Hundreds of years later, the new Horde begins its campaign against Kyivan Rus, and in this case it is not even a metaphor. It is a fact. It is not for nothing that the multinational Russian army under the leadership of Sergei Kuzhuget oglu Shoigu, the Minister of Defense, is fighting very steppe-like. Raids, robberies, merciless violence.
Shoigu created a cult of his own personality in his native Tuva with the idea of himself as the reincarnation of the Mongolian commander Subudei. And it is not for nothing that in Ukraine there is a roar of tank caterpillars – in the echo of which one can hear the thunder of Horde cavalry hooves.
This parallel is not accidental. According to media reports, more than 40 volunteer units have already been formed in the Russian regions to participate in the war against Ukraine. They are formed on the principle of community and ethnicity with an appeal to national identity and mythology.
The Yakut volunteer detachment “Bootur” is named after the ancestor of the Yakuts, Bootur the Allay Han. As per the plan of the Tatar Republic officials, the Tatar battalions of “Alga” and “Timer” “should be formed only from the natives of Tatarstan, so that they stand shoulder to shoulder, know each other, walk together and carry out the assigned tasks.”
The command of the Chuvash language is a plus for enlisting in the signals battalion of “Atal” that accepts only Chuvash Republic residents. In Chechnya, as Ramzan Kadyrov reported, four include “exclusively Chechen” battalions of the Ministry of Defense have been formed. These are ” Akhmat North,” “Akhmat South,” “Akhmat West” and “Akhmat East.”
On July 17, Kadyrov threatened hellish hell to those who would even consider the idea of refusing to fight against Ukraine. The pinnacle of the “Russian world” is the idea of creating a battalion named after Amir Timur (Tamerlane) from Uzbek migrant workers.
The following conclusions unwittingly arise from the above:
Conclusion one. The creation of ethnic battalions named after national heroes, but priority enlistees with the Chuvash language, as an example, is definitely a herald of the coming collapse of the Russian Federation.
While there is a myth about absolute and complete Russification of the peoples of the Russian Federation, the reality looks somewhat different. The culture, way of life and blurring of the traditional way of life of small ethnicities, of course, were influenced by the uniform impetus of modernity.
To a large extent, urbanization made its impact as it eliminates the traditional way of life and replaces ethnic culture with urban culture. However, just as in the USSR, the mythology of a certain monolithic internationale, is believed mainly by the ethnic Russians, who effortlessly renounce their national self-consciousness in favor of state ideology.
But don’t let this fool you: The rest still remain themselves. It is not without reason that the Russians in the army demonstrate cowardice and disunity, which is why even a whole company can be beaten by one soldier from the national republic without meeting the slightest resistance. Russians simply do not have national solidarity and self-identification. Whereas the Buryats, Chechens, Ingush have it. And why would Moscow be needed if self-identification and now even the regional army with an emphasis on self-identification are in place?
It’s funny that the Russian society – from the common voters to the august Kremlin elites – has been spooking itself with the intrigues of Americans “who want to ruin the country” for so many decades since Soviet times. Only the lazy did not refer to a fictitious quote by former US Secretary of State Madeleine Albright that “Siberia and the Far East that do not belong to Russia.”
The reality of 2022 turned out to be much more prosaic: the world has not even been hinting at the hypothetical sponsorship and incitement of separatist sentiments in Russia for two decades. But the “evil NATO intrigues” are not necessary here. Russia itself has miraculously managed to incite separatist sentiments in its own rear.
Conclusion two. The Russian state is not ready for the challenges of the current war, which is absurdly called a “special military operation.” Russia, a would-be 21st century country, mixes the half-conscription/half-professional system of recruiting troops with an openly archaic, almost feudal practice, in which local kings are responsible for the creation of military formations.
History buffs can draw parallels with the painful events that unfolded in the Qing Empire of the second half of the 19th century. The regular Qing army was unable to restore order in the country engulfed in rebellion and suffered defeat after defeat at the hands of the Taipings, Nianjuns and other rebel groups.
The imperial authorities were forced to resort to the help of large local landowners and officials, allowing them to form their own armies to suppress the uprising. United on a territorial basis, these armies turned out to be quite effective against rebel groups. Yet, this didn’t serve well China’s future fate. Regional elites were not going to give up their power, backed up by the power of bayonets. The 1911 Xinhai revolution intensified the centrifugal processes, the ground for which had already been prepared and fertilized plentifully.
The country plunged into a state of anarchy and civil war for decades, leaving it vulnerable to Japanese invasion. Whereas the catastrophe of China, a rather archaic country by the standards of the first half of the 20th century, has become a problem of the Chinese themselves, similar processes in the Russian Federation that is crammed with dangerous industries, nuclear power and a large number of nuclear weapons, promise to become an extremely unpleasant surprise for neighboring countries and, potentially, for the whole world.
Conclusion three, summative one – follows from the first two. Military units with an indispensable existential condition of soldiers’ awareness of their roots and ancestors will not vanish after the war. They will settle in each of these republics, like an army of a state within a state. Quite likely, it is a massacre in the making. Previously, only Chechnya could pull it up.
Now, even Yakutia and Bashkiria. Long before the war, observers of the anti-ethnic policies of the Russian Federation could assume that if “something” starts in Russia, it will be a massacre of all against all. Now this prophecy has more and more factual grounds. The revolutionary situation in Russia may well lead to the bloodiest internal slaughter, hitherto unseen in the world. In fact, the Kremlin reshuffled history and organized two Horde campaigns against Russia – against Kyivan Rus and Muscovy Rus.
Kyivan Rus is now on the defensive, giving rise to memes about “fighting Buryats.” Muscovy Rus lives the old life: “I’m not interested in politics,” “we are little common people,” “it must go like that,” “thanks to the Russian hero Ramzan Akhmatovich Kadyrov,” “kill the Ukrop,” (derogatory for Ukrainians, literally the dill), “Putin is the president of the world.”
Only a small stratum of the society understands in what hell they are now locked themselves up. For the newly minted Tamerlane will return to Ryazan one day, bringing the experience of Bucha.
The maniacs who are taught to obtain toilet bowls in battles and women, putting knife to their throats, have also learned the main thing – the state has legalized their right to violence. So, after a while, the Bucha massacre will knock on any house. And then they will have to take an interest in politics. But these will seem to be the last minutes of their lives.