Ethnicity as a Resource for Anti-War Resistance: Indigenous Peoples of russia and the Role of Ethnic Identity to Withstand putin’s War

Abstract

Since 24 February 2022, about four ethnic minority groups have united around a call to stop the war: Buryats, Sakha, Tuvans, Kalmyks and some representatives of Indigenous groups. Indigenous Peoples in the country have started to question their association with Russia and to assert the old pain and struggle of their people. With the outbreak of the war, many non-ethnic Russians started projecting the multicultural identities to make themselves visible. The question is how has ethnicity become a resource for anti-war resistance? This commentary reflects on the ways in which ethnic identity is becoming the source of resilience and resistance against the Russian war of aggression in Ukraine. Reflections are based on the short stories published in the “voices of national minorities” by the society “Feminist Anti-War Resistance” on the Telegram channel in 2022 (Feminist Anti-War Resistance [FAS], 2022).