Archaeologist Maria Ochir-Gorjaeva explained that “the imperial states have their own parable, the flattening of the ethnos cannot last indefinitely. The independence of the peoples of the Caucasus would also and above all serve the Russians, with a federal unity limited only to global affairs”.
Moscow () – Since the invasion of Ukraine began, nationalist movements in the Russian regions, which are trying to break away from Moscow, have been greatly revitalized, especially thanks to activists abroad who organize congresses and programmatic meetings. Even the most qualified academics and analysts are beginning to hypothesize about the various variants of the raspad, the “disintegration” of the Russian Federation, especially in case of defeat, or at least non-victory, of Putin’s special operation. One of the areas most sensitive to these issues is the Caucasus, with its mosaic of Eurasian ethnic groups.
A highly qualified personality in this field is Kalmyk professor Maria Ochir-Gorjaeva, a member of the German Archaeological Institute, awarded the highest degrees by the Russian Academy of Sciences in the section devoted to Kalmykia, the ethnic Mongolian region on the border from the European part of Russia. Since 1999, after winning a competition from the prestigious Alexandr von Humboldt Foundation, she has lived and taught in Berlin, regularly traveling to Kalmykia for archaeological expeditions.
In an interview with Kavkaz.Realii, Ochir-Gorjaeva responds to accusations that she is “at the service of Western propaganda” because she works thanks to German and European funding. “It is a xenophobic rhetoric – he explains – that unfortunately has always been very widespread in Russia, and that was revived when in the 90s many scholarship holders who did not receive any contribution from the State began to appear in international competitions and programs, which in practice they saved us.” It was not just a matter of financial support, but also a question of valorizing inherited skills in historical, archaeological and other sciences, which had reached an excellent level in Soviet times.
The accusation also refers to the intention of Westerners to “transplant their values” to Russia, but the academic insists that, “in the 24 years that I have been living in Berlin, nobody has ever transplanted anything to me; on the contrary, I was given the possibility to compare and choose between the wealth of scientific, cultural and moral values… It is no coincidence that all those who wish to deepen their own values do not run to Iran, Afghanistan or Russia, but rather who try to get out of these countries at the first opportunity.”
However, Ochir-Gorjaeva recalls that the Caucasian and Asian populations – like the Kalmyks themselves – largely share the theses of the Kremlin’s propaganda, because “they have been subjected to imperial power and mentality for centuries; if the Oirats [tártaros] Had they reached the shores of the Atlantic, perhaps they would have become civilized Europeans, but they stayed around the Volga and the Caspian”. However, the scholar believes that the independence of the Kalmyks, and other peoples, “already it is ripe, it is a historical necessity”, because imperial states have their own parable, and “the flattening of ethnic groups can never be infinite”.
According to the archaeologist, not only the ethnic minorities and the federal republics, but also “all the regions of Russia” (which number almost a hundred) should find the way to their own autonomy and independence. It was a project that was raised at the time of Yeltsin and one of the reasons that led to the establishment of Putin’s “vertical of power”. She believes that federal unity should be left for “global issues, such as environmental protection and technological development projects, to be resolved jointly.”
The independence of the peoples “would also and above all serve the Russians,” says Ochir-Gorjaeva, many of whom live in Siberia and the Far East in conditions very different from those of European Russia. It would not be, therefore, a “civil war”, as many fear, but rather the complete restructuring of an empire in decline, which should be transformed into a “great community of sister nations, each with its own history and identity, with own values and common values”, open to communication with the whole world.
