Russification

All through the empire there are millions of them who have become Russians.

The late M. de Catrofagia's Debray, in his Race Prussienne, discovers marked Finnish traces in East Prussia, whilst the so-called Baltic provinces are largely inhabited by Finns who were first Teutonized and are now in the process of Russification.

On the White Sea there is a tribe of Finnish origin whom the Finns of Finland speak of as Tartars.

In the south-east of Europe there are Turkish-speaking peoples whom the Russians call Turks, but who present traces of Finnish origin.

Two years had still to pass before the Diet met.

With a sovereign less firm of purpose than Alexander II, the interval might have been disastrous.

For his well-meant efforts to conciliate and pacify Poland by the grant of representative institutions had ended in failure, civil war, and insurrection, and had afforded another argument to the fanatical Moscow party with its policy of compulsory Russification.

But the Tsar at last made up his mind to trust the Finns, and on September sixth, eighteenth, eighteen sixty-three, Finland's legally elected Diet met for the first time since eighteen oh nine.

All through the empire there are millions of them who have become Russians.

The late M. de Catrefages de Bray, in his Race Prussienne, discovers marked Finnish traces in East Prussia, whilst the so-called Baltic provinces are largely inhabited by Finns who were first Teutonized and are now in the process of Russification.

On the White Sea there is a tribe of Finnish origin whom the Finns of Finland speak of as Tartars.

In the south-east of Europe there are Turkish-speaking peoples whom the Russians call Turks, but who present traces of Finnish origin.

Two years had still to pass before the Diet met.

With a sovereign less firm of purpose than Alexander II, the interval might have been disastrous.

For his well-meant efforts to conciliate and pacify Poland by the grant of representative institutions had ended in failure, civil war, and insurrection, and had afforded another argument to the fanatical Moscow party with its policy of compulsory Russification.

But the Tsar at last made up his mind to trust the Finns, and on September 6th, 18th, 1863, Finland's legally elected Diet met for the first time since 1809.

And of course, it, uh, puts our country in, in huge dependence, uh, on Russia, but it's important to realize that Belarusian people are against this.

Of course, now, uh, thanks to, you know, repressions, you know, this brutality of the regime, people cannot, uh, say a- against this Russification, you know, loudly, but, uh, uh, people, people don't want this.

And of course, our aim is to get rid of, uh, this dependence, and we ask our partners, our allies, uh, also pronounce it very clearly that, uh, any subjugation of Belarus will not be tolerated, that Belarus is sovereign, independent country, and, uh, they, you know, people have the right to choose their future by themselves.

Because Russia, you know, percepts, uh, not only Belarus, but maybe all post-Soviet Union countries, Ukraine, Moldova, Georgia, as, like, you know, naughty children, that they're not allowed to leave like their mother.

All through the empire there are millions of them who have become Russians.

The late M. de Catrofagia's Debray, in his Race Prussienne, discovers marked Finnish traces in East Prussia, whilst the so-called Baltic provinces are largely inhabited by Finns who were first Teutonized and are now in the process of Russification.

On the White Sea there is a tribe of Finnish origin whom the Finns of Finland speak of as Tartars.

In the south-east of Europe there are Turkish-speaking peoples whom the Russians call Turks, but who present traces of Finnish origin.

Two years had still to pass before the Diet met.

With a sovereign less firm of purpose than Alexander II, the interval might have been disastrous.

For his well-meant efforts to conciliate and pacify Poland by the grant of representative institutions had ended in failure, civil war, and insurrection, and had afforded another argument to the fanatical Moscow party with its policy of compulsory Russification.

But the Tsar at last made up his mind to trust the Finns, and on September 6th, 18th, 1863, Finland's legally elected Diet met for the first time since 1809.

It is, it is one of those places that is set up to Russify, to make more Russian some of these sort of savage outposts of the tsar's empire.

So, Anita, that surprises me only in that you'd imagine that just as the Greek Orthodox Church was the great crucible that forms Greek Orthodox resistance to the Ottomans, you'd imagine that the Georgian Orthodox Church was also a, a, a center of resistance to Russification, but you're saying the opposite is true.

Yeah, no, you, I mean, you could assume that if the tsar hadn't taken control of every little thing and use these places.

So, you know, in name on the door it's Georgian Orthodox, but the Georgian Orthodox Church, and this seminary in particular, are under Russian Orthodox control at this time.

I leave that to others to do.

But, but this is a place that does surveil its own pupils.

So I mean, this place, apart from, you know, it being, you know, the Russification of, of this outpost of Georgia, it's also quite, um, a pressured existence because all the young minds that are in here are being surveilled like crazy.

You know, reports are being written back.

The dominance of the Russian language in Kharkiv wasn't a natural preference.

It was the result of centuries of state-enforced Russification.

From the value of Circular, 1863, and Ems-Yukas, 1876. which literally made publishing books or performing plays in Ukrainian illegal, to Soviet forced migrations and educational policies, the imperial state worked overtime to wipe out the language of the surrounding region.

Yet, if you stepped just 10 miles outside of Kharkiv's city center into the surrounding villages, the population remained overwhelmingly Ukrainian-speaking for centuries.

Yeah, because you get two totally opposite experiences of being Ukrainian.

In the Russian Empire, you get systematic Russification.

The language is suppressed, publishing in Ukrainian is banned, and the very idea of a separate Ukrainian nation is dismissed as a Polish conspiracy.

While in Austrian Galicia, Ukrainian language schools and newspapers are actually flourishing.