“So, you are Russian, right?”
The truth about Russian colonialism and a story about how I decided to edit Wikipedia articles to fight it.
Every month, I publish essays about famous people from Eastern Europe and share them in this newsletter in an attempt to break the damaging stereotypes and stigma surrounding my native region. The stories and lives of the people I write about are different and similar at the same time – united by incredible talent and the love of their culture, and chained together by oppression and colonialism. I focus mainly on Ukraine and Belarus, the countries I call home, whose achievements have been appropriated and erased throughout the centuries.
Too often, the people I write about are labeled as “Russians” or “Russians of Ukrainian or Belarusian origin” in Wikipedia articles. It doesn’t matter if the person grew up in Ukraine or Belarus, or identified as Ukrainian or Belarusian all their life, or if their work was mainly about Ukrainian or Belarusian culture. If they happened to live during the period of the Russian Empire or the Soviet Union’s occupation – they are labeled as Russians. If they studied in Moscow or St. Petersburg – they are labeled as Russians. If at some point in their lives, they lived in Russian cities, even for a very short period – they are labeled as Russians. If they spoke Russian, which was forced by threats of death and every possible government measure – they are labeled as Russians. Even if they did nothing of that, but achieved great success in their field, you can already guess – they are labeled as Russians.
While I can find truthful information in Ukrainian and Belarusian sources, most English-speaking people get their information from Wikipedia. It’s easy, simple, and one of the first search results when you Google anything. The problem is that Wikipedia not only takes information from Russian-influenced sources, but is also edited by Russians.
At one point, I got so fed up with seeing prominent Belarusian people labeled as Russians in Wikipedia that I decided to edit Wikipedia articles myself. I thought that if Russians could edit Wikipedia in favor of Russian colonialism, then I could decolonize it with my edits. I enthusiastically edited a few articles and felt happy and proud of myself that I restored the truth. However, my joy didn’t last long, as a few hours later, the articles were reversed. I was curious to see who had edited them back, and when I opened the edits log, I saw that they were users based in Russia and Serbia. It didn’t surprise me, but then I noticed that these users edited several articles per minute. They were bots, automated accounts that tracked any changes made in the Wikipedia articles that contained Russian agenda and propaganda. I was speechless. Of course, I knew that Russia had millions of bots that were flooding social media with propaganda and lies, but I didn’t expect to see it on Wikipedia. However, when you think that Wikipedia is one of the main sources of historical information for so many people, you understand why Russians control and influence what is written there.
For people in the West, the word colonialism sounds like something from a very distant past. However, Russian colonialism is an ongoing reality. It thrives in every Wikipedia article you read, in every book about Eastern Europe, it is in academics and social media, in culture and politics, but more importantly – it continues to threaten and affect millions of lives.
It is a vicious circle: people think that Ukrainians and Belarusians are one people with Russians as a result of Russian colonialism and cultural appropriation. At the same time, Russians continue appropriating the achievements and culture of Ukraine and Belarus without any consequences, as everyone thinks that these are all one people.
Russian colonialism is when Russians burn Ukrainian books and kill people for speaking Ukrainian, and, at the same time, the world debates whether Russian-speaking Ukrainians should be called Russians and given to Russia.
Russian colonialism is when almost no one in Belarus speaks Belarusian. Russian colonialism is when people know dozens of Russian writers and cannot name a single Belarusian one.
Russian colonialism is the underlying reason for the Russian invasion of Ukraine. Russian colonialism is also the reason why the world’s response has been so slow and insufficient.
Russian colonialism is when, every time I say that I am from Belarus, people respond with: “So you are Russian, right?”
Russian colonialism is not a dusty fossil or a ghost from the past – it is a living organism that is being constantly fed and kept alive by the joint actions of ordinary Russians and the Russian government, and by ignorance, bias, and the lack of knowledge of people in the world. It is huge and is deeply rooted in every aspect of life, and I cannot possibly fight it alone. Neither Ukrainians nor Belarusians can. The voices of colonised people are constantly disregarded as biased, and most of the time, these people spend all their energy trying to survive. Russian colonialism can only be overcome with the help of people who are not affected by it – with your help.
My attempt to edit Wikipedia looks very silly when you think about the scale of Russian influence and the centuries of colonial power. Yet, I learned a long time ago that if something is big, it doesn’t make you small, and if something is powerful, it doesn’t make you powerless. I tell myself that I just need to keep going and speaking the truth, and hopefully, my words will light a sparkle in people’s hearts, which will turn into a fire of change.
Learn the stories of people from Ukraine and Belarus and share them with the world:
The Queen of Flowers – a life story of Kateryna Bilokur, a genius Ukrainian artist
Resistance and love – Larysa Hienijuš, a Belarusian poet you should know about
Learn more about the culture of Eastern Europe
Email: daryazorka@substack.com
Shop my art on Etsy
Watch the “20 Days in Mariupol” documentary
Watch Frontline PBS documentaries on Ukraine
Donate to help Ukraine: UKRAINE DONATION GUIDE
Gift a subscription to From My Heart ♥︎
Gustave Faberge the founder of the House of Faberge was born in Pärnu, present day Estonia, and there is an amusing anecdote in Estonian novelist Jaan Kross's Professor Marten's Departure representing one of his children as a member of the significant Estonian community in St Petersburg, yet they will forever be labeled russian Jewlers. This is an amusing and relatively harmless anecdote only because Estonia has narrowly managed to avoid Ukrainian and Belarusian fates by becoming a free and independent member of the EU and NATO--otherwise we'd be like the Ingarians and Karelians and a host of other Finno-Ugric peoples absorbed and dissolved into the russian Federation. russia is a vain insecure state which wreaks havoc upon those unable to resist. Ukraine must be armed for victory and allowed to win.
This is an essay well worth sharing.
It's crucial to call out Russian colonialism for what it is.