Playing the Victim- on Russian hate speech by Timothy Snyder
Testimony to the United Nations Security Council on Russian hate speech
11 hr ago
342
(This is the text of my briefing of The United Nations Security Council this morning, 14 March 2023, for a session called by the Russian Federation to discuss "russophobia." If you wish to quote me exactly as I spoke, you might wish to check against the video of the session, which for now is available here .)
Ladies and gentlemen, I come before you as a historian of the region, as a historian of eastern Europe, and specifically as a historian of mass killing and political atrocity. I am glad to be asked to brief you on the use of the term "russophobia" by Russian state actors. I believe that such a discussion can clarify something about the character of Russia's war of aggression in Ukraine and Russia's illegal occupation of Ukrainian territory. I will speak briefly and confine myself to two points.
My first point is that harm to Russians, and harm to Russian culture, is primarily a result of the policies of the Russian Federation. If we are concerned about harm to Russians and Russian culture, then we should be concerned with the policies of the Russian state.
My second point will be that the term "russophobia," which we are discussing today, has been exploited during this war as a form of imperial propaganda in which the aggressor claims to be the victim. It has served this last year as a justification for Russian war crimes in Ukraine.
Let me begin from the first point. The premise, when we discuss "russophobia," is that we are concerned about harm to Russians. That is a premise that I certainly share. I share the concern for Russians. I share the concern for Russian culture. Let us recall, then, the actions this last year which have caused the greatest harm to Russians and to Russian culture. I'll briefly name ten.
1. Forcing the most creative and productive Russians to emigrate. The Russian invasion of Ukraine has caused about 750,000 Russians to leave Russia, including some of the most creative and productive people. This is irreparable harm to Russian culture, and it is the result of Russian policy.
2. The destruction of independent Russian journalism so that Russians cannot know the world around them. This, too, is Russian policy, and causes irreparable harm to Russian culture.
3. General censorship and repression of freedom of speech in Russia. In Ukraine, you can say what you like in either Russian or Ukrainian. In Russia, you cannot.
If you stand in Russia with a sign saying "no to war," you will be arrested and very likely imprisoned. If you stand in Ukraine with a sign that says "no to war," regardless of what language it is in, nothing will happen to you. Russia is a country of one major language where you can say little. Ukraine is a country of two languages where you may say what you like.
When I visit Ukraine, people report to me about Russian war crimes using both languages, using Ukrainian or using Russian as they prefer.
4. The attack on Russian culture by way of censoring schoolbooks, weakening Russian cultural institutions at home, and the destruction of museums and non-governmental organizations devoted to Russian history. All of those things are Russian policy.
5. The perversion of the memory of the Great Fatherland war by fighting a war of aggression in 2014 and 2022, thereby depriving all future generations of Russians of that heritage. That is Russian policy. It has done great harm to Russian culture.
6. The downgrading of Russian culture around the world, and the end of what used to be called "russkiy mir," the Russian world abroad. It used to be the case that there were many people who felt friendly to Russia and the Russian culture in Ukraine. That has been brought to an end by two Russian invasions. Those invasions were Russian state policy.
7. The mass killing of Russian speakers in Ukraine. The Russian war of aggression in Ukraine has killed more speakers of Russian than any other action by far.
8. Russia's invasion of Ukraine has led to the mass death of Russian citizens fighting as soldiers in its war of aggression. Some 200,000 Russians have are dead or maimed. This is, of course, simply Russian policy. It is Russian policy to send young Russians to die in Ukraine.
9. War crimes, trauma, and guilt. This war means that a generation of young Russians, those who survive, will be involved in war crimes, and will be wrapped up in trauma and guilt for the rest of their lives. That is great harm to Russian culture.
All of this harm to Russians and to Russian culture has been achieved by the Russian government itself, mostly in the course of the last year. So if we were sincerely concerned about harm to Russians, these are the some of the things that we would think about. But perhaps the worst Russian policy with respect to Russians is the last one.
10. The sustained training or education of Russians to believe that genocide is normal. We see this in the president of Russia's repeated claims that Ukraine does not exist. We see this in genocidal fantasies on Russian state media. We see this in a year of state television reaching millions or tens of millions Russian citizens every day. We see this when Russian state television presents Ukrainians as pigs. We see this when Russian state television presents Ukrainians as parasites. We see this when Russian state television presents Ukrainians as worms. We see this when Russian state television presents Ukrainians as Satanists or as ghouls. We see this when Russian state television proclaims that Ukrainian children should be drowned. We see this when Russian state television proclaims that Ukrainian houses should be burned with the people inside. We see this when people appear on Russian state television and say: "They should not exist at all. We should execute them by firing squad." We see this when someone appears on Russian state television and says "we will kill 1 million, we will kill 5 million, we can exterminate all of you," meaning all of the Ukrainians.
Now, if we were sincerely concerned about harms to Russians, we would be concerned about what Russian policy is doing to Russians. The claim that Ukrainians are "russophobes" is one more element of Russian hate speech in Russian state television. In Russian media, those other claims about Ukrainians are intermixed with the claim that Ukrainians are russophobes. So, for example, in the statement on Russian state television where the speaker proposed that all Ukrainians be exterminated, his reasoning was that they should all be exterminated because they exhibit "russophobia."
The claim that Ukrainians have to be killed because they have a mental illness known as "russophobia" is bad for Russians, because it educates them in genocide. But of course, such a claim is much worse for Ukrainians.
This is a photo I took in the basement of the school at Yahidne in the Chernihiv region of Ukraine. In Yahidne, the Russian occupiers held the entire population of the village in the school basement. Some people were executed, others died of exhaustion. The text is “59 children”; that is how many were among those so imprisoned in a very small space. On the ground floor of the school was Russian graffiti repeating television propaganda slogans, for example that Ukrainians are “devils.”