RUSSIA ‘Force of blood’, the monument celebrating the rebirth of the Chuvash

In Morgauš, activists erect the first traditional symbol of the ethnic group, one of those promised by the “patriots” to revive the culture and consciousness of the group of Turanian origin. The work is made of oak and lime wood, the trees that represent the masculine and feminine principle respectively. Its realization had a cost of 1,000 euros.

Moscow () – In the province of Morgauš, in the Russian Republic of Chuvash, activists of the local nationalist movement erected a wooden stele representing the “Force of Blood”, in Chuvash, Ҫӳлти Хӑват. It is the first traditional symbol of the ethnic group and one of those promised by the “Patriots of the Chuvash People” association. The group is not registered as it wants to remain informal to avoid “political propaganda”.

As activist Galina-Ajpike Grigorieva explains to Idel.Realii, the symbol directly recalls the name of the organization of Chuvash nationalists, which aims to revive the culture and consciousness of this ancient ethnic group of Turanian origin. The people descend from the Volga Bulgars, or perhaps the Scythians or the Huns, who occupied these lands near the Urals even before the birth of Kievan Rus’ and the invasion of the Tartar Horde in 1200.

“In Chuvash, juppa is the term by which a stele is called.” This monument, he says, “was installed on the land of a member of our association, Aleksandr Takhmasov. The symbol was made by Aleksej Isaev, a compatriot of ours from Kungur in the Perm region,” says Galina. For the work, oak wood was used, which among the Chuvash indicates the masculine principle, and linden wood, which represents the feminine principle.

The installation of a juppa it has several meanings for the Chuvash people: the evolution of the lineage, the union and the family, among others. The “Force of the Blood” can also become an element around which to celebrate the rites of their original religion. Grigorieva explains that during the opening, the ritual of attribution of the mystical name of the author and patron of the wooden sculpture, Aleksandr, who “will now be called Alipattar”, was held.

The work cost about 600,000 rubles, just under 1,000 euros, and all the members of the patriotic group contributed to its realization. Recently, in the month of July, the monument to the builders of the great trench of Sursk was inaugurated, which together with that of Kazan formed the defense against the aggression of the Nazi armies between 1941 and 1942, during the great “Operation Barbarossa” with which Hitler intended to occupy all of Russia.

More than 200,000 Chuvash participated in the construction of the Sursk trench, which covered a distance of more than 300 kilometers. To resist the invader, the national union – encouraged by Stalin himself – based on ethnic spirit and religious memories was decisive. The monument cost more than 300 million rubles, an expense largely contributed to by the Chuvash patriots, and for this it also received much criticism. A local deputy from the KPRF communists, Aleksandr Andreev, called it a “bonfire of the vanities in times of plague”.