Gnose
The history of Russian colonialism is long and controversial. Some scholars place its beginnings in the conquering of territories beyond the Ural Mountains. This area was inhabited by indigenous peoples, such as the Nenets, the Khanty and the Mansi, who still live in (north-) Western Siberia as recognised minorities. In the 16th century, these territories, then the Khanate of Sibir – a kind of principality ruled over by the Tartars, who were Sunni Muslims – were annexed by Russia through a conquest spearheaded by a force led by the Cossack leader Yermak. (Several monuments honouring Yermak still stand in Russia today.) However, other scholars put the beginnings of Russian colonialism 500 years earlier, in the 11th century. At that time, Novgorod was trading in furs with the indigenous population along the river Ob. Over the course of the following centuries, Kyiv and the Hanseatic League also began to acquire furs from Siberia. “Trading” is a euphemism for what was actually happening: the furs were tributes paid to the Russian grand prince. To enforce the levy, his mercenaries killed those who resisted the demand to pay the tribute, including women and children. The most active phase of Russian colonialism came in the 18th and 19th centuries, when Russia subjugated the Caucasus, the Baltics, Alaska, and large territories of Finland, Poland, Bessarabia and Central Asia, as well as territories in Eastern Asia. Through these military conquests, Saint Petersburg became the centre of power of the world’s second largest empire (only the Mongol empire was larger).
By dekoder-Team
