Thread by @yermolenko_v

I read with much interest comments made by @Sasha_Etkind on my article "From Pushkin to Putin" published by @ForeignPolicy. I reply here on the key points, first on substance, and then of some curious details 1/

Mr Etkind writes about "some sad mistakes" in my text. Mostly what he means by "mistakes" are actually my reading of the Russian litterature that he disagrees with) i found only one factual mistake - but he has made one too. But that's in the end of this thread 2/

First on substance: 1. Etkind writes that Pushkin and Lermontov "were exiled... because of their participation in protest actions". I know that. But the problem is why Russian "liberals" exiled for their "protests", at a certain moment reproduce imperial discourse? 3/

Ukrainian poet Shevchenko experienced much more horrible punishment, but was not broken and never accepted the imperial narrative. So what's wrong with those Russian classics? That's a question which we can also ask today 4/

2. Etkind quotes Spivak saying that in most imperial literature "the subaltern cannot speak”. And, f.e., in Lermontov's Mtsyri, the subaltern speaks with "a powerful voice". Good, but my question is different: WHAT is he saying, and HOW? 5/

And here's my point: even when RU literature accepts the voice of the "subalterns", it imposes on them the discourse of epitaphy. It says: your history is in the past, and cannot be returned. The struggle is over. 6/

the empire says to the colonized: you might have a voice, but you don't have a future. Your voice can be only that of nostalgia. That's the message of Mtsyri, of Poltava, and even of Taras Bulba. That's my point in the article. Etkind pretends he didn't notice it 7/

3. On Lermontov's Ulansha. I refer to this poem not in the context of the Caucasus, but in the context of the relation to women. I know this is not about Caucasus. I contrast Lermontov's soldier / raper perspective with Shevchenko's women / victim perspective. 8/

This is where colonialism perspective runs together with feminist perspective, which Ukrainian scholars and writers (Solomiya Pavlychko, Oksana Zabuzhko and others) showed many years ago. Both are the questions of power and violence, and which perspective a writer takes 9/

Yes, there is one mistake in my text: Kavkazets is not a poem, but a prose text. Sometimes you make these mistakes - esp. now, when you're living amidst the horrible war, writing articles amid air alerts and working/volunteering without rest. Sorry 10/

But Etkind also makes a "sad mistake" - in.. my name!) Actually 3 mistakes (!). I am not "Volodimir Yarmolenko", I am "Volodymyr Yermolenko". In the last name is actually a different letter in cyrillics, Є, not Я. Etkind repeats this misspelling several times)) 11/

that's an interesting thing) As if he doesn't care whom he replies to. Although the right spelling of a name of an article is... so easy. -- So I guess Mr Etkind would certainly need a "fact-checker" not @ForeignPolicy )) 12/

on his book: unfortunately, i haven't read his book Colonization: Russia’s Imperial Experience. If i did, i would certainly refer to it in my text. Etkind claims that i took smth from his book - he's wrong. Our readings are very different 13/

I did read his other books, Eros nevozmozhogo and Khlyst, which i consider to be very good, by the way 14/

conclusion: you might be a great expert in Russian literature (which Etkind is) but you might still be somewhat blind towards the perspective of colonized / victims. I think it's time to give voice to them. And not claim (quite arrogantly) that they need "fact-checking" 15/