In the name of fighting international terrorism, Russian authorities have taken another step that many are likely to find disturbing: They are currently organizing Cossack units to combat what they see as the threat of terrorism and crime in the Russian Federation's Jewish Autonomous Region.
| "Birobizhan" and "nowhere" are essentially the same word... |
On March 16, the Council on Cossack Affairs attached to the Office of the Presidental Representative in the Far Eastern Federal District decided to re-establish the Amur Cossack Host to oversee more than 15,000 Cossacks in the Khabarovsk area, the Amur region and the Jewish Autonomous District. In speaking out in support of this action, Konstantin Pulikovskiy, who was named head of that district by President Vladimir Putin, made the following argument: "The main enemy we have today is terrorism," adding, "If we are not united, terrorists and criminals will continue to beat us from all sides." By registering with the authorities and working together with the government, Pulikovsky continued, the Amur Cossack Host "can become a force that will defend the residents of the Far East from the criminal world and from terrorists." ("Russkiy Kur'er" report online at rusk.ru/st.php?idar=10635)
| In Birobidzhan? In Khabarovsk? People don't die from explosives there. They die of cold or boredom. |
Not everyone is likely to be so optimistic. The symbolism of this step is especially troubling. Cossack units in the pre-1917 Russian Empire were frequently involved in anti-Jewish pogroms, and the Amur Cossack Host -- and especially the Ussuri Cossack Host, which is now being subordinated to it -- were especially notorious in this regard during the Russian Civil War.
| First you have to find somebody to hold a pogrom against. I think there are about 5000-7000 practicing Jews left in the oblast. |
Indeed, at that time, some of the members of these two hosts were involved with atamans (Cossack elders) and even the "mad"" Baron Ungern-Sternberg, who viewed Jews as "hereditary communists" and conducted particularly vicious pogroms against them. Not only were the actions of these Cossacks praised by the Nazis, but they feature on neo-Nazi sites to this day.
| On the other hand, Ungern-Sternberg is not only dead but decomposed. |
Both the Amur and the Ussuri hosts were banned by the Soviets in the early 1920s, and members of these communities were subjected to imprisonment, exile and even execution from the mid-1920s until the death of Stalin. But since the collapse of communism in 1991, the Cossack communities have experienced a rebirth.
| "We're baaaaaaack! Wanna see us dance?" |
Many Cossacks today, of course, are simply interested in reviving other, more positive aspects of their community traditions, but some want to go further and again play a role in maintaining public order. In some parts of the Russian Federation, regional officials have encouraged them to serve as adjuncts to the militia. But at least occasionally in the Russian Far East and elsewhere, the Cossacks involved in such law enforcement activities have routinely violated the law, ignoring statutes that protect the rights of citizens and employing disproportionate force in the name of maintaining "law and order."
| For awhile there, the Russian Far East was looking like Dodge City with permafrost and no money. Presumably things have improved by now... |
Consequently, at least some observers may argue that what Moscow's man in the Russian Far East did last week with regard to the Amur Cossack Host is nothing more than an entirely reasonable attempt to regulate and rein in the actions of the Cossacks in that far-flung region of the Russian Federation. But there is a real danger that the Cossacks will see this latest move in a different way, as representing an official blessing of what they are doing and an invitation for them to behave even worse than in the past -- especially when they are dealing out of the media spotlight with Jews and others they have traditionally seen as their enemies. Fighting terrorism is a moral imperative, but this latest action in the Russian Far East is an example of the dangers involved when officials use it -- as the Russian government repeatedly has done in Chechnya -- for other purposes entirely.
| I think the author's letting his/her/its own preconceptions do the writing here... |
At the very least, the dispatch of Cossack units into a Jewish region of the Russian Federation recalls some of the worst excesses of a past many had hoped they had gone beyond and sends a chill through a country whose government seeks to present itself as committed to the values of democracy and freedom. |