Geography Of Russia

"On the 35th anniversary of the Declaration of 1990, the Udmurtia Against Corruption movement declares its respect for the expression of the will of the people of Udmurtia then and on the basis of the principles laid down in the document and the voting of residents of the republic in 2025 proposes a renewed declaration as the basis for the restoration of the democratic institutions of the Udmurt Republic within the Russian Federation in the future."

"At least five times since the beginning of April, drones have hit targets in Tatarstan, forcing airports to suspend operations, factories to close, and people to evacuate. That has brought the war in Ukraine far closer to Tatars, deprived them of their sense of security and reduced their support for Putin, [Tatar commentator] Ruslan Aysin says."

"The Committee for Ingushetia Independence is assuming ever clearer shape. Created at the start of 2023 (windowoneurasia2.blogspot.com/2023/03/ingush-independence-movement-wont-join.html and windowoneurasia2.blogspot.com/2023/04/ingush-independence-committee-forms.html), it has now announced the name of its president. He is Ansar Garkkho, 38. His elevation was reported on September 11 after he met with the leaders of the Crimean Tatar Mejlis to discuss how the two national liberation movements could cooperate (t.me/ingcommittee/234 and https://fortanga.org/2023/09/stalo-izvestno-imya-glavy-komiteta-ingushskoj-nezavisimosti/)."

"Yet more outragious is the season still, A deeper horror, in Siberian wilds; Where Winter keeps his unrejoicing court, And in his airy hall the loud misrule Of driving tempest is for ever heard. There thro’ the ragged woods absorpt in snow, Sole tenant of these shades, the shaggy bear, With dangling ice all horrid, stalks forlorn; Slow-pac’d and sourer as the storms increase, He makes his bed beneath the drifted snow; And, scorning the complainings of distress. Hardens his heart against assailing want. While tempted vigorous o’er the marble waste. On sleds reclin’d, the furry Russian sits; And, by his rain-deer drawn, behind him throws A shining kingdom in a winter’s day."

"But what is this? our infant Winter sinks, Diverted of his grandeur, should our eye Astonish’d shoot into the Frigid Zone; Where, for relentless months, continual night, Holds o’er the glittering waste her starry reign. There, thro’ the prison of unbounded wilds, Barr’d by the hand of Nature from escape, Wide-roams the Russian exile. Nought around Strikes his sad eye, but desarts lost in snow; And heavy-loaded groves; and solid floods, That stretch, athwart the solitary vast, Their icy horrors to the frozen main; And cheerless towns far-distant, never bless’d, Save when its annual course the caravan Bends to the golden coast of rich Cathay With news of human-kind. Yet there life glows; Yet cherish’d there, beneath the shining waste, The furry nations harbour."

"The true discovery of America by mankind came when those first hunting bands crossed over from Siberia 25,000 years ago. This, however, never seems to count. When people speak of the "discovery of America" they invariably mean its discovery by Europeans."

"What are the splendours of the gaudy court, Its tinsel trappings, and its pageant pomps? To me far happier seems the banish’d lord, Amid Siberia’s unrejoicing wilds Who pines all lonesome, in the chambers hoar Of some high castle shut, whose windows dim In distant ken discover trackless plains, Where Winter ever whirls his icy car; While still repeated objects of his view, The gloomy battlements, and ivied spires, That crown the solitary dome, arise; While from the topmost turret the slow clock, Far heard along th’ inhospitable wastes, With sad-returning chime awakes new grief; Ev’n he far happier seems than is the proud, The potent Satrap, whom he left behind ’Mid Moscow’s golden palaces, to drown In ease and luxury the laughing hours."

"In Siberia’s wastes The ice-wind’s breath Woundeth like the toothèd steel; Lost Siberia doth reveal Only blight and death."

"... a bleak expanse, Shagg’d o’er with wavy rocks, cheerless, and void Of every life, that from the dreary months Flies conscious southward. Miserable they! Who, here entangled in the gathering ice, Take their last look of the descending sun; While, full of death, and fierce with tenfold frost, The long long night, incumbent o’er their head, Falls horrible."

"The spring in this place is different, it seems, from the spring ... in Russia. The freeze at night continues, although the sun at midday shines a great deal; the wind is always cold ... Three days ago on the 16th [of April], the freeze was 10 degrees [Fahrenheit]; the following night it was 8 degrees [Fahrenheit] and last evening snow fell and it continues today."

"Deep in the Siberian mine, Keep your patience proud; The bitter toil shall not be lost, The rebel thought unbowed."

"In a word, the Slavs have been in the southern Urals since time immemorial, they are as primordial as all other modern ethnicities inhabiting the region."

"The wave of nationalism in Russia has given birth to numerous publications of highly dubious merit. Thus, Kto Oni i Otkuda (Who are They and Where From 1998) is a publication of the Library of Ethnography and sanctioned by the Russian Academy of Sciences. In this monograph one can read that the original homeland of the Vedas was in the Arctic and that the language with the closest affinity to Sanskrit is Russian."

"The dissolution of the Soviet empire has given rise to a heightened nationalism which, in turn, projects a mythical and majestic Slavic past."

"Apart from the eponymous Sintashta site, the most mediatized site is Arkaim, discovered in 1987 and excavated by controversial archaeologist Gennady Zdanovich. No doubt in a laudable attempt to save it from being submerged by an artificial lake (he was successful in his efforts), the latter identified the site as a sort of original capital of the “Aryans.”"

"[Shnirelman writes that nationalist concerns in the former U.S.S.R. are creating] an explicitly ethnocentric vision of the past, a glorification of the great ancestors of the given people, who are treated as if they had made the most valuable contribution to the culture of all humanity."

"We Slavs consider ourselves to be new arrivals, but that is untrue. Indo-Europeans and Indo-Iranians had been living here [in the southern Urals] since the Stone Age and had been incorporated into the Kazakhs, Bashkirs, and Slavs; such is the common thread linking us all."

"The archaeology of Arkhaim is playing an important role in the construction of nationalist myths. Today, wholly unwarranted claims are made for Slavs as the original Aryans, for the Slavic language as closest to Sanskrit, for a Slavic-Aryan origin in the Arctic, for the superiority of the Slavic-Aryans, etc."

"Soon baptized “Swastika City” or “Mandala City” and considered a Stonehenge-like astronomical observatory, the site has attracted the attention of a number of New Age gurus who preside over imagined pagan ceremonies every year on the occasion of the summer solstice; it has also fallen prey to certain far-right nationalist movements. Arkaim is now seen as the “City of the Aryan hierarchy and of racial purity,” the place where “the Old Russian high priest Zoroaster is buried.”"

"As Russian archaeologist Viktor Shnirelman has pertinently pointed out, this discovery, which coincided with the collapse of the Soviet Empire, allowed the “Slavity” of these territories (although they were only relatively recently conquered by the Tsars) to be reaffirmed through their “Aryan-ness.” Naturally, Russian president Vladimir Putin has made a point of visiting these sites."

"And the circle is completed when it is claimed that the Indo-Europeans indeed came from the Far North before settling in the Urals."

"We realize, therefore, that even in these faraway places, whose study requires a certain level of archaeological knowledge, issues that appear to be scientific are, in fact, anything but innocent. Thus, the identification of the Sintashta and Andronovo cultures with the original Indo-Iranians, before their southward migration, is biased from the very start. All the more so since proof of the “Indo-Iranian” character of these cultures is quite weak. The existence of hearths, even in graves, is reminiscent of the fire cult practiced by later Indo-Iranians. But, like sacrifices of horses, bulls, and sheep, it is a practice found in numerous parts of the world."

"Beyond the caricature of Arkaim, the affirmation of ancient cultural ties between Russia and present day Turkish-speaking Central Asia (part of the USSR until 1992) is clearly a major issue regardless of whether the archaeologists involved are aware of it or not."

"This heightened nationalism projects a mythical and majestic Slavic past in which the archaeology of Arkhaim plays no small part."

"Arkhaim has become a center for followers of the occult and Russian supernationalists, a theater of, and for, the absurd and dangerous. It is argued that it was constructed to reproduce a model of the universe; that it was built by King Yima, as described in the Avesta, the sacred book of the Zoroastrians; that it was a temple observatory; that it was the birthplace of Zoroaster, who is buried at Sintashta; that it is the homeland of the ancient Aryans; and that it is the earliest Slavic state. The swastika, which appears on pottery from Arkhaim, is proclaimed a symbol of Aryanism. Visitors come to pray, tap energy from outer space, worship fire, be cured, dance, meditate, and sing."

"Today the site of Arkhaim has become a center for followers of the occult and super-nationalist Russians. It has become a theater of, and for, the absurd and dangerous."

"It is advocated by some that Arkhaim was planned to reproduce a model of the universe; it was built by the legendary King Yima, as described in the Avesta, the sacred book of the Persians and Zoroastrians; it was a temple-observatory comparable to Stonehenge; it was the birthplace of the prophet Zoroaster who at death was buried at Sintashta; it is a model for contemporary society of harmonious relationships between culture and the natural environment; it is the homeland of the ancient Aryans; and the oldest example of a Slavic state. Arkhaim also is identified with Asgard, the secret homeland of the Germanic god Odin; it is the “city of the Aryan hierarchy and racial purity.” The swastika, which appears incised on pottery from Arkhaim, is proclaimed as the symbol of Aryanism by Russian ultranationalists. Russian astrologers have also been attracted to Arkhaim. In 1991 a prominent astrologer, Tamara Globa, during the summer solstice at Arkhaim, announced that the memory of the site was preserved by the Indian Magi and its rediscovery was prophesied by the medieval astrologer Paracelsus."

"Arkhaim attracts up to 15,000 “tourists” during annual holidays, particularly in the spring and summer. They come to pray, tap energy from outer space, worship fire, be cured of disease, dance, meditate, and sing. The thousands of visitors are a ready source of income supporting Dr Zdanovich’s research."