Siberian minorities in the war in Ukraine: from social representations to vernacular forms of ideologization

Abstract

Representatives of Siberian ethnic minorities have participated in the Russian aggression against Ukraine since 2014. The overrepresentation of Buryats and Tuvans in the ranks of the Russian army has forced many to verify the existing romantic notions of ethnic minorities as victims of Russian colonization striving for freedom. The involvement of Siberian ethnic groups in the war in Ukraine is the starting point for an analysis of the relationship between the state, nationalism and ethnic minorities in today's Russia. The paper deals with (1) discursive representations of Siberian minorities in the Ukrainian and Russian media; (2) the causes and forms of participation of these minorities in the war; (3) the crisis of minority nationalism and the resulting new forms of resistance or collaboration with the Russian state.