BASHKORTOSTAN | Russia's Rebel Republic? 

There’s been much speculation that the war in Ukraine could destabilise Russia. So far, though, we’ve seen little sign of this happening. But could the recent demonstrations in Bashkortostan be a turning point? As always, I look forward to your thoughts and comments below.

2:41 "Russia's 6th largest republic by area; however, with 4 million inhabitants, it ranks first in terms of population." This is potentially misleading, if people don't realize that "republic" is just one type of federal subject of Russia, the most populous of which is actually the Federal City of Moscow, which has about 13 million people, and Bashkhortostan is actuallly the 7th most populous federal subject of Russia.

There are very few federal subjects of Russia that don't count Russians as their largest ethnic group. Even Baskortostan had more Russians than Bashkirs as of the last census. Russia is much more stable than in the past, partly due to this situation. I don't think we'll see an internally unstable Russia any time soon

Thx Prof. The lid remains on the pot for now, however, the boiling water in the pot is causing the lid to rattle and make noise. Time will tell if the lid remains on the pot or not.

Great video as always, it just made me laugh when you said "violent protests" and on-screen they're literally throwing snowballs🤣🤣🤣

I lived four years in Ufa. I went to University there. I am a USPTU graduate in Petroleum and Gas inginneering. Great people, great Nation.

The number of internal police in Russia is frightening. I don't believe any 'normal' protest can have any real meaningful impact

Im impressed at the fact that these videos are translated into literally a few dozen different languages, that must really take some effort from your team.

Thanks Prof! Good analysis!

Their leaders should not be near windows, "accidents" happen very often in Russia.

Great background music James! And a very interesting video, I remember hearing about the odd minor protest in Saint Petersburg and even Moscow back when the war began. But I had no idea that other protests in Russia had gone on since then!

An exceptionally high quality presentation. Thank you.

Food for thoughts,thanks for the share 👍

I'm so glad you've covered this issue! Alsynov's appeal will be held in the capital, Ufa. The date isn't set yet, but I think that's another flashpoint for more protests. Another issue I've not seen raised is what happens when the fighting in Ukraine ends, and the large number is Bashkir soldiers are demobilized and return home. Demobilization, especially after a defeat, is historically a dangerous moment for any regime. If the situation in Bashkortostan is already tense before they return, it's easy to see things destabilizing. There is already a video of Bashkir soldiers in the Russian army calling on Alsynov's release circulating. Two more points: I don't doubt there is tension on the ground between Bashkirs and Tatars, but the former leadership of Bashkort is on very good terms with Tartar independence leaders. In the Free Idel Ural movement, it's understood that the entire South Volga region will need to work together to break loose from Moscow. Last point: I put the Reuters journalist from 9:25 in touch with my friend and Bashkort cofounder Ruslan Gabbasov, who he quotes from an interview with in the article. I just wanted to flex on that! 💪😂

Bravo Bashkortostan in your fight for freedom. I have to admit I've never heard of your region even though I've been studying Russia since 1963. Every person and every group has the God-given right to choose their own destiny.

Thank you, this was informative.

I knew nothing about this. Thank you for posting this

Bashkir is here. Thank you for such a detailed analysis of our events. The events that actually took place were very significant for us and I think this is just the beginning. In fact, the protests in Bashkortostan were a surprise for the authorities, but not for us. We know our people and our character. These protests were not only for the release of Fail Alsynov, but also for fair treatment of our Bashkir people. Now Russia is oppressing our people. Massive repressions are being carried out against dissenters. Our natural resources, which you mentioned in the video, do not actually belong to us, but Russia extracts them and it also keeps the money for itself. We are essentially a colony. Although the Constitution says otherwise, we are truly a colony. We have shown more than once that we will not put up with injustice on our land. In 1917, we were the first to form an autonomous national republic, which you mentioned in the video. We were the first republic formed in the Soviet state and the only republic that was formed thanks to contractual conditions; all other republics were formed by decree. We have repeatedly rebelled and waged war with Russia for our rights, for our land and the right to be masters of our land. We are sorry that many associate us with Russia, although even the Constitution of the Republic of Bashkortostan says that we are a state. We hope for justice and the opportunity to be ourselves. Thanks to the whole world for your support!

Interesting clip. Thank you!

Great video as always, thanks!

Thank you for a much needed overview and analysis of this topic. Appreciating your work herein☆

Professor, I would love to watch a video about Russian "colonization" of the Far East, since most people just talk and think about the European Colonialism in the Americas, Africa and South East Asia. PS.: I really enjoy watching the videos that you post weekly. Greetings from Brazil.

Wow, very interesting. Thank you.

Thanks Prof👍🏻👋🏻

I'm making a second thank you payment for creating fantastic and insightful content. Its always a good day when you release a video. Really appreciate the time and effort you put in to your videos. Hope you are well.

Love that you covered this underreported topic! Despite the Bashkir being a minority in their own republic, I believe there is a provision dating back to the days of the federative treaty that the president of Bashkortostan must be a Bashkir speaker thus marginalising Tatars and Russians to degree within the constituent republic. The Kremlin has long sought to keep a lid on any Bashkir nationalism and like Tatarstan, the Chechen wars were meant to be a lesson to any minorities even contemplating one day breaking away from the federation.

This is a very well done reporting on the issues facing one of Russia's many ethnic regions. Thank you. I will be watching out for any new development.

They always go straight to “it’s definitely the west paying them to protest”. Which is obviously just cringe. I’m a Russian language student and it’s wildly interesting to learn about each of Russias republics, thanks professor!

Thanks a bunch for sharing this with us Big Dog.

From the Netherlands: Thank you very much for a superb analysis (as so often)!

Bashkortostan cannot be the only locality which is realizing they are being disproportionately recruited for the “Special Operation.”

Russia is paying a lot for people to join the military, which is more likely to attract people in less developed regions with more minorities. It isn’t hard to imagine how those people will be used on the battlefield. This isn’t the first time of resentment from Russification emerges and won’t be the last. Russia is lot more subtle on this than the Soviet Union so such incidents have been kept on check. As suggested by professor things have also quieted down its hard to imagine this incident being much different. The Wagner incident showed Russia is less divided than expected. It would be interesting if professor may share some insight into the internal status of Ukraine.

Great report. Thank you

To paraphrase a quote: "Russia is a prison of Peoples" And OMON is the prison guards. I wish well on all the oppressed peoples within the Russian Federation, may they find freedom and fulfillment.

Excellent. Thank you. Followed.

Again, I always seem to come to these videos from mainly a linguistic POV but as a linguist and well a nerd when it comes to languages you can't help but also start to become interested in other aspects of the lives of speakers of languages you find interesting. So after finding Bashkir a very interesting language (it has the unvoiced and voiced TH sounds (dental fricatives) for instance), the whole issue of Bashkortostan also became interesting to me. But I had no idea about these protests so I'd like to thank you, Professor Ker-Lindsay, for shedding a bit of light on them. I think I agree with your opinions on the issue, it's certainly not unexpected but not necessarily an indication of Russia collapsing. Ultimately, only time will tell though.

The main question I have is the following. To what extent could we compare the protests in Bashqortostan (and the storming of an airport in Dagestan) to the first protests in Latvia and Kazakhstan in 1986? A follow-up question would be: If this protest is comparable to the protests in Latvia and Kazachstan in 1986 do you think that Russia can keep itself together or could this potentially be the start of the end as the protest in Latvia and Kazachstan were for the Soviet Union?

Thank you for this well-analysed informative post.

Brilliant, extremely informative video. Thank you Sir.

Always find your content more than helpful Prof! 👍🏻👍🏻

thank you Prof. for focusing on relatively unkown topics like this. I don't know for how long Russia will be able to keep this kind of anachronistic colonial system towards Ural, Siberia and eastern regions in general

The fact that some of the republics of Russia (like Bashkortostan Dagestan) have been marked with civil unrest in recent months, show the fact that it’s losing at least some authority over a few of its republics.

At the current moment, it seems incredibly unlikely that Russia will break appart (and will no bet on it at any momment soon)... However, the thing about authoritarian regimes is that you never really know how bad things might be in specific places, so they tend to spiral very quickly.

Ethnic Russians outnumber bashkirs, but I do think it's often missed in the region that the tatars, importantly another Islamic people, constitute a full fourth of the population. In that sense, the Russians are outnumbered very heavily. Regardless, awesome video again!

this could be a trigger for other etnicities in Russia, there are a lot of tem, im speaking about national sentiment,its like arab spring..an event happens in one corner of continent,and suddenly an enourmous part is involved,the life in russia will worsen and noone sees end of that,povetry is the reason as allways

It's not just this republic, Russia conquers all its neighbours then attempts to Russify them. Russia is not a large country, but a small empire with big expansion plans and must be stopped. If Siberia and all the other republics got together and planned an uprising together, at the same time, it would give Putin a real headache and problem to contend with. Love your well informed and intelligent videos, much appreciated.

There was also the incident in Dagestan, minor incidents in Tatarstan, seperatism in Vladivostok and a resistance against the mobilization in Sakha. My friends in Sakha say that the local government is frustrating the mobilization now because there havr been so many funerals. None of this means that the FSB has lost control. The Presidential election is in 5 weeks. Im told by my friends in Germany that the Kerch Bridge (Crimea Bridge) is going to be dropped soon but, maybe that is just their optimism. The next few weeks are important.

There is a reason we have in Finnish verb "Ryssiä" (Muscovy ) , roughly meaning "to totally fail something".

I did a bachelor in geography at the university of Rimouski some twenty-or-so years ago and watching your channel is like having an even better quality version of the courses free of charge. Thank you, your analysis are systematically captivating. Mathieu p.s. your English accent is excellent, very clear. That's how English should sound according to me (a French Canadian 😆)

Freedom to the Bashkort people!

Every one of your videos is informative.

Amazing. you have 173K subscribers and have clocked up 173k views for this report in just a couple of days. Clearly an engaged audience - not surprising given the quality of the content.

You mention the tensions between Tatars and Bashkirs. That's something I'd like to understand better. My impression is the two groups speak mutually comprehensible languages. It doesn't follow that they'd necessarily get on with each other but it's interesting to know more. It's easy to think of a huge area of the map as "Turkestan" without taking account of potential frictions between groups. It would also be interesting to know how far the pattern is replicated across Russia and to what extent it might be a glue keeping the country together (if different groups are as hostile to each other as to Russians) . There's a lot of talk of Russia breaking up and, from a Western viewpoint, it's hard not to rub your hands but I would like to know more not only about how likely it is but what the potential for conflict is.

An interesting question is: if there's a realistic threat of secession within the Russian Federation, what will be Moscow's priority, Ukraine, or maintaining the integrity of the 'federation'? If there was a genuine need for significant troop numbers, Russia couldn't sustain both - and it would probably spread.

Concerning developments. Thank you.

Around 1990, the proportion of Bashkirs in the population of Bashkiria (Bashkir ASSR) was only around 20% - compared to 37.5% Russians and 27.5% Tatars. In the Bashkir capital Ufa, around 30% of the residents are still Tatars.

ah...thanks for the report...thats where they were...beautiful...through earlier adventures we have gained great knowledge and have worked for a better life and home..history has shown me that the cause of all these tragedies the cause was mental illnes and the unfair governance of man and property.. may peace be with you.. god blessed you...

Thanks for covering this. News focus too much on the south-west and academic reports don't come out frequently, so this was both relevant and missing info for most of us I think.

I live in Bashkortostan, and I am very surprised how deeply you have studied about Bashkortostan, respect

Freedom to all oppressed ethnic minorities from the authoritarian Moscow regime! Alga Bashkortostan!

The protest surely has some impact but it is a very long way to go.

Clearly after hearing how big russia is I see why they need more territories.... 🤪

I wonder, what would be your name to those who not new to a channel?

The Russian Empire never underwent decolonization like the British and European empires did. They lost control of 14 colonies in 1991, and there are still 21 national republics left to go. Some were subjugated and Russified for centuries, but then so were many former Soviet states. Those states also had many Russian settlers there, and Putin laments that loss to this day.

Professor, i think terminology matters a lot. When you use term "the Ukraine war" you put Russia out of the picture. I believe "Russo-Ukrainian war" or "war with/against Ukraine" would be more fitting

Does anyone have any book recs on minorities/nationalities in Russia?

keep up the great content Professor! cant wait to hear more from your channel! do you think the old world will ever coexist especially with the brimming ethnic conflicts and past atrocities? how is that America is able to integrate many diverse cultures as well as holding ethnic enclaves yet the Old world fails to do so?

Nice content Hoca. The only thing I wonder is why they classify Bashkirs and Tatars separately and show Russians as the majority. Do you think Russia's demographics could be a paper tiger?

Bash (baş) means Head. Kortistan (Kurtistan) means Wolf and/or Wolfland or Leading (Leader) Wolf.

Becoming a Rebel Republic within Russia sounds like a truly idiotic idea. 🤪

Very interesting. Even though I have lived through the fall of The Berlin wall and the period of Glasnost and Perestroyka I feel like it is only now I am beginning to learn more of the etnic groups in the former sovjet republics. That is to me the one good thing the war has brought on. As an european, Europe being more concious of our values and stepping up for something besides consumption is encouraging too. 😉 I hope more people will be able to live more in line with their wishes and deeper values also in former Sovjet.

Peskov would deny sunset if told to

I have friends from Ufa which is the capital and the largest city in Bashkiriya and both of them are ethnic Bashkirs. They support Russia and pretty much satisfied living there. In the past 10 years, Ufa had a really major development projects and the city itself improved very well. New housing projects, medical centers and and a lot of other important infrastructure projects were completed. So those couple of hundreds that went to a kind of a "protest"(who knows what they were protesting for) will not really change something and they shouldn't, becuae the majority is pro Russian.

The discontent is surely there, simmering beneath the surface, but it will need leaders to channel it into a disruptive force. In history nothing is set. Things can go many ways.

2:12 someone wanna explain to me why the Siberian province is shaped like that?

New sub for the Prof. for an objective report. Unfortunately, authoritarian governments are extremely effect, or can be, when suppressing its citizens.

«…Браты мае, мужыкі родныя. З-пад шыбеніцы маскоўскай прыходзіць мне да вас пісаці, і, можа, раз астатні. Горка пакінуць зямельку родную і цябе, дарагі мой народзе. Грудзі застогнуць, забаліць сэрца, - но не жаль згінуць за тваю праўду… Няма ш, браткі, большага шчасця на гэтым свеце, як калі чалавек у галаве мае розум і науку… Но як дзень з ноччу не ходзіць разам, так не ідзе разам наука праўдзіва з няволяй маскоўскай. Дапокуль яна ў нас будзе, у нас нічога не будзе, не будзе праўды, багацтва і ніякай наукі, - адно намі, як скацінай, варочаць будуць не для дабра, но на пагібель нашу… Бо я табе з-пад шыбеніцы кажу, Народзе, што тагды толькі зажывеш шчасліва, калі над табою Маскаля ўжэ не будзе. Твой слуга Яська-гаспадар з-пад Вільні»

Brilliant 👏

What's your take on the Russian economy growth , compared to the eu being in recession?

Great video, Professor. I would live to see further videos on the prospect of Russia breaking up into smaller states, especially of ethnic minority regions

=))))) That's hysterical...

This something unlikely to happen in the US because minority ethnic groups there are pretty much decimated already. You cannot see Hawaiians, Chamorros, Navajos and Cherokees trying to establish their republics and seriously threaten the territorial integrity of the US because all these ethnic groups are pretty much becoming less distinct, no longer have strong identities, lost their languages and the culture is mostly an accessory.

Never knew it even existed. Russia is a continent itself. So many different civilisations, beliefs, cultures, languages, festivities etc. I hope they can work together for a symbiotic outcome as splintering could fall into infighting & even more corruption. Life, peace & war are all tough to win.

You work with Bashkortostan. We're going to work with Texas. It's time to create a Texas People's Republic. 💪😎🇷🇺

It is interesting to consider how Ukraine could respond to this. In the run up to the current war, Russia was actively supporting groups in Ukraine that were seeking independence as a way to sow discord and have a "reason" to become actively involved. Ukraine could potentially return the favor by actively supporting dissident groups in Russia. We know they provided help to the militias that performed cross boarder raids, so it is not a stretch to think they could help people deeper within Russia.

There is an old saying, 'Sometimes we only need to do a little to make a HUGE impact.'🙏

5:50 the "-stan" is actually a Persian suffix meaning "the land of" not Turkish, but I understand your point.

"Let us begin with this evident fact: Muscovy does not belong at all to Europe, but to Asia. It follows that judging Muscovy and the Muscovites by our European standards is a mistake to be avoided."-gonzague de reynold, 19501 In methodological terms, one should de-Europeanise any analysis of Muscovy policy.- thomas gomart, 20062 "

Good video.

An interesting assessment of the lingering residual aspects of the Imperial/Soviet/Russian empires. Russia's war in Ukraine has most likely removed the some of the cultural veneer in Russia society, and this type of acrimony is normal experience in any society engaged in an armed conflict. But ultimately the authoritarian type of governance that people of these "empires" have had for centuries has most likely created a cultural aspect of obedience in citizens of the Russian Federation today and we could assume this regional discontent is most likely only temporary. As always thanks for the excellent content.

Başkurdistan 🤝🏻🇹🇷🇦🇿🇰🇿🇺🇿🇹🇲🇰🇬

Не дождётесь.

Great comments

Свобода Техасу !

Западная пропаганда слишком раздувает про массовые протесты в России! Мы живём нормально, спокойно! В Башкирии не такой масштабный протест, как вы его раздуваете! В остальных городах и республиках все спокойно! Вы лучше за своими массовыми протестами наблюдайте, например в Германии, во Франции! Как стервятники ждёте добычи, наблюдаете! Не дождетесь распада России!

Bashkortistan may be the first of many republics to rebel. The question I have to ask is this: how do we deal with 83 new nations being formed when the Russian Federation falls?

Hello everyone from Tatarstan 👋🏽 FREE TATARSTAN! FREE BASHKORTOSTAN!

Дорогой Артур! В Украине восхищены Вашим мужеством, мужеством башкирского народа. То, что делает путинский фашистский режим, - свидетельство его слабости, а не силы. К таким жестоким подавлением протестов против фашистской политики России прибегают тогда, когда эти фашисты осознают, что им приходит конец. Ваша поддержка Украины подрывает военные силы России, ведь Путин боится, что угнетенные, но непокоренные народы на территории России, по Вашему примеру тоже восстанут против режима Путина. В таком случае ему нужно сосредоточивать свои войска в Башкортостане, Татарстане, на Чукотке, в Республике Сахо, Тыве, Бурятии, на Кавказе, в Карелии, на Кубане и других районах, что распыляет его военные силы, ослабляет их и таким способом укрепляет мощь Вооруженных Сил Украины, их наступление на фронтах в Украине. А каждая победа Вооруженных Сил Украины в российско-украинской войне - это поддержка Национально-Освободительных Движений башкирцев, якутов, бурят, карелов, дагестанцев, осетин, ингушей, других нерусских народов и наоборот ваша борьба за свою Независимость - это поддержка Украины в нынешней российско-украинской войне. Поэтому нужно и на территориях других республик в России продолжать призыв башкирской женщины к башкирцам, которые воюют на фронтах российско-украинской войны, возвращаться домой и защищать свою Родину, кто не может возвратиться на Родину в Башкортостан пусть добровольно сдаются в плен (в Украине с пленными обращаются соответственно всех международных законов, их не пытают, они имеют возможность поддерживать связь с родными, их нормально кормят, они находятся в нормальных человеческих бытових условиях, таким образом они спасут себе жизнь и не будут погибать за своего поработителя Путина и враждебную вам Россию). Нужно также любыми способами срывать призовы представителей нерусских национальностей на войну в Украине, что объединит нас в борьбе за нашу свободу и будет подрывать путинский режим изнутри. Не забывайте, что на нашей стороне страны НАТО, Япония, Австралия и другие народы. Только на совещаниях по помощи Украине в немецком городе Рамштайне в Германии принимают участие министры обороны и другие высокопоставленные представители более 50 стран Европы и других стран мира. В этом единстве - наша сила, залог нашей победы. Конечно же, без потерь не обойдется. На войне Украина теряет сотни тысяч наших лучших синовей и дочерей. Но это значительно меньше, чем за всю историю окупации Россией Украины. Наша общая победа над фашистской Россией положит конец таким жертвам. В Украине тоже было сведено на нет преподавание украинского языка и литературы в школах. Тоже было введено выбор изучать или не изучать украинский язык, а преподавание русского языка, от изучения которого никто не освобождался, оплачивалось значительно выше, чем украинского, в государственных учреждениях все деловодство, собрания, совещания и т.п. велось на русском языке. В большинстве городов преподавание в школах всех предметов велось на русском языке. Нинче у нас завершен перевод преподавания в школах и других средних и высших учебных заведениях с русского на украинский язык. Русский язык в школах уже совсем не преподается и закрыта специальность "русский язык и литература" , тоесть закрыта подготовка в университетах учителей русского языка и литературы для работы в школах. Это стало возможным только в Независимой Украине. Мы с В А М И, дорогие башкирские, татарские, чувашские, якутские, тывынские, бурятские, корякские, дагестанские, ингушетские, калмыкские, осетинские, карельские, чеченские, даргинские и другие братья!!! Наша общая победа над фашистской Россией уже у нас на пороге!!! Россия ПАДЕТ, порабощенные, но несломленные ей народы уже ПРИОБРЕТАЮТ СВОЮ СВОБОДУ!!!

Interesting!

Well, maybe now is the time for Bashkortostan to gain it's independence. And be only the first.