existing unity, while
> at the
> same time preserving all our traditions."
> The fact that this legislation is already running into
> trouble suggests how much Russia may be changing. At the heart of
> the debate
> over the new legislation lies the Kremlin's fear over Russia's
> demographicfuture. Russia is a multiethnic country, whose large
> Muslim population is
> growing as fast as the ethnic Russian population is shrinking. The
> country'snational and religious minorities are becoming
> increasingly aware of their
> growing weight and importance in society. The Russian national idea
> maynever be quite the same again. (Robert Parsons)
>
>
> Prof. Nancy Condee, Director
> Graduate Program for Cultural Studies
> 2206 Posvar Hall
> University of Pittsburgh
> Pittsburgh, PA 15260
> 412-624-7232
>
>
> -----Original Message-----
> From: Slavic & East European Languages and Literature list
> [SEELANGS at LISTSERV.CUNY.EDU] On Behalf Of Tony Anemone
> Sent: Friday, March 10, 2006 2:15 PM
> To: SEELANGS at LISTSERV.CUNY.EDU
> Subject: [SEELANGS] Are We Postcolonial?
>
> The upcoming issue of _PMLA_ will have a special section ("Are We
> Postcolonial?") based on the AATSEEL roundtable that Gayatri Spivak
>
> ran, with papers by Vitaly Chernetsky, Nancy Condee, Dragan
> Kujundzic, and
> Harsha Ram.
>
> * * * * * * * *
> "Вы считаете, что война необходима?
> Прекрасно. Кто проповедует войну - в
> особый, передовой легион и на штурм, в
> атаку, впереди всех!"
>
> Л. Н. Толстой, Анна Каренина, ч. 8, гл. XVI.
>
> * * * * * * * * * *
>
> Tony Anemone
> Associate Professor of Russian
> P.O. Box 8795
> Department of Modern Languages and Literatures
> College of William and Mary
> phone: 757-221-3636
> fax: 757-221-3637
>
>
>
>
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